2

2

-glass Mangrove database

2

2

Heritiera littoralis

Heritiera littoralis

2

2

-glass Mangrove database

2

2

Heritiera littoralis

Heritiera littoralis

Voluntary patrol and eco-narration

Removal of alien plants, mangrove cleaning and mangrove rehabilitation

Other progress

trainings for eco-narrators. We invited experts in this area and carried out a series

seedlings.

to the municipal people’s congress as a representative, he managed to save

of land in order to save the

environmentally friendly and pollution-free. For the time being, Planning and Land

Voluntary patrol and eco-narration

Removal of alien plants, mangrove cleaning and mangrove rehabilitation

Other progress

trainings for eco-narrators. We invited experts in this area and carried out a series

seedlings.

to the municipal people’s congress as a representative, he managed to save

of land in order to save the

environmentally friendly and pollution-free. For the time being, Planning and Land

Voluntary patrol and eco-narration

Removal of alien plants, mangrove cleaning and mangrove rehabilitation

Other progress

trainings for eco-narrators. We invited experts in this area and carried out a series

seedlings.

to the municipal people’s congress as a representative, he managed to save

of land in order to save the

environmentally friendly and pollution-free. For the time being, Planning and Land

Voluntary patrol and eco-narration

Removal of alien plants, mangrove cleaning and mangrove rehabilitation

Other progress

trainings for eco-narrators. We invited experts in this area and carried out a series

seedlings.

to the municipal people’s congress as a representative, he managed to save

of land in order to save the

environmentally friendly and pollution-free. For the time being, Planning and Land

The first step to construct the mangrove precaution mechanism is to collect

The Completion of Project Goal

ally in the mangrove reserves, is clearly against the law. As a result, it is no longer a serious threat to mangroves now.

grove reserves in China. On the one hand, since the law only protects the area with mangrove growing on, people first remove mangrove secretly and once the land is empty, the impoundment starts immediately. On the other hand, this phenomenon is hard to control because of interest conflicts with local communities.

a stubborn problem in most mangrove reserves.

removed after all. On the other hand, even if the construction doesn’t do direct harm to mangroves, its negative effects are hard to be ignored. For example, in

desertification of mudflat on the edge of the island with mangroves growing on. Followed is the death of mangroves because of loss of land to stand in.

reserves, partly caused by local people, partly from floating dumps. Wastewater

treatment, the waste flow right through the mangroves to the ocean, causing negative effect to the ecosystem.

mangrove may have its own problems as well.

Project director’s note: Collecting data is the first step and the next one will be building the feedback mechanism. The feedback should happen

the contact between volunteer teams and local administrations is relatively

have been working to recruit local volunteer teams and keep them working steadily, the contact between us and local administration is not yet mature. From now on, we will try to enhance that contact channel and start to

there are two cases which started by problem identification, through feedback mechanism, and finally settled or underway of being settled. One is the

The first step to construct the mangrove precaution mechanism is to collect

The Completion of Project Goal

ally in the mangrove reserves, is clearly against the law. As a result, it is no longer a serious threat to mangroves now.

grove reserves in China. On the one hand, since the law only protects the area with mangrove growing on, people first remove mangrove secretly and once the land is empty, the impoundment starts immediately. On the other hand, this phenomenon is hard to control because of interest conflicts with local communities.

a stubborn problem in most mangrove reserves.

removed after all. On the other hand, even if the construction doesn’t do direct harm to mangroves, its negative effects are hard to be ignored. For example, in

desertification of mudflat on the edge of the island with mangroves growing on. Followed is the death of mangroves because of loss of land to stand in.

reserves, partly caused by local people, partly from floating dumps. Wastewater

treatment, the waste flow right through the mangroves to the ocean, causing negative effect to the ecosystem.

mangrove may have its own problems as well.

Project director’s note: Collecting data is the first step and the next one will be building the feedback mechanism. The feedback should happen

the contact between volunteer teams and local administrations is relatively

have been working to recruit local volunteer teams and keep them working steadily, the contact between us and local administration is not yet mature. From now on, we will try to enhance that contact channel and start to

there are two cases which started by problem identification, through feedback mechanism, and finally settled or underway of being settled. One is the

Coastal wetland conservation action group of

One of the shortcomings of this project is that they didn’t pay much attention after the greenmap was printed and they Coastal wetland conservation action group of

One of the shortcomings of this project is that they didn’t pay much attention after the greenmap was printed and they

Coastal wetland conservation action group of

One of the shortcomings of this project is that they didn’t pay much attention after the greenmap was printed and they Coastal wetland conservation action group of

One of the shortcomings of this project is that they didn’t pay much attention after the greenmap was printed and they

CMCN organized 37 employees from Dell Company to remove alien plants in Dayu Island.2010-12-21China Daily reported the afforestation activities in Eyu Island.2010-12-23

CMCN, Mr.Park Sangho, Director of China Project from Ecopeace Asia and officers from the administration office of Dayu Island Egret Nature Reserve attended the unveiling ceremony of the monument of rehabilitioan project in Dayu Island.

2010-3-26

2010-5-7 CMCN released the final list of proposals and corresponding grants. 2010/5/11-18 CMCN issued the initial funding to the chosen teams. 2010-7-9The Wenzhou team handed in the mid-term report. 2010-7-23The Quanzhou team handed in the mid-term report. 2010-9-28

2010-11-27The Guangzhou team handed in the final report for the rehabilitation project. 2010-12-1The Guangzhou team handed in the final report for the greenmap project. 2010-12-28 The Xiamen team handed in the final report. 2011-1-4The Quanzhou team handed in the final report.

2010-3-16

2010-4-9

trip investigation and practiced the pattern of ESD in local schools. 2010-6-28Cooperated with Green Society Environmental Action Network to release the "Nature Cognition--- special edition for mangroves". 2010-8-29Mr.Yan Weihan delivered a speech on environmental education for members of Xiamen Green Camp for university students, China Bird-watching Camp for university students and Xiamen Wetland Camp for university students. 2010-11-18CMCN invited Ms. Zhang Jingyu from The Society of Wilderness, Taiwan to share her experience on greenmap promotion for volunteers from Xiamen. 2010/11/19-23

the country to attend the eco-working holiday in Eyu Island. 2010/11/26-28 Mr. Yan Weihan shared his experience on nature education for volunteers of Green-stone Environmental Action Network in Nanjing.

2010-1-27

CMCN received the project director Mr. Guo Shenyu and project executive Mr. Yang Gang from the

2010-3-10CMCN recruited Mr. Yan Weihan as the Education Project Director.2010-3-24

2010/3/23-4/23CMCN recruited Mr. Li Li as an intern. 2010/4/1-6/1CMCN recruited Mr. Bao Zhongbi as an intern. 2010-5-1

2010-5-13CMCN recruited Ms.Mao Xiaoli as the Community Development Project Director. 2010-5-30

2010-6-17

2010-7-26

2010-8-7CMCN moved to its new office. 2010/8/8-21CMCN recruited Mr. Pan Xiang as an intern. 2010-8-30

2010-9-10CMCN recruited Mr. Cong He as Rehabilitation Project Director. 2010-9-26

2010-10-8

2010/1/5-7 Mr. Liu Yi went to Hainan to carry out winter research on mangrove molluscs. 2010-3-2Mr. Liu Yi guided an eco-tour for teachers and students from Hong Kong as well as China mainland attending

2010-3-3

2010/3/7-9-

tion. 2010-4-14 Mr. Liu Yi accompanied Professor Lu Changyi to visit mangrove reserve in Jiulong River. 2010-4-15

School. 2010-6-5Mr. Liu Yi attended the feasibility study meeting of national ocean research subjects for public good in Ganwen

2010/6/28-29

2010/7/3-7

2010-7-11Ms. Mao Xiaoli and Mr. Li Zhou gave training on interview skills for volunteers of the project "Beautify Your

Backyard".2010-7-15 Mr. Liu Yi attended the workshop of "Capacity Building Training for Social Responsibility Practitioners---Community Participation Clarity Report" in Guangzhou. 2010-7-17Ms. Mao Xiaoli and Mr. Li Zhou assisted volunteers to do door-to-door interviews for the project "Beautify Your

2010/8/1-4

in Jakarta, Indonesia. 2010/8/3-5Mr. Li Zhou attended the workshop of mangrove environmental education in Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve. 2010-8-5Mr.Liu Yi shared his experience on mangrove conservation with members of the first Blue Camp for university students. 2010/9/1-6 Mr. Liu Yi took part in the "Green Leadership Workshop: Phase Two" in Beijing. 2010-9-16CMCN attended the ceremony activities of the tenth anniversary of Green Wild Association. 2010/10/4-9

fight against Climate Change by preserving mangroves. 2010/10/20-24

wetlands in Korea. 2010/11/4-5

2010/11/5-9Mr. Liu Yi took part in the "Green Leadership Workshop: Phase Three" in Kunming. 2010/11/10-13

2010-12-5

2010/12/18-19

CMCN organized 37 employees from Dell Company to remove alien plants in Dayu Island.2010-12-21China Daily reported the afforestation activities in Eyu Island.2010-12-23

CMCN, Mr.Park Sangho, Director of China Project from Ecopeace Asia and officers from the administration office of Dayu Island Egret Nature Reserve attended the unveiling ceremony of the monument of rehabilitioan project in Dayu Island.

