From Volume 7, Issue 13 of EIR Online, Published Mar. 25, 2008
Asia News Digest

Provocation in Tibet Has No Takers in Asia

March 16 (EIRNS)—Despite the British-led efforts to intensify confrontations against China using Tibet as the raison d'être, it is evident that none of the Asian countries, in and around Tibet in particular, are willing to provide support to the agents of chaos.

India, along with Nepal, which borders China's Tibet region, has barred several hundred Tibetan exiles from starting a march to Tibet to protest Beijing hosting this Summer's Olympic Games, as Tibetans rioted in Lhasa this week. Other demonstrations were held in New Delhi and Katmandu, Nepal, where ten activists were detained after hundreds clashed with police.

Getting Ready To Join the Tibetans Against China

March 19 (EIRNS)—A British-guided destabilization operation against China, targetting the Olympics in particular, will soon expand from the current instigated unrest in Tibet, according to a source in New Delhi. The source says that the violent protests and demonstrations launched by Tibetans in Lhasa will be soon joined by the Uighurs, the Chinese Muslims from Xinjiang province, who are of Turkish ethnic background.

Hundreds of thousands of Uighurs moved out of China following the Communist takeover in 1949. Some of them joined the underground and came under the control of the British MI6 intelligence service and a section of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Many of these Uighurs are now based in Pakistan, mostly in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The source indicates that the Uighurs are in the process of making arrangements to sabotage the April 16 event when the Olympic torch, destined to reach Beijing, passes through Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistani security forces may not be able to prevent an attack.

EIR has covered the infiltration of the British MI6-run jihadists in Pakistan's security establishment over the years. It is this group of militants who were involved in the Dec. 27, 2007 assassination of Begum Benazir Bhutto, the two-time prime minister and leader of the largest political party in the country, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Her assassination was an element of a British-run "chaos operation," still under way, to keep nations off-balance as the financial system crashes, and within Eurasia, to target China and Russia for destabilization.

South Korea Begins Preparation for Crisis

March 20 (EIRNS)—South Korea's government today announced an emergency decision to lift import tariffs on 70 price-sensitive food products, including wheat, corn, syrup, soybean cake, and coffee cream, effective April 1, as part of its effort to stabilize local consumer prices amid soaring international prices of raw materials. The government also unveiled a plan to freeze almost all public utility rates, including public transportation fees and tap-water charges, through consultations with provincial governments and public corporations.

Beyond price controls, the government will diversify import sources and utilize less expensive goods. Other anti-inflationary measures will include an overhaul of distribution channels of agricultural and livestock products, and the provision of low-interest loans to low-income households incapable of coping with rising rents.

The value of the Korean won is rapidly falling, even against the collapsing dollar, because "hot money," both domestic and foreign, is leaving Korea. According to Vice Finance Minister Choi Joong-kyung, the government is ready to take unspecified measures to ease the sharp depreciation of the won, if the currency market shows "abnormal fluctuations."

The food crisis in North Korea is reported to be dire. The country is not a major purchaser on the international markets, but does depend on foreign aid, especially that tied to the Six-Power Agreement. Accelerating rising food prices means that less grain can be purchased for a committed dollar amount.

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