East Asia

South Korea ranks second in the OECD for nations that are a huffin’ and a puffin’. And before the house gets blown down the government and the business community are pushing some of the world’s toughest measures to curb the country’s tobacco obsession. But not with higher taxes.

On April 24th, around 5000 passengers were stuck at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport due to thick fog. To ease the people’s stress while waiting to take off, the airport dispatched a cheerleading team to the main terminal. When I first saw the pics I figured it had to be Japan, but no, this is Chinese ingenuity.

Nice.

It’s no secret that Japan’s economy has been in the slow lane for a long spell – GDP has grown over the last decade at an average annual rate of only 0.6%.

Well, according to a Japanese think tank, they better get there たわごと together.

The 21st Century Public Policy Institute is predicting that South Korea will pass Japan in gross domestic product per capita around 2030 and that Japan could even be dropped from the category of “developed countries” around that time.

The report blames the coming fall on low Japanese birth rates. The institute assumes the population will drop to 116.6 million in 2030 from 128.1 million in 2010.

I don’t know who is running the PR department for the Chinese government, but they really need to work on the message. Rather than pointing out all of the good things China has done for Tibet, the state-run media continues to attack the Dalai Lama publicly, which will win them no friends.

Today they took it to another level.

He always plays tricks under the cover of doing good for Tibetans. It is doubtable that the Dalai Lama would speak on the behalf of Tibetans as he is sponsored by the US and his relatives work for Central Intelligence Agency.

Yah, that makes sense. What with all those natural resources and sunny beaches in Tibet, I am sure the American government is allotting resources in that political arena with Central Intelligence Agency.

GENEVA, Switzerland — South Korea has long argued that the North Korean defectors should be treated as refugees and not be returned to North Korea where they often face severe punishment and even death. China, on the other hand, does not agree.

The Chinese government, which has repatriated large numbers of defectors over the years, claims they do so because those that cross are entering China for economic reasons and do not merit protection as ‘refugees.’

In effect, China is either in complete denial that repatriated North Koreans are exposed to extreme punitive actions upon their return, or simply place no value on the lives of those they send back across their border.