Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Sunday 13th January

In this Bulletin…

- Australian Government on route to monitor Japanese whaling fleet;
- Pervez Musharraf issues warning to US; and
- India to attend summit with China.

After finding the location of Japan’s whaling fleet, Greenpeace has vowed to take whatever risks are necessary to prevent whaling.

After 10 days of searching, the Esperanza located the fleet of six ships conducting so-called scientific whaling about midnight (AEDT) and has since been pursuing the main vessel Nisshin Maru.

The Australian Government has sent their own ship, the Oceanic Viking, for the first time to carry out surveillance of the Japanese activities in an effort to bring an end to whaling through legal means.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship the Steve Irwin has also been trying to locate the Japanese fleet.

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Pakistan’s President, Pervez Musharraf, has issued a stern warning to the US, saying that a planned U.S. military mission to capture Osama bin Laden or other top al Qaeda leaders on Pakistani soil would be unwelcome and “against the sovereignty of Pakistan.”

The New York Times reported last Sunday that the Bush administration is considering expanding covert operations in the western part of Pakistan to find bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

President Musharraf told the Singapore Straits Times that his military has the experience to operate in the mountainous terrain near the Afghan border and if the United States went in they would “regret that day.”

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In an effort to improve tense strained relations, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has arrived in China for a three-day visit.

Mr Singh will meet President Hu Jintao as well as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and the Communist Party’s second highest leader, Wu Bangguo.

Their talks are expected to focus on territorial disputes and increasing bilateral trade.

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In what is seen as a test for the presidential poll on 22 March, Taiwan’s opposition nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party has won a landslide victory in parliamentary polls, beating President Chen Shui-bian’s party, the DPP.

The KMT, which wants closer ties with China, secured 72% of the seats in the 113-seat chamber,

The independence-leaning president said he was “shamed”, resigning as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party.

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And now for our original SOH news direct from China

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Following the detention of China’s human rights advocate lawyer, Hu Jia, his defending lawyer, Li Jingsong, has been closely monitored by plainclothes police officers and prevented from getting out of his house.

On 27th of December last year, Beijing Police Bureau detained Hu Jia under the criminal charge of “suspension of inciting to overthrow the government”. Afterwards, Hu Jia’s wife, Zeng Jinyan was placed under house arrest. Zeng Jinyan’s communication with the outside world was cut off completely; she was neither allowed to step outside the door nor allowed to accept any visitors.

Li Jingsong had met 56 writers, lawyers and academics who jointly petitioned and called for Beijing to fulfil its promise of improve human rights when bidding for the Olympic Games, and release Hu Jia immediately.

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According to Chengdu News, on the 11th of this month, six hundred police of Chengdu City in Sichuan Province marched into Taiping village to forcefully demolish villagers’ houses.

According to a report by Radio Free Asia, several villagers got injured when attempting to prevent their home from being demolished by the police.

Presently over three hundreds villagers have managed to prevent the police from commencing demolishing, but it is unclear how long they will be able to hold out.

According to some villagers, the police have previously used violence to force residents away from their home in order to carry out the demolition and relocation.

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And now for our daily update on the NTDTV Divine Performing Arts “New Year Spectacular” show.
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Today the Divine Performing Arts show opens in Ottawa, Canada – the first of a number of Canadian performances.

The Epoch Times caught up with a special audience member for his feedback on the show. Dr. Yang Jianli is a Chinese democratic dissident who just recently emerged from five years in one of Beijing’s prisons.
He was on Beijing’s blacklist because he participated in the Tiananmen democratic movement in 1989.

Dr. Jianli said of the show: “This is an outstanding production and performance. It’s very professional. Most of the traditional Chinese performances nowadays are simply entertaining but today’s show included a lot of content about belief, which is different. Some people might not like that, but I personally respect belief.

For show information please visit www.bestch​ineseshows​.com