World View: Japan, Mongolia Cooperate to Counter China's Influence

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Japan and Mongolia cooperate to counter China’s influence
• Racial hatred suspected in shooting of Bangladeshis in Greece
• Greece looks ‘like 1930s Germany’ as neo-Nazis gain support

Japan and Mongolia cooperate to counter China’s influence

Norov Altankhuyag and Shinzo Abe in Mongolia (Kyodo)

The purpose of the recent visit by Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abeto Mongolia is to counter China’s increasing influence in Mongolia andother parts of Asia. Mongolia has large deposits of coal, copper,gold and uranium, and is also believed to be rich in rare metals andrare earths. But Japan is racing with Chinese firms that are steppingup efforts to acquire firms controlling Mongolian mines, giving Chinaeffective control over these mines. Abe’s meetings with Mongolia’sprime minister Norov Altankhuyag in Ulaanbaatar, the capital ofMongolia, had these purposes:

• Improve business environment for Japanese companies in Mongolia.
• Approve Japanese loans to Mongolia to build infrastructure.
• Provide Japanese imports of Mongolia’s giant coal deposits, to supply fuel to replace Japan’s now off-line nuclear power stations.
• Secure Mongolian support for the dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku / Diaoyu islands.

According to Mongolia’s president Tsakhia Elbegdorj, “It has been saidmany times that with Mongolia’s wealthy resources and Japan’s hi-tech,we can develop complementary cooperation, and now is the time [forthis] to be realized.” However, speculation is that Mongolia andJapan are developing a trilateral framework, along with the UnitedStates, to counter China’s influence.

Altankhuyag also promised to assist in easing tensions between Northand South Korea, as Mongolia has a normal relationship with NorthKorea. Jamestown and Japan Times

Racial hatred suspected in shooting of Bangladeshis in Greece

About 30 migrant workers, mostly from Bangladesh, were wounded in ashooting on a strawberry farm in Nea Manolada, a village east ofAthens, in Greece. According to a spokesman for the migrants, morethan 150 Bangladeshis were working on the farm and had not been paidin six months. The workers began a strike three days ago. The ownercalled them in, promising payment, and then he and some foremen openedfire on the workers. The incident has outraged many Greeks fearingracial hatred and violence, and even the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn partycondemned the barbaric shooting. Police are searching for threeforemen to be charged with attempted manslaughter. Kathimerini (Athens) and BDnews24 (Bangladesh)

Greece looks ‘like 1930s Germany’ as neo-Nazis gain support

The neo-Nazi party Chrysi Avgi, or Golden Dawn, has been gainingsupporters in Greece as the financial crisis has deepened. Polls showthat the party holds 10-12% of voter support, up from almost zero in2009. At a recent rally of over 1,000 neo-Nazis, party leader NikosMichaloliakos, 55, bellowed: “No one can stop us — not the bombs, notall your filth. We will triumph!” His listeners raised their rightarms and yelled “Zito!,” a phrase meant to sound like “Heil!” Inparts of Athens where migrants live, small bands of extremists callingthemselves “stormtroopers” roam the streets and beat foreigners andleftists with clubs, baseball bats and knives. Michaloliakos himselfis a Holocaust denier, and says that Adolf Hitler is “A historicfigure, who is not judged objectively. Spiegel

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail