News of the Day (March 16)

Column of the Day: Tom Donnelly, Daily Standard (website of the Weekly Standard) has an excellent piece detailing Communist China’s global ambitions and plans.

Chen Shui-bian rips “anti-secession law”: President Chen Shui-bian personally blasted Communist China’s “anti-secession law,” calling it a “law of aggression” (BBC). Chen added his comments to those of his officials, and is backed up on this by a wide majority of his people, as revealed in the near unanimous opposition to the law in Taiwan’s press – the Communist press, naturally, had a different view (BBC). Communist China continued to take shots at opponents of the “law” (Voice of America via Epoch Times)

More (bad) commentary on the “law”: Jill McGivering, BBC, reveals the problem with her analysis on the situation in the final paragraph: “President Hu has a reputation for being a more pragmatic leader, focused on reform” (three words: Hanyuan County massacre). Jefferson Morely, Washington Post, examines the reaction in the rest of Asia – and is not much better, completely missing Japan’s new assertiveness on Taiwan.

U.S. on Communist China – military “concerning,” but Kazakh pipeline OK: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – in a small departure from her predecessor, called Communist China’s military buildup “concerning” (Newsmax). Here’s why the departure was small: “We don't have any desire to have the alliances or our posture be a posture against China.” Meanwhile, the State Department’s top energy official publicly endorsed – you read that right, endorsed – a pipeline in Kazakhstan to export natural gas to Communist China (Washington Times).

Reporters Without Borders rips Eutelstat for scrapping NTDTV in Asia: The free press group demanded Eutelstat “allow NTDTV to continue using its satellites” (Epoch Times) an end the blocking of the anti-Communist network’s Asian signal (seventh item).

As CCP resignations pass 300,000, Cadres blamed TV broadcast on Falun Gong: Just before midnight last night (EST), the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party inspired resignation number 300,000 from the Party. Meanwhile, the Communists acknowledged the temporary broadcast on its satellite highlighting the resignations (third item), and blamed it on Falun Gong. Lin Zhongbao, whose mother was a Falun Gong practitioner and “dropped from 140 pounds to less than 70 pounds” during her persecution by the Communists, blasted the Party and praised the Nine Commentaries, as did Huang Hua Gang editor Xin Hao-Nian during a seminar on the Commentaries in Philadelphia (all pieces from the Epoch Times).

Head of Communist-owned bank quits: Zhang Enzhao, the head of China Construction Bank “has quit” (BBC). The South China Morning Post and Reuters reported probes into “the disappearance of money from a branch in the northeastern Jilin province” and “kickbacks relating to the procurement of computer equipment” respectively. Corruption has run rampant through China Construction Bank and other Communist-owned banks.

More commentary on Communist China: Helle Dale, Washington Times, calls on the European Union to “heed voices of reason at home” and drop its plan to lift the arms embargo against Communist China. Two longtime members, National Review Online columnist John Derbyshire and Parapundit founder Randall Parker, express proper skepticism about Communist China becoming a democracy all by itself – although Derb’s assertion that the Communists’ geopolitical objectives will stop at regional domination was disconcerting. Cecil E. Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, calls on the President and Congress to “put far more pressure on China to begin implementing true health and safety protections for the country's coal miners and all its other workers” (Washington Post) and on the Communists themselves “to allow its workers to belong to legitimate, free trade unions.”

Stalinist North Korean threatens to build more nuclear weapons: The Kim Jong-il regime claimed it would have to “take necessary countermeasures, including bolstering of its nuclear arsenal, to cope with the extremely hostile attempt of the U.S. to bring down [our] system” (Washington Times). If only it were true.