Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for the week ending Thursday July 15th

In this bulletin:

- Google remains in China,
- Floods devastate China’s south,
- Bribery scandal inside Taiwan’s High Court, and
- Fiji expels another Australian diplomat.

But first our SOH focus on China.

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ET-It looks like Internet giant Google will remain in China. State-run media confirmed July 11 the Chinese authorities had approved the renewal of Google’s operating license.

In March, Google began to automatically transfer Chinese users to a website in Hong Kong to avoid Chinese Internet censorship. This policy was changed after Beijing threatened to withdraw Google’s license. In late June a link to the Hong Kong site was installed on Google’s Chinese homepage instead.

The regime’s approval for Google to continue its business in China is a sign of compromise.

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ET/RFA-China’s renowned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has gone missing for a second time for nearly three months. At the end of March, after having disappeared for more than a year, he was allowed to communicate with the outside world.

Gao vanished again when he went to visit his father-in-law in Xinjiang. His family said Gao had been missing for nearly three months now and no one knew where he was.

Many suspect wrongdoing by the Chinese regime.

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NTDTV-More than 29 million people across nine provinces have been affected by flooding, landslides, and mudslides following days of torrential rain in southern China.

Thousands of homes have collapsed and many of the region’s crops have spoilt, with damage estimates over $1 billion US dollars and rising.

The latest deluge comes just weeks after heavy rains last month killed 400 people. With more rain forecast the problem could get worse.

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ICT-A group of kind-hearted Beijing lawyers have established an association to help the many disadvantaged groups facing unfair legal treatment in China’s current legal system

The Human Rights Legal Association was founded on July 1 and and will provide legal services and free consultations.

The association said it wanted to speak up for the disadvantaged so that they wouldn’t give up hope on the legal system.

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SOH takes a look across the wider Asia-Pacific region.

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A corruption scandal has rocked Taiwan’s judicial system, landing three top judges and a prosecutor behind bars. They’re charged with taking bribes from a former legislator to clear his sentence.

That legislator, Ho Chi-hui is believed to have bribed the four men with nearly $250 thousand US dollars to get them to overturn his 19-year corruption sentence.

The case marks the first-ever investigation into Taiwan’s High Court.

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Australia has strongly condemned the expulsion of its top diplomat from Fiji. Australia’s acting high commissioner to Fiji was given 24 hours to leave the country Tuesday.

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the expulsion was ‘uncalled for and of grave concern’.

The two sides expelled each other’s most senior envoys late last year in a dispute that has been ongoing since Fiji’s military regime came to power in a 2006 coup.

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Coming up on Asia Cast:

- East Timor-Australia refugee centre debate continues,
- Japan’s PM loses control of upper house, and
- Green transport’s bright Taiwanese future.

But first

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

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Back with the rest of today’s Asia Cast I’m Rich Crankshaw

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East Timor has rejected a proposal by Australia for it to become a regional refugee processing centre for Australian-bound asylum seekers.

Although only 34 of East Timor’s 65 MPs were present, they voted unanimously against the Australian proposal.

Australia’s Foreign Minister is on his way to Jakarta to further discuss the proposal, which also currently has the backing of News Zealand’s prime minister.

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ET/NTDTV-Japan’s government under Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s suffered a deep blow in an upper house election Sunday July 11, after losing its combined majority.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan fell far short of the required number of seats and lost control of the upper house to their rival the Liberal Democratic Party.

But the prime minister’s party remains in power because it still controls the more powerful lower House of Representatives.

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The Taiwan Railway Administration opened its first solar-powered station this week.

With five hours of sufficient sunlight a day, the station at a science park in southern Taiwan can generate enough power to run itself during the daytime.

The station’s design makes good use of natural light to cut down on electricity usage and also incorporates a rain harvesting system.

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On a lighter note.

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ET -Multiple UFO sightings have recently been reported across different regions in China.

A variety of different shaped objects as well as unusual beams of light were observed between June 30 and July 10.

Sightings were reported from the northwestern province of Xinjiang across to Fujian Province in the south. One UFO caused the Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport to close for an hour.

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A guest at a hotel in Pakistan had a nice surprise after leaving over $50,000 US dollars in cash behind in his room. It’s been returned to him after a hotel employee handed it in.

A cleaner found the money left in the room of a Japanese worker. He said times were hard for everyone, but that didn’t mean people should take things which do not belong to them.

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