News of the Day (July 8)

Chen Yonglin’s family gets protection visas from Australia: Well, it took a while, but the Australian government has finally given protection visas to Chen Yonglin – the former political consul at Communist China’s Sydney consulate – and his family. Chen pledged “help the Chinese people cast off the communist tyrannical system” (Epoch Times). Communist China’s Ambassador to Australia, Fu Ying, insisted Chen – who exposed the regime overseas espionage network – “had nothing to fear if he went back to China” (BBC), just after she “accused Mr. Chen of greed and lying about his homeland.” Meanwhile, we continue to ask the United States to grant Hao Fengjun asylum.

More on Communist overseas espionage: Lateline, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television show that interviewed Hao Fengjun, talks to former Canadian intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya on Communist espionage, and an unnamed Communist “legal officer” offers his support for Chen, Hao, et al, in the Epoch Times.

Some of Unocal’s stockholders open to Communist China’s bid: Unocal stockholders talking to the Washington Post publicly called on Chevron – the American bidder for Unocal – “to raise its $16.5 billion bid” to avoid losing the firm to the Communist-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The stockholders, “who are a minority of the company's stockholders” and “mainly come from hedge funds and merger-arbitrage firms,” also expect CNOOC’s bid, if it wins, to get approved by the U.S. government. None of them had any problem with the notion of a Communist-owned firm buying out an American oil company, in contrast to Terrence Jeffrey in the Washington Times.

Canadian energy firm may subcontract to Communist China for Colorado drilling: Meanwhile, EnCana, a Canadian energy firm and “major player in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times), is examining the prospect of “bringing in Chinese companies to construct and operate drilling rigs in the Colorado Rockies.” Already, local politicians are up in arms, including Congressman John Salazar, whose brother is a U.S. Senator from the state.

More on Communist China, the United States, and oil: Geoffrey York, Globe and Mail (Canada), examines the recent reports on Communist China’s military buildup – although the term “panicky” was completely unnecessary – and the CNOOC-Unocal bid. Han Shan, Epoch Times, has a thumbnail sketch of the Communist energy shortage.

Cai trial ends, verdict not announced: The trial of Cai Zhouhua (fifth and eighth items) for “illegal business practices” (printing Bibles) ended with no verdict. Cai and three fellow underground Christians were tortured into signing confessions they never read. The Communists are holding off on reporting the verdict until “a time when political fall out from the decision will be less” (China Aid via Epoch Times).

Nine Commentaries is the news in Communist China, and Canada: Dissidents managed to interrupt the Communists’ propaganda on 25 television channels with news of the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party and the subsequent resignations from the party, now over 2.8 million (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, Kevin Steele, Western Standard, comments on the Commentaries and the withdrawals.

More commentary on Communist China: The Epoch Times editors release Chapter 2 of their biography of Jiang Zemin, while former Radio Free Europe editor Peter Zvagulis examines the propaganda of the CCP, and finds that the regime “has preserved all the traditional totalitarian political characteristics” (Epoch Times).

On Stalinist North Korea: Ron Strom, World Net Daily, relays the testimony of “Lee,” a Korean-Chinese Christian arrested and imprisoned by the Stalinists for his faith. His description of SNK’s prison camps is particularly painful to read. Meanwhile, World Tribune.com finds that some Stalinist propaganda can backfire: in this case, a film on loyal Stalinist Lee In-Mo’s ten-year imprisonment in South Korea. The result: “Many North Korean defectors said their first reaction upon seeing the film was to ask how people could stay in prison for more than 10 years and remain alive? They say few people survive even three years in North Korean political prisons. Being fed three regular meals a day is utterly unimaginable.” Whoops!