Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Saturday 22 November

Anti-riot police beating a protester in Longnan city, Gansu Province. (Photo courtesy of Epochtimes)

In this Bulletin…

- Hong Kong business sentiment on the wane;
- China criticised for torture allegations; and
- Zimbabwe rejects humanitarian visit by Kofi Annan and others

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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A mass riot involving tens of thousands of people in Longnan city in Gansu province since Tuesday has seen Chinese communist officials resorting to night curfews and banning public gatherings.

The intense crackdown has left protesters severely injured and many more arrested, and “Missing Persons” notices are posted all around the city’s streets, according to Radio Free Asia reports.

While the Longnan city government has issued a press release saying that 74 police and reporters have been injured, there have been no official reports on injuries of protestors.

Bloggers however have been posting pictures of military police hitting protesters with batons and eyewitnesses have reported seeing at least 4 or 5 people beaten to death by police, and countless more injured.

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There has been a large scale demonstration in front of the Petitioning Office in Beijing on Wednesday, with protesters asking the State run television station, CCTV to compensate them for money they lost in a fraudulent investment scheme.

Local resident Wu Tian-li told reporters that although the office has been frequented by petitioners for the past 6 years, this is the largest demonstration by far. Protesters chanted slogans like “return my hard earned money”, and “government to take care of the people”.

In 2004, the Wan-Li Forestation company from Inner Mongolia began a comprehensive advertising campaign which induced around 30,000 investors to pour lifelong savings, and even retirement funds into a high-return scheme which was later found to be a scam.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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90 per cent of businesses in Hong Kong are pessimistic about the island’s economy future, according to a survey released by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

The Chamber drew opinions from 300 of its members between October and November in its Annual Business Prospects Survey. Results showed that many held concerns for Hong Kong’s competitiveness, with 41.6 per cent believing that it has decreased. Nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed thought that the island’s competitiveness will not increase in the next 3 to 5 years.

The Chamber believes this drop in sentiment is due to increased regulatory burdens on businesses, including the introduction of a minimum wage by the government.

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The leader of Myanmar’s military Junta, Senior General Than Shwe has urged citizens to support its controversial “seven-step” road map to democracy on the eve before the country’s national day, the AFP has reported.

The road-map, which paves way for elections in 2010 in the military run country, has been dismissed by the U.S, EU and the United Nations as a sham due to the detention of pro-democracy leader AungSan Suu Kyi and the absence of her National League for Democracy (NLD) Party. The Junta refused to let the NLD take office in 1990 despite their landslide victory.

In the past month, more than 150 activists have been handed long jail terms by the military Junta, and the NLD says the jailings have decimate its new generation of leaders.

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The Zimbabwean government has refused entrance into the country by a humanitarian group including former UN chief Kofi Annan and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, claiming that they are going to the country to boost the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), according to the state-owned newspaper, The Herald.

Jimmy Carter says he supports Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and oppose suffering and misery, in response to an unnamed government source who says the group’s visit was deemed a partisan mission by a group of people with partisan interests.

Kofi Annan says the trip was purely humanitarian, meant to highlight the country’s deepening crisis, and they only needed the government’s permission to help the poor and the desperate.

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The United Nations Committee Against Torture has said that “it Is deeply concerned about the allegations… of routine and widespread use of torture and ill treatment of suspects in police custody” in China in an report released on Friday.

The Report includes incidents like the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, detention of human rights activists and the crackdown in Tibet. In particular, the report mentioned the allegation of the removal of organs from detained Falun Gong practitioners for transplant, quoting the UN rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak who said that “an increase in organ transplant operations coincides with the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong.

Prior to the release of the report, the Committee accused the Chinese communist regime of not being forthcoming with information, saying the regime often invokes its State Secrets Act to withhold information.

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