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fastmover
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Updated commmentary.........
Thursday, October 2, 2003
OBSERVER (South China Morning Post)
Unwelcome guests
EDITH TERRY
In the middle of last month, a group of Japanese businessmen from Osaka arrived at the five-star Zhuhai International Conference Centre for an event that was, by Japanese standards, utterly mundane - a company outing. In the Japanese corporate world, such trips are obligatory and aimed at fostering social harmony and conformity. The men let themselves go, and sex is often involved. In Zhuhai, the party seems to have got out of hand.
Days later, China's media launched saturation coverage of the Japanese "sex orgy" in Zhuhai. It was front page news in the People's Daily, apostrophised by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan, and fired up Chinese internet chat rooms at the rate of 10,000 "hits" an hour. One person wrote: "The Japanese are animals. They deliberately selected the date to humiliate the Chinese people", referring to September 18, the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of northeast China in 1931. The orgy reportedly took place from September 16 to 18.
Meanwhile, in Japan, media and commentators barely noted the event. Japan's largest financial daily, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the company had organised the off-site trip by 268 of its personnel, but denied that it had summoned 500 prostitutes to join them for a three-day orgy.
There is nothing odd about the contrast. Both Chinese and Japanese leaders are adroit at manipulating nationalistic sentiment, as well as the national media, to gain advantage in the larger economic and geopolitical issues that engage them. The immediate backdrop of the Zhuhai furore was a fight between China and Japan over access to Russian oil from the Angarsk field near Lake Baikal. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasynov was in Beijing last week, supposedly to reassure the Chinese that they were valued clients. But his visit produced only vague generalities, not a decision. So it is easy to speculate that the media outrage over Zhuhai was fanned not only by public emotion but also by an official strategy to force Japan to back off the Angarsk deal.
Serious tensions between China and Japan have existed at least since the 14th century when the Ming dynasty closed its borders in response to the incursions of Japanese raiders along the coast. Historically, Japan was the only East Asian nation to challenge Chinese supremacy by declaring its own "empire". Japan in decline still represents a potent force, with an economy three times the size of China's. It is all the more crucial, then, that China and Japan strive for balance, rather than remaining stuck in ancient patterns of confrontation. With the Russian oil pipelines, China and Japan should be working together on regional solutions to Asia's complex energy supply and consumption problems. Working separately, they are clearly hostage to predatory Russian negotiators. There would be pricing and capital cost advantages to working jointly to organise the development and transport of energy supplies from the Russian Far East to the markets of northeast Asia, and this could be a model in other spheres.
The Japanese have a chilling phrase: Tabi no haji wa kakisute. It refers to the psychological shift that occurs outside Japan and the confines of its pressure-cooker culture, where every social interaction is tightly choreographed by relations of insider and outsider, shame and obligation.
Such attitudes are at least one cause of Japan's national decline. In a 21st century in which China is almost certain to be Asia's dominant player, Japan will need its goodwill - along with that of the rest of Asia. The Zhuhai incident may have been overblown for political reasons, but it points to the volatility and fragility of ties between Asia's two giants. The onus is on Japan to teach its citizens how to be better guests.
Edith Terry is editor of the Post's opinion pages, and author of How Asia Got Rich: Japan, China and the Asian Miracle
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:55 pm on Oct. 2, 2003
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fastmover
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Another update for you Sinophiles........
Tuesday October 7, 06:16 AM
Japan to query tourists about China sex orgy
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government will investigate reports hundreds of Japanese tourists took part in a sex orgy in a Chinese hotel that stoked anti-Japanese sentiment in China, Japan's top government spokesman says.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters on Tuesday the foreign ministry would question employees of a Japanese company who were reported to have taken part in the incident at a five-star hotel in the southern city of Zhuhai last month.
According to Chinese media, about 400 Japanese tourists and 500 local prostitutes were involved in the orgy.
Chinese officials have detained suspects and closed the hotel in the coastal city in Guangdong Province.
The reports sparked fury in China, especially on the Internet, as the incident was said to have ended on September 18 -- 72nd anniversary of Japan's occupation of China's northeast.