2010-3-26

2010-5-7 CMCN released the final list of proposals and corresponding grants. 2010/5/11-18 CMCN issued the initial funding to the chosen teams. 2010-7-9The Wenzhou team handed in the mid-term report. 2010-7-23The Quanzhou team handed in the mid-term report. 2010-9-28

2010-11-27The Guangzhou team handed in the final report for the rehabilitation project. 2010-12-1The Guangzhou team handed in the final report for the greenmap project. 2010-12-28 The Xiamen team handed in the final report. 2011-1-4The Quanzhou team handed in the final report.

2010-3-16

2010-4-9

trip investigation and practiced the pattern of ESD in local schools. 2010-6-28Cooperated with Green Society Environmental Action Network to release the "Nature Cognition--- special edition for mangroves". 2010-8-29Mr.Yan Weihan delivered a speech on environmental education for members of Xiamen Green Camp for university students, China Bird-watching Camp for university students and Xiamen Wetland Camp for university students. 2010-11-18CMCN invited Ms. Zhang Jingyu from The Society of Wilderness, Taiwan to share her experience on greenmap promotion for volunteers from Xiamen. 2010/11/19-23

the country to attend the eco-working holiday in Eyu Island. 2010/11/26-28 Mr. Yan Weihan shared his experience on nature education for volunteers of Green-stone Environmental Action Network in Nanjing.

2010-1-27

CMCN received the project director Mr. Guo Shenyu and project executive Mr. Yang Gang from the

2010-3-10CMCN recruited Mr. Yan Weihan as the Education Project Director.2010-3-24

2010/3/23-4/23CMCN recruited Mr. Li Li as an intern. 2010/4/1-6/1CMCN recruited Mr. Bao Zhongbi as an intern. 2010-5-1

2010-5-13CMCN recruited Ms.Mao Xiaoli as the Community Development Project Director. 2010-5-30

2010-6-17

2010-7-26

2010-8-7CMCN moved to its new office. 2010/8/8-21CMCN recruited Mr. Pan Xiang as an intern. 2010-8-30

2010-9-10CMCN recruited Mr. Cong He as Rehabilitation Project Director. 2010-9-26

2010-10-8

2010/1/5-7 Mr. Liu Yi went to Hainan to carry out winter research on mangrove molluscs. 2010-3-2Mr. Liu Yi guided an eco-tour for teachers and students from Hong Kong as well as China mainland attending

2010-3-3

2010/3/7-9-

tion. 2010-4-14 Mr. Liu Yi accompanied Professor Lu Changyi to visit mangrove reserve in Jiulong River. 2010-4-15

School. 2010-6-5Mr. Liu Yi attended the feasibility study meeting of national ocean research subjects for public good in Ganwen

2010/6/28-29

2010/7/3-7

2010-7-11Ms. Mao Xiaoli and Mr. Li Zhou gave training on interview skills for volunteers of the project "Beautify Your

Backyard".2010-7-15 Mr. Liu Yi attended the workshop of "Capacity Building Training for Social Responsibility Practitioners---Community Participation Clarity Report" in Guangzhou. 2010-7-17Ms. Mao Xiaoli and Mr. Li Zhou assisted volunteers to do door-to-door interviews for the project "Beautify Your

2010/8/1-4

in Jakarta, Indonesia. 2010/8/3-5Mr. Li Zhou attended the workshop of mangrove environmental education in Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve. 2010-8-5Mr.Liu Yi shared his experience on mangrove conservation with members of the first Blue Camp for university students. 2010/9/1-6 Mr. Liu Yi took part in the "Green Leadership Workshop: Phase Two" in Beijing. 2010-9-16CMCN attended the ceremony activities of the tenth anniversary of Green Wild Association. 2010/10/4-9

fight against Climate Change by preserving mangroves. 2010/10/20-24

wetlands in Korea. 2010/11/4-5

2010/11/5-9Mr. Liu Yi took part in the "Green Leadership Workshop: Phase Three" in Kunming. 2010/11/10-13

2010-12-5

2010/12/18-19

,117.66

AM10 30

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C H I N A D A I L Y coverstory 5T U E S D A Y, D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 0

FROM PAGE 1

Crocodile Island is roughly 100 meters by 700 meters, the equivalent of 10 soccer pitches, and its coastline of white sandy beaches can be covered on foot in less than 40 minutes.

Although 5 kilometers from the mainland, Xiamen’s bright lights and skyscrapers are clear-ly visible from Lin’s shack.

However, this leafy island paradise is slowly being destroyed by rampant soil erosion.

“When I arrived, there were only six banyans le� . I watched as the waves took the earth away every day, turning the place into a desert,” said Lin, who was recently joined on the island by his wife.

With help from an envi-ronmental NGO, he is now attempting to halt the erosion, and spends about 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a year on planting trees and cleaning up the gar-bage that washes ashore.

“I could make more money by � shing but I can’t leave my island,” he added. “People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care.”

Fujian’s coast has 1,546 islands larger than 500 square meters, including 1,444 that are uninhabited. According to official statistics, more than 100 islets have disap-peared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation.

Island retreatLin, a quiet father-of-two

with short graying hair, arrived on Crocodile Island from nearby Qiongtou village in 1987 a� er suddenly losing his mother and two brothers.

It was a retreat, he explained. “I gave up fishing and stayed there for a couple of months to get me through that tough time. Later, I decided to move in.”

In 1990, Lin left his wife and sons behind and rented the island from his village (he renewed that lease in 2000 for two more decades, paying 1,200 yuan a year).

“I thought I could live a free life and could earn a living for me and my family by farming on the island,” he said. How-ever, his � rst peanut crop was a failure due to the salinity of the soil.

It was not long before he noticed his new home was also shrinking. “I felt I was los-ing my island a� er losing my family,” he recalled.

By the second year, Lin was planting Casuarina seedlings, an evergreen tree resistant to saline, on the beaches. Of the more than 20,000 he put in the ground each year, only hundreds would survive.

“They grew in the spring but slowly died in the tropical summer heat. By October, I was le� with nothing,” he said.

To make matters worse, in 1999 the island was hit by a � erce typhoon that uprooted more than 2,000 trees. Lin said he burst into tears the next morning when he saw the aftermath, including the tons of garbage that had been washed ashore.

Despite the setbacks, he remained upbeat and his island is now covered with trees and grass.

“At least I’m slowing the ero-sion,” said Lin, who waters each plant and tree. “I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.

As well as money, he has also sacri� ced his family life.

In past two decades, Lin has only left the island to collect food and water supplies, taking his motor-powered sampan to Qiongtou village and back in a couple of hours. Whenever he returns it usually resulted in an argument with his wife.

Lin told China Daily he spent money set aside for his sons’ education to buy more seedlings for Crocodile Island.

His eldest son, Lin Dasheng, 28, said that, since the age of 8, he has been forced to live in an old, borrowed house, pay-

ing for school by selling crabs caught on the island’s beach.

“My family complains all the time. For many years, my wife was too angry to come live with me on the islet,” he said. “Other villagers said I am crazy. They call me ‘Old Monk’ for having lived alone on an island for so long.”

Wu Lina, Lin’s 56-year-old wife, finally agreed to join her husband in 2000. She now spends her days cooking and cleaning while Lin plants more trees.

“I don’t have any other choice,” she said. “It’s our home now.”

Lin family’s main income comes from the 400 chickens they keep at their island farm. � ey make about 40,000 yuan a year from the 100 or so eggs the birds produce every day.

Seeds of hope� e central government in

March this year introduced a law to regulate remote islands, stating that people who inhab-itants need to register with local authorities and apply before carrying farming, � sh-ing or planting.

Although the move is geared toward protecting the fragile environment of the country’s islands, Lin is not in support.

“� e government did noth-ing to protect my island. I don’t have to report to anyone,” he insisted.

Over the years, he has also resisted almost all offers of cooperation, including a 2.2-million-yuan o� er from a Xia-men company that proposed

developing Crocodile Island into a tourism attraction.

“They just want to make money. They don’t care the island’s future,” added Lin.

The only help he has accepted is from China Man-grove Conservation Network. � e NGO in 2008 drew up a protection plan that involved planting mangrove, a type of coastal tree, to conserve the shrinking beach line. The organization provided free seedlings and taught Lin how to plant.

“Lin accepts us because we want the same thing: to pro-tect Eyuyu Island,” explained Liu Yi, 28, director of the China Mangrove Conserva-tion Network. “He can live on the island alone, but it’s hard for him to save the island by himself.”

Without action to slow soil erosion, the island will disap-pear, warned the environment activist, whose group has planted more than 100,000 mangroves on its beaches.

“Crocodile Island is just a small piece of land, but for Lin’s family and the lifeforms that live there, it’s the whole world,” added Liu. “Our world is also an island but it’s too big for people to understand that we are losing it.”

