(Washington, DC—December 1, 2008) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in November:
RFA Reports on taxi strikes in China
November 25 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a strike by taxi drivers in the central Chinese province of Hubei who are scrambling to mediate. This is the latest in a string of industrial disputes to sweep China amid the global financial crisis. Hundreds of taxi drivers entered the second day of a strike in Suizhou city over increased business costs.
RFA Reports on violence in Chongqing water dispute
November 25 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on an investigation into violent clashes between local residents and armed employees of a local mine in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing. This followed an environmental dispute that has simmered for months."There were between 10 and 20 people [beaten]," a healthcare worker at the Gaoqiao township clinic said following clashes between hundreds of local farmers and men hired to protect the mine.
RFA Reports on Hubei-based petitioner Guo Dajing
November 20 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on Guo Dajing, who tried to lodge a complaint against official corruption in his hometown in the central Chinese province of Hubei. Mr. Guo was detained in one of a growing number of "black jails," or unofficial detention centers, and severely beaten. He was detained and dragged back to his hometown by police, local officials, and hired thugs while he was in Beijing to file a complaint in September.
RFA Reports on child soldier in Burma
November 20 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on a child soldier who was returned by Burmese authorities to his family five months after recruiting him in violation of its own policy and United Nations conventions. Fifteen-year-old Ye Lin Htet was returned to his family on Nov. 12, after the International Labor Organization (ILO) aided his mother in producing documents that proved the boy was too young to enlist as a soldier.
RFA Reports on China warning over Tibet talks
November 19 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English] on Tibetan officials and activists in exile meeting in northern India to discuss the next moves in their resistance to Chinese rule. Beijing warned that any attempt to separate the Himalayan region from the People's Republic of China is "doomed." Five hundred prominent Tibetans assembled for a conference called for by Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to discuss the future status of Tibet.
RFA Reports on Uyghur woman release without forced abortion
November 18 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on an ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will. Arzigul Tursun, whose case drew international attention, has been released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy.
RFA Reports on quake victims facing grim winter
November 13 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on quake victims in southwestern China facing a harsh winter. Six months after the devastating earthquake of May 12, residents in remote areas of China's Sichuan province are now facing winter without adequate shelter or heat.
RFA Reports on North Korean envoys in U.S.
November 7 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on senior U.S. and North Korean officials who have concluded rare talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, just days after the U.S. presidential election. "The talks were substantive, serious, and they focused of course on how to move the six-party process forward," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.
RFA Reports on Khmer lake families fearing eviction
November 6 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English] on the controversy over plans to develop an area of the Cambodian capital and evict its residents. Sixty-year-old Nam has lived on a small plot of land in Village No. 22 alongside Boeung Kak Lake, in the Cambodian capital, since 1980. Now, she says, officials are saying the entire settlement has to go—slated for redevelopment into a commercial property.
RFA Reports on Chinese workers crisis due to global economic downturn
November 4 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on millions of workers who flooded to China's booming coastal cities to find work during the past decade and are now beginning to return home. This comes amid a wave of factory closures and unemployment sparked by the global financial crisis.
