WILL CHINA REPLACE THE UNITED STATES ?

China does not want to "replace" the United States from its dominant role in the world, and the world should not fear China's rise, the country's top diplomat wrote in an essay.

State Councilor Dai Bingguo said that China would not engage in an arms race, as the country's resources were better spent on development and ensuring its people had enough to eat.

"The notion that China wants to replace the United States and dominate the world is a myth," Dai wrote in the essay carried on the Foreign Ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn) late on Monday.

"Politically, we ... respect the social systems and development path of the different peoples of the world," he added.

"Economically, we wholeheartedly want to continue to develop," Dai wrote. "Militarily, we are not engaged in an arms race."

China's growing military clout and rising defense spending have raised concern in Asia, especially in Japan and Taiwan, as well as in Washington. China says its military expenditure is purely for defensive purposes.

Dai said the world had no reason to fear China.

"The international community should welcome and not fear China's peaceful development, help it and not hinder it, support it and not hold it back," he wrote.

But the world also needed to "understand and respect China's reasonable interests and concerns."

Such issues included China's territorial integrity and foreign arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own, Dai said.

China will also be "actively involved" in global issues relating to the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Sudan's Darfur, and "a responsible participant in the international system," Dai said.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have pressed China to bring its old ally North Korea to heel following renewed tension on the Korean peninsula, though Beijing has refrained from doing so, calling instead for multilateral talks.

YAMAHA MOTORS IS STRUGGLING, WILL CUT 1000 JOBS, AXE PLANTS

Japanese motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor has announced plans to close seven factories globally with the loss of 1,000 jobs, in an effort to bounce back from a $2.7 billion annual loss.

Yamaha, the world’s second biggest motorcycle manufacturer after Honda, said it would cut 200 jobs overseas, on top of the 800 in Japan announced last week.

The streamlining is also in addition to a 10-per cent reduction in the company’s global workforce of 17,000 already underway, a Yamaha spokesman said.

The group will shut five of its 12 domestic factories by 2012, all in Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, now producing parts for motorcycles, marine products and buggies.

Overseas, Yamaha will close a motorcycling factory in Italy and a marine products plant in the US state of Florida.

‘‘The company is expanding the scope of three structural reforms - reorganizing the manufacturing layout, the workforce and reducing costs - beyond the level envisioned in the previous announcement,’’ Yamaha said.

Yamaha said it suffered a net loss of 216.1 billion for the year to December, against a year-earlier profit of 1.8 billion.

Revenue dropped 28.1 per cent to 1.15 trillion in 2009 as the economic slump dented sales of motorcycles and marine products both at home and overseas, Yamaha said.

For 2010, the company expects to break even on a net basis with solid demand in Asia projected to lift revenue by 8.4 per cent to 1.25 trillion.