� e islet used to be covered by mangroves, but people destroyed them for dredging and � shing, which means the sea can now directly sweep away the earth.

According to the network, 90 percent of mangroves in Xiamen have disappeared

because of reclamation, coastal real estate development and pollution.

China has already reclaimed a total of 13,380 square kilo-meters of offshore land and plans to reclaim another 5,780 square kilometers over the next decade, according to a report by the China Institute for Marine Affairs of State Oceanic Administration.

“The (target) number is almost half the total area (already reclaimed),” said Fang Qinhua, a professor at Xiamen University’s oceans policy and law center. “The total amount of reclamation has increased sharply … and some of the projects have adversely a� ected the coastal environment.”

China Mangrove Con-servation Network plans to transform Lin’s island into an environmental education site. By using the shrinking island as an example of the ongoing global ecology crisis, the group hopes more people will learn the importance of conservation.

“Everyone will be shocked when they hear that such a beautiful island is disappear-ing,” said network director Liu. “� e island will only be saved when more people participate (in protecting it), especially the (Xiamen) government.”

Lin, who keeps seven dogs to guard the island and deter � shermen from catching crabs and destroying his seedlings, said he welcomes the idea of more visitors to Crocodile Island. He has even o� ered to make a swing for tourists.

“It’s my island … I will never give up on saving it,” he said. “A� er I die, my ashes will be buried here.”

Island: ‘Crusoe’ on mission to save home from sinking

XiamenEYUYU

ISLAND

X i a m e n

Source: Google Earth XAN SABARÍS / CHINA DAILY

2 km

2meters

Amount the Crocodile Island is sinking every year

40,000yuan

Amount Lin’s family makes every year from their 400 chickens

1,200yuan

Amount Lin pays in rent for the island; his lease runs out in 2020

10,000yuan

Amount Lin spends every year on planting trees and cleaning up the garbage o� Crocodile Island’s beaches

1,546islands

Number islands larger than 500 square meters o� Fujian’s coast; a total of 1,444 are uninhabited

100islands

Number of Fujian islands that have disappeared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation

100,000mangroves

Number planted by Lin with help from the China Mangrove Conservation Network

5,780square kilometers

Amount of o� shore land China aims to reclaim over the next decade; the country has already reclaimed 13,380 sq km

I could make more money by fi shing but I can’t leave my island. People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care. I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.”LIN BEISHUIRESIDENT ON CROCODILE ISLAND

‘‘

PHOTOS BY ZHU XINGXIN / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui (right) points out the shrinking coastline of Crocodile Island, one of many islets o� the coast of Fujian province, to his son, Lin Dasheng.

Wu Lina, wife of Lin Beishui, spends her days cooking and cleaning after joining her husband on the remote Crocodile Island 10 years ago. The Lin family is the only household on the island.

Lin Beishui checks his new mangrove trees, which were planted as part of e� orts to conserve Crocodile Island’s shrinking coastline. The ex-fi sherman has been on the island since 1987.

By QIN JIZECHINA DAILY

BEIJING — � e Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said that it “was not worth reacting” to ‘‘military provocation” by the Republic of Korea (ROK), in a statement from its army command refer-ring to the hour-long live-� re

artillery drills con-ducted by the ROK on Yeonpyeong Island on Monday.

There was no retaliation from

Pyongyang to the drills though it vowed earlier that the situa-tion on the Korean Peninsula would “explode” if Seoul went ahead with the exercises, similar to those carried out last month that led to an exchange of � re between the two Koreas.

Following the ROK drills, Beijing called for calm and restraint on the peninsula, saying no one had a right to “preach or promote con� ict”.

“China has always believed that peace and stability must be maintained on the penin-

sula. � is is a goal we have been working very hard to achieve,” Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

“No one has any right to preach or promote con� ict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the people in the north and south of the peninsula,” he said .

Cui insisted that dialogue was the only way forward, adding that in recent weeks and months China has conducted intensive diplomacy with the relevant parties concerning the peninsula.

“Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by con� ict or war,” he added.

Monday’s exercise came just hours after the UN Security Council met in New York, and New Mexico Governor Bill Rich-ardson — a former US ambassa-dor to the United Nations — met with o� cials in Pyongyang in a bid to di� use tension.

CNN reported that during Richardson’s unofficial visit,

Pyongyang agreed to a series of actions, including allowing the return of UN inspectors to nuclear facilities and to con-sider a proposal on setting up a military commission and a hotline between Seoul, Pyong-yang and Washington.

In another development, Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Monday amid tension on the peninsula.

Zhang Liangui, an expert

on Korean a� airs at the Party School of the Central Commit-tee of the Communist Party of China, warned that the possi-bility of con� ict remains.

� ough the DPRK did not retaliate, as it had threatened to, the two sides were still on the verge of war, Zhang said.

“There is little chance of easing the current tension, not to mention solving their basic distrust.”

Even if there is no response from the DPRK now, it does not mean that there will not be any more attacks, he said.

“It is possible that Pyongyang is trying to avoid responding to a well-prepared ROK. It tends to choose a particular time and place to � ght back, the current calmness might be just a tactic.”

Wang Chenyan and agencies contributed to this story.

By WU JIAO, CHENG GUANGJIN AND MA LIYAOCHINA DAILY

BEIJING — Japan’s ambas-sador on Monday com-menced a three-day visit to Nanjing, the scene of mass killings by Japanese troops in December 1937.

Japanese Ambassador Uichiro Niwa arrived in Nanjing, capital of East China’s economic hub Jiangsu province, on Mon-day a� ernoon to meet Japa-nese entrepreneurs and local o� cials in a move that ana-lysts said will help improve strained ties between China and Japan.

� e three-day trip, osten-sibly to boost bilateral trade, is significant as it is Niwa’s first visit to the city where more than 300,000 civilians were slaughtered by invad-ing Japanese troops between December 1937 and January 1938.

It is also significant because relations between the two nations have been strained after Japanese authorities illegally detained the captain of a Chinese trawler and members of its crew in waters off China’s Diaoyu Islands in Septem-ber.

Upon arrival in Nanjing, Niwa said that relations between China and Japan are like a couple which can-not su� er separation.

‘‘We have no choice but to keep friendly ties,’’ said Niwa.

“And I come to Nanjing in that spirit.”

On Tuesday morning, Niwa will meet residents doing their morning exer-cises in the city’s Xuanwu Lake Park, and deliver a lecture at a foreign language school, according to a sched-ule released by the Japanese embassy.

Yet the ambassador will not visit a memorial hall dedicated to the victims of the massacre, where thou-sands of people gathered last week to mark the 73rd anni-versary of the slaughter.

� ough the trip is primar-ily business-focused, media and analysts from China and Japan said it would improve ties.

Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Monday that Niwa’s visit shows that rela-tions between the two coun-tries ‘‘are getting better’’.

According to Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asia studies with Tsinghua University, Niwa avoided visiting the memorial hall because he did not want to provoke the Japanese right-wing.

“Niwa has limited political influence. Yet by focusing on trade and the economy, Niwa is doing what he spe-cializes in, and doing his part in reviving bilateral ties,” said Liu.

� e eastern province has more than 7,000 � rms that have Japanese investment.

SEE “JAPAN” PAGE 2

For more than 20 years Lin Beishui has lived on a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits like a

modern-day Robinson Crusoe.Without any electricity or

clean drinking water on Eyuyu Island, the 56-year-old former � sherman has survived largely on the food he grows. His ‘‘best friend’’ is a battery radio

and his only protection from typhoons that hit every year is

a small brick shack.Yet, his biggest

challenge is pre-venting his home

from sinking into the sea.Official studies show that

Eyuyu — or Crocodile Island — is shrinking by about 2 meters every year.

“The island’s name comes from its appearance, but in the past 20 years the ‘crocodile’s tail’ has completely disap-peared,” said Lin, who lives 30 minutes by boat from Xiamen in Fujian province.

“Almost a third of my island has already gone,” he said.

SEE “ISLAND” PAGE 5

CHINADAILY chinadaily.com.cn RMB ¥1.5

COVER STORY

TUESDAY, December 21, 2010

Life

New fi lm brings mixed emotionsFeng Xiaogang’s latest movie will cause tears of joy and sorrow.> PAGE 19

World

28 killed in Mexican pipeline blastMassive explosion turns city streets into deadly rivers of fi re.> PAGE 12

Business

Reduction in fi scal defi cit planned900 billion yuan target for next year is 150 billion less than 2010.> PAGE 13

In this issueNATION.........................................................2- 4COVER STORY.................................................5COMMENT ................................................... 8-9WORLD ......................................................10-12BUSINESS .....................................13, 14, 16, 17LIFE.............................................................18-21SPORTS ....................................................22-24

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© 2010 China Daily All Rights Reserved Vol. 30 — No. 9560

国内统一编号:CN11-0091 国际标准编号:ISSN0253-9543 邮发代号:1-3

On chinadaily.com.cnSlides: 2010’s world gone wild: DisastersBilingual news: Rich women prefer attractive older menVideo: The post-80s generation in China Life: Travel Picks: The top 10 beach destinations

Preventing paradise lostFormer fi sherman turns ‘castaway’ to save island from disappearing into sea. Peng Yining reports from Xiamen.

