Exotic Pet Craze Hits Hong Kong And China

Hong Kong is the latest part of Asia to be hit by a craze for exotic pets. During the 1990s many a Cambodian general or governor did not regard his home complete without at least a Tiger or two in the garden.

In Beijing exotic pets have are seen by some as surrogate children and treated as such dining on sumptuous foods and being pampered by doting owners.

And the range of animals people chose to love is staggering, big cats, Madagascar chameleons, Honduran milk snakes to burrowing cockroaches from Australia according to the South China Morning Post.

Nice Weather Mr Obama – Pity We Can’t Enjoy It – China, Climate and Human Rights

Chinese activists are looking back on President Obama’s trip to China last week a key question in mind – why weren’t human rights pushed more?

In today’s Washington Post  Chinese based activists Zhang Zuhua and Jiang Qisheng argue the case that problems surrounding climate change, nuclear non proliferation and the economic recovery, while all worthy topics, cannot be resolved unless the Chinese people can live in an open society with access to information and the rule of law.

RFA daily news summary Thurdays Nov 12

Radio Free Asia’s Daily Language Service News Summary

RFA EXCLUSSIVE:  TODAY AN INTERVIEW OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S BROTHER BY THE CANTONESE SERVICE .

This a summary of stories being carried on Radio Free Asia today November 12, 2009. Please use the links to go directly to the relevant RFA language website to listen to the stories or read original language transcripts. Some items are translated into English and are available on RFA’s English language page.

If there are stories that you want to hear more about or you would like to see covered we would love to hear from you. If you have a story to tell we will listen.RFAs main page has contact details for all the language services.

Lao:

1. Lao Ministry of Energy and Mining to inspect investors for those who get mining concessions but never start operations, hoping to sell to bigger players for profit.
2. UXO Lao severely short of funds and labor. The Government is under pressure to clear land for farmers but officials say they lack money and employees to keep up with demand.
3. AIDS center estimates 5000 HIV cases in Laos. Earlier the Government announced 3,900 HIV/AIDS cases, but has now increased the estimate.
4. Lao sports official says only 1000 tickets left for SEA Games’ opening and closing ceremonies.
5. Sky-rocketing prices in Vientiane generate more land-related conflicts.
6. According to health official, 1,500 people seek medical help every month for skin problems caused by fake cosmetics.
7. Vientiane lacks data about mining potential need to attract investors.
8. Lao university students concerned by the lack of education opportunities for underprivileged youth.

Tibetan:

1. Dalai Lama ends public teachings in Arunachal Pradesh by exhorting thousands of his followers to maintain Buddhist culture.
2. Chinese FM spokesman Qin Gang says President Barack Obama’s race and background should mean he is sympathetic to China’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence.
3. China should abolish secretive “black jails” used to hold aggrieved citizens, Human Rights Watch says in new report launched ahead of President Obama’s visit.
4. President Obama leaves on his debut presidential tour of Asia seeking to revive America’s prestige as regional power. It is seen as a trip much heavier on symbolism than diplomatic substance.
5. U.S. Treasury Sec Timothy Geithner says a strong dollar is “very important” to the U.S. and praised China’s role in the global economic recovery.
6. The Dharamsala-based Active Non-violence Education Center calls for objective reporting by media to spread the message of peace according to Tibetan Administration-in-exile reports.

Burmese:

1. Japan most likely will resume Official Development assistance to Burma after the 2010 election according to the Japanese based NGO Burma Info.
2. India’s policy towards Burma one sided, says Human Rights Watch Asia director in press conf in India.
3. 88 student leader Ma Mee Mee transferred again from Insein to Kathar prison and Ko Thet Zaw from Moulmein to Insein.

Vietnamese:

1. Vietnam Parliament to supervise creation of schools and improvement in teaching standards.
2. Vietnam Parliament prepares the next week’s Q&A for Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung.
3. Price of gold on Vietnamese market continues to soar.
4. OSC: French PM arrives in Vietnam for talks on economic ties.
5. UN Food and Agriculture Organization hails achievement of Vietnam in fighting hunger.

