As Asian economies surge, younger people in particular are choosing less labour-intensive work than rice farming. These factors have been cutting into the rice production. Global stocks of rice are their lowest in two decades and as result rice prices have almost tripled.
Alarmed by its inability to feed a fast growing population, the Philippine government ordered a halt to the conversion of farmland for other uses. Indonesia used to be a rice exporter now it's importing rice.
(Report: Rebecca Henschke)
〔社會新聞中心／台北報導〕台北地院審理陳水扁羈押更裁案，昨天下午二時開庭，扁及律師與特偵組對「押或不押」激烈攻防到今凌晨零時四十五分，法官才休庭評議，並在二時三十分裁定收押不禁見，扁辦對此表示遺憾。
扁稱除羈押外 願受任何監控
扁檢雙方昨激辯時也各自提出條件，扁表示，除羈押外，願接受法院採取各種方式監控，比如增加隨扈監控，讓法院能掌握行蹤，檢方則認為，扁涉重罪，海外至少十億資產，有逃亡串證之虞，一定要押，但可以不禁見。
對於檢察官輪番上陣要求押扁，審判長蔡守訓詢問，已審理中的被告，要將被告禁見到什麼時候？檢察官越方如表示，盼能到所有證人交互詰問完畢，屆時法官心證形成，可再視具體情形決定延押或具保；扁律師石宜琳則說，扁無羈押必要，且家產都被凍結，無法籌交保金。
強調沒有貪污 扁堅持不認罪
蔡守訓也認為，押人作法，對被告訴訟權利及防禦權受到嚴重影響，檢對此表示，扁利用各種手段影響法院發現真實，羈押有必要，況羈押中也可接見律師。
扁 昨當庭表示「不認罪」，強調沒貪污，也不會逃亡，至於扁說陳致中夫婦有意說明海外五億七千萬流向，檢方則說，陳致中夫婦是想認罪協商，不是要說明錢流向， 這是扁的訴訟策略，但也證明扁家涉不法，的確還有海外資金。檢方並說，陳致中只說明一小部分，若要認罪，也應是在法院審理後啟動。
昨天庭訊開始前，扁即請律師鄭文龍以合議庭有偏頗之虞，聲請蔡守訓、徐千惠、吳定亞法官迴避，蔡諭知會另外分案處理，庭訊不受影響。
檢指扁家收賄 5.7億流向不明
檢 察官昨在庭上指出，追查迄今，扁家還有五億七千萬資金流向不明，蔡守訓則質疑，財產來源不明不代表就是貪污，並反問，湮滅另案貪污證據，與本案似乎沒有關 聯性。檢察官林?慧說，因有連續犯關係，無法另案起訴，必須併案起訴。對外界質疑的扁家資金，扁說，都是選舉錢，雖沒申報財產，但也不能說是貪污。
扁表示，蘇建和因殺人案遭判死刑，也沒被押，且立委李慶安雙重國籍詐領薪資，也是重罪，馬英九特別費遭起訴，也是貪污重罪，都沒被收押，他僅遭起訴，為何就要押他。
扁控檢留一手 想把他押到死
扁也質疑檢方若留一手，豈不是把他押到死，且還有檢察官說要槍斃他，若要如此剝奪他的訴訟防禦權，不如請馬英九比照蔣介石硃筆一批「陳水扁槍斃可也」，以節省司法資源及社會成本。
蔡 守訓問扁：八年總統任期，國務機要費是否使用在南線專案？扁答，九十五年十一月五日就向人民報告，為了國家法益，他不得不犧牲個人法益；為掩飾機密外交Ｊ 案，才有所謂南線專案，但南線專案也非原名稱，他也不知南線專案怎麼來的，國務機要費確實使用在Ｊ案上，並沒有所謂的南線專案。
質疑法官偏頗 扁提迴避聲請
有關龍潭弊案，律師鄭勝助表示，扁不只幫廣達找地，包括鴻海郭台銘及奇美，扁也有幫忙，郭台銘當初要的是土城的軍營用地，難度很高，但為經濟，扁還是協助，但沒向郭收錢。
庭訊結束，檢察官走至二樓電梯口時，前桃園縣議員吳寶玉趨前說：「檢察官很行哦，小孩子小心一點」，檢察官越方如認為，吳已涉及恐嚇檢察官，會有後續處理。
扁二度被押 綠批司法人員法匠心態 【09:48】
蔡英文：併案程序不公 【11:01】
DEYANG, China — A group of parents whose children were among the 127 killed in the collapse of an elementary school during the May earthquake that devastated western China have confirmed that they filed a lawsuit against government officials and a construction contractor. The lawsuit is the first filed by grieving and angry parents who say shoddy construction cost the children their lives.
Radio Free Asia reported the lawsuit in early December, but China’s official news media have not mentioned it. This weekend, the parents confirmed the filing in telephone interviews. They said the court has yet to tell them whether it will hear the case.
The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 1 in a court here in the city of Deyang, in Sichuan Province, the region hit hardest by the May 12 earthquake, which left 88,000 people dead or missing. Up to 10,000 schoolchildren were killed as some 7,000 classrooms and dormitory rooms collapsed across the quake zone, according to government estimates.
In the following weeks, parents took to the streets in towns across Sichuan to demand that local officials investigate the construction of the schools.
In some cases, crying parents were taken away by riot police officers. Later in the summer, local governments promised compensation payments to parents if they signed agreements stating they would no longer demand investigations or complain about school construction.
The parents who filed the lawsuit on Dec. 1 are the fathers and mothers of children who died in the collapse of No. 2 Primary School in the town of Fuxin, where at least 127 students were crushed to death. Many of them signed the compensation agreements, but some decided in the fall to go ahead with the lawsuit. The lawsuit names as defendants the town government of Fuxin; the education department of the nearby city of Mianzhu; the school principal; and the company that built the school.
Chen Xuefang, one of the plaintiffs, said that the parents were demanding compensation equivalent to $19,000 per child. Over the summer, the local government had offered parents the equivalent of $8,800 in cash and several thousand more dollars in postretirement pension payments if they agreed to drop the issue of the collapsed schools.
Zheng Rongqiong, whose 10-year-old daughter was among those killed at Fuxin No. 2, said that parents of 57 children were taking part in the lawsuit.
Officials from the city of Deyang, which oversees the administration of Mianzhu, have been pressing the parents to drop the lawsuit, she said, but the parents have refused.
Some parents have declined to join the lawsuit because they believe there is little or no chance of winning, and money spent on lawyers will be wasted, said Ms. Zheng, 35. The plaintiffs have contributed nearly $150 each to help pay for the travel expenses of a lawyer from Shanghai who has agreed to represent them.
Over the summer, many and possibly all of the parents now involved in the lawsuit signed the local government’s agreement demanding silence in exchange for compensation payments, Ms. Zheng said. At the time, some parents expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome and said they might file a formal petition with the central government in Beijing despite having signed the agreement.
“We hope that once we win this lawsuit, it will point out all the people responsible for the deaths of our children,” Ms. Zheng said.
An official at the Mianzhu Education Department said Monday that he was aware of the lawsuit, but declined to discuss it over the telephone. A woman at the offices of the town government of Fuxin said by telephone that she had no immediate response to the lawsuit.
