Voices

正"Developing countries need to take the primary responsibility for national development.At the same time,the international community should help developing countries to build capacity,put in place a fair,equitable,inclusive and well-organized international economic and i nancial order and enable developing countries to make full use of their resources endowment,take an active part in the global value chain and cultivate a competitive edge in the course of opening-up so that they will benei t from globalization."     

More Damage to Japan＇s Image

正MY daughter,who is studying a master’s degree at Japan’s Waseda University,always asks me:Most people I meet in Japan are quite amiable,and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is popular among the Japanese people,so why does China accuse Japan of deviating to the right?Shigeru Ishiba,secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan,formerly Japan’s defense minister,also asked me during a China-Japan thinktank forum:Japan has kept to a peaceful road for decades since WWII,so why does China insist that Japan’s militarism is undergoing a     

Japan Bids Farewell to Pacifism

正ON July 1,2014,Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration adopted a cabinet resolution to"reinterpret"the constitution and so allow the country to exercise collective self-defense.Since Abe took office in December 2012,his administration has consistently sought to break with the restrictions of Article 9 of Japan’s pacifist constitution,which renounces"the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."The resolution in effect reflects Abe’s ultimate aim.Although the Abe administration has issued specific restrictions on the right to collective self-defense,and there are constraints on Japan’s use of military force,this reinterpretation nonetheless marks a turning point in Japan’s histori-     

Voices

正"My current visit to Egypt,on the instructions of President Xi Jinping,is to show China’s i rm support for the Egyptian government and people,and to express China’s sincere desire to deepen mutually benei cial cooperation between China and Egypt,"said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt at the Presidential Palace in Cairo on August 3.Before the talk he conveyed President Xi’s message to President Sisi.Wang Yi added that     

The direct PM election and the institutional presidentialisation of parliamentary systems

The direct PM election model features as an ‘empty cell’ in typologies of political regimes. A more fine grained analysis of the model shows that it depends on the choices made on three institutional parameters (object of the election, electoral system, legislative/executive relationship) whether it constitutes a distinct regime type. A comparison of nine examples confirms that the label of a direct PM election covers a wide array of institutional designs. A direct PM election may involve a full-fledged presidentialisation, but it may also imply a marginal adaptation of the parliamentary system. The model can only be considered as an intermediate regime type when it combines the exclusive electoral origin of the executive with a parliamentary legislative/executive relationship.     

The 1999 Knesset and prime ministerial elections in Israel

This election note delineates the outcome of the 1999 elections in Israel, in which the Prime Minister was directly elected — for only the second time — concurrently with the parliamentary election. It then analyzes the election results produced by Israel's unique electoral system, and assesses their immediate ramifications.     

Paying Homage to War Criminals Warrants Condemnation

正On December 26,2013,Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine,where 14Class-A World War II war criminals,including Hideki Tojo,who was prime minister of Japan for most of the war,are enshrined.These statesmen and military offi cers were responsible for maintaining a 14-year-long period of aggression towards China,for the Nanjing Massacre,for the sexual abuse of socalled"comfort women"in East and Southeast Asia,and for the attack on Pearl Harbor that provoked the Pacif ic War.Convicted of war crimes in 1946 at the International     

Exchanges

正Spanish PM Visits China Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy paid an offi cial visit to China from September 24to 27.During their meeting,Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China highly values its relations with Spain,and is ready to maintain high-level engagement on international and regional affairs.He urged the two sides to expand bilateral trade and investment,and promote balanced and sustained trade growth.He also promised to strengthen bilateral cooperation in a range of fields     

Sowing the Seeds of Colombia

正COLOMBIAN to the core,Carmenza Jaramillo became the first Latin American woman to serve as an ambassador to China,two decades after her post as consul general of Colombia in Hong Kong.With her usual ease,she talked to China Today about the current state of relations between the two countries.     

Race and international relations: Brazil and South Africa

The study examines the perennial effort by African leaders and their people to attain a union government of Africa and eventually, a United States of Africa. Amidst a history of actual work and pragmatic choices by Pan-Africanists in the past who demonstrated better commitment and industry to this vision, the project cannot be dismissed as frivolous. Details of the recent Accra Declaration that concluded the African Union Summit in July 2007 reveal inherently difficult choices that African leaders have to make. These include tackling issues of sovereignty, territoriality, national laws versus sub-regional and African Union protocols that pervade constitutional arrangements across the continent. Issues of finance, engaging the African people, the political will and commitment of political elites are vital ingredients for the integration effort. The study reflects on the demand for a radical approach in attaining outcomes but opts for moderation backed with pragmatic choices. Even then, the regional economic communities (RECs), considered pillars of the integration process, must be well structured and given pronounced visibility and viability in order to achieve results.