Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
November 16, 2015
Deal at U.N. meeting opens way for satellite tracking of jets
GENEVA (AP) — A deal reached at a U.N. meeting opens the way for satellite
tracking of airliners, a major breakthrough motivated by the mysterious
disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner last year. The agreement allows
nations to set aside radio frequencies so that airplanes can be tracked by
satellite — not just from the ground. Under current radar-based systems, the
movement of planes is monitored by land-based systems, leaving around 70
percent of the world’s surface uncovered, according to the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), the U.N. communications agency. Modern
planes that can send what are known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-
Broadcast, or ADS-B, signals to the ground are now on track to send signals to
satellites too — with implementation expected by 2017. The accord to set aside
the 1087.7-1092.3 MHz radio frequency for satellite tracking of planes came at
the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), an international gathering
organized every four years by the ITU. International civil aviation regulator
ICAO has pushed for satellite tracking of aircraft, as long as current safety
measures aren’t jeopardized. “The WRC’s action today will enable better
tracking and location of aircraft that otherwise could disappear from terrestrial
tracking systems,” said U.S. Ambassador Decker Anstrom, who led the U.S.
delegation at the conference. “This is an excellent example of the ability of
nations, working through the ITU process, to take action in improving peoples’
lives.” The March 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 with 239
people on board exposed weaknesses in worldwide air navigation systems.
Debris from the Boeing 777 was found in the Indian Ocean in July.
Six sentenced to death in torture deaths of two boys
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Courts in Bangladesh have sentenced six people
to death for torturing and killing two young boys earlier this year.
Thirteen-year-old Samiul Islam Rajon died in July after he was brutally beaten.
In August, 12-year-old Rakib Hawlader died after his former employer at a car
repair shop used a nozzle to pump air into his rectum in retaliation for quitting
his job. A court found the main suspect, Kamrul Islam, and three others guilty of
torturing Rajon to death and sentenced them to death. A separate court found
the owner of the car repair shop and an employee guilty of killing Hawlader and
sentenced them to death. A video of Rajon screaming for help went viral online,
shocking a nation inured to violence against children.
Worker dies, 18 faint at Cambodian garment factory
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — One worker died and 18 others fainted at a
garment factory in eastern Cambodia that has been closed pending an
investigation, according to authorities. Five female workers at the Or Sambath
Trading factory reported dizziness, vomiting, and difficulty breathing before
passing out, said Duk Kanthor, district governor where the factory is located in
eastern Prey Veng province. They were sent to a hospital, where a 21-year-old
worker later died, he said. The next day, 14 more workers fell ill with similar
symptoms before passing out and being taken to a hospital, he said. The factory,
which is Chinese owned, employs more than 1,000 workers, mostly women, said
Duk Kanthor. It was ordered closed for four days to determine what caused the
health problems. The garment industry is Cambodia’s biggest export earner,
employing about 700,000 people in more than 700 garment and shoe factories. In
2014, the Southeast Asian country shipped more than $6 billion worth of
products to the United States and Europe. In October, the Labor Ministry
announced it was raising the minimum wage for garment workers by 9.4 percent
to $140 per month, hoping to ease tensions after tense negotiations with workers
and employers. Wages in Cambodia remain low by international standards.
Two-child policy to add 30 million workers by 2050
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities expect that easing the country’s
one-child policy will add more than 30 million people to the country’s labor force
by 2050, according to a senior official. Wang Pei’an, spokesman for the National
Health and Family Planning Commission, said at a news conference that more
than 90 million women will become eligible for having a second child when
China formally moves away from the one-child policy to allow all couples to have
two children. The new policy is expected to add 3 million extra births each year
in the initial years, Wang said. China had 16.87 million births last year, and the
easing of the policy is expected to boost the annual figure to nearly 20 million
births — in line with China’s population goals, he said. Lu Jiehua, an expert on
demographics at Peking University, said the 30 million estimate appears to be
conservative, given an estimate of 3 million extra births per year. “Maybe the
consideration is that the birthrate will drop after the initial several years,” Lu
said. Wang said the younger blood will improve China’s age makeup in the labor
force, lower the percentage of the elderly in the population by two percent, and
slow the society’s aging process. The policy is expected to be formally adopted in
the spring. About half the women of child-bearing age expected to become
eligible to have a second child will be in their 40s, Wang said. The country’s
family planning workers — notorious for their past work of forced sterilization
and forced abortions to enforce the one-child policy — are also involved with
processing applications for additional children and directing couples to prenatal
care. Wang said they are likely to see their workload increase under the new
policy. “Their tasks will only increase and get heavier, so this team can only be
strengthened, not weakened,” Wang said. He told reporters that China is not
ready to abolish the birth limit because it still needs to manage the population
growth.
