Transcripts For LINKTV Newsline 20150303

And we begin this hour with our special series on chinas National Peoples congress. The people of china are facing many changes, including slowing Economic Growth. President xi jinping is asking them not to worry too much about these developments describing them as the new normal. Xi is also proposing new policies to tackle various issues. On thursday chinas National Peoples congress will open to discuss the direction of the countrys policies in the upcoming year. Newsline will bring you details of the event in our threeday series. Chinas top political advisory body has started its annual meeting ahead of the National Peoples congress. Its chairman pledged to continue the current crackdown on corruption. The National Committee of the chinese peoples political Consultative Conference convened in the great hall of the people in beijing on tuesday. Its membership includes representatives of groups other than the communist party. President xi and other Party Leaders attended the opening session. Committee chairman yu jinxang is ranked four in the hierarchy. He said the committee had dismissed 14 of its members. They include its former vice chairman link xi. Jua. He is under investigation by the party for a suspected serious disciplinary violation. Yu stressed that the dismissals are a warning that the committee will continue its fight against corruption to promote clean politics. Let us now take you live to beijing, our reporter Kunihiro Yamamoto is covering the event there. Kunihiro . Hi, gene. Chinas biggest annual political event kicks off on thursday. Many representatives have already arrived here in the capital. The great hall of the people will be the focus of the countrys attention for the next two weeks. Authorities say 3,000 reporters are covering the event. Including a large group of foreign media. Tiananmen square is located in beijing. Directly to the west is the great hall of the people. Here, once a year chinas top issues are put forward, prioritized and discussed. This area attracts large crowds of tourists throughout the year. Security is always tight, but at this time of year authorities deploy extra police and military personnel. The National Peoples congress convenes every year at the beginnin of march. About 3,000 delegates gather from across the country. They include representatives from the communist party, military provincial governments, and people from many walks of life. Their responsibilities include electing the president , and enacting laws and policies for the coming year. The discussions usually continue for about 10 days. On the first day, premier li keqiang will deliver his keynote speech. It will lay out goals and policies in a wide range of areas, including the economy, social welfare and environment. The Congress Also will approve the budget for the coming fiscal year. In some years, it also chooses if the governments keys and structural reforms. Kunihiro what will be the focus of this years discussions . One of the main topics will be the target figure for Economic Growth for this year. The target for 2014 was around 7. 5 . But, many speculate that the government will be lowering the number. Xi jinping called for current economic development, the new normal projecting mid to highspeed growth compared to the rapid growth of recent years. The Anticorruption Campaign against bureaucrats and senior members of the communist party is likely to be another focus. As xi leads this clampdown a growing number of citizens are joining the effort to expose misconduct on the part of government officials. We look at one journalist working on his own to publicize low behavior in high places. He is a 45yearold freelance journalist who runs a website that keeps tabs on corrupt bureaucrats. This 2006 he has acted on tipoffs and his own investigations to expose more than 100 corrupt bureaucrats on the website called peoples supervision network. About onethird of them have been charged, or removed from office. Its a sign that the website has drawn the attention of some powerful officials. Translator theres no system in place to allow the public to accuse officials of corruption. Thats why i listen to people and do research on my own, to expose corruption online. The man seen here frolicking with a young woman. When he was Deputy Director of the state archives administration, he is believed to have spent about 500,000 on the woman, a former tv announcer, in just four years. He was dismissed five days after zhu posted the videos on his site. But dealing in the scandalous behavior of government officials is a risky business. Zhu constantly changes the ip address of the website to keep from being shut down. He also automates cell phones and fax machines to guard against wiretapping by the authorities. Zhu says he has been threatened and beaten by police and the local government officials he has exposed. He monitors the entrance to his apartment with security cameras. But he also says he feels the Central Government has started to look favorably upon his activities, now that president xi jinping is in power. Translator now, there is much more less pressure from the government. When the authorities investigated my activities they had very nice things to say. They told me my accusations of corruption are lawful and that they support