News of the Day (June 16)

Woe Canada! Canada is beginning to recognize the depth of Communist China’s espionage in the Great White North. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mostly rehashed the accounts of Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun regarding Communist overseas spy networks, but added that Hao “says Canada has more spies operating in it than any other country.” Jillian Ye, a resident of Scarborough, Ontario, certainly believes that, after seeing one of the documents Hao smuggled out with him “detailed Ye’s plans to start a communications company” (Epoch Times). No fewer than four members of the opposition Conservative Party, including foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day, deputy leader Peter MacKay (Hansard) Jason Kenney (Hansard) and Helena Guergis (Hansard), pressed the governing Liberals on this issue in Parliament. Meanwhile, the editors of the British Columbian Asian-Pacific Post demanded to know why the Canadian firm Nortel is helping the cadres’ crackdown on cyberdissidents.

I guess the President hasn’t read my letter yet: I turned my call for the U.S. to grant Chen and Hao asylum in the U.S. into an open letter to President Bush; the Epoch Times was kind enough to publish it. Meanwhile, Chen tells the New York Times that when he asked for America’s help, “an Embassy official . . . told him the U.S. could do nothing for him” (Newsmax). Meanwhile, Father Chen Tianquan of the Brisbane Chinese Catholic Church “believes Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun when they claim that they fled China because they could no longer bear the CCP’s disregard for human rights and religious freedom” (Epoch Times). The priest should know due to “the CCP’s inhumane religious persecution of his sister, two brothers, and at least ten other priests and nuns living in Shanghai.”

Video of Shengyou assault released: The group of farmers who managed to withstand a brutal attack by armed thugs likely hired by the cadres to drive them off land coveted by a Communist-owned power plant managed to sneak out a video of the battle (BBC). It was the most visible example of the Communists’ willingness to kill anyone that stands in the way of the electricity-corruption axis since the Hanyuan County massacre.

Huang Qi out of jail: Five years after his arrest for posting anti-Communist articles on his website, Huang Qi was released from prison. During his time behind bars, Huang “suffered many serious illnesses due to the terrible conditions” and “was also severely beaten, resulting in several lost teeth and serious bodily injury” (Epoch Times). His family was so abused by the Communists that his wife gave up their son for adoption to spare him the cadre’s wrath (second item).

EU accuses Communist China of dumping shoes: Less than a week after a much-hyped deal between the two on textiles (sixth item), the European Union is finding Communist China’s deliberately weak currency and lack of independent unions (fifth item, second item) has led to a 700% surge in Communist shoes in Europe (BBC). Perhaps Peter Mandelson’s ribbing of the United States for its willingness to impose unilateral restrictions on Communist imports (fifth item) was a tad premature.

Could Communist China drive down the price of oil? Andy Xie, an economist for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, says Communist China’s shift “to coal for electricity generation” (CNN) will lead to a dramatic fall in the price of oil. Of course, this assumes the coal will solve the chronic shortages of power in Communist China, not something on which this corner would bet.

Hong Kong’s “election” cancelled: The mostly Communist-appointed panel chosen to “elect” the replacement for former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa will not even have to meet, as the only candidate is Communist-backed acting chief Donald Tsang (sixth item). Reports: CNN, BBC

On the Epoch Times: Sherrie Gossett, Accuracy in Media, has high praise for the dissident newspaper (which, full disclosure, has published a number of columns from yours truly) and New Tang Dynasty Television, while lamenting the continuing efforts of the Communists to shut them down (lead item, fifth item).