Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Sunday 31st January

- Academics say China’s governance creating poverty;
- Washington defends arms sale to Taiwan; and
- More gunfire across disputed borders in Asia.

But first we have our Shen Yun quote of the day

[audio]

For more information please visit www.shenyunperformingarts.org.

Our SOH focus on China is next

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SOH recently spoke to two academics in China who believe the corruption existing at all levels of the Communist Party is the fundamental reason so many Chinese are living in poverty.

Chinese government officials are amongst the highest spenders of public funds in the world. China’s administrative expenses surpass those of the United States, France and Japan.

In contrast, over 150 million Chinese people live in extreme poverty and earn less than one dollar per day.

Yeliang Xia from Peking University told SOH this was a reflection of the regime’s irrational social structures and wealth distribution system. Liao Cheng from Heilongjiang Province commented that there was nowhere else in the world as corrupt as China.

Listen to SOH’s Inside China Today programme for the full story.

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In recent years China has turned producing copies and counterfeit goods into big business. Now whole internet companies are being copied, or rather their branding at least.

There’s the Google copycat site called Goojje launched one day after Google first threatened to leave China earlier this month. There’s also YouTubecn.com which went up around the same time.

While Goojje only returns censored search results, Youtubecn.com provides videos from the real YouTube site. YouTube itself is owned by Google and blocked in China.

The director of the Berkeley China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley thinks Facebook, which is also banned in China, could be next on the copycats’ list.

NTDTV has more on the Goojje story.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Washington has responded to Beijing’s anger a proposed sale of US weapons to Taiwan.

The US State Department said the sale contributed to ‘security and stability’ between Taiwan and China. China’s foreign ministry had warned that the arms deal would have repercussions neither side wished to see.

Taipei, meanwhile, welcomed the deal from Washington. Taiwan’s Central News Agency quoted President Ma Ying-jeou as saying the sale would let Taiwan feel more confident and secure and so enable more interactions with China.

The US has a treaty obligation to provide it with defensive arms.

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The latest figures on Japan’s economy have revealed that consumer prices fell at a record pace in December.

Prices fell by 1.2 per cent during December. This is the biggest drop since the current consumer price index began in 1970.

Japan’s prime minister has joined with his finance minister in urging the Bank of Japan to work hand-in-hand with the government to fight deflation.

But the governor of the Bank of Japan said his current strategy was appropriate for now.

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

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Russia has issued a statement saying its border guards shot at two Japanese fishing boats which had strayed into Russian waters off the disputed South Kuril islands.

The statement said border guards in a helicopter fired warning shots on Friday and then directly at the boats when they failed to stop.

The Japanese ships then turned back to the port of Rausu. Jiji Press said it was there the fishermen discovered dozens of bullet holes in the boats.

The disputed territory is known as the South Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan.

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Tensions along the disputed border between Cambodia and Thailand have once again boiled over into an exchange of fire.

The Cambodian defence ministry said soldiers from the two countries exchanged fire for two or three minutes on Friday evening.

Cambodian troops reported a Thai soldier was killed in the skirmish. But this has not been confirmed by Thai military officials.

The border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

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