- IV.
International
. Asia’s seemingly irrational accumulation of surplus dollars
is the inevitable consequence of its export-led development
strategy. To increase domestic employment, Asians keep their
exchange rates artificially low and sell cheap goods to the US.
. Asians today are like the Europeans
after World War II—using cheap exports to the US to power their
economic revival. The wonder of it is that this neo-Bretton Woods
system works as well as the old one did.
. Ban on US beef by many foreign countries
resulted in turning back 2200 container loads headed for the Pacific
Rim. Each container carries 42,000 pounds, or between 80
and 100 million pounds.
. Peace activists attending the annual
gathering of the World Social Forum charged that Pres. Bush’s
war on terrorism had made the world more dangerous.
. A top IT official in China said the Govt. is
seeking to attract more telecom industry companies, including
operators & equipment workers, to invest in the growing
market.
. There
are 200 million underemployed Chinese who must be integrated into
the global economy over the next 2 years. This is an entire
continent worth of people, a new labor force equivalent to the
labor force of the EU or North America.
. Eastman Kodak won permission from the Chinese
Govt. to buy 20% of Lucky Film, China’s biggest maker
of photographic film, Lucky said.
. China has overtaken Japan to become
the world’s second largest consumer of crude oil after the US,
creating concerns in Beijing about the fast-growing economic
dependence on supplies from the Middle East.
. The Chinese Govt. is planning to
implement judicial reforms that could sharply reduce its use of
the death penalty and is debating new legislation to abolish the
power of the police to send people to labor camps without trial.
. The Chinese Govt. is trying to prevent a new
SARS epidemic by ordering checks on passengers at military
stations countrywide. Those with fever are forbidden to board.
. Citigroup
and UK bank giant HSBC get Chinese regulators’ okay to issue
cards in China which faces an ‘07 WTO deadline to open
its bank sector.
. Motorola and Lucent were the top recipients
of Chinese development in the telecom arena. Several
Chinese telephone service providers, including China Unicom
and China Mobile, spent a combined $1.4 billion in telecom
equipment.
. Bank
of China
said it set aside more than 200 billion yuan, or $24.2
billion in shareholders’ equity to write off bad loans as it
prepares to sell shares to the public.
. Consumer prices in Hong Kong continued their
62-month slide in Dec. but the pace of the decline slowed,
according to Govt. figures released last month.
.
Hong Kong is the world leader in illegal downloading of
songs, software and other files off the Internet.
.
A tourism-led economic rebound helped push Hong Kong’s
unemployment rate to its lowest level in nearly a year but its
jobless still ranks among the highest in Asia.
. Taiwan’s intelligence agencies have paid its business people
in many parts of the world to gather information about China and
try to recruit Chinese people abroad as intelligence sources, said
the Financial Times.
. Motorola announced a product development
center in Taiwan that it said could generate $84 billion
worth of business for the country’s handset industry.
. Gen. Richard Meyers, Chairman of Joint
Chiefs of Staff, defended US arms sales to Taiwan to help
the island’s ability to help itself.
. China threatened to take Taiwan by
force if it formally declares independence by opposing US arms
sales to it, arguing that they embolden independence activists
there. Myers noted China’s buildup of missiles aimed at the
island and argued that that the US military aid helped ensure
“there will not be a temptation to use force.”
. Of the 7 million who adopted genetically
altered crops, about 6 million are cotton farmers in China,
putting that country of small, peasant farmers in the forefront of
technological change in agriculture.
. Bank of China said it set aside more
than 200 billion yuan, or $24.2 billion in shareholders’
equity to write off bad loans as it prepares to sell shares to the
public.
. Prime Minister Koizumi said Japan’s economy
has been exceeding Govt. forecast as banks have reduced bad loans
and rising profits give firms more to invest.
. Japanese
diplomats visiting North Korea broached the topic of
reuniting former abductees from Japan with their relatives
in NK, according to news reports.
. South Korea has replaced 2 top officials in charge of relations
with Washington, following a policy dispute between its foreign
ministry and the president’s office.
. In a study released last week, the Institute for
Intl. Economics rated the chances of the North Korean
regime collapsing at about 3%. NK receives around $1 billion a
year in foreign aid, enough for survival rations for its 22
million people.
.
After 15 months of unremitting hostility, North Korea sent
a series of signals that suggest a desire of warmer relations with
Japan.
.
Starving North Koreans have been publicly executed for
stealing food and others have died of malnutrition in labor camps,
said Amnesty International.
. Gen. Meyers’ visit to China was a first by
a chairman of Joints Chiefs since start of Bush Adm. and signaled
strengthened US relations with China which has cooperated in
US-led war on terrorism and put pressure on North Korea to
abandon its nuclear weapons program.
. An official US delegation to North Korea
saw a vibrant & thriving capital, with the main market in
Pyongyang selling clothes, vegetables, meat and electronics,
according to a former State Dept. official.
. North
Korean
officials denied US allegations it has a clandestine program to
produce highly enriched uranium for weapons, a charge that led to
current standoff
. Kim
Il Song said North Korea has no program, no equipment, no
scientists “trained in uranium enrichment.”
. Former peace talks aimed at ending a 35-year
Communist insurgency in the Philippines resumed last month,
3 years after they broke off, President GMA said.
. Of the 6 Asian countries hit by the bird flu
epidemic, none stands to lose more than Thailand, home to
one of the world’s largest poultry industries and 4th
largest exporter of chicken, with an estimated $1.3 billion in
shipments last year.
. A machete-wielding attacker killed 2
Buddhist monks in Thailand’s largely Muslim south, 2 days
after another monk was killed in the region hit by a surge in
violence.
. About half a dozen current and former Indonesian
military officers, including Gen. Wiranto, were
placed by the State Dept. on a watch list of indicted war
criminals, effectively banning them from entering the US.
. An Indonesian ad hoc tribunal refused
to investigate or try the officers, and nearly all other
lower-level officers and nearly all other lower-level Indonesian
police & army personnel charged with human rights abuses in
East Timor.
. Blasts
rocked a chemical plant in Indonesia, sparking fires that
killed 2 people and injured nearly 70, police & hospital
officials said.
. A form of avian influenza responsible for the death
of tens of thousands of chicken in Asia in recent weeks has killed
12 people in Vietnam, most of them children, said WHO.
. India’s opposition Congress Party is planning
an aggressive campaign to counter a New Delhi publicity called
“India Shining” that it says is overtly biased, in advance of
national elections in April.
. India and Russia sealed a $1.5
billion deal for a Soviet-era aircraft carrier in a package that
both countries hailed as reaffirmation of the longstanding
military and strategic relationship.
. The Govt. in India-controlled Kashmir
released 18 political prisoners in the strife-torn Himalayan
region last month and promised to free another group soon as a
peace overture.
. Pakistani authorities have detained 8
scientists & officials from the country’s main nuclear
weapons laboratory in a widening investigation into possible
transfer of nuclear technology to Iran. The probe drew fire from
family members & lawyers who claimed that the researchers’
rights were being trampled.
.
The Pakistani army launched a major offensive
against suspected terrorists in a mountainous region in
Afghanistan, an action praised by Afghan officials.
. A car blew up outside a Christian group’s
building in Karachi injuring 12, mostly police. It was the
first attack on a Christian group since 2002.
. Cross border rail service with Pakistan
resumed, another thaw in relations with India.
