News of the Day (September 28)

More reaction to the Stalinist North Korea nuclear deal: Friendly Blog One Free Korea wins the Enlightened Comment of the Day by virtue of the title of its post alone (“Peace In Our Time!’ Update”). Meanwhile, Roland Flamini ruins his analysis of the deal by insisting on grafting it to a missive against certain Bush Administration officials (United Press Int’l via Washington Times), and the Weekly Standard parodies the talks.

More on the Stalinist Regime: One Free Korea again warns of the upcoming Stalinist-induced famine in SNK, while Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea give the Stalinists a well-deserved tongue-lashing on the subject in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, reports that Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il had chosen a successor (second item) were apparently wrong (Korea Times).

Japanese military planning for “slight” chance of a Communist attack: Japan’s military forces “drew up the top-secret plan” (UPI via Washington Times second item) to stave of an invasion by Communist China. While an anonymous source called the chances of an invasion “slight,” it’s still good to see Japan is preparing for it.

Communist China rips U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan: The cadres, as expected, waded into the debate of Taiwan arms purchases (seventh, seventh, and third items) by ripping them as “wanton interference in China's domestic affairs” (UPI via Washington Times).

FBI to talk intellectual property and hacking with Communists in November: Lou Riegel, head of the FBI’s cyber division, has been invited by the cadres to “visit Beijing in November for talks with law-enforcement counterparts and military officials on a range of issues, including intellectual property theft and computer hacking” (Washington Times). Intellectual property theft is a huge, cadre-backed industry in Communist China.

Textile talks continue: The U.S. and Communist China are still trying to reach “a comprehensive textile agreement” (UPI via Washington Times). Communist China’s textile exports surged after worldwide textile trade curbs ended on January 1, crowding out several developing nations in the process (fifth, fourth, second, and fifth items).

Falun Gong practitioners call for U.S. to keep Communist Culture Minister out: Communist Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng “is expected to arrive in Washington to attend the China Festival, which will be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during the month of October” (Epoch Times). Falun Gong practitioners called on the U.S. State Department to deny Sun a visa in response to his horrific persecution of the spiritual movement (third item).

More on Communist China and the United States: Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky and Joseph Barillari rip Communist China’s efforts to push UN control of the internet, and call on President Bush “to foreclose the possibility of it ever becoming the plaything of dictators” (National Review Online). Meanwhile, Lin Baohua, Epoch Times, examines the effects of Communist China’s spurious “strategic partnerships” on geopolitics.

On Communist China and the press: Shi Ming, China Electronic News (via Epoch Times) details the “Red Envelope Scandal” – a scheme by mine owners in Henan, i.e., local cadres (last and eighth items) – to buy media silence with a slew of bribes. Wang Hong and Christine Ni (Epoch Times France and New Tang Dynasty Television France, respectively) talks to Robert Ménard of Reporters Without Borders on why Communist China remains “the biggest prison for journalists.” The editors of the Epoch Times rip the Communists for the arrest of Zheng Yichun (seventh item), and the Committee to Protect Journalists (via Boxun) lament the new restrictions on online articles (eighth item). Finally, Sound of Hope Radio is circulating a petition calling for an end to the Communist clampdown on health crises reporting in Communist China.

Communists expanding repression to cell phones: The cadres would like us to believe they are “targeting cell-phone smut” (UPI via Washington Times). Few are buying it.

Communists labeling popular protests as “attacks”: As disputes between the cadres and the people they repress continue to grow (lead, sixth, and seventh items), the Communists are renaming them “attacks” (BBC).

A warning on the Communist economy: Li Hua and He Tian, NTDTV (via Epoch Times), relay the comments of Taiwan University Economics Professor Zhang Qingxi and Dr. Gao Weibang, president of The Victims Association for China Investors, on the real and dangerous nature on investing in Communist China.

Dalai Lama visits New York: The leader of the Tibetan people paid a visit to the Big Apple, during which Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented him with a key to the city (NTDTV via Epoch Times). Early in his first term, Bloomberg’s treatment of the island democracy of Taiwan was well short of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani (second item), but “Mayor Mike” has improved quite a bit since then (sixth item).