china. this is almost the obvious sign of the policy for the mainland under the presidency. under -- after years of prickly relations with beijing, taiwan actively encourages tourism from china and reducing trade tariffs. but there is fear in new quarters that the taiwanese sovereignty may be under threat. our correspondent went to taiwan for a rare interview with president maung. >> during the course of economic development, the gap in income will gradually widened and no country in the world with a growing economy has a narrowing gap. even if we did not build closer relations with the mainland, the same thing would occur. for example, after we increased our exchanges with mainland china, the biggest change was not in trade, but in the number of mainland tourists visiting taiwan. this grew from 100 visitors 10 years ago to one put 8 million visitors last year. that is an increase of more than tenfold. when these tourists come and spend in taiwan, the people here will enjoy greater income. you could say that the benefits of tourism extend to every center. >> you talk of the p

after we increased our exchanges with mainland china, the biggest exchange was the number of mainland tourists visiting taiwan. it grew from a bit more than 100,000 visitors 10 years ago to 1.8 million last year, an increase of more than tenfold. when they come and spend in taiwan the people will enjoy greater income. you can say the benefits of tourism extend to every sector. >> you talk of the quality of influence that you hope taiwan might be able to have on mainland china through this relationship. i am puzzled as to how this can be an equitable relationship when china is pointing missiles at taiwan. how can you negotiate with that implicit threat hanging over the relationship? >> over the last 10 years mainland china has increased their missile deployment. taiwan is not in a position to engage in an arms race with the mainland nor do we want to. >> if you look forward to the future, say 10 years from now, where do you think taiwan will be? will it be an independent country recognized as such in the world or will it be part of a unified china? >> the respect of china has been an i

. >> in another news for the first time since the chinese civil war residents of mainland china can travel to taiwan as solo tourists. 5,000 can visit the island and stay for 15 days. for now residents from china could only go in group tours. speak from the u.s., abdul qadeer says he is kept from foreign banks. with officials involved, and he is under investigation. the french finance minister, could be confirmed as the new head of the bank. and for the noneuropean to be begin the top job appears to be failing. still to come on the program, calling for peaceful transition in democracy. >> and murder in mumbai, with shooting of a well known local journalists. speculations around the health of president chavez, it's believed that his condition is more serious, from havana, our report. >> cuba's chavez is constantly traveling when his mentor, fidel castro underwent a series of operations, he was one of the few bed-side officials. and complaining of abdominal pain and rushed to treat an abscess, these pictures of visiting is all has been seen of the venezuela leader, and with reports of recove

pushed the boundaries of his business, launched new products, introduced new brands, taken on mainland chinale managing his 14,000 employees. today, he's in london. richard qwest sits down with michael wu, chairman and managing director of the maxim group for a visit with the boss. >> have you made the transition from entrepreneur to chief executive? and do you battle with that difference? >> i don't think i've made that well. i'm much more an entrepreneur than i am a ceo. i'm the one who dreams. i'm the one who communicates. >> when did you first probably realize that you were going to become a chief executive with fairly large, substantial responsibilities? >> well, i joined the company in 1992, and at that time, when my grandfather hired me, he said, you would have a shot at becoming the chief executive if you performed well but if you didn't you would be out of the company. so from day one my aim was to become chief executive. >> was there a perception that it's within the family you're going to get the job anyway, whether rightly or wrongly, the perception is always the family boy's goi

china. >> really? >> on the mainland of china, where the magazine is not yet permitted, we are one of the most famous menswear brands. there are over 200 playboy stores. >> you sell the merchandise but you can't sell the magazine. >> that's correct. at the same time we just opened a casino, playboy club casino in macao. >> really? >> yes. >> when i was in shanghai recently, i found that the barriers are coming down there. it's becoming much more liberal as young people throughout the internet have found out what's available in the rest of the world. it can't be long before "playboy's" allowed to be on sale. >> yes. that's what you get with democracy. when russia came apart, when the soviet union came apart, the first american magazine that all of the iron curtain countries wanted was "playboy." and it wasn't just the pretty ladies. it was the stuff. the cars, the wheels, the fashions, you know, the lifestyle. >> your original concept was always lifestyle. not just the sex. >> exactly. >> and you put the two together and

it fell on fears of china money tightening on the mainland and air china fell 3.35%, china southern down 5.5%. that's because of fears of higher oil prices. in shanghai, that was the biggest market mover be fell by 1.75% to 2703. banking shares are down. new trade data is expected to come out on friday. also down to australia, the asx 200 did manage a gain of 0.3%. it was back and forth over the flat line for much of the day. in the day it did close up. jobs figures were just a bit over 7,000. that's disappointing for the jobs market there. the interest rate rise is now expected to be a little bit less likely because of that. also that is what new zealand is talking about right now. the central bank over there has decided that they're going to hold the interest rate at 2.5%. this is the record low. it's been there since that 6.3 quake that rocked christchurch in february. they hope to keep the recovery going. nina, back to you. >> ramy, thanks for that wrapup of the markets. with the major ind diaz se-- indices fell for the sixth session. there was extra pressure on some of the stock mar

china. the mainland was out of the question. and luckily chang kai-shek said sure, come on over. they had a nice military ceremony. his ashes are currently interred in taiwan, and the taiwanese government at the time said when the two chinas are reunited, the plans are to move homer lea's ashes to the mainland and have been interred. so that's my quick overview of homer lea. and if you're interested in people that do shape world events i think you'll find it a fascinating character. he was fascinating when he was alive, and the shooting the 100 year anniversary of the republican revolution, there may be some more attention paid to him and his place in history. so thank you. [applause] >> wait a second, we have a problem. here we go. i would like the lights up for right now. don't worry about what's on the screen, gentlemen, with the cameras come if you don't mind. i want to talk to you for a moment before we get into this slide, and i have to start by saying thank you for coming. when you're a writer you're in a cave writing. and you go, oh, my god. i get to come out of the cave

on over to the mainland and in shanghai the shanghai composite fell nearly 1%. that made sense after china's cpi came in hot at 5.5%. that was the highest since mid-2008. next monday a new banking reserve requirement, the rrr, will take effect. 21% to 21.5%. and finally a quick note over to mumbai. inflation worries are mounding over there. new data showed a jump in inflation to 9.06% in may. tomorrow that reserve bank is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points. inflation are for asia's number one and number three largest economies this week, that's the deal. back to you. >> thanks very much for that, ramy, in hong kong. >>> let's recap what happened on wall street on tuesday. stronger than expected retail and manufacturing numbers did manage 0 to help stocks to post their best gain since the month of april. by the close the major indices had added between 1% and 1.5%. this is how the early market indications show we could could start trading today. as you can see the dow jones composite could lose about a third of a percent at the start of trading and we also have a

from the mainland and when it's done you will get four container ships all docking here at the same time and another port further out able to take the biggest tanker in the world, and the china max and the bulk of the business for this place will be sending raw materials like iron ore to china. >> my father made his name selling raw materials to japan. now the son wants to do the same for china. >> the rich resources in brazil, we have a lot of them still. the chinese are mining 4% iron ore in the ground, we mine 40%. >> as usual, when it comes to china, the traffic isn't all one way. far from it. the growth in the last 10 years has produced a new consumer here in brazil. last year alone, imports from china went up by 60%. most of what you can see here is made in china and so were 80% of the costumes made in this year's rio carnival. in some towns, prices have trebled in the last three years and lending to poorer families has taken off even at 25%. >> they could buy their own houses and make their own dream come true and stop paying rent for the rest of their lives. so they don't think much of the high interest they pay. what they think is that they are making their dream co