The newly appointed Japanese ambassador to China has died after taking ill and collapsing in Tokyo late last week.
In a brief statement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry confirmed Shinichi Nishimiya, 60, died on Sunday after spending the weekend in hospital because of his "health condition." He collapsed just two days after being appointed to the job.
The back-story to this is that, until recently, the Japanese ambassador to China was a guy named Niwa. Niwa was viewed as too soft on China and was replaced by this guy, who was supposed to take a harder line. And then he dies, suddenly and mysteriously on the street, two days after taking office.
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
"The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all."
Mao wrote:Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party
