News of the Day (August 3)

U.S. envoy says SNK talks are nearing “end-game”: Christopher Hill – the head of the U.S. delegation at the six-party talks on Stalinist North Korea’s nuclear weapons – said of the latest draft statement by Communist China (Russia, Japan, and South Korea are the other participants) for a joint communique: “I don't know whether we are getting to an agreed text, but we are getting to an end-game text” (Cybercast News). As this possible now or never point approaches (BBC), columnist Mona Charen rips the last deal the U.S. signed with the Stalinists – the 1994 Agreed Framework – in the Washington Times. However, not even Charen is willing to endorse – or even mention – liberation (Will they never learn?) Meanwhile, T. A. Frank, in The New Republic, finds that “Pyongyang's displeasure towards the United States has been uncharacteristically muted in the past couple of weeks.” Kim Jong-il has instead focused his venom on Japan.

Hu Jintao to visit U.S. and Canada: Communist leader Hu Jintao “will visit Canada and the U.S. in September” (Epoch Times). Is anyone going to ask him about the Hanyuan County massacre?

Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun crash “seminar” designed to smear them: The Shanghai General Business Committee, The Chinese Weekly (Melbourne, Australia), and the Chinese Union of Victoria held a “large-scale seminar” in Melbourne to discuss what they called “the Damage of the Chen Yonglin Incident to the Chinese People” (Epoch Times). The seminar was shut down in less then an hour after the former consular officer showed up to challenge the pro-Communist tone. Former cadre and 610 officer Hao Fengjun was also there. Hao also commented on Australia’s strange, to put it mildly (fifth item), treatment of practitioners demonstrating in front of the Communist Embassy in Canberra (Epoch Times).

Russia-Communist China military exercise to include 10,000 troops: Some details about the August 18 joint military exercise between Communist Chin and Russia came out: 10,000 troops, including “airborne, amphibious and logistical support units” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times). The Shanghai Cooperation Organization members also invited defense ministers from the other four SCO nations to observe. Adam Wolfe, in The Power and Interest News Report, examines how the SCO and the Communists’ make-the-world-safe-for-dictators policy is affecting the U.S. in Central Asia.

Non-Communist Christians may be over 100 million strong in Communist China: “Underground” Christian churches, i.e., house of worship that refuse to put the Communist Party between themselves and their God as the Communist-controlled “Patriotic” churches do, “are said to have up to 100 million members” (London Telegraph via Washington Times). That would easily surpass membership in the CCP.

Study says developers making huge profits in Fuzhou real estate: The big winners in Communist China’s building craze are the builders themselves, who are making huge profits according to a study in Fuzhou city (Epoch Times). This should come as no surprise, as the developers are usually cadres or close friends of cadres – Zhou Zhengyi was such a favorite of Shanghai cadres that his eventual jail term for illegal evictions was the exactly the same as the attorney who exposed them (twenty-sixth item): three years.

Ignorant Comment of the Day: This was a close call, but the prize goes to the editors of the Washington Post, who incoherently lament the end of the Communists’ Unocal bid.

Runners-up: Lawrence J. Korb, and Peter Ogden, of the Center for American Progress, rip the U.S. nuclear deal with India (second item) in the Washington Post. They throw in the usual lines about the damage to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, while refusing to discuss its complete ineffectiveness in Iran and Stalinist North Korea. Then there’s this whopper: “what is to stop China from offering the same support to its allies?” Um, do they mean something like this? Or perhaps, this (second item)? Meanwhile, Harlan Ullman, Washington Times, likes the India deal a lot, but worries about “the risk is this new relationship turning China into a foe or competitor, either by miscalculation or design,” and then pleads about the need to keep the Communists onside for dealing with Stalinist North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Will they never learn?

More On the failed bid for Unocal: Many analysts were pleased to see the Communist bid for Unocal thwarted, as Patrick Goodenough (Cybercast News) discovered. John W. Schoen, MSNBC, examines the Communists’ international asset buying spree.

On Communist China and the United States: Evelyn Iritani, Los Angeles Times, details the Communist-owned Haier firm’s charm offensive and investments in South Carolina. Edward Lanfranco, UPI (via Washington Times), interviews Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, the pointman on “strategic dialogue” talks between the U.S. and Communist China (much of what Zoellick said, had he put in an Op-ed, could have made the Ignorant Comment of the Day). Jude Wanniski sees the Communists’ miniscule currency move as a step towards fixed its currency to gold, which he feels could be catastrophic for the U.S.

On the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party: M. Grangier, of Epoch Times International, reminds the Administration of Justice of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights at the United Nations about the tens of millions killed by the Chinese Communist Party. Peter Ebertz spoke on behalf of Swedish Parliamentarian Göran Linblad in the July 22 Nine Commentaries Forum. The Epoch Times reprinted the remarks.

On Communist China and Canada: Peter Worthington, Toronto Sun, comments on the defection of Yang Jianhua and his family (second item). Kevin Steel, of the Friendly Site Western Standard, examines the controversy brewing in Canada over the Taiwan Affairs Act, a bill by Tory MP Jim Abbott to improve relations between Canada and Taiwan.

On Communist China and Poland: Former East European dissident Peter Zvagulis, in the Epoch Times, joins those who see Communist scheming, rather than Cinderella romance, behind the recent marriage of Polish presidential candidate Stanislaw Tymiński and Shenzhen laborer Wu Mulan (tenth item).