In legal cases that involve politically sensitive issues, judges and lawyers in China often come under great pressure from government officials to keep the cases from going forward.
One parent said a court official met with several parents on Dec. 8 to say that the court would not accept the case. But the court has yet to give the parents a formal answer.
In similar legal action, parents in three provinces filed lawsuits this fall against dairy companies after tens of thousands of children across China fell ill and at least four died from drinking milk and baby formula tainted with a toxic chemical called melamine.
Although local officials had been involved in covering up the poisonings, judges have so far declined to hear any lawsuits. After the earthquake, the central government assigned a committee of experts to look into the school collapses, but the committee has yet to issue a final report. In September, an official from the committee, Ma Zongjin, said at a news conference in Beijing that a rush to build schools during the Chinese economic boom might have led to shoddy construction that resulted in the student deaths. He said more than 1,000 schools had one of two major flaws — they were built on the earthquake fault line or they were poorly constructed.
Government officials at all levels have tried to suppress discussion of the school collapses. A documentary that asks tough questions about a school collapse in the rural town of Muyu, in northern Sichuan, has attracted intense scrutiny from the central government.
The director, Pan Jianlin, showed the film, “Who Killed Our Children?” at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea in late October. Afterward, he told Reuters, people contacted his relatives and friends to tell them to press him to stop his work.
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BEIJING — The Chinese government unblocked the Web site of The New York Times on Monday, allowing Internet users in mainland China to view the site after access had been stopped for more than three days.
Chinese authorities began blocking the site on Thursday night without giving any explanation. The Chinese government usually blocks access to Web sites that it deems to have sensitive information, including sites with information about Tibet, Taiwan and Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement.
During the Summer Olympics in August, the government lifted bans on some sites, such as the Chinese-language site of BBC News; it then reimposed the bans in recent weeks, affecting the BBC site and other sites such as the Chinese language versions of Voice of America and Asiaweek, before lifting them again last week.
Government employees reached by telephone on Monday said they did not know why the site of The New York Times was blocked in recent days.
十二月十八日是中国改革开放三十周年的纪念日。香港《文汇报》发表评论，对中国国家主席胡锦涛讲话中的一些新提法及其背后的新思路进行了解 读。文章写道："三十年中国改革开放，既然取得了举世瞩目的成就，同时也留下了一些问题乃至瓶颈，其中主要是贫富不均、权力分配和利益集团。面对这些问 题，近年出现了两种不同的解读和药方，一种是极左派的观点，认为改革过了头，应该倒退到一九七八年前去；而另一种则认为改革应该向着西方式的所谓权力监督 的方向发展。因此，胡锦涛上述表示，就是针对来自左右两种思潮的质疑。"
《文汇报》的文章接着写道："胡锦涛在讲话中为中共如何检验自己的政策确立了一个明确的标准。值得注意的是，无论是所谓的"人民拥护不拥护、赞成不 赞成、高兴不高兴、答应不答应"还是'问政于民、问需于民、问计于民'，都是近年来的最新提法，是在'权为民所用、利为民所谋、情为民所系'和'执政为民 '、'立党为公'等理念之后新的和更为详尽的阐述。"
与此同时，《苹果日报》发表题为《北京内外政策全面收紧强硬》的评论文章。文章写道："从十一月底开始，北京当局突然全面收紧对外及对内的政策，令 国内政治气氛骤然升温。这是非比寻常的变化……十一月二十六日，欧盟宣布接到北京方面通知，要求取消原订十二月一日在法国举行的中欧领导人峰会。其后北京 解释，此举是要抗议欧盟轮任主席、法国总统萨尔科齐准备在波兰会见达赖喇嘛。之后，中方又宣布暂缓洽购法国空中客车的计划，并传召法国驻华大使表达不满， 中国各种官方宣传机器，也全面对准萨尔科齐开火，指控他是'忘恩负义'的小人。过去数年，达赖喇嘛几乎走遍西方各国，获得大部份西方领袖的接见，部份会面 甚至是在总统或总理办公室举行。虽然中方在事后都表达不满，但今次对法国的抗议行动，可谓是'达赖会面'引起的最激烈的一次。除了欧盟及法国，中国在中日 有争议的钓鱼岛问题上的态度，也突趋强硬。"
文章接着写道："事实上，自从日本前首相小泉纯一郎下台后，前后三任日本首相安倍晋三、福田康夫和麻生太郎都没参拜靖国神社，而北京也费了很大劲去 解冻中日关系。就在中日关系渐返正轨、中日韩三国领袖准备举行会之际，北京为什么突然派出海监船到钓鱼岛海域巡航，并声言往后中国海监船会定期在钓鱼岛海 域出没呢？显然，这是北京在钓鱼岛主权问题上的重要转变。"
文章最后写道："对内政策方面更是山雨欲来之势，最明显就是对《08宪章》运动的镇压。……更有传闻指，中宣部准备举起屠刀，杀向《南方都市报》、 《新京报》等言论越轨的国内媒体，并可能有十五位大陆记者编辑会遭殃。……无论是因为经济下滑、失业激增，还是其他什么不知名的原因，从内外政策转趋强硬 的变化可以见到，中共内部很可能评估，中国社会将进入极不稳定的状态，因而先下手为强，以强硬手段回击任何压力。而且，这些事件也显示，北京内部的鹰派势 力已重新抬头，中国大陆的政治形势从此又要进入寒冬了！"
由中国知识分子、维权人士和普通民众发起签署的《零八宪章》
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南德意志报注意到，“今年夏天，在国际奥委会和国际媒体压力下，
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台北地裁は陳前総統に逃亡の恐れがないとの理由で、検察側の勾留（こうりゅう）の継続請求を却下した。台湾中央通信によると、陳前総統は「皆さんの支援のおかげで最もつらく最も孤独な３２日間を終えられたことに感謝したい」と述べた。
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BEIJING — Chen Shui-bian, who served eight years as president of Taiwan, was indicted Friday on corruption charges, making him the first former president of the island to face criminal prosecution.
Mr. Chen, who served from 2000 to last May, faces charges that he and his family pocketed millions of dollars in campaign funds. “Ex-President Chen Shui-bian’s crimes are major,” Chen Yun-nan, a spokesman for the Supreme Court’s special prosecutor’s office, said. “We will ask the courts to give ex-President Chen Shui-bian the strictest punishment.”
Mr. Chen has been in police custody since Nov. 12, when the authorities announced a variety of allegations involving money laundering, embezzlement and other crimes. A vocal advocate for Taiwanese independence, Mr. Chen, 57, has denied the charges, saying his prosecution is a politically motivated attack by his successor, President Ma Ying-jeou.
Mr. Ma and other leaders of the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party, have rejected the suggestion that they are influencing prosecutors.
The charges against Mr. Chen, of the rival Democratic Progressive Party, stem from an investigation that began during his second term and involve accusations that senior aides and relatives embezzled millions of dollars in campaign funds. Mr. Chen’s son, daughter-in-law and wife have also been charged in the scandal, as have 11 other family members and aides.
A populist with a flair for the dramatic, Mr. Chen has been a frequent critic of China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province. Unlike Mr. Chen, who is an ardent supporter of Taiwanese independence, Mr. Ma has been conciliatory toward Beijing.
