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A new report by the Department of Defense claims for the first time that the Chinese government is directly connected to attacks on U.S. computer systems, including those owned by the government. The report—which is part of an annual review on China's military capabilities—claims that "intrusions" on those systems "appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military." The intrusions appear to be mostly performed for intelligence gathering, but demonstrate skills that could be used to "conduct computer network attacks."

While the Chinese and the Americans have both complained about computer espionage and break-ins originating from each other, the U.S. has been unwilling to directly blame the Chinese government for the attacks—even when an independent security firm tied cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure to a building associated with the People's Liberation Army, the White House said only that it still had concerns as President Obama made cybersecurity a heightened priority for the government and major U.S. companies. Perhaps the change in tone now arrives because many of the attacks have been focused on the American own defense industry and appear to be targeting information that could either boost China's own military capabilities, or reveal weaknesses in U.S. defenses. Whatever the case, it seems that majority of "fighting" being done by today's superpowers is going to take place online.

You can read the full declassified report on the Defense Department website. It also examines all of China's military activities over the last year, including the launching of its first aircraft carrier, a large increase in military spending, and new weapon systems that could be deployed in space.

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Abe Denies Japan Invaded Asian Neighbors

In a further lurch to the far right, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers on Tuesday that he does not believe Japan's occupation of other Asian countries during World War II can be considered "invasions."

Abe claimed there are no set international or academic definitions of the word. "It depends on the point of view of individual countries," he said, referring to a statement in 1995 by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, which apologized to all Asian victims of Japanese aggression and from which rightwingers are scrambling to distance themselves.

Japan occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 and invaded China and several Southeast Asian nations during an aggressive expansion to create what was billed as the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."

Experts here slammed Abe's remarks. Ko Sang-tu at Yonsei University said, "That is simply absurd. It's like saying Hitler's invasion of Poland wasn't really an invasion. If a German chancellor had said the same thing, he or she would have had to resign."

Abe told lawmakers on Monday that he does not feel bound by the Murayama statement. The global press was alarmed, with the New York Times saying he sought to whitewash his country's World War II atrocities, while the Economist warned that the right-leaning Japanese Cabinet is a bad sign for the region.

Abe said Japan's pacifist constitution was put together by what he called "occupying forces," referring to the victorious U.S. at the end of the war.

The constitution, which stipulates the country's desire for peace and pledges a policy of non-aggression, effectively "entrusted the lives and safety of the public to the goodwill of other countries," he claimed.

This suggests he is throwing his weight behind moves from the far right to revise the constitution so the Japanese military can launch pre-emptive strikes abroad.

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and other Japanese politicians visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which houses the remains of Japan's war dead including convicted war criminals. On Tuesday, 168 members of the Diet followed suit, the biggest number of lawmakers since 1989.

The Japanese media were critical of the stunt. The Asahi Shimbun urged cabinet members to exercise "restraint" in speech as well as action, while the Mainichi Shimbun warned Japan's "national interests are at risk" if such strain is put on cooperation with China and South Korea in trying to rein in North Korea.

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21 dead in Xinjiang terrorist clash

URUMQI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- A violent clash between suspected terrorists and authorities in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has left 21 people dead, including 15 community workers and police officers and six of the suspects, local authorities said on Wednesday. The attacks happened around Tuesday noon in a town of Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, some 1,200 km southwest of Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang. Three community workers discovered suspicious individuals and knives in the home of a local resident. They then reported the situation to their supervisors via phone, but were seized by the suspects who had been hiding in the house.

Police officers and community officials from the township rushed to the scene, but were attacked and killed by the suspects, who also killed the three community workers they had seized earlier and burned the house. Other police officers who arrived at the scene shot the suspects and got the situation under control. Two other people from the authorities were also injured in the clash, and eight terrorist suspects were captured. An initial investigation has indicated that the suspects are all terrorists who were planning on violent attacks. Further investigation into the case is under way.

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