Keywords : Tibet, carbon dioxide emissions, labour, Taiwan joining UN, Hong Kong income gap

Politics

• The Dalai Lama’s recent claim that he would ‘abandon Tibetan indepedence’ in exchange for a ‘high degree of autonomy’ does not hide his separatist nature, the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region said. He also voiced ‘deep regret’ over Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s meeting with the Dalai Lama last week.
• In a set of regulations carried by Xinhua, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said officials who had taken advantage of their posts for unlawful profit would be given leniency if they confessed in the 30 days from May 30.

Economy

• Shanghai has found that government and state officials illegally funnelled more than 6 billion yuan into the stock market in the past 4 years, including money taken from the social security fund in the city’s biggest corruption case. It’s the first time the government has admitted that money from the pension fund was channelled into stocks. The mainland banking regulator said earlier this week that it had fined 8 banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, for allowing loans to be channelled into the property and stock markets.
• The mainland will slash tax rebates on exports of 2831 types of products on July 1, in a two-pronged effort to reduce trade friction with other countries and to improve energy efficiency in a range of industries.
• The mainland’s trade surplus last month was up 73% from a year earlier, a rise analysts described as astonishing and certain to increase the political pressure on Beijing.
• The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission had planned to cut the number of major enterprises under its control from 157 to between 80 and 100 by 2010. The government has decided to concentrate State capital on some key industries to sharpen their competitiveness in the face of challenges from foreign firms – and 30-50 Chinese enterprises will be made internationally competitive.

Environment

• A central government official dismissed a report stating that the Mainland had for the first time overtaken the US as the world’s top producer of carbon dioxide, a year ahead of previous predictions. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said that mainland’s carbon dioxide emissions which topped 6.2 billion tonnes last year, had surpassed those of the United States by 8 per cent.
• A climate-change pact readched by Group of Eight leaders failed to specify obligations for developed countries, and a prolonged debate over setting caps on emissions of greenhouse gases should be avoided, a top Beijing official said. Wan Gang the new minister of science and technology said ‘we should stop engaging in debate how much a nation should reduce emissions of greenhouse gas. Instead, we should make efforts and take concrete steps to cut it.’

Society

• Mainland police have caught the labour boss accused of duping and pressing hundreds of children and adults to work as slaves at his brick factory in Shanxi province. In Shanxi, 374 including 18 under 14 and sex aged 14 to 18 had been freed after raids on more than 3700 small brick factories and coal mines many of them unlicensed, Xinhua said. In Henan, 217 slave workers, including 29 aged under 18 and 10 who are mentally handicapped  have been rescued according to the provincial public security bureau. Most of the children, some as young as eight were kidnapped from railway and bus stations in Zhengzhou and sold by traffickers to kiln owners in Shanxi for 500 yuan.
• China’s top trade union body has warned that would not give in to pressure from foreign businesses to water down a new law designed to ffer greater protection to hundred of millions of workers. Voting on the law is expected this month.
• Authorities in Jilin province are investigating how a fake blood product ended up being used to treat patients in 18 public hospitals. Thousand of bottles of fake human albumin with forged labels were found during a crackdown on bogus medicines since March.

Foreign Affairs

• Every 1 of the 24 toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, was manufactured in China. The lastest involves 1.5 million Thomas & Friends trains and rail sets – or about 4% of all those sold in the United States over the past 2 years – which were coated at a facotry in China with lead paint

Taiwan

• Taiwanese officials vowed to proceed with a referendum on rejoing the United Nations under the name Taiwan despite fierce objections from China and U.S warnings not to hold the poll. Taiwanese analysts say that a major reason for holding the U.N. referendum on the same day as either the legislative or presidential elections is to motivate the pro-independence base of the DPP to get out and vote.
• In the latest twist to a scanda lover secret state funds, Taiwan’s Council of Grand Justices has ruled it was unconstitutional for prosecutors to question President Chen Sui-bian over any criminal case because he enjoys immunity.
• The Kaoshiung District Court annulled the result of the poll in Kaohsiung on the grounds that the winner, Chen Chu of the ruling DPP broke the election law by accusing her KMT opponent Huang Chun-ying, of buying votes. The Court spokesman said Ms Chen’s camp made the accusation without solid evidence just hours before the election and this left Mr Huang without enough time to respond, which was unfair to him. Under the election law, Ms Chen can appeal once against the district court’s ruling. If the high court upholds the district court’s ruling on appeal, Ms Chen will have to step down and a by-election will have to be held.

Hong Kong

• Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun the former secretary for education and manpower, resigned from the civil service after the commission of inquiry into alleged government interference at the Hong Kong Institute of Education delivered a damning verdict on her conduct.

• Hong Kong’s widening income gap was brought into sharp focus by new government figures showing the number of households earning $4000 a month or less swelled by 80000 in the past decade while those on more than HK40000 have increased by 100000. Further illustration was given by the latest Gini coefficient which has risen from 0.518 to 0.533 in the same period and remains among the highest in the developed world. 

• Parents and a legistator are demanding urgent action to tackle the runaway inflation in school debentures which agents are offering for sale for up to HK$3 million. Days after the Sunday Morning Post reported a couple had paid HK$1 million for a debenture to secure her daughter a place at Chinese International School, one parent hoping to win her child a place there was quoted HK$3 million for a corporate debenture. The same agency quoted her HK$1.4 million in September.
• The independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary cannot be compromised, the chief justice has said dismissing fears that a speech by the NPC chairman earlier suggests it is under threat. In a rare interview to mark the 10th anniversary of the handover Andrew Li Kwok-nang asserted the power of courts to rule freely, including in sensitive involving the Basic Law. He said Bejing’s power to make interpretations of Hong Kong’s constitution that were binding on the coursts should be recognised, but that such interpretations should be delivered only in very exceptional circumstances. Last week, NPC chairman Wu Bangguo told a Beijing conference on the Basic Law that Hong Kong should not copy the separation of powers principle adopted overseas.