Abe's three shots at pacifism

It is hardly cheering news that a country whose leaders still salute war criminals has formally launched its military reconstruction.

'High-beam' policies please

With the aim of reducing congestion and combating air pollution, China's northern city of Tianjin has become the latest to try and limit the number of cars on its roads. The city authorities announced on Sunday that from the following day motorists would have to obtain a license plate by either bidding in an auction or taking part in a lottery, and cars will be banned from the road for one day a week according to the last digit of their number plate starting March 1. The announcement led to a rush of people buying new vehicles in the city.

Fighting local govt debt

Chinese leaders have pledged to tackle the problem of local governments' debts next year and create a stable economic and social environment to promote reforms, according to the statement issued by the Central Economic Work Conference that ended on Friday. This is the first time "controlling and addressing local government debt risks" has been made as an especially important task in economic work.

Snowden the real of man of the year

Edward Snowden was for a while considered Time magazine's most likely candidate for "Person of the Year". In the end, however, the magazine's editors yielded the man-of-the-year slot to the Pope Francis, the third pontiff so named. It was a safe, if not a slyly calculated, choice because any pope has millions of cheering followers and a pro-active one, such as the current pope, will have many millions more.

Letters

Beware of Japan's dirty games

From the Chinese Press

Eradicate religious fanatics

Swell the middle-income olive

Overcoming vested interests is the key to the success of wealth distribution reforms to address gap between rich and poor

Cartoon

The man who kept impending chaos at bay

They were fearful days in 1992 and 1993. Nelson Mandela was free but not elected. Apartheid had been scrapped, the 8 pm bullhorn telling blacks to get off the urban streets had been silenced, but civil war seemed a real possibility. Guns were on the streets. At the Star newspaper where I worked in Johannesburg, an empty desk suggested not someone pulling a "sickie" but a probable victim of violence. Before mobile phones were ubiquitous, if someone was missing from work, it was presumed that they had been mugged, or worse. There was a procedure. Colleagues and the HR department would ring friends to check. Then hospitals. Then the police.

Healthier urbanization

For the first time, China's urbanization has a clear direction to follow thanks to a central conference at the weekend.

US navy's risky behavior

According to US media reports, Chinese and US warships narrowly avoided a collision in the South China Sea last week. The incident is clear proof that the intensive operations of the US navy in China's coastal waters represent a growing risk to China's national security.

Japan strategy a threat to peace

If Japan's immediate protest against China for establishing the Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea in late November was a knee-jerk reaction, its approach over the past three weeks (and likely moves in the days ahead) has been one of playing up the China "threat" theory. Japan's moves, needless to say, are a prelude to its diplomacy toward China in 2014.