PENG YINING / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui stands on the shore of Eyuyu Island, a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits. Lin has lived a solitary existence on the island for more than 20 years.

LEE JIN-MAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters shout slogans during a rally denouncing the ROK’s live-fi re drill on Yeonpyeong Island, in Seoul on Monday.

JO YONG-HAK / REUTERS

An ROK soldier checks the barbed wire fence near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, on Monday.

Japanese ambassador in NanjingThree-day trip ‘will help improve strained bilateral relations’

Drills ‘not worth response’No retaliation from DPRK, but situation still tense, experts say

InsideLive in peace, page 9

By courtesy of the Bank of China

SOE Special published fortnightly on Tuesday

P15

,117.66

AM10 30

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C H I N A D A I L Y coverstory 5T U E S D A Y, D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 0

FROM PAGE 1

Crocodile Island is roughly 100 meters by 700 meters, the equivalent of 10 soccer pitches, and its coastline of white sandy beaches can be covered on foot in less than 40 minutes.

Although 5 kilometers from the mainland, Xiamen’s bright lights and skyscrapers are clear-ly visible from Lin’s shack.

However, this leafy island paradise is slowly being destroyed by rampant soil erosion.

“When I arrived, there were only six banyans le� . I watched as the waves took the earth away every day, turning the place into a desert,” said Lin, who was recently joined on the island by his wife.

With help from an envi-ronmental NGO, he is now attempting to halt the erosion, and spends about 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a year on planting trees and cleaning up the gar-bage that washes ashore.

“I could make more money by � shing but I can’t leave my island,” he added. “People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care.”

Fujian’s coast has 1,546 islands larger than 500 square meters, including 1,444 that are uninhabited. According to official statistics, more than 100 islets have disap-peared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation.

Island retreatLin, a quiet father-of-two

with short graying hair, arrived on Crocodile Island from nearby Qiongtou village in 1987 a� er suddenly losing his mother and two brothers.

It was a retreat, he explained. “I gave up fishing and stayed there for a couple of months to get me through that tough time. Later, I decided to move in.”

In 1990, Lin left his wife and sons behind and rented the island from his village (he renewed that lease in 2000 for two more decades, paying 1,200 yuan a year).

“I thought I could live a free life and could earn a living for me and my family by farming on the island,” he said. How-ever, his � rst peanut crop was a failure due to the salinity of the soil.

It was not long before he noticed his new home was also shrinking. “I felt I was los-ing my island a� er losing my family,” he recalled.

By the second year, Lin was planting Casuarina seedlings, an evergreen tree resistant to saline, on the beaches. Of the more than 20,000 he put in the ground each year, only hundreds would survive.

“They grew in the spring but slowly died in the tropical summer heat. By October, I was le� with nothing,” he said.

To make matters worse, in 1999 the island was hit by a � erce typhoon that uprooted more than 2,000 trees. Lin said he burst into tears the next morning when he saw the aftermath, including the tons of garbage that had been washed ashore.

Despite the setbacks, he remained upbeat and his island is now covered with trees and grass.

“At least I’m slowing the ero-sion,” said Lin, who waters each plant and tree. “I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.

As well as money, he has also sacri� ced his family life.

In past two decades, Lin has only left the island to collect food and water supplies, taking his motor-powered sampan to Qiongtou village and back in a couple of hours. Whenever he returns it usually resulted in an argument with his wife.

Lin told China Daily he spent money set aside for his sons’ education to buy more seedlings for Crocodile Island.

His eldest son, Lin Dasheng, 28, said that, since the age of 8, he has been forced to live in an old, borrowed house, pay-

ing for school by selling crabs caught on the island’s beach.

“My family complains all the time. For many years, my wife was too angry to come live with me on the islet,” he said. “Other villagers said I am crazy. They call me ‘Old Monk’ for having lived alone on an island for so long.”

Wu Lina, Lin’s 56-year-old wife, finally agreed to join her husband in 2000. She now spends her days cooking and cleaning while Lin plants more trees.

“I don’t have any other choice,” she said. “It’s our home now.”

Lin family’s main income comes from the 400 chickens they keep at their island farm. � ey make about 40,000 yuan a year from the 100 or so eggs the birds produce every day.

Seeds of hope� e central government in

March this year introduced a law to regulate remote islands, stating that people who inhab-itants need to register with local authorities and apply before carrying farming, � sh-ing or planting.

Although the move is geared toward protecting the fragile environment of the country’s islands, Lin is not in support.

“� e government did noth-ing to protect my island. I don’t have to report to anyone,” he insisted.

Over the years, he has also resisted almost all offers of cooperation, including a 2.2-million-yuan o� er from a Xia-men company that proposed

developing Crocodile Island into a tourism attraction.

“They just want to make money. They don’t care the island’s future,” added Lin.

The only help he has accepted is from China Man-grove Conservation Network. � e NGO in 2008 drew up a protection plan that involved planting mangrove, a type of coastal tree, to conserve the shrinking beach line. The organization provided free seedlings and taught Lin how to plant.

“Lin accepts us because we want the same thing: to pro-tect Eyuyu Island,” explained Liu Yi, 28, director of the China Mangrove Conserva-tion Network. “He can live on the island alone, but it’s hard for him to save the island by himself.”

Without action to slow soil erosion, the island will disap-pear, warned the environment activist, whose group has planted more than 100,000 mangroves on its beaches.

“Crocodile Island is just a small piece of land, but for Lin’s family and the lifeforms that live there, it’s the whole world,” added Liu. “Our world is also an island but it’s too big for people to understand that we are losing it.”

� e islet used to be covered by mangroves, but people destroyed them for dredging and � shing, which means the sea can now directly sweep away the earth.

According to the network, 90 percent of mangroves in Xiamen have disappeared

because of reclamation, coastal real estate development and pollution.

China has already reclaimed a total of 13,380 square kilo-meters of offshore land and plans to reclaim another 5,780 square kilometers over the next decade, according to a report by the China Institute for Marine Affairs of State Oceanic Administration.

“The (target) number is almost half the total area (already reclaimed),” said Fang Qinhua, a professor at Xiamen University’s oceans policy and law center. “The total amount of reclamation has increased sharply … and some of the projects have adversely a� ected the coastal environment.”

China Mangrove Con-servation Network plans to transform Lin’s island into an environmental education site. By using the shrinking island as an example of the ongoing global ecology crisis, the group hopes more people will learn the importance of conservation.

“Everyone will be shocked when they hear that such a beautiful island is disappear-ing,” said network director Liu. “� e island will only be saved when more people participate (in protecting it), especially the (Xiamen) government.”

Lin, who keeps seven dogs to guard the island and deter � shermen from catching crabs and destroying his seedlings, said he welcomes the idea of more visitors to Crocodile Island. He has even o� ered to make a swing for tourists.

“It’s my island … I will never give up on saving it,” he said. “A� er I die, my ashes will be buried here.”

Island: ‘Crusoe’ on mission to save home from sinking

XiamenEYUYU

ISLAND

X i a m e n

Source: Google Earth XAN SABARÍS / CHINA DAILY

2 km

2meters

Amount the Crocodile Island is sinking every year

40,000yuan

Amount Lin’s family makes every year from their 400 chickens

1,200yuan

Amount Lin pays in rent for the island; his lease runs out in 2020

10,000yuan

Amount Lin spends every year on planting trees and cleaning up the garbage o� Crocodile Island’s beaches

1,546islands

Number islands larger than 500 square meters o� Fujian’s coast; a total of 1,444 are uninhabited

100islands

Number of Fujian islands that have disappeared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation

100,000mangroves

Number planted by Lin with help from the China Mangrove Conservation Network

5,780square kilometers

Amount of o� shore land China aims to reclaim over the next decade; the country has already reclaimed 13,380 sq km

I could make more money by fi shing but I can’t leave my island. People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care. I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.”LIN BEISHUIRESIDENT ON CROCODILE ISLAND

‘‘

PHOTOS BY ZHU XINGXIN / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui (right) points out the shrinking coastline of Crocodile Island, one of many islets o� the coast of Fujian province, to his son, Lin Dasheng.

Wu Lina, wife of Lin Beishui, spends her days cooking and cleaning after joining her husband on the remote Crocodile Island 10 years ago. The Lin family is the only household on the island.

Lin Beishui checks his new mangrove trees, which were planted as part of e� orts to conserve Crocodile Island’s shrinking coastline. The ex-fi sherman has been on the island since 1987.

By QIN JIZECHINA DAILY

BEIJING — � e Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said that it “was not worth reacting” to ‘‘military provocation” by the Republic of Korea (ROK), in a statement from its army command refer-ring to the hour-long live-� re

artillery drills con-ducted by the ROK on Yeonpyeong Island on Monday.

There was no retaliation from

Pyongyang to the drills though it vowed earlier that the situa-tion on the Korean Peninsula would “explode” if Seoul went ahead with the exercises, similar to those carried out last month that led to an exchange of � re between the two Koreas.

