NEW YORK -- Japan has been in an uproar since five of its citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents more than 20 years ago were allowed to return home Oct. 15. But an even more ominous event for the country, though not prominently reported by the mass media, occurred last month: the "kidnapping" of Keio University and Japan by China, robbing the two of their independence.
It has been a two-stage process: China first "kidnapped" Keio and then Japan -- the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to be more exact.
According to a Japanese daily newspaper, in early October the Keio University student club Keizai Shinjin Kai announced plans to invite former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, a highly respected figure in Japan, to give a lecture at the Mita Festival, an annual event on campus.