Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Wednesday 9th December

In this Bulletin…

- Smoking is killing a million a year in China;
- Tibetans-in-exile remember persecuted Buddhist nun; and
- Chinese immigrant population growing in Australia.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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Smoking-related diseases are killing about a million people a year in China and according to a study that number is likely to double in the next ten years.

Even so, it is probably not an easy task to get 300 million smokers in China, who consume about a third of the world’s cigarettes, to kick the habit.

Also, more than seven percent of the Chinese Communist regime’s yearly revenue comes from tobacco tax and profits.

Smoking can cause deadly diseases like lung cancer, emphysema, heart attacks and strokes.

See more on this at NTDTV.

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The Epoch Times reports that the spread of H1N1 flu virus in China has gotten out of control, with incorrect and chaotic tracking and management of known cases.

Investigations have found that the Chinese regime has ordered hospitals in Central China’s Hebei Province not to perform the lab work for H1N1 or to tell patients whether they have H1N1.

An SOH reporter who interviewed doctors and residents of Shijiazhuang was told the Shijiazhuang Centre for Disease Control (CDC) expressed that there are too many cases of the new flu virus and too many to diagnose so they are treating all cases of the flu as the common flu.

Read more on H1N1 in China at The Epoch Times.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Activist Dr. Gao Yoajie exposes the plight of AIDS sufferers in China in her newly released book titled “Blood Disaster: 10,000 Letters,” a compilation of thousands of letters she received from those whose lives have been affected by AIDS.

Dr. Gao has travelled around China to help victims of AIDS since the 1990s when HIV was spreading rapidly in Henan province where blood was being sold from unsanitary collection centres.

Dr. Gao refutes the Chinese regime’s claim that AIDS is mostly spread in China through sexual activities or drugs, saying her own investigations show 90 percent of transmissions are from blood transfusions.

View more on this at NTDTV.

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Tibetans living in exile held a candlelight vigil in Dharamsala for 33-year-old Tibetan nun Yankyi Dolma who died on Sunday in a hospital in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province.

Dolma and another fellow nun were arrested on March 24 after they staged a peaceful protest at the Kardze market square against Chinese authorities.

Both nuns were beaten up severely by security and later arrested.

Exile rights groups fear that Dolma succumbed to her injuries sustained through beatings and torture while in prison. Her body has yet to be returned to family.

Nothing is known about the fate of the other nun.

View more on this at NTDTV.

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

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A Chinese woman entered Japan illegally by having plastic surgery on her fingerprints, switching the left and right hand fingerprints, thus fooling immigration controls, say Japanese police.

The woman, who had previously been deported from Japan for overstaying her visa, had paid 15 thousand US dollars to have the surgery in China.

It is Japan’s first case of alleged biometric fraud, but police believe the practice may be widespread.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

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New Zealand’s latest government figures reveal that China has overtaken the UK and New Zealand as Australia’s biggest source of immigrants.

The latest figures show a record 6,350 people arrived from China in the four month period of June to October of 2009.

China’s new ascension was largely due to a fall in migration from the UK and New Zealand, as people there are opting to hold on to jobs instead of moving to Australia.

Arrivals from the UK were down 28 percent and from New Zealand arrivals were down 47 percent.

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