A | According to the Japanese daily Nikkei, the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will scrap its usual ceiling on defense-related spending requests for the coming fiscal year, paving the way for a dramatic increase in military spending. Kishida is set to approve the policy before the end of the month.,Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, told the South China Morning Post that the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month had allowed his Liberal Democratic Party to pursue its longstanding goal of amending Article 9, the so-called pacifism clause, of Japan’s constitution.,“It is clear that Kishida was already planning to boost defense spending, but the assassination of Abe has served to put wind in his sails and even the normally extremely cautious Ministry of Finance is not now raising any objections,” Kingston told the Hong Kong paper.,Abe’s killing, just days before parliamentary elections, catapulted the Liberal Democrats, a right-wing party, to a resounding victory and an even greater majority in the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Japanese Diet.,He said that between recent missile tests by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), increased tensions with China over Taiwan, and Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, Kishida’s government was “almost spoiled for choice” when it came to justifications for hiking the defense budget.,Japan, US Hold Joint Air Drills Involving 52 Aircraft: Military14 July, 07:48 GMT,“[W]hat is interesting is that if Abe had put forward these plans when he was prime minister, there would have been a quick and harsh pushback,” Kingston told the SCMP. During his nine years in power, Abe pushed to remove or amend the pacifism clause of the Japanese constitution that was put in place after World War II as a guard against renewed Japanese militarism.,“Everything that has happened in Ukraine has really put the liberal left on the back foot and altered that commitment to peace that has long been a part of the national psyche,” he added. “I had expected a more vigorous response, but it has been relatively muted.”,According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Japan had the world’s ninth-largest military budget last year, spending $54.1 billion, or 1.1% of its GDP, despite its pacifist constitution. That was a 7.3% increase over its budget the previous year, the largest increase of any of the top 15 military spenders except for Iran.,Nonetheless, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said in April that Kishida’s government has plans to double that to 2% of GDP within five years. At a projected $108 billion per year, that would make Japan's military budget the world’s third-largest, after the United States and China. Kishi said Japan was particularly interested in “counterstrike capabilities” that could hit the bases of countries that attack the island nation.,However, the move isn’t particularly popular with the Japanese public. A June poll by Japan’s Kyodo News Agency found that while 37.2% of Japanese citizens surveyed supported the proposed increase, almost as many, 31.5%, opposed it.。
B | “如果美中联手，我相信可以为地球做很多非常好的事。”美国友人赛考斯（本名罗纳德·萨科尔斯基）当地时间21日在华盛顿杜勒斯国际机场接受中新社记者采访时说。 应中国有关方面邀请，赛考斯21日启程前往中国，开启为期10天的中国行。这将是赛考斯时隔20余年再次前往中国。 刚刚办理完登机手续的赛考斯告诉记者，他只是一名普通的退休教师，他从未想过有机会再次去中国。“随着这一刻越来越近，我感到既兴奋又紧张。这一切就像是做梦一样。” 1999年，赛考斯在河南洛阳当英语外教期间，多方联系筹集5000美元，资助中国一位矢志治沙的普通女性、后来成为劳模的殷玉珍。27年后，殷玉珍通过社交媒体找到了当年的友人，让赛考斯进入了公众视野。 赛考斯表示，他此行将前往北京，内蒙古鄂尔多斯、呼和浩特和河南洛阳。他期待看到那片森林，期待与殷玉珍重逢，也期待见到他曾经教过的学生和共事过的同事。 赛考斯还说，他1999年去中国，2000年回到美国，中国和中国人民让他成为更好的人。“我了解中国文化，了解中国人。我不是‘老外’，我是‘老内’。”他希望美中两国人民都能以更开放的态度看待对方，增进了解，共同守护地球。（记者 沙晗汀）。
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