AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Sunday 1st March

In this Bulletin…

- Chinese regime tries to dodge human rights scrutiny;
- South Korea offers support to the North as it asks for talks; and
- China supplying arms to Hamas militants

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China

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China and the US have come to blows over a report damning the worsening state of human rights in China.

Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman at the Chinese foreign ministry, said the US report did not pay any attention to recent human rights successes in China, including rising living standards.

He also told the US to stop acting as a human rights guardian, stop interfering in others’ internal affairs and urged the US to reflect on its own human rights problems.

Such fiery rhetoric does little to hide the fact that the only benefit from the promised human rights improvements made prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has been to let those involved in the associated trade and finance deals maintain the façade of a clear conscience.

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China has suspended all military contracts with the US for five months in protests over a $6.5 billion US arms sale to Taiwan.

The US is supplying Taiwan with advanced weaponry such as Patriot missiles and Apache attack helicopters.

China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, said the sale interferes with internal Chinese affairs and harms its national security.

Rear Admiral Yang Yi did confirm that formal contacts would take place between top Chinese officers and US defence officials as planned. Adding that Beijing would continue to protest arms sales to Taiwan and rejected US criticisms over a lack of transparency in China’s military build up.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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South Korea’s president told the destitute North on Sunday to abandon its plans to develop weapons of mass destruction and return to talks.

North Korea has stoked regional tensions in the past weeks by preparing to test fire its longest-range missile, which is designed to carry a nuclear weapon as far as Alaska.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said “Of all the countries in the world, South Korea cares most about the lives and happiness of the North Korean people. What protects North Korea are not nuclear weapons and missiles, but cooperation with the South and the international community,”

The North’s secretive regime has said it is preparing to launch a satellite and had the right to do so as part of a peaceful space program.

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The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre, has found that some of the most damaging weaponry used by Hamas militants is being supplied by China.

An investigation into a fatal rocket attack that left a woman from Ashdod dead, revealed that the banned anti-personnel munitions were from China.

Hagai Huberman, a military correspondent for the Makor Rishon newspaper, broke the story on the Israel National News website where he said, “It was revealed that the rockets were contraband from China. The experts who liquidated the [exploded] rockets saw that it was made in China.”

An Israeli army official said the rockets contained metal pellets that can spread out across a radius of up to 100 meters from the point of impact.

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

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South East Asian leaders are hoping that they move towards a greater degree of coordination in the region to help restore their damaged export-driven economies.

The ten countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations endorsed measures to stimulate economic activity, ease access to credit, and resist trade protectionism.

They also called for reform of the international financial system to take more account of developing countries.

The regional group is also hoping to become an economic community by 2015 and form a community similar to the European Union. However, the nations stressed that the EU was an inspiration and not a model.

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India is the latest country to put pressure on Sri Lanka to allow the evacuation of thousands of civilians trapped in the nation’s northern war zone.

India’s external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has warned that the humanitarian crisis is “building up with every passing day” in Sri Lanka and called for a “pause” in the fighting between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil rebels.

Mukherjee referred to the recent rebel offer of a cease-fire as an “opportunity” for the Sri Lankan government to stave off the crisis.

Mukherjee said a civilian evacuation would require cooperation by the Tamil rebels as well.

There are reports of more than 70,000 civilians trapped in the war zone.

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