Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 30th April

In this bulletin…

- North Korea threatens nuclear testing;
- World Health Organisation increases swine flu pandemic alert level; and
- Polish PM says living under communism was far worse than the credit crunch.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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A Chinese man has become the first person from China’s securities sector sentenced to death for embezzlement.

Yang Yanming’s case has taken five years to reach a verdict, but the Beijing People’s Higher Court upheld the death sentence after Yang was recently found guilty of embezzling US$8.8 million.

Yang has always remained silent when asked about the missing money or claimed that he couldn’t remember clearly. He previously admitted that some of the money had been spent on bribes, but refused to name the recipients.

The police have yet to find the stolen money and some Chinese bloggers suspect they are unwilling to dig further into this issue for fear of uncovering larger problems.

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A new extreme tightrope walking record has been set by Samit Ijon, a 25-year-old man of Uyghur descent, reports The Epoch Times.

Ijon, who also holds the record for the longest time upside down on a tightrope and the longest distance walked backwards on a tightrope, set a new record for the steepest long-distance walk when he managed 700 metres along a cable at a 40 degree angle.

The swaying cable, over 300 metres above the ground, is normally used to carry cable cars full of tourists up Tianmenshan mountain, a popular beauty spot in China’s Hunan Province.

It was his second attempt at the challenge. Last October, he slipped 50 metres from the finish. and had to hang onto the cable before being rescued.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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North Korea has said it will carry out nuclear missile tests unless it receives an apology from the the UN Security Council for condemning it’s recent rocket launch.

Pyongyang said it would be compelled to take self-defence measures “including nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests” if no apology was made.

When North Korea launched its rocket on April 5, the launch was seen by the US and others as a disguised missile test.

The UN denounced North Korea’s actions and called for tighter sanctions.

Pyongyang has insisted it put a communications satellite in orbit, and said it would ignore the sanctions, describing them as “a wanton violation of the UN charter”.

North Korea conducted its first and only nuclear test in October 2006.

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Taiwanese officials claim China has dropped objections to the island’s participation in the World Health Organization, a key United Nations body.

The move is being seen as a sign of better ties between the governments.

Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan said the World Health Organization had invited Taiwan to attend its annual assembly as an observer, with the name Chinese Taipei.

Taiwan has repeatedly attempted to join the assembly since 1997, but past attempts have been thwarted by Beijing.

The Chinese authorities regard Taiwan as a renegade province, which should be reunified with China, by force if necessary.

But relations between the two sides have warmed rapidly since the government of President Ma Ying-jeou took office in Taiwan last year.

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network
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At a meeting of the World Health Organisation’s emergency flu pandemic panel, a senior official said that there is currently no evidence that the spread of the swine flu virus is slowing.

Instead, current evidence suggested that the world was edging closer to a pandemic, said Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organisation’s assistant director general for health, security and the environment.

The emergency committee of international health experts is meeting to recommend increasing the current alert level from four to five. A level five rating signals that a pandemic is “imminent.” At phase six, the world would be in a pandemic.

Experience from dealing with the H5N1 strain of bird flu has helped with the response to this latest viral outbreak. Fukuda said pigs had been ruled out as a means of transmission.

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The global financial crisis cannot compare with what east Europeans suffered under communism, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

He made the remark during an address to some 3,500 delegates from the centre-right European People’s Party on Wednesday, says The Epoch Times.

Tusk said the continent could overcome its economic woes, provided it kept faith with the EU’s “fundamental values of freedom and solidarity.”

“Trust me, this financial crisis today did nothing compared to the experience of Poles, Czechs, Germans, Latvians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Bulgarians and Romanians in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. That was a real crisis,” Tusk said.

After years of booming growth inside the EU, the ex-communist countries have been badly hit by the flight of capital from a region still seen as relatively risky.

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And now for our Shen Yun Performing Arts quote of the day
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Mr Jostone, a chartered accountant, had been looking forward to seeing the final show in Sydney, Australia and experiencing stories from China’s 5,000-year history from the past to the present displayed through dance and song.

“It’s colourful and exciting … I’ve enjoyed it a lot. … It’s showing an awful lot of culture,” he said enthusiastically.

The state-of-the-art digital 3-D backdrop that accompanies each act lends a vibrant background to each performance and is a key element to the Shen Yun show, something Mr Jostone enjoyed.

The message that he got from the show was “that good will prevail,” adding that he thought “that’s a good message.”

SOH is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information please visit www.shenyunperformingarts.org.

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