News Around the World - Asia

Out of the seven continents, Asia is both the largest in mass and population hosting up to around 60% of the population. Asia is also the birthplace of major popular religions, these include; Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The country of Asia is constantly riddled with news surrounding economical and political regulations with America, various natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes as well as the ongoing war in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. other news includes the increasing tense standoffs between North and south Korea and various dictatorship regimes. 

The latest interactions between America and Asian leaders is via the effect of corporate relations between western companies and China. China is trying to control and censor a lot of the images that come into it borders this include advertisement, social media, games and videos. Asia makes the US quite a large proportion of revenue for many major companies, these include companies such as; Blizzard, NBA, Facebook, Disney and Apple. These companies are facing harsh decisions in which they are being asked to censor many of their own advertisement and social media post which disrupts china strict censorship program, examples of this include; Versace/Coach who were accused of selling T-shirts which identified Hong Kong as an independent country as well as Advertisement and social media of these companies which seem to promote the hong kong protests. These companies face a blackmail situation in which China is trying to control them with the threat of turning off their ability to broadcast within China, this could cost these companies major funds as well as the Chinese population. The NBA is one of the only companies whom have rejected the Chinese proposals as the NBA controls nearly 100% of the traffic surrounding mainstream basketball around the world. NBA commission Adam silver even responded with a quote stating;

"We will protect our employee's freedom of speech" 

Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner (Nytimes.com, 2019)

this quote was taken even after chinas state-run television cancelled the broadcast of the games that weekend. some say this is due to NBAs leverage being one of the only Basketball companies in contrast to Versace, apple, blizzard who have countless competition. 

in other news, The Hong Kong protests have hit a new level, with protestors setting up a 3m statue of 'lady liberty' in the centre of their protests in order to further rally their opposition to government regulations. the statue was erected on the Lion rock peak and donned a gas mask, goggles and a helmet. it also held a sign which stated:

"Revolution of our time, Liberate Hong Kong"

(The Straits Times, 2019)

the statue comes after one of the activists was injured by a police projectile and is said to give further strength and inspiration to the movement. In response to this, the government has also further implemented their ban on masks in Hong Kong and vows to push the bill surrounding extradition of fugitives through.

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Refrences: 

Nytimes.com. (2019). China Is Now a Minefield for Western Companies. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/business/dealbook/china-companies-nba.html [Accessed 13 Oct. 2019].

The Straits Times. (2019). Protest rally to take place on Monday, the first approved by police since Hong Kong's mask ban kicks in. [online] Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/hong-kong-pro-democracy-activists-hoist-lady-liberty-statue-above-city-to-rally?cx_testId=20&cx_testVariant=cx_5&cx_artPos=4#cxrecs_s [Accessed 13 Oct. 2019].