Last month, shortly after his arrest, Mr. Chen went on a hunger strike, and after five days of not eating, he was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat.
His arrest and indictment are the latest chapter in a long series of political and legal battles in Taiwan.
Mr. Ma was indicted last year over the use of money while he was mayor of Taipei. The Supreme Court cleared him of the charges, paving the way for his presidential candidacy.
THE speed with which clouds of economic gloom and even despair have gathered over the global economy has been startling everywhere. But the change has been especially sudden in the world’s two most populous countries: China and India. Until quite recently, the world’s fastest-growing big economies both felt themselves largely immune from the contagion afflicting the rich world. Optimists even hoped that these huge emerging markets might provide the engines that could pull the world out of recession. Now some fear the reverse: that the global downturn is going to drag China and India down with it, bringing massive unemployment to two countries that are, for all their success, still poor—India is home to some two-fifths of the world’s malnourished children.
The pessimism may be overdone. These are still the most dynamic parts of the world economy. But both countries face daunting economic and political difficulties. In India’s case, its newly positive self-image has suffered a double blow: from the economic buffeting, and from the bullets of the terrorists who attacked Mumbai last month. As our special report makes clear, India’s recent self-confidence had two roots. One was a sustained spurt in economic growth to a five-year annual average of 8.8%. The other was the concomitant rise in India’s global stature and influence. No longer, its politicians gloated, was India “hyphenated” with Pakistan as one half of a potential nuclear maelstrom. Rather it had become part of “Chindia”—a fast-growing success story.
The Mumbai attacks, blamed on terrorist groups based in Pakistan and bringing calls for punitive military action, have revived fears of regional conflict. A hyphen has reappeared over India’s western border, just as the scale of the economic setback hitting India is becoming apparent. Exports in October fell by 12% compared with the same month last year; hundreds of small textile firms have gone out of business; even some of the stars of Indian manufacturing of recent years, in the automotive industry, have suspended production. The central bank has revised its estimate of economic growth this year downwards, to 7.5-8%, which is still optimistic. Next year the rate may well fall to 5.5% or less, the lowest since 2002.
If China’s growth rate were to fall to that level, it would be regarded as a disaster at home and abroad. The country is this month celebrating the 30th anniversary of the event seen as marking the launch of its policies of “reform and opening”, since when its economy has grown at an annual average of 9.8%. The event was a meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee at which Deng Xiaoping gained control. Tentatively at first but with greater radicalism in the 1990s, the party dismantled most of the monolithic Maoist edifice—parcelling out collective farmland, sucking in vast amounts of foreign investment and allowing private enterprise to thrive. The anniversary may be a bogus milestone, but it is easy to understand why the party should want to trumpet the achievements of the past 30 years (see article). They have witnessed the most astonishing economic transformation in human history. In a country that is home to one-fifth of humanity some 200m people have been lifted out of poverty.
Yet in China, too, the present downturn is jangling nerves. The country is a statistical haze, but the trade figures for last month—with exports 2% lower than in November 2007 and imports 18% down—were shocking. Power generation, generally a reliable number, fell by 7%. Even though the World Bank and other forecasters still expect China’s GDP to grow by 7.5% in 2009, that is below the 8% level regarded, almost superstitiously, as essential if huge social dislocation is to be avoided. Just this month a senior party researcher gave warning of what he called, in party-speak, “a reactive situation of mass-scale social turmoil”. Indeed, demonstrations and protests, always common in China, are proliferating, as laid-off factory-workers join dispossessed farmers, environmental campaigners and victims of police harassment in taking to the streets.
One worry is that China’s rulers will try to push the yuan down to help exporters. That would be a terrible idea, not least because the government has the resources to ease the pain in less dangerous ways: it is running a budget surplus and has little debt. Last month it announced a huge 4 trillion yuan (nearly $600 billion) fiscal-stimulus package. Some who have crunched the numbers argue that this was all mouth and no trousers—much of it made up by old budget commitments, double-counting and empty promises. It was thus mainly propaganda, to convince China’s own people and the outside world that the government was serious about stimulating demand at home. That may yet prove to be unfair: what matters is when infrastructure money is spent, not when it is announced. Yet there is little sign that the regime is ready to take radical steps in the two areas that would do most to persuade the rural majority to spend its money rather than hoard it: giving farmers better rights over their land; and providing a decent social safety-net, especially in health care.
Still, China does at least have trousers, with deep pockets. India, in contrast, is not seen as a big potential part of the answer to the world’s economic problems. Not only is its economy far smaller; its government’s finances are also a mess. Its budget deficit—some 8% of GDP—inhibits it from offering a bigger stimulus that might mitigate the downturn (see article). This is alarming. If China reckons it needs 8% annual growth to provide jobs for the 7m or so new members of its workforce each year, how is India to cope? A younger country, its workforce is increasing by about 14m a year—ie, about one-quarter of the world’s new workers. And, perversely, its great successes of recent years have been in industries that rely not on vast supplies of cheap labour but on smaller numbers of highly educated engineers—such as its computer-services businesses and capital-intensive manufacturing.
In two respects, however, India has a big advantage over China in coping with an economic slowdown. It has all-too extensive experience in it; and it has a political system that can cope with disgruntlement without suffering existential doubts. India pays an economic price for its democracy. Decision-making is cumbersome. And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. But the political system has a resilience and flexibility that China’s own leaders, it seems, believe they lack. They are worrying about how to cope with protests. India’s have their eyes on a looming election.
It used to be a platitude of Western—and Marxist—analysis of China that wrenching economic change would demand political reform. Yet China’s economy boomed with little sign of any serious political liberalisation to match the economic free-for-all. The cliché fell into disuse. Indeed, many, even in democratic bastions such as India, began to fall for the Chinese Communist Party’s argument that dictatorship was good for growth, whereas Indian democracy was a luxury paid for by the poor, in the indefinite extension of their poverty.
But as China enters a trying year of anniversaries—the 50th of the suppression of an uprising in Tibet; the 20th of the quashing of the Tiananmen Square protests; the 60th of the founding of the People’s Republic itself—it may be worth remembering that the winter of 1978-79 saw not only a party Central Committee plenum but also the “Democracy Wall” movement in Beijing. It was a brief flowering of the freedom of expression, quite remarkable after the xenophobic isolation of the Cultural Revolution. Deng, like Mao Zedong before him, tolerated the dissident movement as long as it served his ends, and then stamped it out. In so doing he thwarted what Wei Jingsheng, the most famous of the wall-writers, had dubbed “the fifth modernisation”: democracy. China still needs it.
