Roundup - 02/01/2009

• Thousands of protesters have been marching through Hong Kong demanding full democracy. Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a constitution which guaranteed that Hong Kong's Chief Executive and Legislature should eventually elected democratically. However, in 2007 China postponed the change, the Chief Executive will now be elected from 2017 and the legislature from 2020.
  
  Reports on the size of the demonstrations vary from 4,600 to 9,000. While the protests are a boost to democratic campaigners in Hong Kong, the numbers fall far short of previous protests. In 2003 a national security bill was shelved after 500,000 took to the streets in protest.
  
  Although the democratic movement has been weakened in recent years, it is hoped that the resignation of five pro-democracy legislators later this months will provoke elections which could be interpreted as a referendum on democratic reform.
  
  
  
• The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has now come into effect. The agreement, initially prompted by the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, covers a region which contains 1.9 billion people and and combined GDP of almost US$6 trillion. ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan has said that the Free Trade Area will benefit both China and ASEAN and help to lift the global economy out of recession.
  
  
  
• The Shanghai Panda Dairy Company has been shut down and three of its executives arrested for selling milk products contaminated with melamine. Authorities are currently overseeing the recall of its products from other parts of China. In 2008 six children died from drinking milk containing melamine. Several people were jailed and two executed for their role in that scandal. However, cases of melamine contamination continue to be discovered. Last month three people were arrested in Shaanxi for producing milk powder containing melamine.
  
  
  
• Apple has followed Google's lead in self-censorship in China. Applications for the iPhone relating to the Dalai Lama and Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer are not available from the Chinese app store. Apples runs different app stores for each country and has the final say on what applications are available in which stores. Reports suggest that searches on iTunes only find apps relating to the Dalai Lama if the search is in English but not in Chinese.
  
  
  
• Nine people have been killed and another eight injured after an explosion at a fireworks factory in Shaanxi. On Friday afternoon a massive blast destroyed all seven workshops of the Xinping Firecrackers Co. Ltd. Police are looking for Qu Pingxing, the factory boss, who is believed to have fled following the explosion.
  
  
  
• 606,100 tourists from the mainland visited Taiwan last year according to the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits. Restrictions on mainlanders visiting Taiwan have been relaxed by both sides since commercial flights resumed between the two territories in July 2008. The visitors brought an estimated US$1.13 billion to the Taiwanese economy.