Bingfeng asked where the FLG get their money. AsiaPundit has no idea. But it seems another Far Eastern spiritual movement cult sect get a significant chunk of change from running a near monopoly on US sushi restaurants.:

Adhering to a plan Moon spelled out more than three decades ago in a series of sermons, members of his movement managed to integrate virtually every facet of the highly competitive seafood industry. The Moon followers’ seafood operation is driven by a commercial powerhouse, known as True World Group. It builds fleets of boats, runs dozens of distribution centers and, each day, supplies most of the nation’s estimated 9,000 sushi restaurants.

Although few seafood lovers may consider they’re indirectly supporting Moon’s religious movement, they do just that when they eat a buttery slice of tuna or munch on a morsel of eel in many restaurants. True World is so ubiquitous that 14 of 17 prominent Chicago sushi restaurants surveyed by the Tribune said they were supplied by the company. [Chicago Tribune]

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, korea, sushi, south korea

As bad as Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington may have seemed from a diplomatic perspective, it is hardly the worst incident recently.:

Every time I think I’ve seen the most exasperating demonstration of Korean grudge-holding and hostility towards the Japanese yet, I’m trumped by the discovery of another even more outstanding gem of idiocy. This time, it’s a TV event, amongst whose participants is Japan’s ambassador to Korea, Shotaro Oshima, the recipient of a rather special sort of attention. Pay particular heed to the closing portion of this clip and listen carefully: even if you don’t understand a word of Korean, you ought to be able to recognize at least one word there.

Yes folks, if you were listening carefully, what you heard was indeed a head of beer foam being compared to the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, right in front of Japan’s ambassador, and very clearly for his particular consumption (that’s why the camera repeatedly returns to his face). To his credit, he gave this rude, childish display the response it deserved - silence - but I think it, along with the never-ending bellicose rhetoric over Dokdo - says a great deal about why all the goodwill built up in Japan towards Korea over the last few years is now quickly slipping away.

You Tube . This translation via Occidentalism.:

“Recently Japanese illegal trespassing on Dokdo (Takeshima) has been increasing frictions”

“OK, lets quickly change the subject! Putting aside ‘Poktanju’ (note: Koreans call a mixture of beer and soju ‘Poktanju’ - bomb wine) for a moment. From the Ambassadors facial expression”

“It seems like he does not like this Poktanju”

“For him, the Poktanju”

“Is like a flash and explosion of bubbles”

“Like the moment of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima”

“It resembles a mushroom cloud”

“For this reason, we will call this ‘atomic bomb wine’!”

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, korea, northeast asia, south korea

AsiaPundit did not write further on the embarassment at the White House, and recommends Roland for an excellent summary of the negative reactions the percieved ill treatment of Hu Jintao provoked in China.
It is worth noting, however, that the following photo of a seemingly napping Dick Cheney did not provoke much outrage.:

Vice President Dick Cheney says he was looking at his notes, not sleeping, during a briefing by President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Hu’s first Oval Office visit.
(Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

Why the outrage over Bush grabbing Hu’s arm but not the sleeping Dick? We can only speculate. However, as someone who has visited the Great Hall during a National People’s Congress session, AsiaPundit will attest that it is perfectly normal to nod off during the speeches of CPC leaders.

Elsewhere, Manish at Sepia Mutiny contrasts the treatment Hu received during his China trip and that received by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his state visit.:

Richard at the Peking Duck helpfully reprints Nick Kristof’s condemnation of Chinese support of the genocidal regime in Sudan, and challenge for Chinese netizens.:

The biggest obstacle to forceful action is China. The latest outrage came a few days ago when the U.S. and Britain tried to impose the most feeble possible sanctions — targeting just four people, including a midlevel Sudanese official. China and Russia blocked even that pathetic action.

Why is China soft on genocide?

The essential reason is oil. China traditionally was self-sufficient in oil, but since 1993 it has been a net oil importer and it is increasingly worried about this vulnerability.

So China has been bustling around the globe trying to ensure oil supplies from as many sources as possible. And partly because most of the major oil fields are already taken, China has ended up with the world’s thugs: Sudan, Iran and Myanmar. China has been particularly active in Africa.

About 60 percent of Sudan’s oil flows to China, and Beijing has a close economic and even military relationship with Khartoum. A recent Council on Foreign Relations report on Africa notes that China has supplied Sudan with small arms, anti-personnel mines, howitzers, tanks, helicopters and ammunition. China has even established three arms factories in Sudan, and you see Chinese-made AK-47’s, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns all over Darfur.

Last month in a village on the Chad-Sudan border, I interviewed a man who told how a Sudanese militia had grabbed his baby boy, Ahmed Haroun, thrown Ahmed to the ground and shot him in the chest. The odds are overwhelming that that gun and those bullets came from China.

Likewise, the women and children I’ve seen torn apart by bullets in Darfur and Chad - that lead and steel was molded in Chinese factories. When women are raped and mutilated in Darfur, the gun barrels pointed at their heads are Made in China.

Let’s hope China’s 13 million bloggers take up this issue, for this has received very little attention in China but it is not so sensitive that discussion of it will get anyone arrested.

One of the central questions for the 21st century will be whether China’s rise will be accompanied by increasingly responsible behavior in its international relations. Darfur is a test, and for now China is failing.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, darfur, east asia, genocide, northeast asia

Should Bill Gates seek to expand his evil empire, he might consider a line of branded clothing for South Korean geeks.:

Park Jin Sung, the 30-year-old founder of a wireless-technology company, combs through a rack of button-down shirts at a clothing shop. After close scrutiny, he picks out one in light blue that has a stiff, narrow collar and buttons spaced just right, so that the top two can be left open without exposing too much chest.

“Bill would wear this,” Park says. He points to a shirt he has rejected and notes: “The collar on this one is too floppy. Definitely not Bill’s style.”

William H. Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., may not be considered the epitome of chic in America, but in Seoul he is a serious style icon. Young South Koreans believe that dressing for success means mimicking Gates’s wardrobe, down to his round, tortoise-shell eyeglasses, unpolished shoes and wrinkle-free pants.

“Gates fashion,” as it is called here, will possibly strike American ears as an oxymoron. But it threatens to change the Korean sartorial scene.

(via Korea Liberator)