Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Tuesday 17th November

In this Bulletin…

- Rights commission slams China’s one child policy;
- Japan’s economic recovery continues to grow; and
- Asia gets best view of Leonid meteor shower.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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While Chinese activists and dissidents have seen US President Obama’s visit to China as an opportunity to highlight their causes the authorities have tried to make this as hard as possible.

NTDTV said that several activists were already arrested last week before Barack Obama arrived in Shanghai on Sunday.

Qi Zhiyong is one of those who was arrested. On November 9 he was charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing the social order after trying to organise a human rights seminar at a Beijing park.

Qi is being held in the Beijing suburbs. He told AFP he knows of at least 30 other activists who were detained ahead of Obama’s visit.

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The chairman of a US human rights commission has slammed China’s population control measures employed under the one-child policy, reports The Epoch Times.

Congressman Chris Smith chaired the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on China’s one-child policy in Washington last week. Smith said China’s population control policy was the worse violation of women’s rights in human history.

The way the policy is enforced is believed to contribute to the suicide rate among women in China being five times higher than the world average.

The system involves mandatory contraception, mandatory birth permits, exorbitant fines for noncompliance, physical beatings of relatives, and often forced sterilisation and abortion.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Sunday saw the release of a book investigating the Chinese regime’s alleged practice of harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience.

Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs is the culmination of years of research by the book’s authors.

Author and retired Canadian MP David Kilgour, said their investigation uncovered 52 kinds of evidence or proof that this crime against humanity was indeed taking place. He added that most people who read it are overwhelmingly convinced that it’s happening.

Kilgour and his co-author David Matas are donating all the book’s profits to the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.

The Epoch Times and NTDTV both have more on this story.

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A collision between a ferry collided and an oil barge in Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta has left at least eight people dead. Dozens more are still missing after the ferry sank.

Burmese officials said the crash happened in the Ngawun River, 134 kilometres west of Rangoon, soon after the ferry left the town of Pathein.

Most of the 176 passengers on the ferry were farmers. Rescue teams are still looking for survivors.

Many areas in the delta region are inaccessible by road and ferries are the main form of transportation. But poor safety standards mean accidents are common.

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

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Official figures show that Japan’s economy has grown for a second successive quarter.

The world’s second biggest economy grew by 1.2 per cent in the three months from July to September.

Although this was faster than economists had predicted, analysts say overall growth is likely to be sluggish for years.

The global downturn had plunged Japan into its worst recession since World War II.

Most economists say there is little chance of Japan’s economy returning to recession, given the latest figures.

Stimulus measures were credited with lifting consumer spending and capital spending rose, but analysts say growth will slow as wages stay low.

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Tuesday sees the peak of this year’s Leonid meteor shower. The most intense outburst will be visible over Asia.

The Leonid shower is made of bits of debris from the Tempel-Tuttle comet, which streaks through Earth’s inner solar system every 33 years.

Bill Cooke, of NASA’s meteoroid environment office said they were predicting as many as 200 to 300 meteors per hour over Asia. He said the forecast agreed with the work of other astronomers.

Mars happens to be passing nearby at the time of the showers. Cooke said that this means the Leonids will appear to be shooting almost directly out of the planet.

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