Following the ROK drills, Beijing called for calm and restraint on the peninsula, saying no one had a right to “preach or promote con� ict”.

“China has always believed that peace and stability must be maintained on the penin-

sula. � is is a goal we have been working very hard to achieve,” Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

“No one has any right to preach or promote con� ict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the people in the north and south of the peninsula,” he said .

Cui insisted that dialogue was the only way forward, adding that in recent weeks and months China has conducted intensive diplomacy with the relevant parties concerning the peninsula.

“Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by con� ict or war,” he added.

Monday’s exercise came just hours after the UN Security Council met in New York, and New Mexico Governor Bill Rich-ardson — a former US ambassa-dor to the United Nations — met with o� cials in Pyongyang in a bid to di� use tension.

CNN reported that during Richardson’s unofficial visit,

Pyongyang agreed to a series of actions, including allowing the return of UN inspectors to nuclear facilities and to con-sider a proposal on setting up a military commission and a hotline between Seoul, Pyong-yang and Washington.

In another development, Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Monday amid tension on the peninsula.

Zhang Liangui, an expert

on Korean a� airs at the Party School of the Central Commit-tee of the Communist Party of China, warned that the possi-bility of con� ict remains.

� ough the DPRK did not retaliate, as it had threatened to, the two sides were still on the verge of war, Zhang said.

“There is little chance of easing the current tension, not to mention solving their basic distrust.”

Even if there is no response from the DPRK now, it does not mean that there will not be any more attacks, he said.

“It is possible that Pyongyang is trying to avoid responding to a well-prepared ROK. It tends to choose a particular time and place to � ght back, the current calmness might be just a tactic.”

Wang Chenyan and agencies contributed to this story.

By WU JIAO, CHENG GUANGJIN AND MA LIYAOCHINA DAILY

BEIJING — Japan’s ambas-sador on Monday com-menced a three-day visit to Nanjing, the scene of mass killings by Japanese troops in December 1937.

Japanese Ambassador Uichiro Niwa arrived in Nanjing, capital of East China’s economic hub Jiangsu province, on Mon-day a� ernoon to meet Japa-nese entrepreneurs and local o� cials in a move that ana-lysts said will help improve strained ties between China and Japan.

� e three-day trip, osten-sibly to boost bilateral trade, is significant as it is Niwa’s first visit to the city where more than 300,000 civilians were slaughtered by invad-ing Japanese troops between December 1937 and January 1938.

It is also significant because relations between the two nations have been strained after Japanese authorities illegally detained the captain of a Chinese trawler and members of its crew in waters off China’s Diaoyu Islands in Septem-ber.

Upon arrival in Nanjing, Niwa said that relations between China and Japan are like a couple which can-not su� er separation.

‘‘We have no choice but to keep friendly ties,’’ said Niwa.

“And I come to Nanjing in that spirit.”

On Tuesday morning, Niwa will meet residents doing their morning exer-cises in the city’s Xuanwu Lake Park, and deliver a lecture at a foreign language school, according to a sched-ule released by the Japanese embassy.

Yet the ambassador will not visit a memorial hall dedicated to the victims of the massacre, where thou-sands of people gathered last week to mark the 73rd anni-versary of the slaughter.

� ough the trip is primar-ily business-focused, media and analysts from China and Japan said it would improve ties.

Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Monday that Niwa’s visit shows that rela-tions between the two coun-tries ‘‘are getting better’’.

According to Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asia studies with Tsinghua University, Niwa avoided visiting the memorial hall because he did not want to provoke the Japanese right-wing.

“Niwa has limited political influence. Yet by focusing on trade and the economy, Niwa is doing what he spe-cializes in, and doing his part in reviving bilateral ties,” said Liu.

� e eastern province has more than 7,000 � rms that have Japanese investment.

SEE “JAPAN” PAGE 2

For more than 20 years Lin Beishui has lived on a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits like a

modern-day Robinson Crusoe.Without any electricity or

clean drinking water on Eyuyu Island, the 56-year-old former � sherman has survived largely on the food he grows. His ‘‘best friend’’ is a battery radio

and his only protection from typhoons that hit every year is

a small brick shack.Yet, his biggest

challenge is pre-venting his home

from sinking into the sea.Official studies show that

Eyuyu — or Crocodile Island — is shrinking by about 2 meters every year.

“The island’s name comes from its appearance, but in the past 20 years the ‘crocodile’s tail’ has completely disap-peared,” said Lin, who lives 30 minutes by boat from Xiamen in Fujian province.

“Almost a third of my island has already gone,” he said.

SEE “ISLAND” PAGE 5

CHINADAILY chinadaily.com.cn RMB ¥1.5

COVER STORY

TUESDAY, December 21, 2010

Life

New fi lm brings mixed emotionsFeng Xiaogang’s latest movie will cause tears of joy and sorrow.> PAGE 19

World

28 killed in Mexican pipeline blastMassive explosion turns city streets into deadly rivers of fi re.> PAGE 12

Business

Reduction in fi scal defi cit planned900 billion yuan target for next year is 150 billion less than 2010.> PAGE 13

In this issueNATION.........................................................2- 4COVER STORY.................................................5COMMENT ................................................... 8-9WORLD ......................................................10-12BUSINESS .....................................13, 14, 16, 17LIFE.............................................................18-21SPORTS ....................................................22-24

ContactsNews (86-10) 6491-8366Subscription(86) 400-699-0203Advertisement(86-10) 6491-8631E-maileditor@chinadaily.com.cniPhone appchinadaily.com.cn/iphone

© 2010 China Daily All Rights Reserved Vol. 30 — No. 9560

国内统一编号:CN11-0091 国际标准编号:ISSN0253-9543 邮发代号:1-3

On chinadaily.com.cnSlides: 2010’s world gone wild: DisastersBilingual news: Rich women prefer attractive older menVideo: The post-80s generation in China Life: Travel Picks: The top 10 beach destinations

Preventing paradise lostFormer fi sherman turns ‘castaway’ to save island from disappearing into sea. Peng Yining reports from Xiamen.

PENG YINING / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui stands on the shore of Eyuyu Island, a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits. Lin has lived a solitary existence on the island for more than 20 years.

LEE JIN-MAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters shout slogans during a rally denouncing the ROK’s live-fi re drill on Yeonpyeong Island, in Seoul on Monday.

JO YONG-HAK / REUTERS

An ROK soldier checks the barbed wire fence near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, on Monday.

Japanese ambassador in NanjingThree-day trip ‘will help improve strained bilateral relations’

Drills ‘not worth response’No retaliation from DPRK, but situation still tense, experts say

InsideLive in peace, page 9

By courtesy of the Bank of China

SOE Special published fortnightly on Tuesday

P15

,117.66

AM10 30

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C H I N A D A I L Y coverstory 5T U E S D A Y, D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 0

FROM PAGE 1

Crocodile Island is roughly 100 meters by 700 meters, the equivalent of 10 soccer pitches, and its coastline of white sandy beaches can be covered on foot in less than 40 minutes.

Although 5 kilometers from the mainland, Xiamen’s bright lights and skyscrapers are clear-ly visible from Lin’s shack.

However, this leafy island paradise is slowly being destroyed by rampant soil erosion.

“When I arrived, there were only six banyans le� . I watched as the waves took the earth away every day, turning the place into a desert,” said Lin, who was recently joined on the island by his wife.

With help from an envi-ronmental NGO, he is now attempting to halt the erosion, and spends about 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a year on planting trees and cleaning up the gar-bage that washes ashore.

“I could make more money by � shing but I can’t leave my island,” he added. “People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care.”

Fujian’s coast has 1,546 islands larger than 500 square meters, including 1,444 that are uninhabited. According to official statistics, more than 100 islets have disap-peared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation.

Island retreatLin, a quiet father-of-two

with short graying hair, arrived on Crocodile Island from nearby Qiongtou village in 1987 a� er suddenly losing his mother and two brothers.

It was a retreat, he explained. “I gave up fishing and stayed there for a couple of months to get me through that tough time. Later, I decided to move in.”

In 1990, Lin left his wife and sons behind and rented the island from his village (he renewed that lease in 2000 for two more decades, paying 1,200 yuan a year).

“I thought I could live a free life and could earn a living for me and my family by farming on the island,” he said. How-ever, his � rst peanut crop was a failure due to the salinity of the soil.

It was not long before he noticed his new home was also shrinking. “I felt I was los-ing my island a� er losing my family,” he recalled.

By the second year, Lin was planting Casuarina seedlings, an evergreen tree resistant to saline, on the beaches. Of the more than 20,000 he put in the ground each year, only hundreds would survive.

“They grew in the spring but slowly died in the tropical summer heat. By October, I was le� with nothing,” he said.

To make matters worse, in 1999 the island was hit by a � erce typhoon that uprooted more than 2,000 trees. Lin said he burst into tears the next morning when he saw the aftermath, including the tons of garbage that had been washed ashore.

Despite the setbacks, he remained upbeat and his island is now covered with trees and grass.

“At least I’m slowing the ero-sion,” said Lin, who waters each plant and tree. “I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.

As well as money, he has also sacri� ced his family life.

