Studies / Reports: February 2007 Archives
By Abrahm Lustgarten | FORTUNE Magazine | via (uncensored) yahoo!news
February 21, 2007
When China opened its controversial new railway to Tibet last July, international critics howled at the prospect that the region's culture and environment would be ravaged in search of resources. China repeated a solemn refrain, its officials insisting that the $4 billion project was aimed not at plundering the disputed territory but at bringing prosperity and economic development to Tibetan society.
So much for that. Now China's Ministry of Land and Resources is disclosing monumental new resource discoveries all across Tibet, and it turns out the findings are the culmination of a secret seven-year, $44 million survey project which preceded the railway construction in the first place.
In 1999 more than 1000 researchers divided into 24 separate regiments and fanned out across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, geologically mapping an area the size of California, Texas and Montana for the first time ever. Their findings: 16 major new deposits of copper, iron, lead, zinc and other minerals worth an estimated $128 billion, according to articles published last week on the website of the China Tibet Information Center, a government-run portal.
"Lack of resources has been a bottleneck for the economy," Meng Xianlai, director of the China Geological Survey, said in the statements. The discoveries in Tibet are prompting China to re-evaluate its potential domestic resources, and "will alleviate the mounting resources pressure China is facing."
Statement by New Tang Dynasty Television On Interference by Chinese Authorities
January 26, 2007
Chinese diplomatic officials and state organs have recently circulated messages defaming New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) and the Chinese New Year Spectacular we produce. In a systematic campaign of slander, intimidation and interference, these Chinese officials and diplomatic missions have pressured event sponsors and advertisers, performers and venue operators, foreign host governments and V.I.P.s, and anyone they believe to be supporting or related to the event. Chinese officials accredited to foreign countries, including the United States, continue to interfere blatantly with the business of a U.S.-based and chartered corporation, and with the promotion of this annual Chinese New Year celebration. In response, NTDTV has issued the following statement:
1. NTDTV is an independent television broadcaster that was established by overseas Chinese in 2001. Since its inception, NTDTV has striven to provide professionally-produced news, high-quality entertainment and cultural events to Chinese communities worldwide. NTDTV’s leadership role in independent Chinese-language media has been widely recognized and strongly supported by viewers, Chinese communities, international press freedom groups, ethnic media associations, non-governmental and community groups, the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, and countless civic and political leaders across the U.S., Canada and many other countries.
2. As a news organization, NTDTV has a responsibility to report on issues affecting the welfare and interests of Chinese people everywhere. We do our best to serve our growing audience in Chinese communities around the world. We report on newsworthy events and we foster open debate on many issues. We take this responsibility seriously, especially given the Chinese authorities’ relentless repression of free media at home and their increasing efforts to limit the free flow of information internationally. NTDTV has repeatedly been required to defend our rights to conduct normal reporting and business operations in the U.S. and elsewhere -- while Beijing instructs its officials to suppress the same rights among ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese abroad which these officials learned to suppress at home.
3. As a producer and organizer of cultural events, NTDTV, and all those who participate in these events, work tirelessly to present authentic Chinese culture, including valued traditions, legends and beliefs, to Chinese and Western audiences alike. With support from our audiences and sponsors, NTDTV’s Chinese New Year Spectacular has become the largest cultural performance celebrating the Chinese New Year around the world.
In the 2007 Chinese New Year Spectacular, the dance “Rightful Place” depicts the story of a young female Falun Gong practitioner who is persecuted for her beliefs. The dance exemplifies traditional Chinese values, including the historically respected characteristics of unbending loyalty and faithfulness, and the belief that “good deeds are rewarded and evil deeds have consequences.” NTDTV stands by this piece for its relevant content and level of artistry. This subject matter is greatly disliked by the Chinese authorities; it is part of the performance because it is very much part of contemporary Chinese reality.
4. NTDTV regrets that even in major democratic countries including the United States, Chinese officials abuse their diplomatic position to interfere with free press, free association and free commerce. These same officials and most Chinese companies heavily rely on the rule of law, information transparency, private contract and market access of the democratic world. NTDTV also regrets that the name of the Chinese nation and people has once again been tarnished by officials who export such anti-democratic practices, rather than follow the highest Chinese traditions of openness and tolerance.
By DONALD G. McNEIL, Jr. | The New York Times
20 February 2007
Asia is seeing an “epidemic of counterfeits” of life-saving drugs, experts say, and the problem is spreading. Malaria medicines have been particularly hard hit; in a recent sampling in Southeast Asia, 53 percent of the antimalarials bought were fakes.
Bogus antibiotics, tuberculosis drugs, AIDS drugs and even meningitis vaccines have also been found.