〔記 者邱燕玲、林毅璋、黃維助、林嘉琪、黃以敬、陳尹宗／綜合報導〕立法院教育、內政等委員會通過國民黨立委林益世提案，要求公共電視等公廣集團所有製播經費 必須送交立法院同意後才能動支，昨天受到民進黨團痛批「國民黨用政治黑手干預媒體自由」，新聞局也扮白臉不反抗，嚴重違反黨政軍退出媒體的規定。
藍委稱落實監督
林益世強調，決議只是要求各部會要落實預算執行的監督責任，並非干預新聞自由；另公視接受客委會及僑委會所屬的客家電視台和宏觀電視台委託製播節目，但這兩家電視台都抗議公視未協助宣導政務，他才提案增加公視董事席次。
新聞局長史亞平也強調，先前才陪公視赴立院協商公視預算遭凍結案，新聞局該協助時一定會提供協助，不會袖手旁觀；但她也說，公視以登廣告的方式對抗立法院，值得商榷。
民 進黨立委陳亭妃指出，黨政軍退出媒體與媒體獨立在五二○後消失殆盡，公視遭到國民黨立委壓制，包括製播經費如何用，都必須送立法院同意才能動支，還要求所 有公視購買的節目都要送到立法院核備，「這是一言堂嗎？太上皇是誰？就是馬英九！」馬英九怕民調太差，所以才要把手伸進媒體做美化修飾。
立委林淑芬說，公視是屬於人民與國家的電視台，並不屬於執政的當權者，公共電視董事增加席次，就是要讓不聽話的聲音變小，審查製播經費乖乖聽話就給預算，不乖就不給。
公視愁沒錢付戲約 得背法律責任
對於公視今年下半年預算四點五億尚未解凍，明年預算又遭立委限制，公視總經理馮賢賢昨激動地說：「明年內部預算怎麼編列？節目該不該簽約？有些戲簽了約但錢付不出來，這可是要負法律責任的！」
公視工會則強調，立院凍結預算及干預明年度預算，勢將違反公共媒體獨立自主之精神，對公視未來發展有不利影響，但同時也提出重修「公廣法」，免得公視永遠定位不清，問題一樣會存在。
台灣記者協會、媒體改造學社、媒體觀察教育基金會等團體昨日紛紛聲明譴責，要求立委撤案，否則將違背馬英九總統就職演說時強調「絕不干預媒體」的承諾，馬政府不應坐視台灣的新聞自主權被政治人物傷害！
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has warned that the world's poorest could face more abuses amid the current global financial crisis. She said poverty was both a cause and a result of human rights violations. Her comments come as the world body marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In China, a group of people has used Human Rights Day to demonstrate outside the foreign ministry in Beijing, protesting at alleged government abuses. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has also called on China to respect the Tibetan people's human rights. In a message to an international rights forum held in Taiwan, he said he was disappointed that China had failed to make as much progress in democracy as it had economically.
2008/12/4
Have you ever heard of a flowering tree with the elegant name of ratchaphruek? Native to tropical Asia, it has hanging clusters of fragrant yellow flowers. Hence the English name "golden shower tree."
It is Thailand's national flower. According to a Thai government website, the shining yellow symbolizes Buddhism and is also the color of Monday, the day on which King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born.
Crowds wearing that special yellow have tossed the nation into turmoil. On Tuesday, a week after a Bangkok-based anti-government organization began a sit-in at international airports, the Thai Constitutional Court, which tends to take an anti-government stance, ordered the ruling People Power Party to disband and also ousted Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. The administration was toppled at last.
More than 200,000 foreign visitors remain stranded in Thailand, including students who have run out of money, tourists who have used up their medicines for chronic illness and Japanese who are impatient to return to Japan so that their children can take entrance examinations.
For these people, yellow must seem like the "color of annoyance."
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a target of criticism by the anti-government protesters, was toppled from power in the 2006 military coup.
However, in last year's general elections, a party affiliated with Thaksin scored a landslide victory through the strong support of farmers. Fearing Thaksin's reinstatement, the anti-government group, which is supported by the former ruling class, resorted to force. The situation soon led to bloodshed with pro-government supporters.
Singing victory songs, the anti-government protesters are trumpeting their success as a citizens' revolution. But the damage to Thailand's international reputation and domestic economy is serious. Angry cries of "What are they doing?" must have been heard in many languages. Many Thais were also embarrassed by what must seem a national disgrace. But the police were slow to act, apparently intimidated by the "yellow power."
Thankfully, the yellow-clad protesters are now withdrawing from the airports, untainted by the color of blood.
I've heard that King Bhumibol, who has been on the throne for 62 years, and the armed forces are usually expected to quell political crises. Regardless, elections must triumph over unlawful blockades. Otherwise, it means the defeat of democracy.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 3(IHT/Asahi: December 4,2008)
 中國的人權發展還存在許多問題和困難。 |
中國的人權組織說，中國五名人權活躍人士在周三的人權日之前被扣留問話，當中包括經常批評政府的作家劉曉波。
在香港的中國人權民運信息中心說，劉曉波在周一晚上被北京公安帶走，另一名被帶走的是政治評論家張祖樺。
信息中心說，這兩人原定在星期三國際人權日及簽署《世界人權宣言》60周年這一天舉行論壇，並發表中國《零八憲章》。
這個"憲章"獲得了303名著名學者及作家等的簽署。
關注中國人權事務的"中國維權網"說，張祖樺經過公安12小時問訊之後，已經在周二獲得釋放。他家裡的電腦、現金和信用卡都被沒收。
BBC中文網記者給在北京的劉曉波手機和家里打去電話，但是都沒有人回應。他目前很可能仍然被拘留。公安搜查並監視他的房子。
該網站又說，三名在貴州的人權活躍人士自上星期至今一直被扣留。
《零八憲章》
303名著名學者及作家等簽署的零八憲章說，今年是中國立憲百年，《世界人權宣言》公布60周年，"民主牆"誕生30周 年，中國政府簽署《公民權利和政治權利國際公約》10周年。在經歷了長期的人權災難和艱難曲折的抗爭歷程之後，覺醒的中國公民日漸清楚地認識到，自由、平 等、人權是人類共同的普世價值﹔民主、共和、憲政是現代政治的基本制度架構。
憲章說，這些政治進步迄今為止大多停留在紙面上﹔有法律而無法治，有憲法而無憲政，仍然是有目共睹的政治現實。執政集團繼 續堅持維繫威權統治，排拒政治變革，由此導致官場腐敗，法治難立，人權不彰，道德淪喪，社會兩極分化，經濟畸形發展，自然環境和人文環境遭到雙重破壞，公 民的自由、財產和追求幸福的權利得不到制度化的保障，各種社會矛盾不斷積累，不滿情緒持續高漲，特別是官民對立激化和群體事件激增，正在顯示著災難性的失 控趨勢，現行體制的落伍已經到了非改不可的地步。
憲章重申了自由、人權、平等、共和、民主、憲政等理念。
他們又提出了修改憲法、分權制衡、立法民主、司法獨立、公器公用、人權保障、公職選舉、城鄉平等、結社自由：保障公民的結 社自由權，將現行的社團登記審批制改為備案制。開放黨禁、集會自由、言論自由、宗教自由、公民教育、財產保護、財稅改革、社會保障、環境保護、聯邦共和、 轉型正義等十九項主張。
《零八憲章》的303名簽署人包括北京法學家於浩成、上海劇作家沙葉新、趙紫陽前秘書鮑彤、六四母親丁子霖，作家劉曉波、記者高瑜、作家戴晴等人。
