INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016 China to restrict family size for up to 30 years

BEIJING: China will stick to family plan- couples are now not keen on having 20 years, 30 years,” Wang said. “After a rich before it got old, Wang said an age- to prevent population growth spiraling ning restrictions for up to 30 years, a sen- more children. period of time, along with demographic ing population was a global problem out of control, but is now regarded as ior Chinese official said yesterday, reject- China’s population is set to peak at changes, and along with changes in the and “an inevitable trend of a society’s outdated and responsible for shrinking ing concern that limits on the number of about 1.45 billion by 2050 when one in population’s socio-economic develop- development”. China’s main problem the labor pool. It has also led to the children had shrunk the pool of workers every three people is expected to be ment situation, we will adopt a different with its labor force was not the number problem of an aging society, with a needed to support an aging population. more than 60 years old, with a shrinking population policy.” He said it was difficult of workers but “how to improve the qual- smaller number of productive young Last year, the ruling Chinese proportion of working adults to support to give a specific time on how long the ity of workers”, he said. people, a phenomenon usually seen in Communist Party announced it would them. But officials would adhere to fami- restrictions on family size would be Wang said there was a demographic industrialized countries. With the adop- relax its long-standing and controversial ly planning restrictions “for the long maintained, saying it was an issue that “imbalance” in China between poorer tion of the two-child policy, China’s labor “one-child policy”, allowing all couples to term”, Wang Pei’an, vice minister of the had to be dealt with “in line with the regions with higher fertility levels than force could rise by more than 30 million have two children. But critics say the pol- National Health and Family Planning times”. cities, where many people are reluctant by 2050 and its aging population will be icy change comes too late to avert a dan- Commission, told a news conference. Asked about the danger the two-child to have more children. The one-child reduced by 2 percentage points by 2030, gerous population imbalance as many “This long-term adherence is at least policy would prevent China from getting policy was introduced in the late 1970s Wang said. — Eight reasons china off to a rocky 2016

BEIJING: Barely more than a week into dent whose party opposes Beijing’s goal of 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping is hav- unification between the sides. Beijing’s eco- ing a rough time of it, with challenges nomic inducements have failed to per- ranging from a plummeting stock market suade the Taiwanese public of the benefits to new provocations from obstreperous of political union. If opposition Democratic ally . While none pose an exis- Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen tential threat to his administration, the wins Saturday, as she is widely expected to world will be watching to see whether he do, Beijing may feel compelled to embark has the sophisticated touch needed to find on economic and diplomatic pressure that durable solutions and maintain stability. could send relations into reverse. It’s Below is a look at eight key issues Xi is con- unlikely that Beijing would go so far as to tending with: back up its longstanding threat to use force to bring the island under Chinese control. Stock market volatility China twice deployed its “circuit break- Politics er” mechanism to halt trading as stock mar- While Xi faces no such electoral chal- kets nosedived by 10 percent in the first lenges under China’s one-party system, he week of the year. Beijing finally abandoned does face resistance from political rivals the mechanism, and left the perception and the vast bureaucracy. Xi shows no sign that regulators don’t have a clue as they try of abandoning his signature anti-corrup- to stabilize a market that more than dou- tion campaign blamed for creating a sense bled between late 2014 and June, then of fear and paralysis among the rank and dived 30 percent, causing deep pain file. His growing cult of personality exudes among retail investors. an exterior confidence. But with the econo- my slowing and no sign of political reforms, Currency queasiness he may come under pressure from critics Meanwhile, China’s currency, the yuan, and rivals to show results on jobs, growth, has slid to a five-year low against the dollar, good governance and addressing the : This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 10, 2016 showsNorth forcing the government to spend tens of yawning income gap. Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering a speech at the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces. — AFP millions of dollars from its foreign currency stockpile to defend it. The government last South China Sea week guided the yuan 1.5 percent lower to Since the year began, China has landed Kim’s nuke test proves gift of assist hard-pressed exporters, but the three aircraft on a new island it built in the clumsy move sent shockwaves through South China Sea, drawing protests from world markets, further weighing on Vietnam and the Philippines, which have Chinese share prices. competing territorial claims in the region. sorts for S Korean president China’s robust assertions of its claim to vir- Slowing economy tually the entire South China Sea have long Hiccups in the world’s second-largest drawn complaints and sparked the occa- Test stopping Park’s slide in popularity economy are expected to continue in 2016, sional maritime confrontations in the area with growth falling to a six-year low of 6.9 through which $5 trillion in global trade : North Korea’s nuclear test has provoked partially banned South Koreans from a jointly poses. The most tangible effect of the South’s percent in the July-September quarter and passes each year. The test flights