News of the Day (July 12)

Secretary of State won’t call Communist China a threat: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked: “does the United States consider China as a serious threat?” She answered, in part, “There is no doubt we have concerns about the size and pace of the Chinese military build up and it's not just the Pentagon. I've made it clear to people that this is a view held by the U.S. government; that does not mean that we view China as a ‘threat.’ We just take note of the fact that there is a significant military build up going on” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times). We just take note?!

Communist China wants telecom firms to follow CNOOC: Lu Yang, a cadre in the Ministry of Information, told the Communist-run Xinhua News Agency that the regime is “encouraging telecom companies to invest globally” (UPI via Washington Times). The kind of “encouragement” one can anticipate was revealed by Newsweek in reference to the Communist-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s attempt to buy Unocal (third, third, third, fourth, seventh, and second items): a zero-interest loan from the Communists valued at “$9.50 per Unocal share” far more than the difference between CNOOC’s bid and that of rival Chevron.

As WTO talks begin in Communist China, PNTR comes under scrutiny: World Trade Organization talks resumed in Dalian, Communist China (BBC). Meanwhile, retired U.S. Army officer and current national security analyst Robert Maginnis, details how Communist China’s military has benefited from Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) – at the expense of the U.S. – in the Washington Times.

More on Communist China and the United States: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein, a professor at Purdue University, examines how Communist China is using the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (third item) to build a Central Asian anti-U.S. alliance (PINR). Charles R. Smith, Newsmax, reveals a sickening business deal – air radar systems sold by an American company (New York-based Telephonics) to Communist China’s military.

Tibetan pageant contestant quits after Communists meddle with title: Miss Tibet “has withdrawn from an international pageant in Malaysia after the Chinese embassy insisted that she compete as ‘Miss Tibet-China’” (London Telegraph).

On Jiang Zemin: The Epoch Times releases chapters three and four of its biography on the biggest beneficiary of the Tiananmen massacre and author of the Falun Gong war.

On Communist China’s rural interior: Peter S. Goodman, Washington Post, has a clear-eyed look at the Communist China that the Party, its enablers, and “engagement” supporters don’t want anyone to see – the impoverished rural interior.

Meanwhile, on Stalinist North Korea . . .

U.S. and Japan support each other on talks agenda: As Communist China, the U.S., Japan, Russia, South Korea, and Stalinist North Korea prepare for the resumption of talks on the Stalinists’ nuclear weapons programs, Secretary of State Rice expressed support for Japan’s demand the matter of its citizens abducted by SNK – who still assert, without any evidence, that all abductees not returned are dead – be resolved, while Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura “told reporters that the six-way talks must produce concrete results concerning North Korea's nuclear weapons programs” (Voice of America via Epoch Times). Rice herself insisted that the Stalinists must be “ready to give up their nuclear weapons because without that these talks cannot be successful” (CNN).

South Korea offers electricity to SNK, calls on others to give security guarantee: Meanwhile, the dovish government of South Korea announced it would “provide electricity to the North if it gives up its nuclear-weapons capabilities” (VOA via Epoch Times). The electricity grid “could be ready by 2008.” South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who announced the proposal, also called on “other parties” (BBC) – read the U.S. and Japan – to give the Stalinist regime the security guarantees it craves. The South will also send half a million tons of rice to the Stalinists.

Not a good editorial, but it could have been worse: The editors of the Washington Post still believe the last, hole-filled position the Bush Administration took at the negotiating table “is sound” (Will they never learn?), but at least they recognized that the Stalinists have “yet to accept” a complete dismantling of its nuclear program/arsenal.