德国之声：张祖桦先生，今天据各大通讯社的报道，您和刘晓波先生在北京时间12月8日的晚间暂时与外界失去了联系。您现在能否跟我们透露一下，当时究竟发生了什么事情？
张祖桦：好的。北京时间12月8号晚上11点，大约有20多名警员身着警服闯到我家中，出示了传唤通知书和搜查证，然后把我带到万寿路派出所进行讯 问，长达12小时。同时留下11位民警在我家进行了一个大搜查。把我家里的几台电脑，包括我妻子的电脑，还有我的很多书籍和私人物品--我和我太太的现 金、存折、银行卡全部抄走，留下了很厚一沓的扣押物品文件清单。
那么，警方这样大动作的目的是什么呢？他们有没有向您说明呢？
他们出示的罪名好像涉嫌颠覆国家政权罪。讯问的主要内容是针对国内303位各界人士发出的《零八宪章》，主要就是针对我了，认为我在其中起了某些作用吧，让我配合他们调查相关的事实。
对于我们绝大多数听众和读者来说，《零八宪章》还很陌生。您能不能给大家介绍一下，这是怎样的一份文件或者宪章呢？
主要是一些知识分子，也包括律师、专业人士和普通民众，认为今年是改革开放三十年，《世界人权宣言》六十周年，在这种情况下，官方自然有他们的一套 说辞，民间也应该提出自己的独立看法。特别是对现在存在的各种问题，也应该有自己的独立见解。对未来的中国的走向和发展也应该提出建设性的意见。所以《零 八宪章》前面一部分是我们的基本理念，主要论述了知识分子和中国人民对自由、民主、人权、法制、宪政的渴望和追求的历程；后面，我们提出了19项具体的建 议，完全是出于善意和理性的，确确实实是希望政府能够在认同普世价值和尊重、保障人权的基础之上尽快健全法制、推行民主，加快政治改革的步伐，使中国走上 一个良性发展的轨道，发挥公民社会积极的作用。
张先生，您刚才提到，警方在对您家进行搜查，包括将您暂时拘捕的过程中，是以涉嫌颠覆国家政权罪为罪名，这也是经常被官方用来打压异议人士的一个罪名。接下来还会有什么后续发展呢？
他们说这件事儿没完，还要看整个事情的发展，搜查完之后还要举证，最后如何定罪尚不得而知。
我们还想了解一下儿，刘晓波先生几乎同时和您一起失踪，这两件事是不是有什么关系呢？
当然，他们也提到刘晓波，也是因为《零八宪章》。我和他太太打过电话，他太太说，好像他们出示的不是传唤通知书，而是刑事拘留。这个罪名就比较重了。我咨询了一下儿，这个大概要30天期限。现在他没有任何音讯。
The protesters, some wearing mocking costumes of former emperors and current mainland Chinese Communist officials, demanded that the current Taiwanese government of President Ma Ying-jeou abolish a law that requires protesters to see and obtain prior permission for all public protests. They made their point by merely notifying local officials of the march but not waiting for approval.
Along the route they were briefly warned and stopped by Taiwanese security officials but without incident. The march was punctuated with a mock funeral for human rights, just two days before celebration of International Human Rights Day.
The new Taiwanese student movement, known as Wild Strawberries, which has been making headlines, quickly mushroomed after a November 6 visit to Taiwan by a high-ranking envoy of the mainland People's Republic of China. When protesters came out to greet the Communist official, they were met with fierce police repression. Since then the capital of Taipei has been the scene of several low-level but mounting student actions, often supported by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.
The student protesters worry that President Ma's administration is moving too close to the Beijing government and compromising what is Taiwan's de facto independence. The conflict was further stirred this week when President Ma told an interviewer that this was not the right time for the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, to visit Taiwan. The Beijing regime has been openly pressuring foreign governments, including France, to shun the Tibetan leader.
President Ma is facing increasing criticism of his human rights record. Only four months into office his popularity had plummeted from 58 percent to a record low of 25 percent. Ma represents the National Party (KMT) which ruled Taiwan through martial law from the arrival of Chiang-Kai-Sheik on the island in the mid 1940's and for another three decades. After a slow, gradual democratization process, the KMT ceded power to the opposition DPP in free elections. But corruptions charges deflated opposition rule, and the KMT was democratically re-elected to power earlier this year.
President Ma's administration has moved to amend the controversial and restrictive anti-protest law. But student leaders have denounced the move as cosmetic and vow more protests.
| 泰國被解散的人民力量黨的一部分成員在轉入為泰黨後選出一名新領導人。 |  | 全副武裝的激進分子周日（7日）攻擊了駐阿富汗北約部隊在巴基斯坦白沙瓦市附近的兩個運輸站。 |
日本一項民調顯示，大多數日本人對中國沒有好感，認為中日關係不好，此比例創歷史最高。
日本內閣府在周六（6日）發表了外交輿論調查結果。
"對中國有好感"的日本人只有31.8%，較去年下降2.2%，創下1978年開始調查以來的最低點。
回答"沒有好感"者則比去年增長3.1%，以66.6%達到歷史最高。
有71.9%的調查對象認為現在日中關係"不好"，較上次調查增加3.9%，同樣成為歷史最高值。
認為關係"良好"者則減少2.7%至23.7%。
對中國的好感度在1980年達到最高峰78.6%，之後一直下降。
不斷下跌
共同社指出，儘管日中兩國正以"戰略互惠"改善關係，但日本一般市民的對華好感度卻沒有上升。
有觀點認為，其背景是在日本發生的中國產餃子致人中毒事件等中國食品安全問題。
此外，對日美關係認為"不好"的人也增加7.7%，達到28.1%，是自1998年調查以來的新高，認為關係"良好"者減少7.4%為68.9%，也創下新低。
有觀點認為，10月11日美國宣佈將朝鮮從"援恐國家"名單中刪除，這被看作是造成對日美關係評價下滑的原因。
此外源自美國的金融危機造成世界經濟景氣惡化，也使輿論感到對日美關係產生了不良影響。
本次調查於今年10月以日本各地3000名成人男女為對象實施，回答率為60.9%。中國媒體報道，在山東新泰，有多名上訪者被當地政府強制收入精神病院。
《新京報》說，今年10月，新泰農民孫法武去北京上訪，被鎮政府抓回送進精神病院20余日。
報道說，后來孫法武簽下不再上訪的保証書之后才被放出來。
該報記者調查發現，在新泰，因上訪而被送進精神病院者不是個別。
同一篇報道當中還說，一名84歲的退休干部時亨生因多次到北京上訪于2006年6月被關進新泰精神病院。
此后兩年多的時間里，他秘密記錄了18個因上訪被關進精神病院的人。
部分上訪者及家屬不曾被通知精神鑒定。家屬反映，政府不經家屬同意甚至未通知家人，便送上放者入院，而當事者堅稱自己沒有病，因此質疑政府限制人身自由。
報道還透露，除了新泰市精神病院外，肥城市精神病院也曾經收治新泰上訪人員。
就法国电视台的转播画面来看，达赖喇嘛按照西藏人的传统，亲手为萨科齐献上白色的哈达。双方进行了友好诚挚的交谈。之后，萨科齐乘飞机返回 巴黎。临行前，他在机场上表示，与达赖喇嘛的会晤进行得非常顺利。他还告诉达赖喇嘛，进一步推动西藏与北京之间的对话在他看来意义重大。
萨科齐还说，"达赖喇嘛证实了一个我已经知道的事实，即他并不寻求独立。"达赖喇嘛对西藏局势表示忧虑，这同时也是"欧洲的担忧"。据悉，萨科齐与达赖喇嘛是在共同出席前波兰总统瓦文萨荣获诺贝尔和平奖25周年庆祝仪式的间隙举行周边会谈的。
中国官方通讯社新华社周六晚发表评论说，法国总统会见达赖喇嘛严重伤害了中国人民的感情，也给中法关系造成了损害。新华社批评萨科齐在涉藏问题上投机取巧，"显得轻率而短见"。
强调一个中国
萨科齐最终决定"从价值和信念的角度出发"，会见他认会应该会见的人。与此同时，他也试图息事宁人，因为"没有理由去激化矛盾。"此前，萨科齐曾强 调说，只有一个中国，西藏是中国领土不可缺少的一个组成部分。达赖喇嘛也不支持独立。此外，中国和欧洲应该携手并肩，加强合作。
北京方面则指责达赖喇嘛在搞分裂中国的阴谋活动。此前，双方关于加强西藏文化自治的谈判陷入僵局。自1959年逃亡印度以来，旅居达兰萨拉的达赖喇嘛一直没有机会重回故土。
今年八月的北京奥运期间，达赖喇嘛曾在法国逗留12天，当时并未受到萨科齐接见。而法国第一夫人--布鲁尼-萨科齐曾与达赖喇嘛一道出席宗教仪式。自今年上半年奥运圣火传递在巴黎受阻以来，中法关系一直处于紧张状态。
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou sent the ruling party chief to Japan on Sunday for meetings aimed at easing territorial and political issues between the two one-time staunch allies, the party said.
Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung will meet leaders of four Japanese political parties with messages that Ma wants to settle a dispute concerning sovereignty over an offshore archipelago, and that Taiwan's warming ties with China are in Tokyo's interests, a party media liaison said.
"Relations have been deep throughout history," Ma's office said in a statement to be passed on in Japan. "We hope Taiwan-Japan ties can be strengthened."
Before Ma took office in May, Taiwan and Japan maintained tight informal relations as both weathered disputes with China.
China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT fled to Taiwan. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.
Beijing frequently criticizes Japan for what it sees as the lack of an apology for World War Two, causing continued diplomatic friction.
China-friendly Ma's government has met formally with China over the past half year to sign trade and transit deals, building confidence to reduce any risk of war but worrying conservatives in Japan.
The KMT chief will tell counterparts in Japan to welcome detente between Taiwan and China, the party media liaison said.
Taiwan and Japan also recently faced off over competing claims to eight uninhabited but strategically important East China Sea islands, rich in fisheries and possible undersea natural gas reserves. China claims the islets, as well.
After Japan arrested a Taiwan fishing boat captain following a collision near the islands in June, Ma departed from Taiwan's usual practice by strongly criticizing Tokyo.
The KMT chief will tell Japanese party leaders Taiwan wants a "peaceful" settlement on use of the now Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which Taiwan calls the Tiaoyutai, the party liaison said.
Wu will travel with other KMT officials, two legislators and a Taipei city council member. They plan to visit Tokyo and three other cities in Japan before returning on December 13.
The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Georg Pöttering, has defended a decision to invite Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to speak at the Strasbourg-based assembly. Pöttering said European lawmakers wanted to express their solidarity for Tibet's religious and cultural identity. In a speech to the EU parliament, the Dalai Lama said that Tibet was seeking genuine autonomy within China and that he was not heading a separatist movement. He also said he was looking forward to meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Poland this weekend. Bejing cancelled an EU-China summit scheduled for the beginning of this month, after Sarkozy said would meet the Dalai Lama.
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| 达赖喇嘛将在欧洲议会发表讲话马英九婉拒达赖喇嘛访台名列最受欢迎国际领袖之一的西藏精神领袖达赖喇嘛，日前表达访问台湾的意愿，不过，台湾总统马英九与外籍媒体座谈时却表示，台湾欢迎全世界宗教领袖来访， 但达赖喇嘛此时访台「时机不适宜」。总统大选期间曾经声援西藏流亡政府，抗议北京镇压西藏的马英九，立场转变，不仅在野党强烈批评，国民党内也有不同声 音。
曾经以宗教领袖的身分造访台湾两次的达赖喇嘛，见过李登辉前总统、陈水扁前总统，并与马英九两度会面，他在日前表达希望明年能再度访问台湾。不过，马英九总统与外籍媒体座谈时表示，台湾欢迎世界宗教领袖访台，但现在的时机、地点并不适宜，等于间接婉拒达赖来访。 由于马英九今年七月接受德国南德日报专访时曾表达欢迎达赖来访，如今立场转变，不欢迎达赖前来，是否是忌惮对岸压力？总统府发言人王郁琦4日上午表 示，府方没有在这方面接到大陆方面任何特别意见，马总统的谈话是基于整体国家利益的考量。王郁琦说：“总统认为此时此刻时机不宜，但是如果未来有适当的时 机，我们也再会有适当的安排。” 民进党立委说，马英九不代表台湾人民，他们已经打算提案，希望用国会力量通过，邀请达赖访台，甚至将发动全民连署。 民进党的提议，在立法院并非没有过关的可能，部分国民党立委表示，达赖来访可以是台湾处理两岸关係的筹码，不应断然回绝，连立法院长王金平都认为达 赖是重要的宗教界领袖，台湾应该重新思考让他来台。他说：“从宗教的角度来重新考虑这个问题，我觉得从国家利益的角度来讲并没有不利的地方。” 根据美国媒体透过网路访问法国、德国、英国、义大利、西班牙和美国等6国各1千名成年人，调查19位卸任和现任国家领导人以及宗教领袖受欢迎的程度。结果，达赖喇嘛排名第一，受欢迎的程度超过德国总理梅克尔以及英国前首相布莱尔，可说是最有人缘的国际领袖。 |
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Japan has frozen low-interest loans to Vietnam until it takes "meaningful" steps to eliminate corruption in public works programs, Tokyo's ambassador said Thursday.
The announcement was an embarrassing blow to Vietnam, which receives more development aid from Japan than any other single country.
Japanese ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba said his country would make no new loan pledges to Vietnam next year and would also suspend $690 million in low-interest loans to support pending transportation and sewage projects in Vietnam.
In all, Japan pledged $1.1 billion in low-interest development loans to Vietnam last year.
Japan took the step after four Japanese executives pleaded guilty last month to paying $820,000 in bribes to a Vietnamese official who was overseeing a highway project in Ho Chi Minh City, the nation's southern business hub.
The two countries are now conducting a joint investigation into the case, involving Pacific Consultants International and Huynh Ngoc Sy, the Ho Chi Minh City official overseeing the highway project.
"Until effective and meaningful measures against corruption can be worked out through this joint committee, it would be difficult to regain the support from the Japanese public for further assistance to Vietnam and we are unable to pledge new yen loans," Sakaba said.
Sakaba spoke at an annual conference between Vietnamese officials and aid donors to the fast-developing communist country.
Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung vowed that Vietnam would use donors' development money responsibly.
"The Vietnamese government will make the utmost effort to further improve efficiency," he said.
Two years of disastrous quality-control breakdowns, from foul fish and lead-tainted toys to poisoned drugs and dairy products, are taking their toll on China's allure as a manufacturing platform. A new study by supply-chain consulting firm AMR Research found that quality concerns are among the chief reasons U.S. manufacturers are scaling back plans to source more goods from China.
