East Asia News & Politics Thread: China, South Korea, Japan...

[In Pictures]China's race for hydroelectric power

Stung Treng province, northern Cambodia - China’s race for hydroelectric power has been going on for over 20 years, leading to development plans and to the construction of a 28 dam cascade in the Lancang river.

However, in recent years, its enthusiasm for dam building has spilled over into Southeast Asia.

Hydrolancang, a Chinese state-owned enterprise responsible for no less than seven dams in the upper Mekong, began in 2013 the construction of its very first overseas hydropower project, the Lower Sesan II dam in northern Cambodia.

The $800m and 400MW project, located less than 100km south from the Don Sahong dam in Laos, has been among the most controversial and destructive developments in recent years.

Once completed, it will block the Sesan and Srepok rivers - two of the main tributaries of the Mekong - creating a 36,000-hectare reservoir, flooding several villages, and displacing thousands of people who have been living along the river banks for generations, relying on it for survival.

The potential impacts, both good and bad, are enormous.

Cambodia, with its population 60 percent under the age of 30, is growing fast, and some estimates suggest that the dam could potentially generate a fifth of the power the country is likely to need by 2018; yet, its physical impacts could threaten the food security of tens of thousands of people.

Japan not happy with the Nanking Massacre UNESCO report, threatens to cut funding to UN

Japan's government may halt funds for UNESCO over a UN decision on including documents of the Nanjing massacre.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, described on Tuesday the decision as biased and "problematic" and criticised UNESCO for going ahead despite the conflicting views of Japan and China.

"The government would like to ask for fairness and transparency in the Memory of the World programme so that it would not be used for political purposes," Suga said.

"As for Japan's [financial] contribution [to UNESCO], we plan to look into all possibilities and revisions, including halting payments."

Japan's warning prompted a sharp response from China, who called the threat "shocking and unacceptable."

Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said there was nothing wrong with the documents or the application process.

"Japan can threaten to remove funding to the relevant UN body but it cannot rub away its stains from history. The more it rubs, the blacker it becomes," she said.

"There are various debates on the issue and Japan's stance is that it is difficult to put a finger on specific numbers."

China's top diplomat was in Japan on Tuesday for high-level political talks as Sino-Japanese ties have been frayed by territorial rows and mutual mistrust over China's growing military assertiveness, as well as Japan's bolder security stance.

However, ties have thawed somewhat recently.

The bitter legacy of Japan's military aggression before and during World War II still haunts ties between Asia's two biggest economies 70 years after the end of the conflict.

According to China government, Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in the massacre.

A post-war Allied tribunal put the death toll at about half that number.

Japan contributed 3.72bn yen ($31m) to UNESCO in 2014, or about 10.8 percent of its total budget.