News of the Day (July 19)

Katrina Leung’s FBI handler gets house arrest: James J. Smith, the FBI official who was Katrina Leung’s handler, “was sentenced to three months in home confinement” (Agence France Press via Yahoo) for concealing the affair he had with Leung, an affair that allowed her to sneak out documents to her real superiors in Communist China. The FBI believes Leung may have messed up their counterintelligence on Communist China for at least twenty years. Despite this, Leung’s indictment was dismissed earlier this year by Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, who happened to be appointed by both Bill Clinton – whose national Democratic party received hundreds of thousands in Communist Chinese campaign contributions – and Pete Wilson – who as Governor of California was de facto leader of the Golden State GOP, for whom Leung raised untold sums of money. Judge Cooper also handed down the Smith sentence, turning down the prosecutor’s request that he be sent to jail for two months. The dismissal of Leung’s indictment is being appealed.

More on General Zhu’s nuke threat: Joseph Farah, founder of World Net Daily, rips President Bush for his silence on the threat from General Zhu Chenghu to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. if it comes to the aid of Taiwan against a Communist attack.

Communist China plans “anti-terrorism” organization: As part of its smokescreen on the War on Terror, Communist China “intends to set up a regional coordinating mechanism to fight terrorism” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times). Cadre Li Wei had the rhetoric down cold: “China should learn lessons from other countries, such as the United States and Britain, in this regard.” What we could teach them about slander against Taiwan and persecuting Uighurs and Tibetans is anyone’s guess.

Indian PM visits Washington: Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited President Bush in Washington for talks continuing “a real transformation of our relationship,” in Singh’s words (Voice of America via Epoch Times). President Bush has dramatically improved relations with India, something Bruce Fein (Washington Times) supports heartily. Of course, Communist China is embarking on a major charm offensive of its own in India (third item), but there is still Mao’s 1962 land seizure to get over.

Communist China making more inroads in Africa: By presenting itself as a friend to all dictators, Communist China continues to win partners in Africa. Sudan “exports 60 percent of its oil to China” (UPI via Washington Times), while Angola ships the cadres a quarter of its oil. Angola, meanwhile, will get “a next-generation network of fixed, mobile, data and optical systems” (UPI via Washington Times) from Communist-pwned firm ZTE – one of the builders of Saddam Hussein’s fiber-optice network (tenth item).

Communists force abortion on Falun Gong practitioner: Wang Jingui, a Falun Gong practitioner in Henan province, “was sent to the Huaiyang County Birth Control Center, where eight men held her down on an operating table and forcibly aborted her child” (Epoch Times). The Communists also sentenced her to five years in jail. Meanwhile, more learned about the harrowing persecution suffered by Falun Gong at a live exhibit depicting the torture in San Fransisco (Epoch Times).

Residents of Shengyou still forced to resist Communists: After a group of farmers protesting the seizure of their lands buy corrupt cadres looking to build a power plant were attacked by hired goons, the Communists played the public relations game and fired some cadres. However, their replacements “are detaining reporters and keeping them in a Dingzhou hotel” (UPI via Washington Times), including BBC reporter Bessie Du, who managed to smuggle out video of the assault (third item). Meanwhile, residents told Du that“the government had done nothing to redress their demands.”

Beijing power crunch worst in two decades: The Communists are now admitting the summer energy crunch in Beijing (sixth item) will be “its worst energy shortfall in 20 years” (UPI via Washington Times).

On the Nine Commentaries: As a forum on the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party was held in The Hague (Epoch Times), those daring to even mention the document in Communist China face still face swift arrest (Epoch Times).

Other Commentary on Communist China: Ziyuan, Epoch Times, laments the “deceitful propaganda” that is the Communist-run China Central Television. Li Xiao, Renminbao (via Epoch Times), examines Polish exile Stanislaw Tymiński’s recent marriage to a former Shenzhen factory manager and his even more recent return to Polish politics emphasizing “the development of the relationship between Poland and China.”

“How Can I be Sold Like This?” That was the question of a woman who escaped Stalinist North Korea, only to become a nonperson in Communist China, which sends back every refugee it finds. As University of Rhode Island Professor Donna M. Hughes notes in National Review Online, the women who are not caught are sold – in many cases more than once – as concubines.

More on Stalinist North Korea: As the next round of nuclear talks were sent for a week from today (BBC), Bill Gertz (Washington Times) interviewed SNK escapee Kang Chol-hwan – who became a political prisoner of Kim Jong-il when he was ten years old.