Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Monday 23rd February

In this bulletin …

- Falun Gong practitioner facing labour camp without trial;
- Hopeful signs for human rights in Asian countries; and
- China’s urban population exceeds 600 million.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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Earlier this month a 61-year-old woman was arrested in the Chinese city of Tianjin for distributing fliers about the Chinese Communist Party‘s persecution of Falun Gong, as reported by NTDTV.

The Falun Gong practitioner, Zhu Lijin, was arrested and then police immediately raided her family’s home in the middle of the night.

Ms. Zhu has not been heard from since February 1st, but her family was told that she has been sentenced to 15 months of re-education through labour.

Salina Wang, Ms. Zhu’s daughter who works at NTDTV’s New York office, is very concerned about her mother’s safety and held a press conference at City Hall in New York on Friday to rally support for her mother’s release.

Like many Falun Gong practitioners, Ms. Wang’s mother was sentenced without a trial.

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The Epoch Times reports that on February 12th, several Congress members, joined by Asian leaders of human rights NGO’s, spoke out at a forum on Capitol Hill on the deteriorating human rights and freedom issues in China, Vietnam and Burma, Tibet, East Turkestan, Laos and Thailand.

They addressed how they want the United States to become more proactive in addressing the abuses.

The realization that human rights are universal and  that Asians as much as anyone else want freedom and dignity, provided the backdrop for forming the Coalition of Human Rights in Asia. This alliance is a loose forum of 16 human rights organizations which was later joined by other organizations.

Spokespersons on behalf of the Tibetans, Uyghur’s and Falun Gong each described the difficulties their respective groups have with the suppression and violence from Chinese authorities.

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According to a report by the Epoch Times, results of a 2008 nationwide survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, showed that urban population in China had exceeded 600 million near the end of 2008, but the growth rate had slowed down.

Other reports state that China’s urban and rural population had reached 606.67 million and 721.35 million respectively. In comparison with the figures in 2007, urban populations increased by 12.88 million, while the rural population had actually decreased by 6.15 million.

In 2008, people living in urban areas accounted for 45.68 per cent of China’s national population, which was 0.74 per cent higher than that of 2007. Obviously, the urban population had continued to rise, but the rate at which it had done so slowed down somewhat.

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NTDTV has reported that the International Federation of Journalists issued an open letter to the leadership of China and Hong Kong calling for an end to new rules that restrict Hong Kong and Macau journalists from reporting in mainland China.

IFJ was joined by 23 other Asia-Pacific journalist groups concerned about freedom of the press. The letter calls for an end to media restrictions and a return of freedom of the press.

At issue, are new regulations requiring journalists from Hong Kong and Macau to have a permit to do any kind of reporting in mainland China.

One reporter from the China Ocean Newspaper in Xinjiang Province says he was not allowed to report what was happening on scene at the recent CCTV building fire in Beijing.

Many websites posted news and pictures of the CCTV building fire in Beijing, but communist authorities quickly removed relevant news from the sites.

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And now for our Divine Performing Arts quote of the day
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Karenna from Greenbelt Maryland was at the Washington DC show and this is what she thought:

It was very fantastic, I like the costumes, the singing was great and the dancing was wonderful.”

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“Asia Cast … Keeping you across the top headlines from Asia and the world”