landed on global outrage, a push for sanctions, even fear. run factory park in the North and allowed huge retaliation so far is that it has helped Park forecast by the International Monetary one of seven new islands Beijing has built But Kim Jong Un’s decision to conduct it has green speakers along the border to begin crank- change the conversation back home. Fund to decline further to 6.3 percent this by piling sand atop reefs and atolls. The US also handed a gift of sorts to his rival in the ing out South Korean K-pop songs and criticism Though the president has a strong base of year. That bodes ill for the economy’s ability is adamant that the new features don’t South. In an instant, Wednesday’s explosion of the North’s leadership. conservative supporters, thousands of oppo- to generate enough new jobs for the more deserve the legal status of actual islands, shifted the focus on the presidency of Park She could have done more to punish the nents took to the streets on several occasions than 7.5 million students due to graduate and the US Navy has flown and sailed close Geun-hye, who has faced several mass protests North, by slapping them with bilateral punitive before the nuclear test to criticize her policies from college this year, while also building to them, drawing a furious response from condemning her leadership in recent weeks. measures and ending the South’s participation and what they saw as her attacks on personal momentum for a transition from an invest- Beijing. Xi now has to defend China’s Park’s swift, hard-line response, including a in the factory park, which is a rare cash cow for and political freedoms. ment-based economy to one focused on actions while avoiding damage to its for- return of cross-border propaganda broadcasts the impoverished, widely shunned North. The There’s resistance to a new requirement for services. eign relations. that Pyongyang loathes, has, for the time being, park, however, is also the last major inter- schools to use only state-issued history text- overshadowed criticism over her leadership Korean project from an earlier era of rapproche- books starting in 2017, which critics call an North Korea Hong Kong style, her alleged abuse of workers’ rights and ment. She’s attempting to walk a delicate line: attempt to whitewash past dictatorships - Despite persistent calls for restraint, China faces continuing opposition from her purported submission to Tokyo in a deal To show ’s intense displeasure with- including that of Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, China’s traditional ally North Korea staged pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong, the meant to end a dispute over Japan’s wartime out killing the possibility of drawing the North who ruled South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. what it claims was a hydrogen bomb test former British colony that reverted to sexual enslavement of Korean women. into future diplomacy that could settle the The country’s military dictatorship ended only blast on Jan. 6 that sent actual tremors Chinese rule in 1997 while retaining its own Park has temporarily stopped a slide in popu- neighbors’ many differences. in the late 1980s and the divide between left across the border into northeastern China legal and economic systems. Beijing’s larity by doing something she has proven her- A military clash is also a worry. Pyongyang and right remains deep. and drew condemnation from Beijing. hand-picked chief executive, Leung Chun- self adept at: Standing tall in the face of what posts a large part of its 1.2 million military and a Park has also received massive public criti- China now finds itself again under pressure ying, is deeply unpopular, and planned Seoul sees as a provocation from its northern huge array of weapons along the Korean border, cism for a botched rescue operation during a to use any possible leverage with the North electoral changes stalled after massive rival. A survey showed her approval rating rose within easy striking range of the South Korean ferry disaster in 2014 that killed more than 300, to tamp down tensions in northeast Asia, street protests in 2014, leaving deep rifts in slightly last week, for the first time in five weeks. capital, Seoul, and its 10 million residents. mostly schoolchildren, and for the handling of a while facing the possibility of more robust hyper-efficient Hong Kong’s society and While the boost is likely temporary, the timing The North views the restart of the propagan- MERS virus outbreak last year that killed 38. security cooperation between South Korea politicizing a generation of students. Now, of the nuclear test may help Park and her ruling da broadcasts and their criticism of its authori- Most recently, the nuclear test tamped down and China’s traditional rivals Japan and the the recent disappearances of people asso- party. Crucial parliamentary elections loom in tarian leadership as tantamount to war. Seoul anger over an “irreversible” settlement last United States. ciated with a publishing company that spe- April. says the broadcasts led the North to fire artillery month between Japan and South Korea of a cializes in titles critical of China’s leadership across the border the last time they happened, decades-long standoff over Korean women Taiwan have raised fears that Beijing is tightening ‘Quieting down’ in August. British Foreign Secretary Philip forced into sexual slavery by Japan’s World War Voters on the self-governing island its grip on Hong Kong’s freedom of the The test is “immediately quieting down” the Hammond on Friday publicly urged Seoul to II military. All those controversies may have democracy appear set to elect a new presi- press and other civil liberties. — AP most contentious complaints against Park, said refrain from the broadcasts. been muted by the nuclear test, but none are Yoon Tae-Ryong, a professor at Seoul’s Konkuk going away. “Conservatives have mustered sup- University. “Some members of the ruling party Propaganda purposes port temporarily because of this external shock,” must be grinning inside.” Shortly after the North Korea, however, has done little to Jang Seung-jin, a professor at Seoul’s Kookmin North’s test, Park put her front-line troops on respond to the broadcasts this time, perhaps University, said of the nuclear test. “When the their highest alert, reportedly moved missiles, because Pyongyang is too focused on celebrat- nuclear news calms down, I think her approval artillery and other weapons closer to the border, ing its nuclear test for internal propaganda pur- rating will dip back to where it was.” — AP Pastor detained by N Korea struggles with hard labor

