“MISTRUST AND ANGER” Ishiba, 67, who only took power on Oct 1, vowed on Monday to implement reforms to overcome “people’s suspicion, mistrust and anger” after the party scandal. Japanese businesses are more concerned about the potential for parliamentary paralysis holding up reforms aimed at jumpstarting the world’s fourth-largest economy.Continue Reading
SHANGHAI: Shanghai police patrolled the downtown streets over the weekend to crack down on Halloween celebrations in China’s most international city. Local authorities appeared to be trying to prevent a repeat of last year, when Halloween revellers thronged central Shanghai, with some dressed in costumes that poked fun of theContinue Reading
BEIJING: China outlined steps on Monday (Oct 28) to improve family planning and parenting measures in an effort to boost the number of births, a statement from the state council, or Cabinet, showed, after two consecutive years of a shrinking population. The birth rate hit a record low last year inContinue Reading
SINGAPORE: A woman has been sentenced to death in China for abducting and trafficking 17 children in three different provinces between 1993 and 2003.
The retrial of Yu Huaying, 61, has drawn huge public interest across the country after her crimes came to light in 2022 when a 34-year-old victim reported her ordeal of being trafficked by Yu.
Yu Huaying was found guilty of child abduction after the retrial.
“The circumstances and the consequences of the crimes are extremely serious and she should be severely punished,” the Intermediate People’s Court of Guiyang said, in a verdict shared on its official Weibo page on Friday (Oct 25).
Although Yu confessed to her crimes, it was “not enough to warrant a lighter punishment”, the court added.
In China, the death penalty is imposed in the most extreme cases for crimes such as drug trafficking, murder and rape, courts say. Death sentences have also been handed out for political corruption and bribery cases.
Under Chinese law, anyone found guilty of trafficking women or children will face a prison sentence ranging from five to ten years, as well as a fine.
Because of the “particularly serious consequences” of her crimes, Yu received the harshest punishment “in accordance with the law”, the court said.
She was also “deprived of her political rights” and all personal property would be confiscated, it added.
Yu’s own son was her first victim. Chinese state media outlets reported that Yu trafficked her biological son, eventually selling him for 5,000 yuan (US$701).
She then went on to abduct 17 children from 12 families, with 5 of the families losing two children at once.
BOOTED OUT A big winner was former premier Yoshihiko Noda’s opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) which increased its projected seat tally to 148 from 96 at the last election. Ishiba had promised to not actively support LDP politicians caught up in the funding scandal. But the opposition jumped on mediaContinue Reading
COULD THE OPPOSITION FORM A GOVERNMENT? This is tricky given the fragmented opposition, and memories of its tumultuous rule between 2009 and 2012, analysts say. “The possibility of a handover of power to the opposition isn’t zero, but there are far too many opposition parties for any of them toContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japan’s ruling coalition may fall short of a parliamentary majority, exit polls for Sunday’s (Oct 27) general election showed, raising uncertainty over the make-up of the government of the world’s fourth-largest economy. A poll by national broadcaster NHK showed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost all ofContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japan’s ruling coalition is set to lose its parliamentary majority, exit polls for Sunday’s (Oct 27) general election showed, raising uncertainty over the make-up of the government of the world’s fourth-largest economy. A poll by Nippon TV showed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan forContinue Reading
China stages such patrols around Taiwan several times a month, but this was the first since Beijing held a new round of full-blown war games near the island this month. In a statement late on Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said it strongly condemned and firmly opposed the latest US weaponsContinue Reading
TOKYO: Candidates in Japan’s super-tight parliamentary election will make last-ditch appeals to voters on Saturday (Oct 26), with opinion polls suggesting the ruling coalition might fall short of a majority. Such an outcome would be the worst result for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2009 and potentially a knockoutContinue Reading