Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Tuesday 21st July

In this Bulletin…

- Calls to free jailed bloggers;
- Chinese spies in Germany uncovered; and
- North Korea said to be no threat to U.S.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is hoping to discuss the detention of Australian mining executive, Stern Hu, with his Chinese counterpart sometime this week.

Smith flew to Thailand for an Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting that China will be participating in.

Smith said he hoped to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the forum’s sidelines.

He has also expressed frustration at the lack of communication from the Chinese authorities and has been forced to rely on Chinese media reports only.

Despite the arrests, Australian companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton say the resources sector will continue with business as usual.

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There has been reinforced and renewed calls to release six bloggers from Southeastern Province of Fujian, as reported by Reporters without Borders.

The bloggers had reported the rape crime of Yan Xiaoling, who died of haemorrhage of the uterus after her ordeal. Officials and Police had arrested the men and charged them with defamation and high treason.

Reporters without Borders have stated that the police did not state the names of the people who have been defamed and merely arrested the men, not allowing them their own legal representation.

Reporters without Borders said that they believe that this is clearly another event of covering up a horrible crime in order to protect influential people.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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The State Department on Monday stated that North Korea represents an infinitesimal threat to the United States directly. These words by the State Department Spokesperson P.J. Crowley, were hot on the heels of other comments recently made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with ABC.

The United States says its primary concerns about North Korea’s actions are its impact on security in the region and the risk of nuclear proliferation.

After calling the direct threat to the U.S. infinitesimal, Crowley followed by calling the provocative actions destabilizing.

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Monsoon weather in Karachi city has killed 26 people and cut power to most of the city.

Torrential rain flooded low-lying parts, damaging homes, downing power lines and inundating power grid stations. Victims were either electrocuted, drowned, or had roofs collapse on them. The death toll is expected to go up.

The annual monsoon started about 15 days later than normal and will probably bring 30 per cent less rainfall than usual this year. Flash floods cause extensive damage in the region every year.

In 2007 about 250 people died from the monsoon.

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The Southeast Asian foreign ministers from the ASEAN forum began talks in Thailand on Monday, with counter-terrorism expected to be high on the agenda after last week’s suicide bombings in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta.

The ministers from ASEAN were also due to formally agree on terms for the creation of a commission on human rights.

The commission was supposed to take into account the special circumstances of the 10 member countries, including military-ruled Burma.

ASEAN has tried in the past decade to get the junta to free political prisoners including opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial on charges of breaching the conditions of her house arrest.

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Germany’s popular weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported on July 15 that the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a German Intelligence Agency, had set up a designated China Task Force to monitor the growing number of Chinese spy activities in Germany.

Many Chinese spies work as staff workers in the Chinese Embassy and are particularly active in issues related to Taiwan’s Independence, Tibetan Independence Movement, and so on.

The report uncovers Chinese employees in such companies as Siemens and Zeiss are constantly working to undermine technology secrets from the company and that these spies become very active on issues such as Falun Gong and Taiwan independence.

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