what im doing. On this day, hes meeting an informant hiding out in a condominium in beijing. Reporter this man says he once oversaw thousands of employees as chairman of a Business Group in northern zhang dong province. But he says he was betrayed and ousted by his close aide the president. He says he has records of bribes the president paid to local government officials to change the companys registration. Hes ready to come forward to expose the collusion between the company and corrupt bureaucrats. The evidence that the former chairman handed to zhu implicates more than 100 people including powerful local members of the communist party. It details how much each received in payoffs, and when. Translator corruption is rampant in the region where i live. The Central Government only turns a blind eye to it. This incident must be disclosed to the public. We must let everybody know about it. Translator the Anticorruption Campaign shouldnt end with just the arrests of some people. If so the public will think that only political rivals have been purged. If president xi jinping only aims to remove his political enemies, and build up his allies, the Anticorruption Campaign will lead to nothing. Reporter experts say the Anticorruption Campaign is part of an uphill struggle to strengthen president xis power base. But zhu says the government should nevertheless press ahead with the campaign to thoroughly root out corruption. So does the report mean that the Central Government accepts the actions that zhu and other people are taking to uncover corruption . Well that seems to be the case. Even though zhu said he has been harassed by local governments from time to time he has been able to carry on with his activities. The Chinese Government has already expelled from heavyweights such as form are politeboro Standing Committee member and former communist party chief bo xilai. But citizens want the government to do more to crack down on corruption by officials of local government as well. Its likely that the government will continue to use the activities of zhu and others to deal with the public frustration. How far will the Xi Administration go in its Anticorruption Campaign . Reporter it will use the active is of zhu and others for its own benefit. But its unlikely to fully support what they are doing. Thats because citizenbased anticorruption activities could lead to criticism of the core of the administration. That means the government will likely try to deal with growing demands from citizens while being cautious in its fight against corruption. Attention is focused on anticorruption measures to be announced during the National Peoples congress. Kunihiro thanks. That was nhk worlds Kunihiro Yamamoto in beijing. On wednesday we will report on the state of environmental measures to tackle the ongoing problem of pollution. The japanese Prime Minister and the leader of the biggest Opposition Party are in hot water over corporate donations to their political organizations. Fund reports show three companies donated a total of about 6,000 to a local ldp chapter headed by Prime Minister shinzo abe. The three firms received government subsidies. The reports also show a Democratic Party local chapter headed by Katsuya Okada received donations from a Holding Company at a firm that got public money. Japans political funds control law in principle bans companies from making political donations within a year of being awarded government subsidies. The governments top spokesperson says abe will deal with concerns about the donations. Translator Prime Minister abe has confirmed that his local chapter received the donations. But, he says he was not aware that the firms received subsidies. Abe says he will give priority to looking into the matter. Officials at the company say the donations werent illegal. They say the government subsidies they received were for nonprofit projects. Dpj secretarygeneral edano defends the donations to the Party Chapter headed by okada. Translator the donations were not illegal. The subsidized project was not for profit. Ldp chapters headed by agriculture minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and akira amari were also found to have accepted money from firms that were awarded subsidies. Then agriculture minister Koya Nishikawa left his post last week. He came under fire after a political body he received a donation from a firm that received public money. Environment minister Yoshio Mochizuki and the Justice Minister are under fire for receiving similar donations. Japans Education Minister has admitted to receiving a donation from an individual who was indicted for tax evasion. Hack bun shimomura told lawmakers he didnt received 100,000 yen or about 830 from the donor in 2009. The person was indicted for tax evasion the following year. But the minister admitted to reporters on tuesday that he did receive the money. Shimomura said a note handed to him during the diet session falsely stated he didnt take the money. He has admitted to the error and said his staff failed to thoroughly screen the person who was a firsttime donor. Shimomura apologized later in the session and said he returned the money. The director of a japanese hospital has admitted medical negligence in patient deaths. Eight people died between 2010 and 2014. Following laparoscopic liver surgery. The