Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Tuesday 28th July

In this Bulletin…

- More societal chaos in China;
- Unfair deportation for Falun Gong practitioners; and
- Yahoo’s actions questionable in China

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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In yet another astonishing act of violence, a manager from the Tongua Iron and Steel Group has been beaten to death by protesting workers.

The protest of nearly 30,000 workers was held because of the sale of the state owned company to a private investor.

Chen Guojun, the newly appointed manager by the Jianlong Steel Holding Company, who had recently bought the steel mill, was dragged from a meeting by a group of protesters and beaten to death in the hallway of the building.

Local authorities dispatched several thousand military and anti-riot police to the scene.

Witnesses said that because of the large number of workers, the police were reluctant to take any action.

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The first in a series of discussions between China and the U.S. has been opened in Washington on Monday.

The Strategic and Economic Dialogue will address issues including the two countries’ response to the global financial crisis, climate change, nuclear proliferation, and the ongoing conflict with religious and other extremists.

President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo each addressed the opening session of the two-day meeting.

President Obama openly brought up human rights saying that all people should be free to speak, including ethnic and religious minorities.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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A Falun Gong practitioner in South Korea is being deported back to China where he will face at the very least, torture and persecution at the hands of the leaders of his own country.

Mr. Wu and 31 other Falun Gong practitioners have been denied refugee status by the South Korean Supreme Court.

This is seen by many to be in direct violation of Article 3 of the United Nation’s Convention against Torture.

A spokesperson of the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign ministry, Jiang Yu, has been accused of seriously undermining Korean law by blackmailing the Korean government to not allow refugee status to Falun Gong practitioners. Since his words, no Falun Gong practitioners have been given refugee status.

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India launched on Sunday its first nuclear-powered submarine capable of firing ballistic missiles, completing a nuclear triad encompassing land, air and sea, officials said.

Experts say India is modernising its armed forces and is focusing on improving its naval fleet with new ships and submarines to counter the strategic interest of China in the region.

China is India’s biggest trade partner in Asia. But India, already wary of China’s growing military might, fears its giant rival wants to strategically encircle India as Beijing continues to supply weapons to India’s neighbours, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

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Ban Ki-Moon, the U.N. Secretary general, spoke on Monday and called to the world to start taking tangible actions toward reversing global warming.

In a speech in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, Ban Ki-moon said that the world must begin to take this issue seriously and that there is no time to waist.

The U.N. Secretary-General said we must begin to invest into the ecosystems that sustain our environments and human life as a whole.

Ban sent the message to all people of world and stated that Mongolia is not the only country suffering from desertification, they are only part of one third of the world’s population that is being engulfed by it

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The Yahoo Corporation is once again under attack with allegations of handing over private data to the Chinese Communist regime.

Protesters are claiming that many innocent people in China have been arrested from Yahoos actions. The protesters demanded the company stop being an enemy of freedom of speech and instead help improve Internet freedom in China.

The Epoch Times newspaper asked questions about the allegations to Yahoos PR agency, GPG, based in Washington DC.

Yahoo! forwarded a standard letter which did not respond to the complaints, but claimed that Yahoo! has protected human rights, yet they did not elaborate what they meant, said the Epoch Times representative.

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