Enter the dragon - East Asia and Pacific: Chronicle 2002

New Internationalist, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Rowan Callick

RELATED ARTICLE: JANUARY

JAPAN sinks a suspected North Korean spy vessel in the South China Sea. North Korea denies any connection with the unidentified ship, accusing the Japanese of unpardonable terrorism'.

CHINA is no longer a nation of workers and peasants, according to a report issued by senior social scientists in Beijing. The report claims that China now contains 'all the basic elements in a modernized society'.

FEBRUARY

TIBET Plans are announced to improve dramatically Tibet's transport infrastructure. Critics say this will tie Tibet's economy firmly eastwards to its occupier, China, rather than South Asia. PHILIPPINES Washington's first major military operation outside Afghanistan since 11 September is launched in Basilan, an island in the southern Philippines where guerrillas are fighting for a separate Islamic state. Some 650 US personnel are involved.

MARCH

WEST PAPUA A UN convention in New York agrees to discuss ending the Indonesian occupation of West Papua, which the US initially supported.

APRIL

TIBET The longest-serving dissident prisoner is released on health grounds. Aged 76, Jigme Zangpo has been almost continuously in prison since the early 1960s.

MAY

EAST TIMOR Timor Lorosa'e -- the proper name for East Timor -- becomes a free and independent new nation. Elections have produced a legislative assembly in which 12 out of the country's 16 political parties are represented. For the first time since UN peacekeeping missions began, a UN protectorate has become a new state. CHINA An outcry in the press about the volume of toxic junk sent from the US, Japan and Europe for 'recycling' in China prompts a clampdown by government officials. Reports say young children are employed to smash up computers and water supplies are polluted by 'e-waste'.

JULY

MALAYSIA Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad confirms his intention to step down after hosting a summit of Islamic countries in October.

Opposition politicians accuse him of grandstanding. Now aged 76, Mahathir has ruled Malaysia for almost 21 years.

PHILIPPINES Commandos claim to have shot and probably killed Aldam Tilao, leader of some 75 members of Abu Sayyaf, one of the country's most notorious Islamist gangs.

AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND The Labour Party holds power in a national election but fails to win the majority that Prime Minister Helen Clark had sought.

AUGUST

PAPUA NEW GUINEA A tumultuous election claims 30 lives and returns 'founding father' Sir Michael Somare as Prime Minister for the third time.

SEPTEMBER

SOUTH KOREA More than 100 are feared dead and scores are missing following the worst typhoon in 40 years.

MALAYSIA In order to defuse a diplomatic crisis, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad temporarily halts the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to the Philippines and Indonesia. Almost 50 Indonesians have died after being expelled from Malaysian Sabah.

CHINA A secret report claims that 45 per cent of donors to government-sponsored 'blood stations' have been infected with HIV/AIDS because of inadequate safety precautions. AIDS activist Wan Yanhai is detained by state security for publicizing these findings.