director faulted staff. Translator we didnt offer sufficient explanations to the patients, and didnt obtain their informed consent to the operations. Guan Ma University hospital issued a report by an Investigative Team including outside experts. It says the doctors who performed the operations failed to carefully study whether laparoscopic surgery was aappropriate. The report also says the hospital continued performing such operations without fully examining what caused the deaths and it said the hospital allowed only a limited number of staff to handle the cases without hearing opinions from other doctors. An expert panel with the Health Ministry plans to conduct a probe based on the report. North korea has eased antiebola measures that kept visitors out of the country. Pyongyang closed its borders to Foreign Tourists in october because of the ebola outbreak. North korean officials also imposed a threeweek quarantine on diplomats and its own citizens returning from overseas. Travel agents in china say north korean authorities notified them on tuesday that they would start accepting Foreign Tourists again soon. Chinas staterun Xinhua News Agency says the quarantine is still required for visitors from some west african countries. No ebola infections have been confirmed in the north. Analysts say pyongyang hopes to revitalize friday and diplomatic activities damaged by the strict measures north korea claims the ebola virus is a biological weapon developed by the united states. A struggling japanese manufacturer is closing, or shrinking factories. Ron madison has the latest. Yes, thats right, gene. Japans leading electronicsmaker sharp is considering asking its two main banks for Financial Aid as it tries to drastically restructure. The Company Expects a net loss for the Business Year ending this month. Now sharp executives plan to shut down an l. E. D. Plant and partially close and integrate four sensor plants. All of them in hiroshima prefecture. Sharp may also reduce solar cell production at a factory in osaka prefecture. The profitability of the business has been hit by competition with overseas makers. Sharp executives also plan to sell a tv plant in mexico. And downsize the firms Television Business in north america. The company had forecast a net loss of about 250 million for this Business Year. But it now fears that may be an underestimate. Sharp executives will approach mizuho and tokyo Mitsubishi Ufj to strengthen the companys financial base. The executives say that they will draw up a new midterm Management Plan by may. Well officials at japanese auto parts maker takata say that they will double production of Replacement Parts for defective air bags to 900,000 a month. U. S. Transport officials are unhappy with what they call takatas slow response to a series of recalls involving the defective air bags. The department of transportation said last month it would impose a 14,000 fine on takata every day that it failed to fully cooperate with the probe. Takata raised production of Replacement Parts for faulty air bags at its mexico plant in january. But that wasnt enough to meet replacement needs. Takata has asked a German Research organization to look into the air bag problem. But has so far come up empty handed on the cause. Well chief negotiators from 12 countries involved in huge free trade talks are set to meet exweek in hawaii. But japans minister in charge of the Transpacific Partnership talks warns that a final deal is unlikely by early spring. Economic revitalization minister akira amari said japanese and u. S. Negotiators will resume talks on thursday in tokyo. Translator negotiators are familiar with the problems between the two countries at this stage. Based on that they will resume workinglevel discussions to narrow the gap. Well high on the agenda is tariffs on key Agricultural Products including rice beef and pork. Tariffs on auto parts will also be on the table. The two sides want to pave the way for a japan u. S. Ministerial meeting. While amari said overall tpp negotiations are slightly behind schedule, he says that the u. S. Congress is slow to pass legislation that would give president barack obama Greater Authority to negotiate trade deals. Well food and beverage makers from around the globe have joined a food fair near tokyo. One of the largest exhibitions of its kind in asia. Hello a record 3,000 firms from around the world have set up stalls at the event which has been running annually since 1976. Among the guests from africa a zealer from zimbabwe sold beans and other items used in stews. The japanese booth wine and sake makers offered complimentary drinks. Japanese Officials Say they want to export more products on the back of the weaker yen and a booming Global Market for japanese cuisine. An executive said the quality of japanese wines is improving, and he hopes that will be reflected in more exports. All right. Lets get a check and see whats happening with markets. Major european shares have been pretty volatile today. Lets see where things stand at this point. Weve got markets all in negative territory. This does follow the release of some economic data. It was strong but were still seeing that markets are paring back some of the gains that we had seen earlier. Now analysts say investors have been cheered on by better than expected german retail sales, as well as merger speculation in portugals banking sector. Thats helping to limit losses in europe so far. Well earlier, major markets in asia ended mixed. In tokyo the nikkei drifted away from its 15year high finished the day lower as investors booked some profits. Australian shares tumbled after the countrys central bank kept its benchmark Interest Rate unchanged. Many Market Players were expecting a rate cut. South koreas kospi renewed its highest close in five months. On to currencies now, the dollar broke above 120 yen during early trading hours in tokyo. It hit a threeweek high as you can see there, though it has pared back a little bit now at 119. 