HISTORIC HANDSHAKE. Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou, left, and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands at
the Shangri-La Hotel on November 7, 2015 in Singapore. The two leaders shook hands at the start of a historic meeting,
marking the first top-level contact between the formerly bitter Cold War foes since they split amid civil war 66 years ago.
(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
A China-Taiwan handshake,
66 years in the making
By Tim Sullivan
The Associated Press
t was just a handshake. Just two
prosperous-looking men in dark suits
walking across a hotel meeting room to
say hello.
But, of course, it wasn’t. It was highly
choreographed political theater, a gesture that
had been discussed and negotiated for more
than two years. And now, the leaders of China
and Taiwan, two rivals whose hatred for each
other had once seemed poised to draw the
world into nuclear war, were shaking hands
and smiling for hundreds of cameras. They
kept it up for a full minute, turning together so
everyone in the cavernous room could capture
the moment from the proper angle.
For decades, that handshake had seemed
impossible.
Sixty-six years ago, in 1949, Chiang
Kai-shek retreated to an island across the
Taiwan Strait as Mao Zedong’s forces took
control of mainland China. Each man claimed
to be the true leader of all of China. Each
claimed the other was an illegal occupier. In
the depths of the Cold War, the world lined up
behind their favorite: the Eastern Bloc behind
Mao and Beijing, the West behind Chiang and
Taiwan.
Slowly, though, the enmity faded. Talk of
war was heard less and less. Money became a
common language.
First Taiwan got rich, in part by investing
the wealth that Chiang’s forces had carried
with them on their retreat, becoming an
I
industrial powerhouse that churned out cheap
electronics. Then, after China opened its
economy, Chinese factories became the place
to go for cheap consumer goods. Eventually,
Taiwanese investors poured billions of dollars
into the mainland.
By then, Taiwan had become an
international stepchild, a not-quite country
abandoned by the United Nations and forced
to compete in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei.
But if China became far more powerful,
Taiwan wasn’t just going to give up.
Bitterness, both sides saw, was not going to
achieve very much.
Which is why at 3:00pm on Saturday,
November 7, China’s Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s
Ma Ying-jeou entered from either side of a
ballroom at Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel,
walked up to one another and shook hands.
They stood there long enough so each could
try out a variety of smiles: effusive, diplomatic,
maybe even coy. Stuttering shadows danced
behind them as hundreds of cameras clicked
on and on.
You could endlessly try to parse the
moment. What did it mean that Ma kept up his
brightest politician smile as Xi started to look
bored? Why did Ma keep Xi’s hand pulled so
close?
But the men wanted no other news. Even the
backdrop — a plain yellow wall — was selected
to be neutral, neither the red of China nor the
blue of Ma’s Kuomintang party.
They made sure the handshake itself was
the news. And it was.
Asian Currency
Exchange Rates
Units per U.S. dollar as of 11/13
Bangladesh Taka· ·
Cambodian Riel · ·
China Renminbi · ·
Fijian Dollar · · · ·
Hong Kong Dollar ·
Indian Rupee · · · ·
Indonesian Rupiah ·
Iranian Rial · · · ·
Japanese Yen · · ·
Laos New Kip · · ·
Malaysian Ringgit ·
Nepal Rupee · · · ·
Pakistani Rupee · ·
Papua N.G. Kina · ·
Philippine Peso· · ·
Russian Ruble · · ·
Saudi Riyal· · · · ·
Singapore Dollar · ·
South Korean Won ·
Sri Lankan Rupee ·
Taiwan Dollar · · ·
Thai Baht · · · · ·
Vietnam Dong · · ·
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78.35
4039.2
6.3736
2.1608
7.751
66.099
13685
29957
122.76
8185.5
4.378
104.94
104.55
2.9455
47.1
66.543
3.7501
1.4217
1163.6
142.05
32.829
35.904
22438