Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 14th May

In this bulletin…

- No justice for Chinese attorney trying to uncover corrupt superiors;
- Elections in World’s biggest democracy close; and
- Pentagon officials on espionage charges for passing sensitive information to China.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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The Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on China’s northeastern coast, is seriously polluted reveals a new report.

Unregulated industrial development along the coastline has put enormous pressure on the Bohai’s weak marine ecosystem.

Being a semi-locked inland sea it takes a long time for its waters to be refreshed and its proximity to Beijing makes it one of the busiest seaways in the world.

The report from China’s National Oceanic Bureau stated that marine pollution disasters occur regularly, the marine environment near industrial waste outlets has been profoundly affected and that there is an ever widening gap between growing industrial development and appropriate environmental protection, according to CNA.

Although monitoring is set to increase, decisive action needs to be taken before the whole ecosystem collapses.

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NTDTV has spoken to relatives of a former Hebei Province Attorney General who was fired, arrested, detained and then harassed for years to prevent her from exposing corruption among her superiors.

Zhang Xiaoli was the Deputy Attorney General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and had been an award winning prosecutor for 27 years.

But in 2005 she was suddenly arrested, charged with slander and spent eight months in custody after co-authoring a damning report on higher officials within the Procuratorate.

Witnesses were arrested during her detention and torture was used to force confessions.

Zhang has pursued a lawsuit demanding a special investigation for the last three years, but the 20,000-page document mysteriously disappeared.
It is “a problem of whether the country has a rule of law”, said one of her relatives.

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed the first nuclear energy co-operation agreement reached between Japan and Russia during a visit to Tokyo.

The deal will enable the transfer of Japanese technology to Russia and the sale of more nuclear fuel to Japan.

Mr Putin and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, also pledged to study “all options” to end a territorial dispute.

Both claim sovereignty over islands Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia calls the Southern Kurils.

The four islands have been under Russian control since the end of World War II, and the issue has since prevented the two nations from signing a comprehensive peace treaty.

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Following a meeting with the president of Pakistan earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed that there is a need for additional humanitarian aid.

“The United Nations is ready and will always stand by to provide the necessary assistance, humanitarian assistance,” Ban told reporters following the session with President Asif Zardari.

“I have asked him to facilitate smooth delivery of humanitarian assistance and protection of humanitarian workers, and there are about 1 million displaced persons in that region.”

Pakistan’s military is in the midst of an offensive against the Taliban along its western border with Afghanistan, particularly in the Swat Valley, causing a flood of civilians from the region.

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India’s marathon elections, involving a 714-million strong electorate, finally came to an end on May 13. But when the results are announced on May 16, it is expected to be a free-for-all with no clear winner and a loosely put-together coalition, according to The Epoch Times‘ analysis.

The nationwide elections are the first since 2004 elections when the Congress and its allies swept to a surprise victory over the then-ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

Neither of the national parties, the Congress and the BJP, have a clear and strong leader, and central and consistent themes have been scarce during this election.

The elections have instead been dominated by regional issues, and it is expected that the regional parties will carry more clout in whichever coalition is formed.

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A Pentagon official has been charged with leaking classified information to Tai Shen Kuo, a business client who was working for the Chinese communist regime, said the US Justice Department.

James Wilbur Fondren Jr, 62, is accused of “conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government” from November 2004 until February 2008, department officials said in a written statement.

“The allegations in this case are troubling — providing classified information to a foreign agent of the People’s Republic of China is a real and serious threat to our national security,” said Dana Boente, acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Another Pentagon official has been charged with conspiracy to disclose defense information for providing government documents to Kuo.

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Shen Yun Performing Arts’ much-lauded display of traditional Chinese culture was on show at Orange County Performing Arts Centre in Costa Mesa, California on May 12.

Ms. McLucas, an educator in Orange County and a member of an educational opportunity organization, was overjoyed after the show, here’s a little of what she had to say

“I wanted to tell you a little of what I thought about the program tonight. The program was magnificent!” said Ms. McLucas.

“I’m a person that is really sensitive to colour, and I just wanted to share with you what colour did for me tonight. The backdrops, the costumes, fed my soul, because the color was so beautiful”, she added.

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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