Mandarin:

1. RFA EXCLUSIVE – Family vows to resist forced demolition with blood in eastern China city of Linyi. PHOTO
2. Longtime Sichuan rights activist Liu Zhengyou arrested on charges of fraud.
3. Police round up petitioners in Beijing and Shanghai before arrival of President Obama.
4. Tiananmen mother Ding Zilin urges President Obama to rescue jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
5. Wife in letter calls on President Obama to help locate kidnapped rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
6. LA-based Chinese groups request President Obama push China on rights.
7. Human Rights Watch blasts China over “black jails” in which petitioners for justice and detained.
8. Panel: Obama’s China trip and US-China relations.
9. Shanghai petitioners express support for rights activist Feng Zhenghu, stuck in limbo at Tokyo airport as entry to Shanghai denied.
10. Canada-based Chinese activists mobilize to help Feng Zhenghu stuck in Tokyo airport.
11. Panel – New policy for addressing petitioners’ complaints: Central government officials will visit provinces, municipalities to meet local petitioners.
12. Reform of China’s education system.
13. Chongqing government promotes “Red-themed” stage plays.

Khmer:

1. Outsted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin speaks to 300 govt officials and business representatives at the Ministry of Finance in Phnom Penhy. He thanks Hun Sen for the opportunity. Later meets with Thai supporters in Siem Reap, visits Angkor Wat. No press interview.
2. Poipet security situation is normal but cross-border business is estimated down 60%. No Thais are allowed to cross the border to visit the Cambodian casinos.
3. National assembly set for Nov. 16 session on suspending Sam Rainsy’s immunity in order to investigate allegations he damaged state property by removing a Vietnam border marker.
4. A Chinese road construction company awarded U.S. $73M loan from China begins 50-km detour of Road 78 from Stung Treng to Ratanakiri to bypass hydroplant Sesan 2.

Cantonese:

1. RFA EXCLUSIVE: INTERVIEW with President Obama’s half brother who suggests his visit to China “has to respect the other side.” PHOTOS AND VIDEO
2. U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai consulates invite local bloggers to one hour video meeting for background on Obama
3. visit. Bloggers speak on China’s Firewall.
4. Many organizations continue to urge Obama to speak on China’s human rights situation. HK group will demonstrate tomorrow. Dissidents in China under tight control.
5. Human Rights Watch report on “black jails.”

Korean:

1. Human Rights in Asia, a Japanese human rights group, stages campaign urging EC to press the Luxemburg Government to report transfers of Kim Jong Il’s allegedly illegally obtained funds from Switzerland.
2. Former State Dept senior economist William Newcomb recommends financial sanctions to counter North Korea’s illicit activities.
3. South Korea lambasts North Korea for what it calls its planned provocation in the West Sea.
4. FAO report on crop prospects in North Korea.
5. US envoy Stephane Bosworth to visit North Korea soon for direct talks.
6. News analysis – North Korea secret power succession.
7. News analysis – North Korea observatory: A song in praise of Kim Jung Un.

Uyghur:

1. East Turkistan Republic Day.
2. Conference on Uyghur region in Turkey’s Kocaoli city.
3. On the issue of illegal prisons in China.

 END

Chinese Officials In A Figurative Battle For a Virtual War

 Beijing bureaucrats are in a vicious fight over control of internet content particularly on-line games. It seems an unlikely battleground for an internal government turf war but gaming is a sector that promises fast-growing revenue.

It is also set against the background of the Government’s wider desire for control over internet content.

And the biggest prize in the battle for the real dollar in the virtual world is the latest version of the world’s most successful role-playing online game, World of Warcraft.

The South China Morning Post reported NetEase.com, which has been licensed to operate the game by US-based publisher Activision Blizzard, is caught in a feud between the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), and the Ministry of Culture.

Meanwhile the New York Times says the online gaming industry in China is already huge, and growing fast.

“About 50 million people crowd the Internet cafes of China on a regular basis to play,” it reported.

