As nongovernmental organizations and critics of the World Trade Organization demonstrate in Seattle, Asian news media are carrying out a lively debate of their own. Issues range from the impact of China's likely entry on its arch rival Taiwan to just how open the Philippine economy should be as it looks to embrace the world market. Editors of New California Media, a collaboration of ethnic news organizations, monitor, translate and contextualize Chinese, Korean and Filipino reactions to the Seattle WTO meetings. Next week NCM will cover Russian, Arab, Indian and Japanese media. NCM's website is at http://www.ncmonline.com.

CHINESE MEDIA BOTH IN AND OUT OF CHINA APPLAUD WTO MEMBERSHIP

BY FRANZ SCHURMANN, NCMONLINE EDITOR

However divergent their political inclinations, Chinese-language media from Beijing to Taiwan are giving China's WTO entry huge and positive coverage. Most notable is the pro-Taiwan World Journal which predicted that once China's entry is formalized, Taiwan would immediately follow, as stipulated by the U.S.-China WTO agreement. Russia and Ukraine, by contrast, would likely remain outside the pact.

Indeed, the World Journal's lead editorial exhuded optimism, noting that China "is now going to enter an entirely different era. From now on its 'reform and opening up' policies are going to become part of a much broader global context."

Not only would China's trade more than double by 2005, according to analysts, but the more it attracts foreign investment, the more bound to international standards of liberalization and transparency it would become. This, in turn, the paper predicted, would "break open China's taboos of politics, society, culture and thought."

As exchanges are built on a firm basis of mutual trust, noted the World Journal, even "the issue of Taiwan independence will vanish. But if so, Beijing also has to make some big concessions to Taiwan."

China's media seemed to take the hint. The pro-Beijing China Press noted with approval that "Taiwan public opinion looks with favor on U.S.-China WTO agreement." The paper now quotes freely and respectfully from Taiwan's version of AP, once anathema for China's media.

FILIPINO MEDIA WONDER JUST HOW OPEN PHILIPPINE ECONOMY SHOULD BE

BY RENE CIRIA-CRUZ, NCMONLINE EDITOR

There is broad intellectual consensus in the Philippines that embracing the world market is the key to economic development. That said, there is a lot of contention over just how open the Philippine economy ought to be.

Manila Bulletin columnist Willie Ng praised China's entry into the WTO and the U.S. for "sparing China the indignity of having its most favored nation status approved each year by an unfriendly U.S. Congress."

Ng further contended that to "blunt the developing countries' competitive edge," the developed countries want to institute "core labor standards" -- freedom for workers to unionize, an end to child labor -- among WTO members rich and poor. He expected governments of developing countries to oppose these standards because "in the age of globalization, cheap labor is their main weapon." Without a hint of irony, he wrote that he wished China would lead the opposition to these labor standards: "Doing away with child labor is all right, but unions? If workers are allowed to unionize in China, Beijing can say goodbye to global competition."

The business-oriented Manila Bulletin published almost verbatim MASSACHUSETTS-based Earth Action's press release calling on countries "to take the world's forests off the WTO chopping block."

Meanwhile, the New York-based Filipino Express -- in a news analysis titled "WTO Will Be Sleepless in Seattle" -- reported that a number of governments, including Japan, South Korea, India and Canada, angrily objected to U.S. backstage maneuvers to exclude from the Seattle agenda matters that were not of interest to Washington.

"The new draft gave priority to trade liberalization of agriculture and services, items which are of interest to the United States, but omitted sections calling on rich members to allow poor countries flexibility in meeting WTO requirements," said the report.

KOREAN MEDIA DEBATE CHINA'S ENTRY--STIMULATION OR COMPETITION?

BY HOSEUNG TERRY LEE, NCMONLINE EDITOR

As the path clears for China's membership in the WTO, South Koreans worry about the prospect of losing markets in the United States.

In a detailed report, the Seoul-based Korea Central Daily noted that China will take "third markets" -- low cost imports and exports -- around the world and become major competition for Korea, especially in U.S. markets. Indeed, the competition is already there. Korean merchandise used to amount to 3.3 percent of the U.S. market (1995), but in 1998 amounted to just 2.6 percent. Chinese merchandise, on the other hand, rose sharply to 7.8 percent of the U.S. market in 1998, from 6.1 percent in 1995.

Korean economists are also warning Korean corporations to change their investment tactics in China. The Chinese are opening their markets in telecommunications and financial services. Countries such as the United States and Europe are stronger now in these fields than Korea is. "This is a great chance, and if Korean corporations do not re-evaluate their investment tactics, Korea will lose its place in the Chinese market," the Korea Central Daily warned.

However, Korean economists are expecting more exports to China than imports in the short run. The economists predicted that Korea's trade with China will increase 10 percent annually, with trade profits increasing 10 percent annually to $1.7 billion per year.

The Chosun Daily predicted that just as the world's major market once shifted from Europe to the United States, it would now shift to China. "China joining the WTO is going to change the appearance of the 21st Century," said the Daily.

The paper also carefully laid out the possibility that in the line-up of "future world economic powers," China would step into place alongside Europe, the United States and Japan, taking Japan's position in Asia.