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Abe vows to boost Japan defence amid 'provocations'
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) Sept 12, 2013


Mystery, spy claims over missing Japan-based China prof
Tokyo (AFP) Sept 12, 2013 - Mystery surrounded the disappearance of a Tokyo-based Chinese professor Thursday, amid reports he was being held by Beijing over spying claims.

Colleagues of Zhu Jianrong, 56, professor of international relations in Asia at Toyo Gakuen University, say they are concerned for his safety because they have heard nothing from him since mid July, when he left for his native Shanghai.

"We have no further information and his wife has lost contact with him," a university spokesman told AFP. "We are worried about him."

Zhu, who makes regular appearances on Japanese TV, is under investigation by the Chinese ministry of state security, the Sankei Shimbun and Kyodo News have reported, citing unnamed Chinese sources.

China and Japan have a close economic relationship but a prickly diplomatic one.

They are at loggerheads over disputed islands in the East China Sea, and tensions between them have soared over the last year.

Zhu interviewed several military figures during academic research on the Chinese navy earlier this year, sources told Kyodo.

Tabloid magazine Shukan Shincho said Beijing may believe Zhu has been spying for Japan.

Citing an unnamed senior Japanese foreign ministry official and China watchers, the magazine said despite his membership of the Chinese Communist Party and his pro-China commentaries, Zhu has very close ties with Japanese officials.

The academic was summoned by Chinese security as soon as he arrived for a meeting in Shanghai, the magazine said.

"China will likely launch an anti-Japanese campaign, claiming that Japan stole Chinese information" through Zhu, the ministry official was quoted as saying.

Until this week, Beijing had made no official comment about the case.

"Zhu Jianrong is a Chinese citizen," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a press conference on Wednesday, when asked whether Zhu had been detained. "Chinese citizens should obey the laws of China."

He did not elaborate, nor confirm whether Zhu was being held.

Zhu came to Japan in 1986 and gained a doctoral degree in politics at Gakushuin University in Tokyo. His wife is Japanese.

He left home for Shanghai in mid July, but did not return when he said he would, the university spokesman said, adding his Shanghai-based brother had telephoned Zhu's wife to say he was ill and would be staying on.

"There was information that he was sick, and we were surprised at the comments by China's foreign ministry yesterday," the spokesman said.

Chinese authorities on occasion hold dissidents and others under house arrest or incommunicado for extended periods.

Police in Shanghai have declined to comment on the case. Relatives in the city could not be reached for comment.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday vowed to beef up his country's defence capability amid a blistering row with China, saying he would deal firmly with any "provocations".

Abe, the commander-in-chief of Japan's well-equipped armed forces, told 180 senior uniformed officers he would not bury his head in the sand.

"We can't avert our eyes from the reality... (that there has been) a flurry of provocations against our country's sovereignty," he told troops in an apparent reference to tensions with China over disputed islands.

"I'm pushing for the regeneration of our country's security by looking squarely at reality," the premier said, without elaboration.

Tokyo and Beijing have repeatedly butted heads over the ownership of the Japan-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus, with official Chinese ships and aircraft regularly testing Japanese forces.

Abe, who had reviewed a guard of honour with defence minister Itsunori Onodera, has long agitated for a more muscular military, and has spoken openly of his desire to reinterpret rules governing its deployment to allow it to play a more active role in any possible conflict.

The prime minister, whose defence ministry is looking for its biggest budget bump in two decades, told troops he planned to form a national security council that will integrate government functions analysing intelligence on defence and diplomacy.

"The power balance of the world is now changing dynamically, and the change has become more obvious in Asia-Pacific than anywhere else," Abe said.

"I will work together with countries that share the values of the rule of law and freedom of the oceans and strengthen our ties in diplomacy and security with them," he added.

In July, Abe pledged to help boost the Philippines' coastguard capability during a visit to Manila, which also has a tense territorial dispute with China.

Onodera said Japan had to be alert to China's growing military strength and said the country needed amphibious armed vehicles to defend its remote islands.

"China has rapidly pushed for modernising its military and rapidly accelerated its maritime activities," Onodera said.

"We will energetically strengthen our surveillance and information-gathering capabilities in areas surrounding our country" in particular waters near the disputed islands, Onodera said.

On Monday, Japan scrambled fighter jets after an unidentified drone flew near the islands. The drone did not enter Japanese airspace.

On Sunday, Japan tracked Chinese bombers that flew in international airspace between two islands in the Okinawa chain. Tokyo said it was the first time they had used that route to get to the Pacific.

Japan nationalised the islands last September, sparking a backlash from Beijing, which has sent its official ships into their waters dozens of times since.

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