News of the Day (June 8)

Due to an invitation to Friday’s New York forum on the Nine Commentaries, yours truly will be traveling tomorrow, and will not be posting an entry.

Australia retreats from rejection of Chen Yonglin; Hao Feng Jun talks to TV: Hao Feng Jun went public to Australian television backing up Chen Yonglin’s accounts of Communist overseas spy networks. Hao, who defected after working in the anti-Falun Gong 610 office (second item) told Lateline that “China sent out businessmen and students to overseas countries as spies, and also had spies under diplomatic cover in its missions abroad” (CNN). Hao also gave documents “related to the monitoring of Falun Gong and democratic groups in Australia” (Epoch Times) to the Australian government, which is quickly backtracking from its earlier rejection of Chen’s asylum application: “Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said Mr. Chen's bid would be judged on its merit” (BBC). Meanwhile, the Epoch Times had this bombshell: Chen “turned to seek protection from the U.S. on May 31” after the Australians first rejected him. Moreover, “Chen’s action surprised the United States government . . . because the Australian Government had not informed its close ally of this explosive diplomatic and intelligence development even a week after it came to light.” The U.S. is, for now, calling this a matter “for Australia to handle.” That’s not good enough; Australia has already “handled” Chen – and very badly. It’s time Washington grant him asylum. Chen told Sound of Hope Radio that “he felt liberated after speaking openly about China’s spy operations in Australia, despite concerns for his safety” (Epoch Times). Falun Gong practitioners in Australia had high praise for the consul-turned-refugee (Epoch Times). However, the best commentary on the whole thing comes from the Asian Pacific Post, whose editors ripped Australia for its callous treatment of Chen.

More Tiananmen remembrances: The Epoch Times recounts a ceremony in Tel Aviv on June 3 and the account of Chen Qinghua, a resident of Hong Kong and Tiananmen survivor. The China Support Network reviews the various events around the world and reprints remarks from Han Dongfang, another Tiananmen survivor and current editor of the China Labor Bulletin. Meanwhile, the Guardian interviews retired cadre Li Rui, who calls for the Party to “face up to history,” including the Tiananmen massacre, while Isabel Hilton, a columnist for the British paper echoes Li’s call for the truth about Tiananmen.

Communist China says SNK will rejoin talks in “weeks”; U.S. not so sure: Stalinist North Korea will return to the six-party talks on its nuclear weapons “in the next few weeks” (Washington Times). That came as news to the United States, which was not given any such timetable from the Stalinists (tenth item). Also reporting: BBC, CNN

Blogs come under Communist scrutiny: Communist China “announced plans to police web forums, chat rooms and blogs alongside other websites” (BBC). All blogs must now “register their sites and identify the person responsible for each one by the end of June” (Cybercast News). Reporters without Borders ripped the move: “Those who continue to publish under their real names on sites hosted in China will either have to avoid political subjects or just relay the Communist Party's propaganda.”

Cheng Chiong arrest ripped: The Independent Chinese PEN Center “expressed their deep concern over the detention of Ching Cheong” (Epoch Times) – the Straits Times reporter in a Communist jail for trying to acquire a book of interviews with deposed Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who was sent to house arrest for opposing the Tiananmen massacre.

Communist China blackmails Haiti to drop Taiwan: Communist China has told Haiti that “a condition to approving a lengthy extension of the U.N. peacekeeping force” (Washington Times) in the shattered nation is an end to its diplomatic ties to Taiwan. The island democracy only has 26 diplomatic allies; the rest follow the “one China” fallacy.

Greenspan calls for flexible Communist currency: The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman said ending the deliberately devalued Communist currency peg “strikes me as very much to the advantage of China and indeed it's something that I am certain they will take on reasonably soon” (Voice of America via Newsmax). At the same forum, Communist central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan threw cold water on the idea. The Communists’ undervalued currency has enabled the regime to greatly damage American manufacturing and crowd out other exporters, including many American allies.

Singapore to press charges against China Aviation Oil swindlers: Chen Jiulin, Peter Lim Tiong Sun, Jia Changbin, Li Yongji and Gu Yanfei – all higher-ups in China Aviation Oil – will be charged for their roles in covering up massive losses in the Communist owned firm prior to a stock sale that left several investors holding the bag (twelfth item). Chen himself was arrested today (BBC).

Resignations from CCP approaching 2.2 million: The Epoch Times has a regional breakdown of the Party members who quit after the Nine Commentaries.

On Communist China and the United States: Economist Hans Sennholz sounds the alarm on Communist China: “they may become the greatest threat ever faced by the West” (Free Market News). Cal Thomas, Washington Times, does the same, while the China Support Network approves of a rhetorical shift in the Bush Administration on the Communist regime, but rightly wants actions to back up the talk.

Charles Robert Jenkins wants to visit his mother at home: Charles Robert Jenkins, an Army sergeant who defected to Stalinist North Korea, regretted it almost immediately, and left for Japan almost forty years later “to face US justice” (BBC), “may return to the United States for the first time in 40 years to visit his elderly mother” (CNN). While in SNK, Jenkins married Japanese abduction victim Hitomi Soga, in large part because of their shared hatred for the regime (fourth item, seventh item).