Chinese border police apologized yesterday for their treatment of two Japanese reporters covering a deadly assault in the northwest of the country, state media said.
The apology came after the border police “clashed” with the Japanese reporters, who had arrived in Xinjiang Province after an attack there on Monday left 16 police officers dead, according to Xinhua.
A photographer for the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper was forcibly detained late on Monday in the city of Kashgar, his employer said.
A reporter for the Nippon Television Network was also detained and manhandled by Chinese police who pushed his face to the ground, the network said.
Masami Kawakita, 38, was detained “and then kicked by police,” said a Tokyo Shimbun spokesman. “He was released two hours later.”
Nippon Television Network said Shinji Katsuta was held for two hours and then questioned for about an hour at his hotel, describing the incident as “extremely deplorable.”
The network received word that local police had requested a meeting to apologize for the incident, a spokesman said.
“We heard that the Chinese side pointed out that it is forbidden to film military facilities, and it seems like there was confusion because the scene of the assault was just 50m from a military facility,” he said.
Security checks on roads and public buses were stepped up in Xinjiang yesterday with Xinhua reporting that authorities had reinforced the police presence on roads leading into Kashgar and ordered a full security alert in public places, including government office buildings, schools and hospitals. Police boarded vehicles at checkpoints to search passengers’ bags, Xinhua said.
Meanwhile, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province yesterday, near the area devastated by a quake earlier this year, the US Geological Survey said.
An official with China Earthquake Administration confirmed that an “aftershock” hit the area.
“So far, we have not received any report of casualties,” he said.
Xinhua said the quake was felt in the Sichuan capital Chengdu. The Olympic torch relay passed through Chengdu yesterday, its last leg before reaching Beijing.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS