Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed Thai Prime Minister facing corruption charges and an imposed two year jail sentence in his own country, has arrived in Beijing following a decision by the British authorities to revoke his visa. Thaksin has been in the UK seeking political asylum since the coup that saw him deposed. His British visa was revoked as soon as he left the UK on a business trip, further confirming concerns that his asylum request was based more on avoidance of corruption charges than political differences.

Thaksin, who earlier in the year had purchased Manchester City football club, was forced to sell it to an Arabic consortium after the bulk of his assets were frozen by Thai prosecutors. Passing by China was originally a stop over en route to the Philippines, were he has also applied for asylum, a move that the Philippine government has said would be rejected if requested. This leaves Thaksin holed up in Beijing until he can find an alternative sanctuary or is unable to renew his Chinese visa.

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With bilateral trade between India and China escalating beyond the 2010 target of US$40 billion this year, amidst the global crisis, senior officials in the Indian commerce department are worried that excess stocks of mass produced Chinese goods, might wash up on Indian shores.

Recently, an Indian manufacturer of Penicillin-G - Alembic Ltd, demanded an investigation into alleged dumping of Penicillin-G from China. According to the Hindu, the Vadodra based chemical company sought to argue that China being a non-market economy the normal value of the product is to be determined on the basis of prices in India after deducting the customs duty applicable for the period of investigation (PoI). The applicant stated that there is sufficient evidence that the normal value of the subject goods in China is significantly higher than its net export price, essentially indicating that “the subject goods are being dumped by the exporters” from China.

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India and China’s growth is now certain and in many ways predictable, in other words, its old hat. For those who have their eyes set on future powers, they are keenly watching developments in Central Asia. Energy demands for burgeoning economies now mean that Central Asia is emerging as the new powerhouse.

Analyzing soft powers in the region reveal many hard truths. Evaluating he magnanimous changes sweeping across Central Asia, the Times of India reported – that heavy-duty Chinese bulldozers groan day and night, building motor able roads that will connect towns with cities in Kazakhstan. In the countryside, Russian engineers are busy putting new cables on newly-erected towers to put a fresh spark into the rusty, unreliable electrical grid.

On the streets of Tashkent and Dushanbe, Bollywood numbers incite local people to break into impromptu jigs. And in the war-torn dust bowls of Afghanistan, American workers are building schools and hospitals in the middle of non-stop gunfire. The Indians are doing the same, at the risk of their lives. However, this is the soft side of the story efforts to woo the Central Asian republics with humanitarian charm.

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Chinese President Hu Jintao met with his counterpart Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the G8 summit on Tuesday. The two leaders exchanged pleasantries and expressed their gratitude for the regions growing trade and strengthened ties. During the early morning meeting the leaders discussed common challenges such as climate change, energy and food security, major international and regional issues - developing a regional environment of peace and stability, equality and mutual trust, security and border issues as well as the Olympics, the Sichuan earthquake and the terrorist bomb blast on the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan Xinhua news agency reported.

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Today being world Earth Day, its only fit we discuss the next big environmental crisis to hit Asia - e-waste or electronic waste. With consumerism on the rise, the rate at which we buy and dispose off mobile phones, Tv’s, laptops, PC’s, refrigerators etc is only making the problem of e-waste worse for Asia.

The star.com reported that despite international agreements that prohibit the import and export of hazardous waste, shipments of broken electronic devices continue to pour into the harbours of Kenya, India and China.The reason is strictly financial. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it’s up to 10 times cheaper to export e-waste than to dispose of it domestically.

About 150,000 people are employed by the e-waste industry in Guiyu, China, and 25,000 more work in the scrapyards of New Delhi, India. The gold, silver, copper, aluminum and other metals salvaged become a vital resource for the manufacturing of new items. A typical wage for the arduous, dangerous work is $2 to $4 a day.

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China - India investment questions and comparisons to be raised

Mar. 18 - The Senior Partner of Dezan Shira & Associates, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, who publishes China Briefing, India Briefing and the emerging Asia website 2point6billion.com, will meet next week with Kamal Nath, the Indian Minister of Commerce, and Mr. P. Chidambaram, the Minister of Finance, in New Delhi.

This pre-empts his annual meetings with Chinese government leaders which are scheduled for this May. Last year�s summary of meetings with China�s officials can be accessed here.

Chris will be reporting on issues arising from these talks on 2point6billion.com next week, please subscribe to that site (complimentary) if you require copies of these.

He has also kindly offered to raise important questions on China-India trade or investment directly with Mr. Nath and Mr. Chidambaram on behalf of our subscribers and readers. If you have questions you would like him to pose to the ministers please email him directly at ministerialmeetings@dezshira.com. Replies will be confidential.

Four days after India, the world’s fourth largest military, raised its defence spending by 10% to $26.5 billion for 2008-09 or about 2.5% of its GDP, China, the world’s largest standing force upped its defence budget by 18% to a whopping $58.4 billion, or 1.4% of its GDP. What Beijing did not mention is that India’s military expenses at $26.18 billion (Rs 105,600 crores) is less than half of China’s expenditure in absolute terms, although it might seem higher as a percentage of GDP.

The spurt in defence spending also comes at a time when China claims parts of Arunachal Pradesh (90,000 square kms), in India’s far East to be part of China. China is now also considered a formidable force by the US, who believe that Beijing’s real military spending is two or three times the announced figure.

Justifying the jump in defence budget ‘because other countries were doing it too’, Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature said “military expenses accounted for 14.1 per cent of India’s overall spending while China spent just 7.2 per cent of its total budget on defence. Developed countries spent a lot more with the United States allocating 4.6 per cent of its GDP to defence and Britain spending three per cent of its GDP, he said. The figure for France is 2 per cent and Russia 2.63 per cent of GDP.

Adding, “China’s limited armed forces are totally for the purpose of safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity”. “China will not pose a threat to any country.”

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�Will the Chinese economy face gloom after the Olympic torch is blown out in Beijing?

Many economists argue that China’s current economic boom is mostly due to the build up for the Olympics and�when the lights die out on the years largest sporting event, money too will�dry up.

Recently released global statistics by Morgan Stanley analysts Stephen Jen and Luca Bindelli back this up - The striking common feature is an acceleration in GDP growth in the year in which the Olympics were held, followed by a year of sub-par growth. Of the 11 cases examined since 1956, only the US (Atlanta) in 1996 did not show a slowdown following the Olympics. The slowdown was particularly stark in Australia (1956), Japan (1964), the US (1984) and Korea (1988). Spain actually fell into a recession in 1993. In the two most recent Olympics (Athens and Sydney), both Greece and Australia decelerated by 1.5-2.0% between the year before and that after the Olympics.

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According to statistics issued yesterday by the Japanese External Trade Organisation (Jetro) http://www.jetro.go.jp/, the combined per capita income of ASEAN countries Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam for 2007 was USD7,533, against just USD2,459 for China. This represents a rise from USD6,830 for 2006, an extraordinary increase for a diverse total population also larger than China’s at @1.6 billion people against 1.2 billion for the PRC.

This reflects the continuing growth rate and prosperity in the region, with major consequences for FDI throughout Asia. The regions diversity is also displayed, with tiny Brunei and Singapore leading the way in incomes, far beyond their Asian counterparts, over USD32,000 a head. At the opposite end of the scale however, Burma, Cambodia , Laos, Vietnam and India all recorded average per capita income of less than USD1000 per annum, although all showed significant growth rates as well. Of those closest to China’s level of GDP income, Thailand exceeded it and Indonesia was close behind China.

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While Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma & Sri Lanka seem to be taking advantage of the opportunities spilling over from India and China, Bangladesh on India’s north east and China’s south west corners seems to be loosing its main export - finished jute products.

�A report by Bangladesh’s Daily star says that Bangladesh is loosing millions in jute exports because it exports the raw material to India and China who process it (mostly into bags (gunny sacks)) and later re-export as value added goods.

“Export price of raw jute is around Tk 13,000 a tonne, but its price becomes Tk 35,000 if it is a finished goods (sacks),” Salim Reza, vice chairman of Bangladesh Jute Exporters’ Association, told The Daily Star.

According to official data, during the July-December period this fiscal (2007-08), Bangladesh exported raw jute worth US$82 million, a 13.18 percent increase from the US$72 million exports during the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.

While Bangladesh’s jute goods export has declined by about US$2 million to US$166 million in the first half (till December) of the current fiscal year compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.

India, China and Pakistan have become major buyers of Bangladeshi raw jute in the recent time, exporters said.

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