SEOUL: A 60-year-old Canadian pastor, jailed for with the pastor being briskly marched inside by ing factories. Pyongyang views foreign mission- life with hard labor in North Korea, spends eight two uniformed guards holding his arms. The aries with deep suspicion, though it allows hours a day, six days a week digging holes in an guards left the room but the South Korean-born some to undertake humanitarian work. A num- orchard in a prison camp where he is the sole Lim, who speaks and understands English, said ber of Christian missionaries-mostly ethnic inmate. In an interview in Pyongyang with CNN, he had been told to answer all the questions in Koreans who are US citizens-have been arrested Hyeon Soo Lim said it had been tough adapting Korean-suggesting the conversation was being in the past, with some of them only allowed to to the physical rigors of his internment follow- closely monitored. Lim was detained by North return home after intervention by high-profile ing his conviction last month on charges of Korean authorities in January last year after US political figures. —AFP “subversive” acts against the state. arriving from China. HONG KONG: In this Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 file photo, a protester wearing a mask of “I wasn’t originally a laborer, so the labor was At his sentencing last month, North Korea missing bookseller Lee Bo stands in a cage during a protest against the disappear- hard at first,” said Lim, his head shaven and said he had admitted all charges against him, ances of booksellers in Hong Kong after five men associated with a Hong Kong pub- wearing a grey prison outfit with the number including “viciously defaming” the North Korean lisher known for books critical of China’s leaders have vanished one by one in the last 036. The interview was conducted in the room system and its leader, and plotting to overthrow three months. The sign in front reads: “Missing men.” — AP of a Pyongyang hotel, where the North Koreans the state. Lim, a pastor at the Light Korean also presented another ethnic Korean prisoner, Presbyterian Church in , was the latest in whom they said was a US citizen arrested for a series of foreign missionaries to be arrested, Frail Thai king leaves hospital spying in October. deported or jailed for allegedly meddling in There have been no recent reports either state affairs. BANGKOK: Thailand’s ailing but much- statement added. It was a rare foray out- from Pyongyang or Washington of any Lim said he was required to work eight hours loved King Bhumibol Adulyadej left hospi- side the hospital where the king has spent American having been detained. But the North a day, six days a week, digging in the orchard of tal yesterday for the first time in several much of the last two years. He was last seen Korean side produced a US passport identifying a labor camp with no other prisoners except months in a surprise visit to a Bangkok in an official photograph distributed in the man as Kim Dong-Chul, 62, who became a himself. He said he received regular medical palace, an official statement said. The 88- mid-December. Few details concerning his naturalized US citizen in 1987. Kim told CNN he care and three meals a day, and was hoping for year-old king, who is regarded by many health are given out by the palace. But on had been living in China near the North Korean a Bible which he had requested but still not Thais as a near-deity and a unifying figure Sunday it issued an update reporting that border for the past 15 years, commuting regu- received. “I pray every day for the country and in the bitterly split nation, was driven from the king’s pulse and blood pressure had larly to -a North Korean special economic the people, I pray for North and South to be Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital to the sprawling returned to normal after he was given zone. reunified, so that a situation like mine won’t Chitralada Royal Villa nearby. antibiotics to fight an infection and fever. happen again,” he said. “The king went to the Chitralada Royal In September the palace released a Spying for S. Korea? The interview lasted almost an hour, after Villa by personal car,” according to a state- video of the monarch in a wheelchair, look- In the interview-conducted through an offi- which the guard returned and Lim was marched ment on the Facebook page of the office of ing visibly weakened, visiting a shop in the cial translator-Kim said he had spied on behalf out. Canada has protested at the “unduly harsh” PYONGYANG: This file picture taken by North the king’s principal private secretary. In a hospital. Most Thais have only known King of “South Korean conservative elements” and sentence and complained that consular officials Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency trip lasting around an hour the world’s Bhumibol on the throne and anxiety over taken photos of military secrets. The foreign had been denied access to Lim. Lim was no (KCNA) on July 30, 2015 shows Canadian rev- longest-reigning monarch paid a visit to a the future once his six-decade reign ends is ministry in Seoul had no immediate comment stranger to North Korea, having led multiple aid erend Hyeon Soo Lim, who is being held in pond as well as other “projects” in the com- seen as an aggravating factor in Thailand’s on the report. missions to the country, involving work with North Korea, during a public interrogation at pound before returning to the hospital, the bitter political divide.—AFP The interview with Hyeon Soo Lim began orphanages, nursing homes and food process- the People’s Palace of Culture.—AFP