79. The dollar fell following lackluster performance of japanese shares. All right. That is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. Ill leave you with the markets. Freezing rain will bring problems for the ohio river valley this tuesday. Our meteorologist jonathan oh is here with a look at what residents should expect during the day. Jonathan . Hello, gene yes. We have been talking about constant Winter Weather rolling through north america, and especially for the united states. And i think were going to see even more of that. But the freezing rain is the biggest concern. I know we talk about snow. But the difficulty with freezing rain sun like snow, where there is actually a little bit of time delay factor when it actually lands on the ground and we eventually get to see that freezing over when it goes through the overnight period freezing rain freeze on contact. Thats when it becomes a lot more dangerous. What is happening is we have one low pressure system pushing toward the east its bringing up this warmer moisture down from the south, and that warm air is melting the snow as it falls to the ground. But the ground level is already cold as it is. And thats when we see the freezing rain. We have that possibility to take you south of chicago as we go throughout tuesday, and then to the north, the same low pressure systems that are bringing the snowfall toward the north will continue to push toward the east so heavy knowsnowfall possible from chicago into the New England States into maine and back toward parts of the Rocky Mountains will be looking at the possibility of some heavy snowfall. Looking at rain snow mix in chicago, down toward the south, freezing rain possibilities into d. C. Well see some snow possible. Warm weather down toward the south, as that warm air pushes in. Were looking at some instability, thunderstorms possible into houston with a high of 24 degrees as we go through tuesday. Im going to take you down to south america where we have two very different weather situations. Too much rain in one area and not enough rain in another part of south america. Im going to take you first toward the north into brazil. Where the acre river as we take a look at the video, is just overflowing. Weve been talking about this area for the past couple of weeks, in fact and into the rio branco region of brazil we are seeing the moisture just overflowing because of all that rain thats pushing through. Schools have to be closed electricity is getting cut off. This is really a big, major problem. Now way down toward the south into argentina, the southern portion of argentina where were seeing wildfires spreading very quickly because there is no rain taking place. On average, on a daily basis, 1,000 hectares of forest is being burned on a daily basis. So its not a good situation. And unfortunately, both areas looking at the extremes continuing as we go throughout tuesday. Look at this plenty of moisture into brazil down toward the south. No rain at all. And so we are looking at these flooding conditions continuing for brazil, some areas looking at close to 70 to 80 millimeters of rainfall. And down toward the south, no rainfall at all. Now as you take a look at the forecast for east asia were looking at some rain rolling in to japan, as a low pressure system rolls in from the south. Toward the north another low pressure system leaving the korean peninsula, will bring possibilities of some snowfall into hokkaido and northern portions of japan as we go into wednesday. Thunderstorms are possible into the pacific side of japan because of this low pressure system. The tail end of the cold front will bring some rain and thunderstorms for the southeastern portions of china, and a weak low developing over into chongqing will bring rain on wednesday with a high of 11 degrees. Wrapping things up with a look at europe. We are looking at a couple areas of Severe Weather possibilities into the northern portions of the british isles. And also the northern portions of europe with severe wind gusts, tornadoes, large thunderstorms, all part of the possibility as we go throughout tuesday. Look at the snow stockholm, rain thunderstorms possible, even into portions of berlin and paris as we go throughout the day. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. Heres your extended outlook. Thats newsline for this hour. Im gene otani in tokyo. ÷ last respects to boris nemtsov, the russian Opposition Leader who was shot four times may back friday and killed to days before he was due to lead a protest on the war in ukraine. His casket was on display at a Human Rights Center ahead of the funeral. Our moscow correspondent, julio bova j