Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Sunday 15th February

In this Bulletin…

- China refuses human rights recommendations
- Canada rescues outspoken journalist from China; and
- Power sharing begins in Zimbabwe.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China.
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As large lay-offs from major companies continue in China, the director of public relations from the Motorola Corporation, Chen Lei, told reporters that they are shedding jobs in order to counter the global recession. He did not disclose the scale of the redundancies.

Companies all over China, including Sony Ericsson and many others, are shrinking their workforces and production as exports drop.

Such wide scale lay-offs will seriously affect China’s economy. The job market is also expected to come under pressure and there is a concern that the communist regime is ill-equipped to respond to these crisis in a responsible manner that safeguards the public.

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It is widely suspected that some kind of nuclear testing has recently been conducted in Hunan Province.

Residents of Hengyang City and the surrounding areas felt a massive ground tremor that shook buildings on February 11. At the same time many people also observed a strange formation in the sky on the far horizon that lasted about half an hour.

Rumours of another earth quake spread quickly, but the military then made a statement that a special division of the air force were carrying out operations in the Hengyang area.

There was much concern surrounding the exact nature of the military operations among Chinese internet users, but no further details have so far been confirmed.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Recommendations from over 60 countries regarding the state of human rights in China were recently put forward by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Beijing said it accepted all the recommendations made by Cuba, Sudan, Egypt and Jordan in the February 11 report, but rejected recommendations from 19 other countries, particularly those from Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Mexico.

The rejected recommendations included the implementation of common law regarding citizens’ rights and political rights, the abolition of the death penalty, allowing freedom of the press and peaceful demonstrations by human rights activists, as well as protection of Tibet’s human rights.

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Canadian diplomats have rescued an intrepid Chinese journalist who spent six years in jail for uncovering corrupt officials in China’s ruling communist party, The Epoch Times has revealed.

Jiang Weiping, is now safe in Canada, after a clandestine journey made possible by a special permit granted on humanitarian grounds by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney.

Jiang was a journalist and former bureau chief of a Hong Kong based daily newspaper. He told a press conference on Monday that the media “has the duty to monitor government actions in a civil society.” Adding, “Unfortunately under the current political system of China, this is a high risk job.”

Reporters Without Borders ranks China’s ruling regime as one of the world’s most repressive toward journalists.

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

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India has called an admission given by the Pakistani government “a positive step”. Pakistan admitted this week that last year’s Mumbai terror attacks were partly planned on Pakistani soil.

India also expects Pakistan to “take credible steps” to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in their country. The Mumbai attacks by ten gunmen in November 2008 killed 170 people in mostly Western populated tourist spots.

The statement comes after Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik admitted that “some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan”.

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Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, was sworn in as prime minister on Wednesday by his old enemy President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai vowed to salvage Africa’s ruined economy.

Their power-sharing deal has raised hopes among Zimbabweans of an end to widespread hardship, but bitter wrangling since they signed their agreement in September has stirred doubts over whether they can work together to bring in aid and investment.

Tsvangirai, 56, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was sworn in by Mugabe, 84, who has ruled with his ZANU-PF party since independence from Britain in 1980.

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