Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Tuesday July 22nd

In this Bulletin…

- Falun Gong denies CCP’s eradication attempts;
- Myserious bus bombing; and
- Serbian war criminal captured.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China

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It has been nine years since the Chinese regime started the persecution of Falun Gong.

They have withstood illegal detentions, rape, financial ruin, torture, illegal organ harvesting and murder. The regime has even tried to persecute those who spread the practice overseas.

The Olympic games have been used as an excuse to attack Falun Gong in China. However the Falun Gong do not oppose the Olympics at all.

Many Falun Gong practitioners see the communist regime as an ‘ anti-human force’, and something that is fundamentally evil. To substantiate their claims they need only to point out the daily brutality dished out by the regime to its people.

The Falun Gong movement shows no sign of faltering in the face of such pressure, whose adherents have denied the persecution with purely non-violent means.

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Two people have died in a clash between protesters and police on July 19 at a rubber plantation in Menglian county in Yunnan province.

The cause appears to be a dispute with a larger rubber company. Police, armed with batons and firearms attacked the 400 rubber farmers. According to reports, local farmers had, on many occasions, protested against investment plans for the rubber plantation.

During the protest police shot dead two of the protesters. Police were also injured in the clash.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Two bombing incidents occurring within the space of one hour caused two deaths and have injured 14 others.

The Chinese regime have tightened security up even further using the excuse that there is a significant terrorist threat to the Olympics.

However to date there have been no terrorists to speak of and no one who actually opposes the Olympics in a violent way. It is unclear who carried out the bombings either and there aims.

Stability is a major issue for the regime whose inability to follow its own laws, coupled with the brutality with which it treats its citizens, has found that protests are mushrooming from ordinary people whose lives are being ruined by the regimes callous actions.

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The US, Canada and the European Union have complained that the Chinese Communist regime have been using protectionist measures for their car industry, which flies in the face of WTO rulings.

Chinese officials however have argued that the country’s tariffs are aimed at preventing foreign companies importing whole cars as spare parts to avoid paying taxes.

Analysts said the row over car parts is a political issue in the US, because car-making - already hit by fierce competition and an economic slowdown - is an important American industry.

The US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said enforcing trade rules through dialogue or litigation was a critical part of the US trade agenda.

In February, the WTO made a preliminary ruling saying foreign-made car parts were in a less favourable position than Chinese-made alternatives.

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network

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China who has many border disputes with various nations has managed to settle one of them. China and the former Soviet Union fought border wars over this part of the world nearly 40 years ago - when a rift developed between the two communist nations.

But since the end of the Cold War, the two countries have re-adjusted their relationship and co-operated on many strategic issues. China needs to import energy from Russia for its economy, whereas Russia wants a share of China’s economic growth.

The communist regime have trumpeted this particular achievement as a way forward for solving its other border disputes.

However, analysts say that with energy reserves behind many of the territorial disputes, it will be many more years before China can hope to settle on its borders. Indeed the border near Russia’s Siberian oil and gas fields is a cause for concern for Russia in its weakened military state, as well as the influx of millions of illegal Chinese settlers into the region.

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One of the worlds most wanted men have been captured at last. Radovan Karadzic has been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide over the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. He has until now managed to evade capture.

The European Union, which the new government hopes to join, has put Serbia under considerable pressure to hand over indicted war criminals to the UN tribunal in The Hague.

Karadzic has been brought before Belgrade’s war crimes court, a legal procedure that indicates he will soon be extradited.

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“Asia Cast… keeping you across the top headlines from Asia and the World.”