In past two decades, Lin has only left the island to collect food and water supplies, taking his motor-powered sampan to Qiongtou village and back in a couple of hours. Whenever he returns it usually resulted in an argument with his wife.

Lin told China Daily he spent money set aside for his sons’ education to buy more seedlings for Crocodile Island.

His eldest son, Lin Dasheng, 28, said that, since the age of 8, he has been forced to live in an old, borrowed house, pay-

ing for school by selling crabs caught on the island’s beach.

“My family complains all the time. For many years, my wife was too angry to come live with me on the islet,” he said. “Other villagers said I am crazy. They call me ‘Old Monk’ for having lived alone on an island for so long.”

Wu Lina, Lin’s 56-year-old wife, finally agreed to join her husband in 2000. She now spends her days cooking and cleaning while Lin plants more trees.

“I don’t have any other choice,” she said. “It’s our home now.”

Lin family’s main income comes from the 400 chickens they keep at their island farm. � ey make about 40,000 yuan a year from the 100 or so eggs the birds produce every day.

Seeds of hope� e central government in

March this year introduced a law to regulate remote islands, stating that people who inhab-itants need to register with local authorities and apply before carrying farming, � sh-ing or planting.

Although the move is geared toward protecting the fragile environment of the country’s islands, Lin is not in support.

“� e government did noth-ing to protect my island. I don’t have to report to anyone,” he insisted.

Over the years, he has also resisted almost all offers of cooperation, including a 2.2-million-yuan o� er from a Xia-men company that proposed

developing Crocodile Island into a tourism attraction.

“They just want to make money. They don’t care the island’s future,” added Lin.

The only help he has accepted is from China Man-grove Conservation Network. � e NGO in 2008 drew up a protection plan that involved planting mangrove, a type of coastal tree, to conserve the shrinking beach line. The organization provided free seedlings and taught Lin how to plant.

“Lin accepts us because we want the same thing: to pro-tect Eyuyu Island,” explained Liu Yi, 28, director of the China Mangrove Conserva-tion Network. “He can live on the island alone, but it’s hard for him to save the island by himself.”

Without action to slow soil erosion, the island will disap-pear, warned the environment activist, whose group has planted more than 100,000 mangroves on its beaches.

“Crocodile Island is just a small piece of land, but for Lin’s family and the lifeforms that live there, it’s the whole world,” added Liu. “Our world is also an island but it’s too big for people to understand that we are losing it.”

� e islet used to be covered by mangroves, but people destroyed them for dredging and � shing, which means the sea can now directly sweep away the earth.

According to the network, 90 percent of mangroves in Xiamen have disappeared

because of reclamation, coastal real estate development and pollution.

China has already reclaimed a total of 13,380 square kilo-meters of offshore land and plans to reclaim another 5,780 square kilometers over the next decade, according to a report by the China Institute for Marine Affairs of State Oceanic Administration.

“The (target) number is almost half the total area (already reclaimed),” said Fang Qinhua, a professor at Xiamen University’s oceans policy and law center. “The total amount of reclamation has increased sharply … and some of the projects have adversely a� ected the coastal environment.”

China Mangrove Con-servation Network plans to transform Lin’s island into an environmental education site. By using the shrinking island as an example of the ongoing global ecology crisis, the group hopes more people will learn the importance of conservation.

“Everyone will be shocked when they hear that such a beautiful island is disappear-ing,” said network director Liu. “� e island will only be saved when more people participate (in protecting it), especially the (Xiamen) government.”

Lin, who keeps seven dogs to guard the island and deter � shermen from catching crabs and destroying his seedlings, said he welcomes the idea of more visitors to Crocodile Island. He has even o� ered to make a swing for tourists.

“It’s my island … I will never give up on saving it,” he said. “A� er I die, my ashes will be buried here.”

Island: ‘Crusoe’ on mission to save home from sinking

XiamenEYUYU

ISLAND

X i a m e n

Source: Google Earth XAN SABARÍS / CHINA DAILY

2 km

2meters

Amount the Crocodile Island is sinking every year

40,000yuan

Amount Lin’s family makes every year from their 400 chickens

1,200yuan

Amount Lin pays in rent for the island; his lease runs out in 2020

10,000yuan

Amount Lin spends every year on planting trees and cleaning up the garbage o� Crocodile Island’s beaches

1,546islands

Number islands larger than 500 square meters o� Fujian’s coast; a total of 1,444 are uninhabited

100islands

Number of Fujian islands that have disappeared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation

100,000mangroves

Number planted by Lin with help from the China Mangrove Conservation Network

5,780square kilometers

Amount of o� shore land China aims to reclaim over the next decade; the country has already reclaimed 13,380 sq km

I could make more money by fi shing but I can’t leave my island. People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care. I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.”LIN BEISHUIRESIDENT ON CROCODILE ISLAND

‘‘

PHOTOS BY ZHU XINGXIN / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui (right) points out the shrinking coastline of Crocodile Island, one of many islets o� the coast of Fujian province, to his son, Lin Dasheng.

Wu Lina, wife of Lin Beishui, spends her days cooking and cleaning after joining her husband on the remote Crocodile Island 10 years ago. The Lin family is the only household on the island.

Lin Beishui checks his new mangrove trees, which were planted as part of e� orts to conserve Crocodile Island’s shrinking coastline. The ex-fi sherman has been on the island since 1987.

By QIN JIZECHINA DAILY

BEIJING — � e Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said that it “was not worth reacting” to ‘‘military provocation” by the Republic of Korea (ROK), in a statement from its army command refer-ring to the hour-long live-� re

artillery drills con-ducted by the ROK on Yeonpyeong Island on Monday.

There was no retaliation from

Pyongyang to the drills though it vowed earlier that the situa-tion on the Korean Peninsula would “explode” if Seoul went ahead with the exercises, similar to those carried out last month that led to an exchange of � re between the two Koreas.

Following the ROK drills, Beijing called for calm and restraint on the peninsula, saying no one had a right to “preach or promote con� ict”.

“China has always believed that peace and stability must be maintained on the penin-

sula. � is is a goal we have been working very hard to achieve,” Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

“No one has any right to preach or promote con� ict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the people in the north and south of the peninsula,” he said .

Cui insisted that dialogue was the only way forward, adding that in recent weeks and months China has conducted intensive diplomacy with the relevant parties concerning the peninsula.

“Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by con� ict or war,” he added.

Monday’s exercise came just hours after the UN Security Council met in New York, and New Mexico Governor Bill Rich-ardson — a former US ambassa-dor to the United Nations — met with o� cials in Pyongyang in a bid to di� use tension.

CNN reported that during Richardson’s unofficial visit,

Pyongyang agreed to a series of actions, including allowing the return of UN inspectors to nuclear facilities and to con-sider a proposal on setting up a military commission and a hotline between Seoul, Pyong-yang and Washington.

In another development, Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Monday amid tension on the peninsula.

Zhang Liangui, an expert

on Korean a� airs at the Party School of the Central Commit-tee of the Communist Party of China, warned that the possi-bility of con� ict remains.

� ough the DPRK did not retaliate, as it had threatened to, the two sides were still on the verge of war, Zhang said.

“There is little chance of easing the current tension, not to mention solving their basic distrust.”

Even if there is no response from the DPRK now, it does not mean that there will not be any more attacks, he said.

“It is possible that Pyongyang is trying to avoid responding to a well-prepared ROK. It tends to choose a particular time and place to � ght back, the current calmness might be just a tactic.”

Wang Chenyan and agencies contributed to this story.

By WU JIAO, CHENG GUANGJIN AND MA LIYAOCHINA DAILY

BEIJING — Japan’s ambas-sador on Monday com-menced a three-day visit to Nanjing, the scene of mass killings by Japanese troops in December 1937.

Japanese Ambassador Uichiro Niwa arrived in Nanjing, capital of East China’s economic hub Jiangsu province, on Mon-day a� ernoon to meet Japa-nese entrepreneurs and local o� cials in a move that ana-lysts said will help improve strained ties between China and Japan.

� e three-day trip, osten-sibly to boost bilateral trade, is significant as it is Niwa’s first visit to the city where more than 300,000 civilians were slaughtered by invad-ing Japanese troops between December 1937 and January 1938.

It is also significant because relations between the two nations have been strained after Japanese authorities illegally detained the captain of a Chinese trawler and members of its crew in waters off China’s Diaoyu Islands in Septem-ber.

Upon arrival in Nanjing, Niwa said that relations between China and Japan are like a couple which can-not su� er separation.

‘‘We have no choice but to keep friendly ties,’’ said Niwa.

“And I come to Nanjing in that spirit.”

On Tuesday morning, Niwa will meet residents doing their morning exer-cises in the city’s Xuanwu Lake Park, and deliver a lecture at a foreign language school, according to a sched-ule released by the Japanese embassy.

Yet the ambassador will not visit a memorial hall dedicated to the victims of the massacre, where thou-sands of people gathered last week to mark the 73rd anni-versary of the slaughter.

� ough the trip is primar-ily business-focused, media and analysts from China and Japan said it would improve ties.

Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Monday that Niwa’s visit shows that rela-tions between the two coun-tries ‘‘are getting better’’.

According to Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asia studies with Tsinghua University, Niwa avoided visiting the memorial hall because he did not want to provoke the Japanese right-wing.

“Niwa has limited political influence. Yet by focusing on trade and the economy, Niwa is doing what he spe-cializes in, and doing his part in reviving bilateral ties,” said Liu.

� e eastern province has more than 7,000 � rms that have Japanese investment.

SEE “JAPAN” PAGE 2

For more than 20 years Lin Beishui has lived on a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits like a

modern-day Robinson Crusoe.Without any electricity or

clean drinking water on Eyuyu Island, the 56-year-old former � sherman has survived largely on the food he grows. His ‘‘best friend’’ is a battery radio

and his only protection from typhoons that hit every year is

a small brick shack.Yet, his biggest

challenge is pre-venting his home

from sinking into the sea.Official studies show that

Eyuyu — or Crocodile Island — is shrinking by about 2 meters every year.

“The island’s name comes from its appearance, but in the past 20 years the ‘crocodile’s tail’ has completely disap-peared,” said Lin, who lives 30 minutes by boat from Xiamen in Fujian province.

“Almost a third of my island has already gone,” he said.

SEE “ISLAND” PAGE 5

CHINADAILY chinadaily.com.cn RMB ¥1.5

COVER STORY

TUESDAY, December 21, 2010

Life

New fi lm brings mixed emotionsFeng Xiaogang’s latest movie will cause tears of joy and sorrow.> PAGE 19

World

28 killed in Mexican pipeline blastMassive explosion turns city streets into deadly rivers of fi re.> PAGE 12

Business

Reduction in fi scal defi cit planned900 billion yuan target for next year is 150 billion less than 2010.> PAGE 13

In this issueNATION.........................................................2- 4COVER STORY.................................................5COMMENT ................................................... 8-9WORLD ......................................................10-12BUSINESS .....................................13, 14, 16, 17LIFE.............................................................18-21SPORTS ....................................................22-24

ContactsNews (86-10) 6491-8366Subscription(86) 400-699-0203Advertisement(86-10) 6491-8631E-maileditor@chinadaily.com.cniPhone appchinadaily.com.cn/iphone

© 2010 China Daily All Rights Reserved Vol. 30 — No. 9560

国内统一编号:CN11-0091 国际标准编号:ISSN0253-9543 邮发代号:1-3

On chinadaily.com.cnSlides: 2010’s world gone wild: DisastersBilingual news: Rich women prefer attractive older menVideo: The post-80s generation in China Life: Travel Picks: The top 10 beach destinations

Preventing paradise lostFormer fi sherman turns ‘castaway’ to save island from disappearing into sea. Peng Yining reports from Xiamen.

PENG YINING / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui stands on the shore of Eyuyu Island, a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits. Lin has lived a solitary existence on the island for more than 20 years.

LEE JIN-MAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters shout slogans during a rally denouncing the ROK’s live-fi re drill on Yeonpyeong Island, in Seoul on Monday.

JO YONG-HAK / REUTERS

An ROK soldier checks the barbed wire fence near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, on Monday.

Japanese ambassador in NanjingThree-day trip ‘will help improve strained bilateral relations’

Drills ‘not worth response’No retaliation from DPRK, but situation still tense, experts say

InsideLive in peace, page 9

By courtesy of the Bank of China

SOE Special published fortnightly on Tuesday

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C H I N A D A I L Y coverstory 5T U E S D A Y, D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 0

FROM PAGE 1

Crocodile Island is roughly 100 meters by 700 meters, the equivalent of 10 soccer pitches, and its coastline of white sandy beaches can be covered on foot in less than 40 minutes.

Although 5 kilometers from the mainland, Xiamen’s bright lights and skyscrapers are clear-ly visible from Lin’s shack.

However, this leafy island paradise is slowly being destroyed by rampant soil erosion.

“When I arrived, there were only six banyans le� . I watched as the waves took the earth away every day, turning the place into a desert,” said Lin, who was recently joined on the island by his wife.

With help from an envi-ronmental NGO, he is now attempting to halt the erosion, and spends about 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a year on planting trees and cleaning up the gar-bage that washes ashore.

“I could make more money by � shing but I can’t leave my island,” he added. “People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care.”

Fujian’s coast has 1,546 islands larger than 500 square meters, including 1,444 that are uninhabited. According to official statistics, more than 100 islets have disap-peared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation.

Island retreatLin, a quiet father-of-two

with short graying hair, arrived on Crocodile Island from nearby Qiongtou village in 1987 a� er suddenly losing his mother and two brothers.

It was a retreat, he explained. “I gave up fishing and stayed there for a couple of months to get me through that tough time. Later, I decided to move in.”

In 1990, Lin left his wife and sons behind and rented the island from his village (he renewed that lease in 2000 for two more decades, paying 1,200 yuan a year).

“I thought I could live a free life and could earn a living for me and my family by farming on the island,” he said. How-ever, his � rst peanut crop was a failure due to the salinity of the soil.

It was not long before he noticed his new home was also shrinking. “I felt I was los-ing my island a� er losing my family,” he recalled.

By the second year, Lin was planting Casuarina seedlings, an evergreen tree resistant to saline, on the beaches. Of the more than 20,000 he put in the ground each year, only hundreds would survive.

“They grew in the spring but slowly died in the tropical summer heat. By October, I was le� with nothing,” he said.

To make matters worse, in 1999 the island was hit by a � erce typhoon that uprooted more than 2,000 trees. Lin said he burst into tears the next morning when he saw the aftermath, including the tons of garbage that had been washed ashore.

Despite the setbacks, he remained upbeat and his island is now covered with trees and grass.

“At least I’m slowing the ero-sion,” said Lin, who waters each plant and tree. “I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.

As well as money, he has also sacri� ced his family life.

In past two decades, Lin has only left the island to collect food and water supplies, taking his motor-powered sampan to Qiongtou village and back in a couple of hours. Whenever he returns it usually resulted in an argument with his wife.

Lin told China Daily he spent money set aside for his sons’ education to buy more seedlings for Crocodile Island.

His eldest son, Lin Dasheng, 28, said that, since the age of 8, he has been forced to live in an old, borrowed house, pay-

ing for school by selling crabs caught on the island’s beach.

“My family complains all the time. For many years, my wife was too angry to come live with me on the islet,” he said. “Other villagers said I am crazy. They call me ‘Old Monk’ for having lived alone on an island for so long.”

Wu Lina, Lin’s 56-year-old wife, finally agreed to join her husband in 2000. She now spends her days cooking and cleaning while Lin plants more trees.

“I don’t have any other choice,” she said. “It’s our home now.”

Lin family’s main income comes from the 400 chickens they keep at their island farm. � ey make about 40,000 yuan a year from the 100 or so eggs the birds produce every day.

Seeds of hope� e central government in

March this year introduced a law to regulate remote islands, stating that people who inhab-itants need to register with local authorities and apply before carrying farming, � sh-ing or planting.

Although the move is geared toward protecting the fragile environment of the country’s islands, Lin is not in support.

“� e government did noth-ing to protect my island. I don’t have to report to anyone,” he insisted.

Over the years, he has also resisted almost all offers of cooperation, including a 2.2-million-yuan o� er from a Xia-men company that proposed

developing Crocodile Island into a tourism attraction.

“They just want to make money. They don’t care the island’s future,” added Lin.

The only help he has accepted is from China Man-grove Conservation Network. � e NGO in 2008 drew up a protection plan that involved planting mangrove, a type of coastal tree, to conserve the shrinking beach line. The organization provided free seedlings and taught Lin how to plant.

“Lin accepts us because we want the same thing: to pro-tect Eyuyu Island,” explained Liu Yi, 28, director of the China Mangrove Conserva-tion Network. “He can live on the island alone, but it’s hard for him to save the island by himself.”

Without action to slow soil erosion, the island will disap-pear, warned the environment activist, whose group has planted more than 100,000 mangroves on its beaches.

“Crocodile Island is just a small piece of land, but for Lin’s family and the lifeforms that live there, it’s the whole world,” added Liu. “Our world is also an island but it’s too big for people to understand that we are losing it.”

� e islet used to be covered by mangroves, but people destroyed them for dredging and � shing, which means the sea can now directly sweep away the earth.

According to the network, 90 percent of mangroves in Xiamen have disappeared

because of reclamation, coastal real estate development and pollution.

China has already reclaimed a total of 13,380 square kilo-meters of offshore land and plans to reclaim another 5,780 square kilometers over the next decade, according to a report by the China Institute for Marine Affairs of State Oceanic Administration.

“The (target) number is almost half the total area (already reclaimed),” said Fang Qinhua, a professor at Xiamen University’s oceans policy and law center. “The total amount of reclamation has increased sharply … and some of the projects have adversely a� ected the coastal environment.”

China Mangrove Con-servation Network plans to transform Lin’s island into an environmental education site. By using the shrinking island as an example of the ongoing global ecology crisis, the group hopes more people will learn the importance of conservation.