Instead, U.S. companies are looking harder at Mexico and other locales closer to home when exploring where to put new capacity. The findings are based on a survey of 130 U.S. manufacturers, ranging from producers of drugs (BusinessWeek, 9/4/08) and computers to auto parts. The survey, completed in mid-October, found a sharp swing in attitudes toward China since May, when AMR conducted a similar study.
The reasons for the shift suggest serious problems for China's export machine that go far beyond the concerns over rising costs for wages, shipping, and materials that got a lot of attention earlier this year.
AMR asked U.S. manufacturers to rate different regions around the world (China and the U.S. were each counted as region unto themselves) on 15 different risks tied to sourcing products for sale in America. Just a few months ago the biggest concerns over China were rising factory wages and the hike in trans-Pacific shipping costs owing to soaring fuel prices. Since then, the 60% plunge in oil prices and a sharp falloff in U.S. imports from China have caused spot freight prices on ocean shipping to crash.
Now, the biggest concerns over China are quality and theft of intellectual property (BusinessWeek.com, 4/27/06). Half of respondents to the survey cited China as the biggest source of "risk" for product quality failure. Fifty-seven percent rated China as the biggest risk of intellectual-property infringement. Both categories represented sharp increases from May. No other region was named as the biggest source of risk in those two areas by more than 7% of respondents.
"China is in a league of its own in terms of risks associated with intellectual property and quality," says Kevin O'Marah, AMR's chief strategist.
In fact, China ranked highest in 9 of the 15 risk factors. Rising labor costs are still an important factor for businesses, with 35% citing China as the leading source of concern. Other risk categories where China ranked highest included regulatory compliance, commodity price volatility, supply-chain security breaches, and information technology problems. The shortage of Chinese managerial talent—long one of the top risk factors during the go-go era that ended last year—has tailed off as a major worry.
The findings don't suggest a mass pullout from China, O'Marah says. Two out of three companies said they still plan to expand there, mainly because they already have operations and component suppliers in the mainland. But that's a big falloff since May, when four out of five companies said they had China expansion plans. The number of companies saying they plan to actually decrease sourcing from China rose from 9% to 17%. Asia in general is falling from favor as an import source, the AMR study found.
Where are the hottest new places for manufacturing investment? For U.S. companies, Latin America seems poised to be the big winner. The number of companies planning Latin expansions rose from four out of five in May to five out of six in October. Mexico is by far seen as the leading destination, cited by 73% as the primary source for new outsourcing. AMR also found that more production work is expected to shift to the U.S., with the percentage of companies planning to invest at home rising from 22% to 33%. Of course, this snapshot of corporate plans may have changed since the survey was taken. The deepening U.S. recession may prompt U.S. companies to curtail expansion anywhere.
The souring attitude should be disturbing to China's leadership. If the issue were just eroding price advantages, that would be less cause for alarm. Costs could swing back in China's favor, for example, with fluctuations in currency rates, commodity prices, or changes in China's job market. What's more, Chinese manufacturers have a long history of sacrificing profit margins with lowball pricing to win market share.
The AMR study suggests, however, that U.S. companies are starting to better appreciate the less-visible costs of producing in China. Quality problems, rampant piracy (BusinessWeek, 10/2/08), allegations of sweatshop abuses, worker protests, and other factors not only drive up costs but also harm the value of brands and corporate reputations. "Companies are realizing that the fully loaded costs of importing from China are a lot higher than they imagined," says O'Marah.
Trouble is, China will not be able to improve its quality problem overnight. It will require a long-term transformation of China's regulatory bureaucracy, legal system, and management practices. And Beijing has been promising to control intellectual-property theft for decades, with unimpressive results. If China doesn't start making progress fast, the current slump in export manufacturing (BusinessWeek, 3/27/08) could be the beginning of a longer-term pullback.
Engardio is an international senior writer for BusinessWeek .
Pete Engardio （BusinessWeek誌、国際シニアライター）
米国時間2008年11月26日更新 「China Losing Luster with U.S. Manufacturers」
養殖ウナギから玩具、薬品から乳製品に至るまで、この2年間で中国産製品のずさんな品質管理の実態が明らかとなり、“世界の工場”としての中国の魅力は大きく損なわれる結果となった。サプライチェーン分野の調査コンサルティング業務を専門とする米AMRリサーチの最新調査によると、品質に対する不安から、米国の製造業者は中国への生産委託計画を縮小しつつある。
代わって注目を集めているのが、メキシコなどの米国の近隣諸国だ。製薬会社（BusinessWeek.comの記事を参照：2008年9月4日「Chinese Scientists Build Big Pharma Back Home」）からコンピューターや自動車部品のメーカーまで米製造業130社を対象に、10月中旬に実施された今回の調査では、AMRが同様の調査を行った5月以降、中国に対する意識が大きく変化していることが明らかとなった。
中国製造業にまつわる問題として、今年に入って人件費、輸送費、原材料費の高騰が大いに注目を集めたが、今回の調査で判明した米製造業者の中国に対する意識変化は、輸出大国・中国にとってはるかに深刻な問題だ。
調査では、米国内で販売される製品の調達に 関わる15のリスク要因について、世界中の様々な地域の評価を尋ねている（ただし中国と米国は、それぞれ国でなく1つの地域として区分）。ほんの数カ月 前、中国に対する最大の不安は、工場労働者の賃金上昇と、燃料価格高騰による海上運賃の上昇だった。ところが、その後原油価格が60％下落し、中国の対米 輸出が急減したことで、スポット運賃は暴落している。
現在、中国に関する最大の不安要素となっているのは、品質問題と知的財産の盗用だ（BusinessWeek.comの記事を参照：2006年4月27日「China’s Intellectual Property Thicket」）。回答者の半数が製品の品質欠陥について、また57％が知的財産の侵害について、「リスク」が最も高い地域として中国を挙げている。5月の調査時と比べて大幅に増加しており、この2項目で中国以外の地域をトップに挙げた回答はわずか7％に過ぎない。
The EU and China
Nov 27th 2008 | BRUSSELS
From The Economist print edition
SUMMITS are a dime a dozen these days. So it is tempting to shrug off the announcement on November 26th that China pulled out of an EU-China summit, at less than a week’s notice. But China’s high-profile snub—aimed at President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who was to be the host on the European Union side—cannot be dismissed so easily.
Cancelling a meeting at such a high level is a rare breach of diplomatic manners. Mr Sarkozy has irked China by proposing to meet the Dalai Lama at a party in Poland for former winners of the Nobel peace prize on December 6th. Before then, he was due to play host to the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, in the French city of Lyon, in his capacity as holder of the rotating presidency of the EU. Some of the EU’s regular summits with China are very dull. This one had important things to discuss, such as joint action on tackling the global financial crisis. An official EU statement regretted the summit’s postponement, “particularly” at a time when the world situation calls for “very close co-operation”.
