. Asian
economic growth likely will continue at a strong
pace in 2005 and 2006, but high oil prices pose a risk
to the region, said the IMF.
.
Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney are at risk of an al
Quaeda strike targeting a major financial center in
Asia, a leading Frenchman terrorism investigator has
warned.
.
“The situation in
China is like a volcano… more and more people are
dissatisfied with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)
power. Every year, there are more than 60,000 acts of
civil disobedience and some are very big. There will
be more riots in China.” (Chen Yonglin walked off
his job in Sydney, Australia 3 months ago and made a
public request for asylum)
.
Chen repeatedly characterized the Chinese government
as evil and described a vast network of secret
Chinese spies who had infiltrated the US and Australia
to steal top secret military and technological secrets.
.
He described the PRC as a cesspool of government
corruption with a seething underclass citizens ready
to explode in anger & resentment. He said the poor are
simply powerless, and even the wealthy are furious at a
government that can seize their properties & possessions
with virtually no due process.
.
He said the CCP has
successfully stolen untold amounts of US ingenuity,
especially related to nuclear, electronic and aviation
technology. He described the CCP’s deference to US as
part of a larger strategy to undermine US power.
.
There is a growing
number of flare-ups in many Chinese cities directed
against the flourishing alliance of Communist Party
officials and well-connected businessmen, an
intimate connection between big money and the Communist
government.
.
In the eyes of the people, the party that assumed power
in China 56 years ago as a champion of peasants and
workers seems to have switched sides, backing Capitalist
businessmen instead of the poor as part of a new
get-rich ethic in which bribery plays a big role.
.
Chinese leaders regularly call for stability as a
condition for further economic progress. The stakes are
high. If the violent outbursts get out of control, they
would undermine China’s boom and ultimately, the party’s
grip on power.
.
Chinese authorities have
arrested prominent intellectuals in recent weeks.
They have tightened restrictions on Web sites and
praised the killing of foreign journalists and
anti-government protesters in nearby Uzbekistan
which was labeled a massacre by Human Rights Watch.
. China is
reviewing proposals to sell part of Guangdong
Development Bank and may allow foreigners to take
combined share of up to 50%.
.
Chinese authorities are
investigating a company connected to News Corp
over its leasing of satellite-TV channels in China.
.
China is constructing its first offshore wind power
complex, according to official reports. The power
generator is expected to ease the country’s chronic
electricity shortages and wean the country of
coal-burning thermal power.
. A man
detonated a bomb on a bus in the Chinese city of
Fuchow, killing himself and injuring 31 others.
. Hong Kong’s
economy grew 6.8% in Q2, compared with a revised 6.2%
increase in Q1, official figures show.
.
TSMC secured a Taiwan
site for a $7.5 billion silicon-water project, part of
its aim to keep its most advanced technology at home.
.
While foreign students
account for 1.5% of Singapore’s population of
4.25 million, bureaucrats have figured that by
attracting just over double that, a greater number will
stay on and make the city-state their permanent home.
.
The Japanese
government established a special measures law to
compensate victims of asbestos-related diseases,
including workers, family members and residents, sources
said. It admitted knowledge of the use of carcinogenic
substance in 1972.
.
A magnitude of 7-class
earthquake that struck Tokyo last month could leave an
estimated 6.5 million commuters stranded in a wrecked
metropolis. Tokyo signed contracts with companies to
offer free water and use of restrooms to people walking
home after an earthquake hits.
.
To dispel misunderstandings among Japan’s Asian
neighbors, the Foreign Ministry released via the
Internet Chinese and Korean translation of eight
Japanese textbooks to be used at junior high schools
from next spring.
. South Korea
has no problems with North Korea’s engaging in civilian
nuclear activities if and when it gives up its weapons
program, returns to the Non-Proliferation Treaty
and observes the International Atomic Energy Agency
standards.
.
Despite high oil prices,
the Philippine government said the economy
would likely grow at a faster pace in the second half of
the year, from 5.9% to 6%.
.
Pres. GMA called on national leaders to act decisively
on an issue of economic survival, and acknowledged that
the economy would continue to suffer as long as the
political turmoil was not resolved.
. State-owned
National Power Corp (Napocor) has sold $100
million more in 6-year floating rates notes, completing
its foreign borrowing requirement for the year, said the
company president.
.
Financial markets and international credit rating
agencies are keeping as close watch on the fate of the
new VAT law, the centerpiece of GMA’s fiscal reform
program. The Supreme Court is expected soon to issue its
decision on the constitutionality of the law.
. Indonesia
grew 5.6% in Q2 vs. a year ago, below forecasts of 6.2%,
as fuel costs and rising rates hit consumption spending,
Bloomberg reported.
. Argument
between government and Islamic separatists would end
decades of fighting. Rebels will drop demands for
independence and demobilized 3,000 troops in exchange
for amnesty, new political parties and withdrawal of
forces by year’s end.
.
Prison sentences for
53,000 prisoners, including 19 people convicted in the
Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, were
reduced to mark Indonesia’s Independence Day.
. Malaysia
declared a state of emergency in towns on its west coast
as smoke from forest fires raging in Indonesia smothered
parts of the country, pushing pollution levels
dangerously high.
.
In laid-back
Vientiane (Laos), a city of Buddhist temples
and quietly decaying French villas, people are already
gearing up for the arrival of the Chinese masses.
. India
said its national oil firms would team up with China’s
to bid jointly for energy assets abroad.
.
The pollution control
head of India’s southern Kerala state
ordered Coca-Cola to close one of its largest bottling
plants in the country for failing to comply with
environmental regulations.
.
Authorities are
preparing to send 648 foreign students studying in
Islamic schools in the southern province of Sindh,
Pakistan, said a senior government official.
.
More than 300 women filed papers to run in local
elections last month in Pakistan’s northwest Frontier
Province, defying a ban by religious hard-liners to
exclude women.
. Seven
Pakistanis died in violence during the first round of
local voting that could widen a rift between Musharraf
and Islamic fundamentalists.
.
More than 100 homemade
bombs planted by suspected militants exploded nearly
simultaneously across Bangladesh last month,
killing 2 and wounding at least 125.
