China’s Tainted Milk Products/U.S.-India Nuclear Pact
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: China’s Tainted Milk Products
Fifty-four thousand infants were sick in China, six thousand hospitalized, four died. The tainted milk scandal has sparked global concern about Chinese food products, with more than 30 countries restricting Chinese dairy products, and in some cases, all imports of Chinese made food. EU has a Europe-wide ban on all food for children coming from China. The U.S. hasn’t implemented any restriction on dairy products from China yet. Why?
Guest: Tony Corbo, legislative representative of Food and Water Watch
Segment 2: U.S.-India Nuclear Pact
Wall Street in Crisis/Asian American Voters Keeping Virginia Red?
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: Wall Street in Crisis
Wall Street is in crisis. It drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and forced American International Group into the hands of the U.S. government. Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America. Goldman and Morgan Stanley are to become commercial banks. China has resisted years of pressure from U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to open its financial system more quickly and add new products. Those barriers helped the nation limit its losses and write-downs from the credit-market crisis to less than 1 percent of the $516 billion global total. Chinese officials warned that the U.S. had set off a financial tsunami by allowing Wall Street lenders to trade in subprime debts and unstable financial derivatives.
Guest: Robert Sherretta, President of International Investor, Inc.
Segment 2: Asian American Voters Keeping Virginia Red?
Wall Street in Crisis/Asian American Voters Keeping Virginia Red?
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: Wall Street in Crisis
Wall Street is in crisis. It drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and forced American International Group into the hands of the U.S. government. Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America. Goldman and Morgan Stanley are to become commercial banks. China has resisted years of pressure from U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to open its financial system more quickly and add new products. Those barriers helped the nation limit its losses and write-downs from the credit-market crisis to less than 1 percent of the $516 billion global total. Chinese officials warned that the U.S. had set off a financial tsunami by allowing Wall Street lenders to trade in subprime debts and unstable financial derivatives.
Guest: Robert Sherretta, President of International Investor, Inc.
Segment 2: Asian American Voters Keeping Virginia Red?
The growing electoral clout of Asian Americans could play an important role in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time in more than four decades, Virginia is a battleground in the presidential race. A recent survey found that a significant number of Asian Americans voted for the first time in 2006. The survey also pointed out that a growing number of Asians, particularly Chinese Americans, call themselves “independent voters” and do not affiliate themselves with any party. The most important issues to be addressed by the 2008 presidential candidates include the economy, jobs, and health care.
Impact of Asian American Voters/On Patrol in the Virtual World
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: Impact of the Asian American Vote
The presidential campaign is in full swing. Ethnic minorities represent an increasingly powerful voting bloc that will help decide which presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain, wins the 2008 general election. Feb. 5 Super Tuesday exit polls showed that 75% of Asian Americans voted for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, The results from the Hawai‘i Democratic caucuses indicated that Sen. Obama won with 76 percent. The Asian vote has became a hot topic of discussion. How much can the Asian American vote help to swing a close election?
Guest: Naomi Tacuyan, Deputy Director of APIAVote
Segment 2: Patrolling the Virtual World
Most of us use computers these days. We use computers for everything from banking and investing to shopping and communicating with others through email or chat programs. Even though you may not consider your communications top secret, you probably do not want strangers reading your email or examining personal information stored on your computer, or using your computer to attack other systems or send forged email. With more and more electronic based gadgets people find it more and more difficult to live their lives without computers. At times, the virtual world seems to dwarf the real world. Is there a sheriff in this virtual world?
Guest: Larry Greenblatt, Lead Instructor of Internetwork Defense
We have to do what we can to stop genocide crime against humanity
On the 15th of April, 2009, 10 days prior to the 10 years anniversary of Falun Gong persecution 4/25, European Parliament vice chairman Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott summoned China Religion Freedom hearing in Belgium. The hearing agenda is to analyze the reason why Falun Gong is the only group being singled out, blast targeted, and severely tortured by the Chinese Communist Party (the CCP) and what out side of China can do to stop the genocide crime in China.
The penal of this hearing were David Matas, a Canadian Human Rights Lawyer, and co-author of Organ Harvesting Report on Falun Gong Prractitioners, Ethan Gutmann, author of The Lost of New China, Willy Fautre, Chairman of Human Rights No Boundary, Weigwan Zhong, resides in Germany, a specialist of the study of totalitarianism, and activist of Liberty of Chinaese Culture, Elping Zhang, Falun Gong spokesperson, Also, tele-conference joined by Fengzhi Li, former Chinese espionage agent in China, who recently rescind membership to the CCP with his real name.