Mr Sarkozy seems singled out for special punishment. Both Angela Merkel of Germany and Gordon Brown of Britain have met the Dalai Lama in the recent past, without triggering such diplomatic fireworks. Mr Sarkozy, a mercurial chap, may not have prepared the ground with Beijing for his meeting with the Dalai Lama quite as diligently as did Ms Merkel and Mr Brown, diplomats suggest. Also, France and China have had some bruising spats this year: Mr Sarkozy criticised China’s handling of unrest in Tibet; the Olympic-torch relay was disrupted by protests in Paris (as in London); Mr Sarkozy hinted he might stay away from the opening of the Beijing Olympics unless China started talks with the Dalai Lama. Reprisals followed, notably an apparently temporary tourism boycott of France by China.
But other things are in motion. Recently the French, who will surrender the EU presidency at the end of December, unexpectedly put out feelers to see if other EU countries wanted to move ahead with a long-delayed EU code of conduct on arms sales to China. That code of conduct has long been presented by the French as the key to a much bigger prize for China: the scrapping of an EU embargo on arms sales to China, dating back to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The French, it is said, found little enthusiasm for movement on the arms-for-China dossier. America dislikes any idea of EU arms helping China modernise its army, since American troops might one day be on the wrong end of such lethal toys, in a fight over Taiwan. European leaders are not about to annoy the new President Obama, just to please China.
Anti-government protesters at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok celebrated on Tuesday after Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolved the ruling party and banned the prime minister from politics for five years.
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BANGKOK — The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered Thailand’s governing party to be disbanded and barred the prime minister and many of his senior ministers from politics for five years.
The court ruling, which came amid protests that have paralyzed the government and blockaded Bangkok’s two airports, dissolves the People Power Party of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
Thousands of protesters at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the country’s main tourist gateway, roared when one of their leaders announced the news of the court’s decision from a makeshift stage outside the airport’s departure hall.
The cheers were followed by a minute of silence for the several protesters who were killed in various clashes and grenade attacks during the long protest campaign.
“I’m glad, I feel relieved, it’s like something that we have been carrying is now gone,” said Tonkla Maksuk, 49, a volunteer nurse at the protest. ““I feel that this is still a country of laws.”
The protesters, who have been occupying Mr. Somchai’s offices at Government House in central Bangkok since August, have made his resignation their principal demand. They charge that he is a pawn of the fugitive former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
In the two years since a military coup ousted Mr. Thaksin as prime minister, a series of court rulings have also banned him and his allies from participating in politics. And as happened Tuesday, his political party was disbanded.
But members of Parliament simply reregistered under the People Power Party, which Mr. Somchai has been leading. Mr. Somchai has remained outside of Bangkok since last Wednesday, possibly fearing a military coup.
Members of Mr. Somchai’s party who were not banned by the court are expected to form a new party, which they will name Puea Thai, and call for an election as early as next week for a new prime minister.
“I’m extremely happy that we have won over tyranny, over the Thaksin regime, which is corrupt and dictatorial,” said another protester, Chokchuang Chutinaton, moments after the court decision was announced at the airport. “Truth will always win over evil, as according to Mahatma Gandhi.”
The court heard arguments in the case on Tuesday morning. The ruling was handed down around 1:30 p.m.
The case involved allegations of voter fraud by the People Power Party and two of its coalition partners in an election in December 2007. The court also banned the top leaders of the Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya parties from politics for five years.
The ruling preceded another much-anticipated event this week, the annual speech on Thursday of the ailing but highly revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has not spoken publicly about the country’s national crisis.
Earlier Tuesday, a protest encampment at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok was rocked by a bomb blast. The explosion killed one protester, news agencies reported, and more than 20 were injured.
The antigovernment protests that intensified last week with the takeover of the capital’s two airports have plunged Thailand into its worst political crisis in at least a decade, and threaten to severely damage the economy.
The airport blockades have hurt some of the country’s crucial industries, especially tourism, at a time when the Thai economy was already showing signs of a slowdown because of the global financial crisis.
“Tell the world we did not want to blockade the airports,” Dr. Chutinaton said at the protest at Suvarnabhumi Airport. ““It was a desperate measure to achieve our goal.”
There has been concern about violence between demonstrators and the police. There are more than 2,000 security troops on standby around the international airport, but the police have said their priority is negotiation. A police helicopter flew over the main airport on Monday and dropped leaflets asking the thousands of protesters to “rally in peace and without weapons.”
Since Bangkok is also a regional hub for passengers and cargo, the repercussions are also spreading through Asia. Logistics companies and airlines are diverting business to competing hubs in Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Hong Kong.
Foreign governments, including that of the United States, have called on the protesters to allow the airports to reopen.
On Monday, after a concession by the protesters, airlines were flying dozens of empty planes out of the besieged international airport. Some of the planes were making stops elsewhere in the country, said Serirat Prasutanont, director of the Airports Authority of Thailand, to help funnel out some of the quarter-million or more foreign visitors still stranded.
The government has been using another airport, U-Tapao, at a Vietnam War-era military base two hours from Bangkok, to fly stranded passengers out. But that airport’s facilities are overloaded, and in any case, extremely limited.
Thailand has two other international airports. One, in Chiang Mai, is an eight-hour drive north of Bangkok, and the other, on the resort island of Phuket, is nine hours to the south.
“At the moment there are hardly any incoming passengers, very few,” said Pornthip Hiranyakij, secretary general of the Tourism Council of Thailand.
On Monday, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s lowered its economic outlook for Thailand because of the blockades. “It has caused serious disruptions to economic activities in the kingdom and raises the possibility of widespread violence markedly,” said Kim Eng Tan, a credit analyst. “These developments will add to the negative pressures of a global slowdown on Thailand’s economy.”
"Cape No. 7" is Taiwan's most successful movie in years, earning more than 231 million New Taiwan dollars ($6.9 million) since its release on Aug. 22 and becoming the island's second top-grossing movie after the Hollywood romance "Titanic."
"Cape No. 7" is about a failed Taiwanese rock musician who returns to his small coastal hometown and is forced to play in a hastily assembled amateur band that will open for a Japanese pop star. He falls in love with the Japanese publicist overseeing the show.
The movie is also interspersed with a voice-over that reads from love letters written by a Japanese man to his Taiwanese love interest just after the island's colonial era ended. Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.
Cecille Huang, a marketing official at Taiwan's ARS Film Production, the company that made "Cape No. 7," said it had sold distribution rights to the import and export arm of the state-run China Film Group.
But "Cape No. 7" has sparked worries among Chinese officials that it might cause a nationalistic backlash in the mainland, newspapers reported. Japan also occupied parts of mainland China before and during World War II.
Chen Yunlin, a senior Chinese official in charge of relations with Taiwan, said the movie was tainted by its portrayal of Taiwanese who had been subject to "colonial brainwashing," Taiwan's United Daily News reported on its Web site Monday.
Reached by phone Monday, Yuan Wenqiang, general manager of China Film Group's import-export arm, said company officials were discussing the movie with government film censors.
"The process is ongoing," he said.
Huang said she was still confirming the newspaper reports and had no further comment.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, with the mainland ruled by the Chinese Communist Party and the small island ruled by the Nationalists. Beijing continues to claim now-democratic Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to retake it by force, while many Taiwanese say they have a separate cultural identity and prefer to keep the status quo.
China also decided not to release the 2005 Hollywood movie "Memoirs of a Geisha," apparently fearful that the sight of Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li portraying Japanese entertainers would offend mainland viewers.