Estimates of the deaths caused by fakes run from tens of thousands a year to 200,000 or more. The World Health Organization has estimated that a fifth of the one million annual deaths from malaria would be prevented if all medicines for it were genuine and taken properly.
“The impact on people’s lives behind these figures is devastating,” said Dr. Howard A. Zucker, the organization’s chief of health technology and pharmaceuticals.
Internationally, a prime target of counterfeiters now is artemisinin, the newest miracle cure for malaria, said Dr. Paul N. Newton of Oxford University’s Center for Tropical Medicine in Vientiane, Laos.
His team, which found that more than half the malaria drugs it bought in Southeast Asia were counterfeit, discovered 12 fakes being sold as artesunate pills made by Guilin Pharma of China.
A charity working in Myanmar bought 100,000 tablets and discovered that all were worthless.
“They’re not being produced in somebody’s kitchen,” Dr. Newton said. “They’re produced on an industrial scale.”
China is the source of most of the world’s fake drugs, experts say. In December, according to Xinhua, the state news agency, the former chief of China’s Food and Drug Administration and two of his top deputies were arrested on charges of taking bribes to approve drugs.
By RADIO FREE ASIA
February 17, 2007
HONG KONG—While millions across China have braved packed trains, planes, and buses to welcome the lunar Year of the Pig with extended family, relatives of those who fell foul of the ruling Communist Party will have little to celebrate.
Many of China’s political prisoners are serving jail terms because they criticized the government, shared sensitive information with others, or stood up for the victims of official abuse. Their families are rewarded with suffering at China’s most festive time of year.
The wife of Guangdong civil rights lawyer Guo Feixiong, still being investigated for “illegal business activities” after he handled high-profile civil rights cases involving allegations of official corruption in the sale of farmland, said she had been unable to find a job since losing the family’s main breadwinner.
“Last year I lost my job when my husband was detained. I have been looking, but I haven’t succeeded in getting another job yet,” Guo’s wife Zhang Qing said.
“When people find out the reason why I’m looking for a job, the problems my husband is having, and they see three police officers on my tail, they don’t dare to hire me,” she told RFA’s Mandarin service.
Families struggle
“I am usually a very open-minded person, but this is a very hard time for me. But I maintain an optimistic attitude, because that’s the only way to keep the bad feelings at bay,” Zhang said.
The family of family planning activist Chen Guangcheng, currently serving a four-year jail term for exposing abuses of the family planning system in the eastern province of Shandong, said they could ill afford the absence of Chen, whose mother fell and broke a bone after his imprisonment in October, and was bed-bound for more than a month.
Chen's mother, who is in her seventies, said she was unable to feel happy during the festivities because she worried about her son constantly, to the point of not being able to sleep at night.
“I am very sad...I worry about him all day and all night. I can’t sleep at night,” she said, adding that the additional burden of looking after her had fallen to her daughter-in-law, Yuan Weijing, who already has two children.
“My husband should really qualify to serve his sentence under house arrest, because he is blind, and is unable to live without assistance. We have already submitted an application to the authorities but so far we’ve heard nothing,” Yuan said.
“This Spring Festival we will silently wish him well, hoping that he will find some small cheer, and perhaps get something a bit nicer to eat in prison,” she said.
Agence France Presse | via (uncensored) yahoo!news
by P. Parameswaran
February 16, 2007
Waving fake DVDs and pirated books, officials from Hollywood and the American publishing industry have complained to US lawmakers that the rampant counterfeiting problem in China was wreaking havoc to their businesses.
At a Congressional hearing on Beijing's enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights, the US pharmaceutical industry also highlighted losses -- at a "conservative" estimate of 3.4 billion dollars annually -- from the manufacture and sale of fake medicine in China.
"China is the most difficult market in the world for the US motion picture industry," Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, lamented at the hearing in the House of Representatives.
"More than nine of every 10 DVDs in the China market is fake," he said. "Regrettably, to coin a phrase, if you did not see a counterfeit DVD, you were not in China."
The world's film industry lost 2.7 billion dollars in China in 2005, according to research commissioned by the association, whose members themselves took a blow of 244 million dollars that year, said Glickman, a former US cabinet minister.
But he pointed out that even though one could see -- in pirated form -- any US film in China, the legitimate market was one of the world's most restricted.
"The pirates have a thriving market but our companies -- who invest millions and employ hundreds of thousands American workers -- are throttled," he said, citing statistics.
Last year, US firms earned 109 million dollars in box office in China but, in comparison, over the last weekend, the Chinese domestic box office was worth 108 million dollars, Glickman said.
The US motion picture industry, he said, poured millions of dollars in fighting piracy in China but the effort would be worthless unless it "has fair access to a fair China market.