We will now listen to Canadian Human rights Lawyer David Matas’ report.
Congressman in China/Global Online Freedom Act
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: Congressmen Barred from Meeting with Chinese Dissidents
The Chinese security apparatus has tightened controls considerably, ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Chinese dissidents with grievances have been rounded up, or kept from entering Beijing by policed security cordons that ring the city. Congressmen Frank Wolf and Chris Smith, two outspoken critics of China’s human rights record, travelled to Beijing while there was still time before the Olympics for China to demonstrate its commitment to human rights. They had invited a number of dissident lawyers to meet with them their first night, however these lawyers were intercepted before they could make their appointment with the Congressmen. That afternoon police had taken two lawyers from their homes, blocked another lawyer from leaving his apartment, and warned off or barred at least six other invited lawyers.
Guest: Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Segment 2: Global Online Freedom Act
Congressman Chris Smith, a long time critic of china’s human rights record, introduced house bill two-seventy-five, the Global Online Freedom Act, through which U.S.-based companies could be held liable for helping officials in other countries censor the Internet. The Global Online Freedom Act will bar U.S. companies from disclosing personally-identifiable information about a user, unless that information is needed for “legitimate foreign law enforcement purposes.”
Dalai Lama and Beijing’s 7th Round of Talks and China’s Stock Market Melt-down
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: Seventh Round of Talks between Dalai Lama and Beijing
Starting in March 2008, Buddhist monks and others took to the streets in Tibetan areas in repeated protest against their treatment by Chinese authorities. Large numbers of paramilitary police were mobilized to contain the unrest, and large scale arrests and continued surveillance have restored a tense calm. On July 1st, 2008, the Dalai Lama’s envoys began talks with Beijing. This is the seventh round in a series of on-and-off formal negotiations that began in 2002. In a prepared statement, the Tibetan envoys said they would press for tangible progress to alleviate the difficult situation for Tibetans in their homeland.
Guest: Karmar Zurkhang, former President of Capitol Area Tibetan Association.
Segment 2: China’s Stock Market Melt-down China’s stock market swoon has sent the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down by more than half in eight months to below the 3000 level. Repeated government intervention over the history of the Chinese stock market has conditioned investors to expect that the government will step in when things get ugly, or to cool stocks when the market is threatening to overheat. With tight monetary policy and high inflation, how is Beijing intervening this time? If Beijing decides to open it up, will China’s stock market today be a gold mine or a land mine for foreign investors?
Guest: Robert Sherretta President, International Investors
China’s Stock Market Tumbles and Post-Election Taiwan
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
Segment 1: China’s Stock Market Makes History
If you think you’ve got it bad because of the recent market decline in the U.S., you should take a look at Chinese stock investors. By the end of the first quarter, China’s main market, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, had tumbled about 43% since its peak in October of last year. That’s quadruple the decline over the same period for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, which has lost 11%. Worse yet, China’s markets are relatively new, and investors are inexperienced. Many of those losing money got in just in the past year, buying near the peak and now suffering deep losses. What is going on?
Guest: Robert Sherretta, President, International Investors, Inc.
Beijing Olympics: China’s Coming-out Party in Danger?
External Podcast: Visit Digging-to-China.com to listen
The Beijing Olympics represent a kind of coming-out party for China, a
chance for the rising Asian power to showcase its economic and political
development. There is much for the world to admire and for the Chinese
people to be proud of.
But things are not turning out in favor of Beijing.
Freedoms of religion, speech and assembly do not exist in China, and
Beijing’s oppression of the Tibetan people has drawn waves of criticism.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel in declining to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic games,
and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated that he might do the same.
The Olympic games have no doubt become the high profile venue for implicit
and explicit political messages.
In the U.S., Thad McCotter, Congressman from Michigan, introduced a bill to
restrict President Bush from attending the opening ceremony.
Guest: Rep. Thad McCotter Chairman, House Republican Policy Committee
Asia Cast for Tuesday 20th January
External Podcast: Visit Asia-Cast.com to listen
A sea battle has taken place between the Sri Lankan navy and the Tamil Tigers off Sri Lanka's NE coastline. (By Byflickr/Flickr)