“Everyone will be shocked when they hear that such a beautiful island is disappear-ing,” said network director Liu. “� e island will only be saved when more people participate (in protecting it), especially the (Xiamen) government.”

Lin, who keeps seven dogs to guard the island and deter � shermen from catching crabs and destroying his seedlings, said he welcomes the idea of more visitors to Crocodile Island. He has even o� ered to make a swing for tourists.

“It’s my island … I will never give up on saving it,” he said. “A� er I die, my ashes will be buried here.”

Island: ‘Crusoe’ on mission to save home from sinking

XiamenEYUYU

ISLAND

X i a m e n

Source: Google Earth XAN SABARÍS / CHINA DAILY

2 km

2meters

Amount the Crocodile Island is sinking every year

40,000yuan

Amount Lin’s family makes every year from their 400 chickens

1,200yuan

Amount Lin pays in rent for the island; his lease runs out in 2020

10,000yuan

Amount Lin spends every year on planting trees and cleaning up the garbage o� Crocodile Island’s beaches

1,546islands

Number islands larger than 500 square meters o� Fujian’s coast; a total of 1,444 are uninhabited

100islands

Number of Fujian islands that have disappeared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation

100,000mangroves

Number planted by Lin with help from the China Mangrove Conservation Network

5,780square kilometers

Amount of o� shore land China aims to reclaim over the next decade; the country has already reclaimed 13,380 sq km

I could make more money by fi shing but I can’t leave my island. People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don’t care. I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won’t give up. If I did, all my e� ort will be in vain.”LIN BEISHUIRESIDENT ON CROCODILE ISLAND

‘‘

PHOTOS BY ZHU XINGXIN / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui (right) points out the shrinking coastline of Crocodile Island, one of many islets o� the coast of Fujian province, to his son, Lin Dasheng.

Wu Lina, wife of Lin Beishui, spends her days cooking and cleaning after joining her husband on the remote Crocodile Island 10 years ago. The Lin family is the only household on the island.

Lin Beishui checks his new mangrove trees, which were planted as part of e� orts to conserve Crocodile Island’s shrinking coastline. The ex-fi sherman has been on the island since 1987.

By QIN JIZECHINA DAILY

BEIJING — � e Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said that it “was not worth reacting” to ‘‘military provocation” by the Republic of Korea (ROK), in a statement from its army command refer-ring to the hour-long live-� re

artillery drills con-ducted by the ROK on Yeonpyeong Island on Monday.

There was no retaliation from

Pyongyang to the drills though it vowed earlier that the situa-tion on the Korean Peninsula would “explode” if Seoul went ahead with the exercises, similar to those carried out last month that led to an exchange of � re between the two Koreas.

Following the ROK drills, Beijing called for calm and restraint on the peninsula, saying no one had a right to “preach or promote con� ict”.

“China has always believed that peace and stability must be maintained on the penin-

sula. � is is a goal we have been working very hard to achieve,” Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

“No one has any right to preach or promote con� ict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the people in the north and south of the peninsula,” he said .

Cui insisted that dialogue was the only way forward, adding that in recent weeks and months China has conducted intensive diplomacy with the relevant parties concerning the peninsula.

“Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by con� ict or war,” he added.

Monday’s exercise came just hours after the UN Security Council met in New York, and New Mexico Governor Bill Rich-ardson — a former US ambassa-dor to the United Nations — met with o� cials in Pyongyang in a bid to di� use tension.

CNN reported that during Richardson’s unofficial visit,

Pyongyang agreed to a series of actions, including allowing the return of UN inspectors to nuclear facilities and to con-sider a proposal on setting up a military commission and a hotline between Seoul, Pyong-yang and Washington.

In another development, Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Monday amid tension on the peninsula.

Zhang Liangui, an expert

on Korean a� airs at the Party School of the Central Commit-tee of the Communist Party of China, warned that the possi-bility of con� ict remains.

� ough the DPRK did not retaliate, as it had threatened to, the two sides were still on the verge of war, Zhang said.

“There is little chance of easing the current tension, not to mention solving their basic distrust.”

Even if there is no response from the DPRK now, it does not mean that there will not be any more attacks, he said.

“It is possible that Pyongyang is trying to avoid responding to a well-prepared ROK. It tends to choose a particular time and place to � ght back, the current calmness might be just a tactic.”

Wang Chenyan and agencies contributed to this story.

By WU JIAO, CHENG GUANGJIN AND MA LIYAOCHINA DAILY

BEIJING — Japan’s ambas-sador on Monday com-menced a three-day visit to Nanjing, the scene of mass killings by Japanese troops in December 1937.

Japanese Ambassador Uichiro Niwa arrived in Nanjing, capital of East China’s economic hub Jiangsu province, on Mon-day a� ernoon to meet Japa-nese entrepreneurs and local o� cials in a move that ana-lysts said will help improve strained ties between China and Japan.

� e three-day trip, osten-sibly to boost bilateral trade, is significant as it is Niwa’s first visit to the city where more than 300,000 civilians were slaughtered by invad-ing Japanese troops between December 1937 and January 1938.

It is also significant because relations between the two nations have been strained after Japanese authorities illegally detained the captain of a Chinese trawler and members of its crew in waters off China’s Diaoyu Islands in Septem-ber.

Upon arrival in Nanjing, Niwa said that relations between China and Japan are like a couple which can-not su� er separation.

‘‘We have no choice but to keep friendly ties,’’ said Niwa.

“And I come to Nanjing in that spirit.”

On Tuesday morning, Niwa will meet residents doing their morning exer-cises in the city’s Xuanwu Lake Park, and deliver a lecture at a foreign language school, according to a sched-ule released by the Japanese embassy.

Yet the ambassador will not visit a memorial hall dedicated to the victims of the massacre, where thou-sands of people gathered last week to mark the 73rd anni-versary of the slaughter.

� ough the trip is primar-ily business-focused, media and analysts from China and Japan said it would improve ties.

Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Monday that Niwa’s visit shows that rela-tions between the two coun-tries ‘‘are getting better’’.

According to Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asia studies with Tsinghua University, Niwa avoided visiting the memorial hall because he did not want to provoke the Japanese right-wing.

“Niwa has limited political influence. Yet by focusing on trade and the economy, Niwa is doing what he spe-cializes in, and doing his part in reviving bilateral ties,” said Liu.

� e eastern province has more than 7,000 � rms that have Japanese investment.

SEE “JAPAN” PAGE 2

For more than 20 years Lin Beishui has lived on a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits like a

modern-day Robinson Crusoe.Without any electricity or

clean drinking water on Eyuyu Island, the 56-year-old former � sherman has survived largely on the food he grows. His ‘‘best friend’’ is a battery radio

and his only protection from typhoons that hit every year is

a small brick shack.Yet, his biggest

challenge is pre-venting his home

from sinking into the sea.Official studies show that

Eyuyu — or Crocodile Island — is shrinking by about 2 meters every year.

“The island’s name comes from its appearance, but in the past 20 years the ‘crocodile’s tail’ has completely disap-peared,” said Lin, who lives 30 minutes by boat from Xiamen in Fujian province.

“Almost a third of my island has already gone,” he said.

SEE “ISLAND” PAGE 5

CHINADAILY chinadaily.com.cn RMB ¥1.5

COVER STORY

TUESDAY, December 21, 2010

Life

New fi lm brings mixed emotionsFeng Xiaogang’s latest movie will cause tears of joy and sorrow.> PAGE 19

World

28 killed in Mexican pipeline blastMassive explosion turns city streets into deadly rivers of fi re.> PAGE 12

Business

Reduction in fi scal defi cit planned900 billion yuan target for next year is 150 billion less than 2010.> PAGE 13

In this issueNATION.........................................................2- 4COVER STORY.................................................5COMMENT ................................................... 8-9WORLD ......................................................10-12BUSINESS .....................................13, 14, 16, 17LIFE.............................................................18-21SPORTS ....................................................22-24

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© 2010 China Daily All Rights Reserved Vol. 30 — No. 9560

国内统一编号:CN11-0091 国际标准编号:ISSN0253-9543 邮发代号:1-3

On chinadaily.com.cnSlides: 2010’s world gone wild: DisastersBilingual news: Rich women prefer attractive older menVideo: The post-80s generation in China Life: Travel Picks: The top 10 beach destinations

Preventing paradise lostFormer fi sherman turns ‘castaway’ to save island from disappearing into sea. Peng Yining reports from Xiamen.

PENG YINING / CHINA DAILY

Lin Beishui stands on the shore of Eyuyu Island, a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits. Lin has lived a solitary existence on the island for more than 20 years.

LEE JIN-MAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters shout slogans during a rally denouncing the ROK’s live-fi re drill on Yeonpyeong Island, in Seoul on Monday.

JO YONG-HAK / REUTERS

An ROK soldier checks the barbed wire fence near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, on Monday.

Japanese ambassador in NanjingThree-day trip ‘will help improve strained bilateral relations’

Drills ‘not worth response’No retaliation from DPRK, but situation still tense, experts say

InsideLive in peace, page 9

By courtesy of the Bank of China

SOE Special published fortnightly on Tuesday

P15

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