Fukuda said the Guangdong government told the Japanese government on Sunday it had confirmed the orgy had taken place but did not provide further details.
"If it took place, then it is truly regrettable," he said.
A spokesman for a construction company in western Japan whose workers were reported to have been most involved in the incident acknowledged that some employees were at the hotel at the time but denied there had been an orgy.
"Our employees did not take part in any organised prostitution," the official said.
Despite closer ties in trade and tourism, and signs of growing diplomatic solidarity in the face of the North Korean nuclear crisis, antagonism towards Japan is never far below the surface in China, which suffered about 14 years of often-brutal Japanese occupation.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 1:55 am on Oct. 7, 2003
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China Sailor
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I promised an update about So China last week and here it is:
ZhuHai is dead, bars and discos empty and a lot of police in the entertainment areas, and this was during 'Golden Week'.
GuangZhou is still hopping though the number or FLs are down about 50%. Was standing on the patio of the Mango Bar taking a phone call and had to have the staff beat off several hookers who were insistant that I go for massageee..
My friends in Guangzhou tell me that the Zhuhai hookers that were at the party for the Japanese were recruited from all over Guangdong provence and trucked in. A Japanese Expat I know confirmed that this was a regular thing that usually happened in BKK but due to bar closings was moved to PRC (I do not think they will do that again).
Business must be bad in Guangzhou though, I had one FL follow me from the Elephant and Castle to my hotel so she could put the 'move' on me..
Also the hotels have tightend upon security, no girls allowed in your room after 11PM unless they are registered and you cannot register them unless you produce a marriage certificate. A lady friend of mine missed her bus back to Doggun and wanted to crash on my floor but she could not get past security.
Finally, word from a PLA Officer friend of mine is that the police are doing 'raids' of hotels and the Garden Hotel has instituted 'bed-checks' at 11PM under the guise of a 'turn-down' service. Appearently the Zhuhai incident has drawn the attention of several senior Beijing officials in the security services and Guangdong provence is thier target.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:12 am on Oct. 7, 2003
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fastmover
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Terrific report Mr China Sailor. I had a feeling bells would ring in Guangdong but it sounds like sirens are blaring. Heads will roll yet. A lot of guys forget that marriage certificate stuff, because it is seldom put in use. Reminds me of China in the early 90's.
Wait till the Olympics in Beijing, 2008. It will make the APEC shit in Thailand look like a cocktail party.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 8:33 am on Oct. 7, 2003
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Metaliclink
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Wow its times like these i am glad to have an apartment in Shanghai!
The 4 and 5 star hotels, at least in Shanghai, have always been pretty careful about prostitutes coming into the rooms, some friends of minestayed in a luxury suite in the Holiday inn after a party and my friend's girlfriend was not allowed in until she showed her canadian passport, all because she looked asian.
But my question is, has this effected the cheaper, less known hotels in Southern China as well as the high class ones?
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:36 am on Oct. 9, 2003
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fastmover
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Thursday, October 9, 2003
Japanese firm denies organising orgy in China: foreign ministry
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Tokyo
Next Story
Updated at 5.24pm:
A Japanese firm has denied organising an orgy involving hundreds of its employees and Chinese prostitutes in Zhuhai city in southern China, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aizawa said on Thursday.
Executives of the construction firm, whose name was withheld, admitted they organised a party at a hotel with a number of Chinese female "companions" to entertain its employees during a company trip in September, Mr Aizawa said.
"After the company-sponsored party, [the employees] left for another hotel on a bus. After they checked in, the employees were given free time," Mr Aizawa said.
"The company said it was not involved in private activities of individual workers. But, in the end, the lack of the company's consideration during the trip resulted in an unexpected event. They said they regret what happened and having troubled many people," Mr Aizawa said.
Mr Aizawa said the foreign ministry would report the results of its questioning of the construction firm to the Chinese government.
Chinese media reported some 380 Japanese tourists, involving the company's workers, and 500 prostitutes were involved in the orgy at the five-star Zhuhai International Convention Center Hotel in Guangdong province.
At least 50 prostitutes and a "madame" were arrested in connection with the orgy, according to Chinese papers.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:23 am on Oct. 9, 2003
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