By BBC News
February 15, 2007
China's recent missile test has raised fears about the country's growing military capabilities
The US and other nations all voiced their concerns about an arms race in space. There were also complaints from neighbours like Japan and Taiwan who worry about China's military power.
So why the fuss?
After all, the technology that China used to blast the ageing weather satellite out of the sky was not new: the US and the former Soviet Union had it 20 years ago.
And Beijing says that it only has peaceful intentions in space.
'Wake-up call'
But the test clearly demonstrates that China can compete in space - even though it is still a long way behind the US.
And that is enough to get Washington worried.
Senior Republican Senator Jon Kyl has called the test a "wake-up call" that underlined the vulnerability of US security and communications satellites in space.
China has already had two successful manned space missions and is planning a third, with long-term plans to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon.
But its military space programme is top secret, with only a few senior government and army officials in the loop. That partly explains the long silence in Beijing after the January test - not everyone knew what was going on.
Military build-up
Regardless of who knew what and when, the test has once again underlined the growing power of China's armed forces.
China wants a powerful military to match its powerful economy.
Beijing may be a nuclear power with the world's largest army, but much of its military hardware is outdated. So it has been spending vast amounts of money to modernise its military.
Last year, China claimed to have spent $36bn (£18bn) on its armed forces. But the US and other observers believe that the actual figure may be two to three times that amount.
Beijing has defended this increase saying that its military spending is still only a fraction of the US defence budget.
China's bill comes to about 1.5% of its gross domestic product in 2006 - compared with US spending which is more than 6% of GDP.
'Lagging behind'
On top of that, China's military still lags well behind the US armed forces.
For example, the country's naval capability is still extremely limited, making it unable to project its power beyond coastal regions.
It still does not have an aircraft carrier, although one is now thought to be in development.
But that has not stopped the US and neighbours like Japan, India and Taiwan worrying about China's growing military strength.
Taiwan recently claimed that China now has 900 missiles pointing at the island.
Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and has threatened to use force if the island declares formal independence.
By Michael Wines | The New York Times
February 10, 2007
JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 9 — China is often depicted as a juggernaut of sorts, its untroubled and unfettered rise into the ranks of global powers a fact that lesser nations can only watch with awe and trepidation. On Friday, President Hu Jintao of China completed a 12-day tour of Africa that suggested the reality was more nuanced.
More than that, the visit tested a basic tenet of China’s economic relations: that business is business, and what a partner nation’s people think about it is not China’s — or the world’s — preoccupation.
Mr. Hu swept through eight nations, among them some of China’s closest African allies, largest trading partners and most prominent objects of Chinese investment. He left behind a multibillion-dollar trail of forgiven debts, cheap new loans and pledges of schools and cultural centers, tokens of affection for a continent of strategic economic importance to Beijing’s future.
Yet in Zambia, Mr. Hu was greeted with public disdain, and forced to cancel one appearance, even as he showered more than $800 million in gifts and investments on the nation, one of the world’s poorest. In Namibia, a decades-old ally, a newspaper and human rights activists assailed China’s foreign policy as selfish and lacking morality.
In South Africa, a generally warm visit was clouded by President Thabo Mbeki’s recent warning that Africa risked becoming an economic colony of China, and by Johannesburg’s major newspaper, which devoted a full page this week to a scalding critique of China’s record on human rights and labor rights.
Mr. Hu’s stop in Sudan, where China has extensive oil interests, reignited criticism that Beijing has helped shield its ally and oil supplier from global outrage over attacks on civilians in Darfur.
By Randall Palmer | REUTERS | via (uncensored) yahoo.com
31 January 2007
Canada and other countries should discourage or prevent their citizens from going to China to get human organs whose "donors" may have been killed so that the organs could be harvested, a team of human rights lawyers said on Wednesday.
Former Canadian cabinet member David Kilgour decried "organ tourism," whereby rich foreigners go and pay for a transplant which, Kilgour said, may have cost a Chinese citizen his life.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa had no immediate comment.
Kilgour and lawyer David Matas presented a report they say leads to the inescapable conclusion that Falun Gong dissidents and other prisoners in China are killed for their organs.
"Once a customer arrives into China, somebody's killed for the organ, whether it's a prisoner sentenced to death or a Falun Gong practitioner, and they just have this huge supply of people in jail waiting to be killed for organ donations," Matas told reporters.
He said that was one reason China was seeing an explosion in dedicated organ transplant facilities. The number of liver transplant facilities, for example, multiplied to 500 last year from 22 before 1999.
Matas estimated that at least 100 Canadians have gone to China for transplants although many might not know about the allegations that people are killed for their organs. He suggested Canada and other countries should issue travel advisories warning that transplants are sourced almost entirely from prisoners who do not give their consent.
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