Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Sunday 16th March

In this Bulletin…

- Iranian hardline parties ahead in election count;
- Hu Jintao re-elected as China’s President; and
- Authorities open fire on Tibetan protestors.

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According to latest election results, Iranian hardliners allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the lead in the country’s parliamentary elections, but reformists showed strength in some cities where the clerical leadership allowed them to compete.

Reformist leaders pushed for Iranians to vote Friday, hoping to prevent a sweep by Ahmadinejad allies after the country’s clerics threw many liberal candidates out of the race.

Results early Saturday from 32 contests — a fraction of the 290 seats at stake — showed the hard-liners winning 19 seats, reformists eight and moderate conservatives five, according to results compiled from local officials speaking to The Associated Press and reports from the official IRNA and semi-official Fars news agencies.

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After a near-unanimous vote in the National People’s Congress, China’s leader Hu Jintao has been elected for another five-year term as President.

The Congress also voted to re-elect Mr Hu as chairman of China’s powerful Central Military Commission.
China’s Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, is expected to be confirmed in his post for another five years on Monday.

Xi Jinping, the man widely considered to be Mr Hu’s likely successor in 2013, won election as vice-president.

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Hundreds of angry young Tibetans protested on Saturday in Dharamsala, home to Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the refugees’ “government-in-exile”, after hearing about bloodshed in Tibet.

China gave Tibetan independence protesters an ultimatum to surrender on Saturday after riots in Lhasa in the worst unrest in the region for two decades.

Not far from where the Dalai Lama was recovering from a cold and keeping up his lifetime routine of praying for peace, a crowd of young Tibetans gathered to vent their rage after hearing news from the remote, mountain capital.

While it was uncertain whether the clashes would flare again over the weekend, Beijing has already made clear it saw no reason to change its policies in Tibet, where many locals resent the presence of the Han Chinese, China’s biggest ethnic group.

China may not respond as harshly as it did to the 1989 protests in Tibet, when current Communist leader Hu Jintao was Communist Party boss of the region, but nor will it show any softness, said Drew Thompson, a China expert at The Nixon Centre in Washington.

Already the eruption of popular anger at China’s presence in Tibet has become an international issue likely to trouble Beijing’s preparations for the Olympics.

The Games should be boycotted if Beijing mishandles the protests, Hollywood actor and Tibetan activist Richard Gere said.

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And now for our original SOH news direct from China
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After two consecutive days of large-scale demonstrations, on Friday afternoon the Tibetan town of Lhasa was placed under martial law.

Armoured vehicles rolled into Star Anise Square and military police opened fire on protestors.

A source close to the Tibetan self-proclaimed government-in-exile suggested the official death toll of 10, which comes just months before the Beijing Olympics, may not tell the full story. Some reports are putting the death toll at closer to 100.

The protests against the Chinese Communist Regime are the largest human right activity since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incidence.

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The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has released urgent notice stating that the Chinese Communist Regime is using the Olympics to justify the illegal kidnapping of large number of Falun Gong practitioners.

According to sources inside China there have been 1,878 arrests of Falun Gong practitioners across 29 provinces since January.

In Beijing alone, where the Olympics are to be held, 156 arrests are known to have taken place.

Falun Gong was banned in China in 1999 and its adherents continually work to expose the human rights abuses committed against its members.

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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 Spectacular continues its four-day series of performances in Taipei and finishes its three-day series of performances in Berlin. Tomorrow, the European troupe will give one day of performances in Hamburg, Germany.

Among the audience members in Berlin were Herbert Pauditz and Hannelore Doering who said that they loved that the content was of a classical nature. They both said that this show was totally different from other shows people in Germany get to see.

Another audience member, Margaretha, appreciated how the show embodied the virtues that the Chinese people lived by in the dynastic era and her husband appreciated the modern aspects.

For more information about the Divine Performing Arts world tour, please visit: www.divineperformingarts.org