News of the Day (May 31)

This Friday, commemorations of the Tiananmen massacre will take place throughout the world, including in Washington, D.C., from 11:30 AM to 2PM (China Support Network).

Resignations from CCP pass 2 million: The number of Communists who have resigned from the Party in the wake of the Nine Commentaries passed 2 million today. More importantly, the news of the mass exodus is not only spreading throughout Communist China itself, but has also reached Israel and Canada (all links from Epoch Times).

Journalist jailed in Communist China: Ching Cheong, a reporter for Singapore’s Straits Times, is in a Communist jail for, you guessed it, “allegedly obtaining state secrets” (Voice of America), the catch-all charge for revealing anything embarrassing about the cadres. In this case, Ching was on to something very embarrassing: transcripts of interviews with the late Zhao Ziyang, the Communist leader placed under house arrest for refusing to support the Tiananmen Square massacre. Also reporting: BBC

Doctor who practices Falun Gong has passport cancelled: Communist China has refused to renew the passport of Dr. Wenyi Wang, a Falun Gong practitioner who has been in the United States for several years. She tells her story to the Epoch Times.

The velvet crackdown gets smoother in Hong Kong: Communist China’s easing out of former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa has, for now, taken a good deal of wind out of the sails of the pro-democracy movement. Chaim Estulin, Time Asia, examines the effects of the cadres’ more streetwise version of one country, one-and-a-half systems.

Never mind, Communist China cancels export taxes: Communist China reversed course and cancelled its much-heralded export taxes on textiles (BBC). The reversal is in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Communist exports (second item) and European threats of the same (fifth item). The U.S. and Europe are reacting to huge increases in textile exports from Communist China after the end of worldwide trade restrictions ended this past January (fifth item). Due to Communist China’s combination of prison labor, a complete lack of independent unions, and a deliberately undervalued currency, it has not only damaged U.S. and European producers, but is also crowding out nearly everyone else on the globe, including the highly-praised Cambodian industry (BBC).

Communist China-Japan tensions continue: Talks between Communist China and Japan on the fate of disputed areas of the East China Sea, and the resources under them, went nowhere (BBC). This comes amid the continuing back-and-forth over the cadre-inspired anti-Japan riots and other territorial disputes (twenty-sixth item, third item). The overall rift has engendered the usual soft-headed commentary (Lucille Craft, Washington Times), plus some more sensible words (Yomiuri Shimbun via Washington Times).

Chen Shui-bian wants free trade pact with United States: Taiwan’s elected President Chen Shui-bian called for a free trade pact with the U.S. “to maintain Taipei's economic and national security as well as regional stability” (Cybercast News).

Taiwan’s National Assembly convenes: Taiwan’s National Assembly (fourth item) “has begun work” (BBC) on proposed changes to the constitution. They’re expected to pass, since both the ruling Democratic Progressives and the opposition Nationalists back them.

On Communist China and the United States: Randall Parker, Parapundit founder (and Member since 2003), discusses Robert Kagan’s seminal work on the folly of “managing” Communist China (twelfth item). Richard Brookes, of the Heritage Foundation, details the large and growing Communist espionage threat in the U.S. and beyond (Town Hall). Alan Reynolds, Cato Institute, resorts to the standard free-trade arguments on Communist China in the Washington Times, while Jonathan Anderson, chief Asian economist at UBS, explains in the Far Eastern Economic Review (via Taiwan Security Research) why Communist China is anything but standard. Yours truly explains in the Epoch Times how Newsweek could get the state of the CCP so thoroughly wrong (second item).

Woe Canada! Aidan Maconaghie details Prime Minister Paul Martin’s ties to Communist China in the Western Standard weblog.

More on the Falun Gong War: Liu Guifu, in jail since February, “refused to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong.” Her daughter discussed how the Communists tortured Liu in response, and the efforts to save her, with the Epoch Times.

Other Commentary on Communist China: Hans Bengtsson, Epoch Times, reports on a Swedish seminar on the crimes of the CCP. Yang Jingduan, also from the Epoch Times, reprints a lecture from Dr. Yang Jingduan on one of the cadres’ many psychological weapons against their own people: the use of the “Stockholm Syndrome.” Barry Peterson, CBS, compares the prosperous Potemkin cities with the impoverished rural interior. Hongchun, Epoch Times, rips the Communist academia as “embarrassingly ignorant of traditional Chinese culture,” and lays the blame for this at the feet of the CCP for its “society-wide destruction of traditional culture.” Jin Huan, also in the Epoch Times, examines the Communist real-estate bubble, and what its collapse could mean.

Iran “equipped for atomic weapon,” thanks to Stalinist North Korea: The Iranian mullahcracy “already has completed all of the elements required for an atomic bomb” (World Net Daily). The finishing touches were courtesy of Stalinist North Korea, which “transferred components to Iran to assemble a plutonium-based nuclear warhead.”

Vice President Cheney rips Kim Jong-il, but won’t mention L-word: In an interview with CNN’s Larry King, Vice President Dick Cheney blasted Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il (Agence France-Presse via News.com – Australia), but refused to endorse liberating northern Korea from his grip. He also insisted Communist China must “understand that it's incumbent upon them to be major players here.” Sigh. Will they never learn?

On the SNK refugees: Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute, calls on South Korea to be more receptive to escapees from the Stalinist North in a speech to the Kim Koo International Symposium. The Daily Standard excerpted this excellent address.