” Revenues in 2008 rose about 50 percent to at least $2.9 billion, according to Alicia Yap, a Hong Kong analyst for Citi Investment Research and Analysis.

“That is 10 times the revenue of just five years ago. IDC, a research company, has predicted that annual revenue will reach $6 billion by 2013.

 

Nude Video Blackmail Rocks Elite Hong Kong School

Hong Kong Police arrested a 16-year-old boy from the territory’s exclusive Australian International School after he allegedly threatened to post naked pictures of a female student on the internet.

The boy was detained Thursday on suspicion of criminal intimidation and blackmail. He has since been released on bail.

According to local media it is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the school which has recently expelled another 16-year-old for selling drugs including marijuana and muscle building steroids.

Guantanamo to Palau: Uyghurs New Home

Six Uyghur men held for seven years in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay have been released to the tiny Pacific island of Palau which has promised to give them a temporary home for two years.

Radio Free Asia reports the men, were detained as terror suspects but claimed to be religious refugees who had fled persecution in neighboring China.

The case highlights the thorny problem of what to with detainees, some of whom have been held for as long as seven years yet are innocent.

There is concern if they were not radicals before they were detained it is possible harsh treatment and proximity to genuine zealots may have converted them.

China puts up Berlin (fire) Wall

Twenty years after the Berlin wall fell, signaling the end of communism in East Germany, China has erected an electronic wall to stop its citizens from joining the festivities electronically.

The organizers of the Berlin Wall Twitter site intended for it to be used by people wishing to post their memories of the night the wall came down. But it quickly became an outlet for Chinese angry at internet censorship in their country.

Organizers said nearly half of the more than 3000 comments posted were from China.

According to the China Digital Times, one user wrote: “Mr Hu Jintao, please tear down this Great Firewall.

It was an ironic twist on the 1987 speech given by US President Ronald Reagan who asked Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachew to “Tear Down This Wall.”

China has at least 338 million Internet users, more than any other country in the world, according to state media.

June 4 Forum in Beijing

Scholars, lawyers, and June 4 activists gather at a forum in Beijing, May 10.

On May 10 in Beijing, 19 prominent scholars, lawyers, and activists gathered at a forum to discuss the events of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen square crackdown. The forum was the first to be held in the 20 years since China’s military crushed the student-led pro-democracy movement.

Attendees included China Social Science Academy researcher Xu Youyu, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Guangming Daily Xu Xiao, and “Si Junzi Square” Zhou Duo. Discussions focused on the relationship between the government response to the incident and China’s subsequent economic boom. In the week following the forum, several of the attendees were summoned by police for questioning.

Yahoo! pledge to be a good Netizen

It’s about time: Yahoo! new chief executive Carol Bartz says that human rights trump doing business. Bartz’s remarks on May 5 opened a Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Summit at which she acknowledged that the US Internet pioneer made some mistakes in foreign markets. “It is really going to take all of us working together to learn better how to act as good world citizens,” Bartz said. “We don’t want to impinge on anybody’s rights. We don’t want to force our beliefs versus someone else’s beliefs but we do have a responsibility.” “It isn’t our Number One obligation,” she maintained. “Our Number One obligation is to be good world citizens.” Carol Bartz replaced Jerry Yang last January. Two years ago, Jerry Yang – as well as other Internet executives – were summoned to Washington to answer for their role in the arrests of Chinese journalist Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning. Yahoo agreed to settle with affected Chinese dissidents, paying them undisclosed compensation. Yang stated, “After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo, and for the future.” In response, Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos, chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, stated, “It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these high-tech titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of a journalist whom Yahoo had helped send to jail. What a disgrace.”

Is it culture or censorship?

Great article today in the New York Times on the Chinese media and its resistance to foreign content and management. Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp are scaling down their hopes for the Chinese market. Murdoch – who has been successful in various anglo-saxon markets – tried to bring MySpace with the help of his Chinese born wife – but made no great impact on the booming Chinese social media scene.