News of the Day (June 27)

Communist China building global military and could attack Taiwan by 2007: Communist China’s military buildup is proceeding “faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials” (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). The military development is taking place on all fronts – technology, missiles, warheads, and naval vessels. One unnamed “senior defense official” called the Communist regime “the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany.” The Communist buildup, which one intelligence official said was “beyond what would be needed to fight a war against Taiwan” – is especially heavy in the naval area (Gertz), in no small part due to “its overt and covert efforts to gather intelligence and technology in the United States” (Gertz). Meanwhile, former Communist consul Chen Yonglin told Gertz that the Communists “view the United States as their main enemy and are working in Asia and around the world to undermine U.S. alliances” – Chen’s exact words were “The United States is considered by the Chinese Communist Party as the largest enemy, the major strategic rival.” Chen detailed Communist China’s espionage against America, and its use of “money diplomacy” to peel Australia away from the U.S. The China e-Lobby repeats its call for the U.S. to grant Chen, his family, and Hao Fengjun asylum.

More on Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun: The very brave Australian who is sheltering Chen and his family talks to the Epoch Times about the threats she has received. Another rally on Chen and Hao’s behalf was held in Sydney (Epoch Times). Australia’s Senate demanded for an investigation of Communist espionage in Australia (Epoch Times). Liang Yu, in the Epoch Times, talks about the Communists efforts to recruit him. Finally, Epoch Times U.S. editor Stephen Gregory wonders: Is Australia for sale?

More on the late Gao Rongrong: The death of Falun Gong practitioner and Communist torture victim Gao Rongrong (timeline of torture courtesy Epoch Times) continues to reverberate, although you wouldn’t know it from MSM (Epoch Times). Protests were held in at least nine cities around the world (China Support Network).

Resignation update: The number of ex-Communists inspired by the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party has passed 2.5 million (Epoch Times).

Ethan Gutmann speaks, again: The author of Losing the New China details how U.S. technology firms are “assisting the round-up of Chinese dissidents” (Epoch Times).

Israel cancels Harpy upgrade: Israel has “abandoned” an upgrade of the Communist radar systems (third item, eighth item), as part of a new deal with the U.S. “promising each will take the other's concerns into account when selling weapons” (BBC).

Congressmen call on Treasury to stop CNOOC-Unocal deal, if it happens: Treasury Secretary John Snow received a letter from over forty members of Congress from both parties calling on him to block China National Offshore Oil Corporation from buying American oil firm Unocal (third item, fourth item). The Communist-owned CNOOC “moved quickly to try and reassure the US that it is interested only in securing future energy supplies” (BBC) – how that’s supposed to “reassure” is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, two pundits have weighed in. Sebastian Mallaby, Washington Post, derisively likens it to the hysteria over the Japanese “corporate spending spree in the 1980s.” Irwin M. Stelzer, Daily Standard, practically responding to Mallaby, says this of the Japan-redux argument: “That might just be dangerously wrong.”

United Nations to fund “one child” monstrosity again; U.S. outraged: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) chose “to continue to provide financial and technical assistance to the Chinese birth-control program” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times). The United States ripped the UN for continuing to fund the hideous “one child” policy, which has led to forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and multiple murders. The House of Representatives voted down UNFPA funding last week (Roll call vote).

Communist Premier on currency revaluation – forget it: Communist Premier Wen Jiabao “said there is no hurry to revalue the country's currency” (BBC). The Communists have pegged their currency to just over 12 cents for more than a decade – many economists put its actual value at between 15 and 16 cents. The result has been major damage to American manufacturing and the exporting sectors of our Asian allies. Several members of Congress are calling for a tariff against Communist Chinese exports – a Senate vote will be held one month from now (second item).

Olympics in, 69 villages out: The building plan for the 2008 Olympics includes “dismantling 69 villages in the Beijing area” (BBC), meaning thousands of homeowners – in Communist China, individuals can own houses, but the Party owns the land – will face the bulldozer. Once again, the China e-Lobby calls on the U.S. to stay far, far away.

More corruption in Communist China: A Vice Governor of Henan Province involved several lower level cadres in his scheme to kill his wife (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, a former principal from Communist China talks about the corrupt nature of the CCP, and gives as an example a firm that has “been closed for 10 years” (Epoch Times) but “was still a listing company, and people said that it had been classified as a hi-tech stock.”

More commentary on Communist China: Kate McGeown, BBC, talks to Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighur political prisoner-turned-exiled activist. Peter Worthington, Toronto Sun, weighs in (weakly) on the Microsoft-on-Communism internet (second item).

On Stalinist North Korea: Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, discusses a new Bush Administration plan to freeze assets “of anyone conducting business with a handful of Iranian, North Korean and Syrian companies believed by Washington to be involved in weapons programs.” The Stalinists themselves ripped defector Kang Chol Hwan, who met with President Bush last week (eleventh item): “we have no such word as ‘defector’ . . . they are just a handful of criminals and hooligans” (Shotgun, from SDA author Kate McMillan). Richard Halloran, formerly of the New York Times, comes to terms with the Stalinists’ determination to become a nuclear power in the Washington Times, and examines the options: except for liberation. Will they never learn?