News of the Day (September 6)

Hu Jintao skips DC leg of trip in reaction to Hurricane Katrina: Communist leader Hu Jintao and President Bush “agreed to postpone their meeting next week because of Hurricane Katrina” (CNN). There is, at present, no rescheduled date, although Hu and Bush will meet in New York next week at the United Nations Summit (Epoch Times).

More on Communist China and the United States: In preparation for Hu’s truncated visit to America, the editors of the Epoch Times highlight the danger to the U.S. from Communist China. Two more Epoch Times columnists, Jason Loftus and Leeshai Lemish, also examine the Communist threat, particularly in light of cadre General Zhu Chenghu’s threat to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. Gabriel Martinez Cabrera, China Support Network, focuses on the Russia-Communist China military exercises, and the danger they poses to the U.S. Jared Pearman and Conan Milner, Epoch Times, provide largely conventional analyses of relations between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Patrick Goodenough, Cybercast News, also examined the ups and down between Zhongnanhai and Washington.

More on Hu Jintao: The editors of the Epoch Times called on the Communist leader to join the four million who have quit the party, as did Epoch Times columnist Wang Yifeng. Genevieve Long and Abraham Thompson, both of the Epoch Times, examine the problems Hu is leaving behind in Communist China. Finally, the paper’s New York staff condemns the Seattle Trade Development Alliance for banning it from covering Hu.

Chen Shui-bian to visit Governor Bush in Miami: Meanwhile, Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s elected president, “will visit with Florida Governor Jeb Bush . . . during a transit stop in Miami on his way to Central America later this month” (Newsmax).

Communist China letting SNK thugs kidnap refugees: Stalinist North Korea “has frequently kidnapped a high numbers of North Korean refugees at its border with China, along with South Korean citizens caught helping them” (Epoch Times). In many cases, the actually seizure occurs in Communist China itself, “due to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tacitly allowing” the refugees to be taken. Communist China itself sends back any Korean refugee it finds to the Stalinist North.

More on Stalinist North Korea: According to Congressmen Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and Tom Lantos (D-California), the Stalinist regime “intends to return to stalled nuclear negotiations this month” (Washington Post), but is still insisting on the “right to have a light-water reactor for energy production.” Of course, SNK already had that before they violated the 1994 Agreed Framework and admitted to a uranium weapons program. Meanwhile, a “group of some 140 South Korean civilian delegates” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times) are on their way to a “massive arts festival in Pyongyang.”

UN Human Rights Commissioner leaves Communist China: Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, left Communist China over the weekend (UPI via Washington Times). While Arbour pressed Communist China for “more information on its policy of capital punishment” (Voice of America via Epoch Times), she did not back away from her ill-advised “guardedly optimistic” (ninth item) comments on the regime’s treatment of its own people.

Amnesty Int’l calls on President Bush to hold Hu’s feet to the fire: T. Kumar, head of the Asia/Pacific branch of Amnesty International, “urged President Bush to send a clear message to Chinese President Hu Jintao about major human rights issues in China” (Epoch Times). Kumar also called on Bush to appoint a human rights envoy for Communist China – similar to his appointment of a rights envoy for Stalinist North Korea (last item). There is no rights envoy for Communist China (but there should be one).

More on human rights in Communist China: A conference on human rights in Communist China was held in Sweden over the weekend. Among the speakers were human rights lawyer Peter Bergquist, professor-turned-prisoner Shizhong Chen, Maiping Chen, chairman of Independent Chinese PEN Centre, Global Coalition for ByeCCP founder Sen Nieh, exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, and Man-Yan Ng, an executive at a multinational technology group who throws cold water all over the “engagement” crowd’s mantra of “one billion customers” (all speeches reprinted by the Epoch Times).

EU announces a new textile deal: European Union negotiator Peter Mandelson announced a new textile trade deal with Communist China “to resolve the row that left 75 million Chinese garments stuck in European ports” (BBC). The deal ends a rift between Communist China and the EU over a surge in Communist textile imports after the end worldwide textile trade curbs on January 1 (fifth item). These U.S. has placed several restrictions against their own Communist textile imports, which has hit both U.S. manufacturers and exporters from developing nations (fifth, fourth, and second items).

Blair visits Communist China, EU arms embargo holds: British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Communist China and called for “improvement in its record on human rights and democracy” (BBC). Meanwhile, the EU’s nearly-junked arms ban (third item) against Communist China “was discussed” (Cybercast News), it wasn’t undermined.

Communist China gets millions out of Standard Chartered: Communist China swindled British bank Standard Chartered out of $123m in “investments” in a new, Communist-run Bohai Bank (BBC). The news comes less than a month after the Royal Bank of Scotland led a $3 billion capital infusion for the thoroughly corrupt Bank of China (eleventh, sixteenth, nineteenth, sixth, seventh, last, tenth, and seventh items).

Malaysian official visits Communist China: Meanwhile, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was in Beijing for “an official visit to China at the invitation of Vice Premier Huang” (UPI via Washington Times). Host Huang “said China was ready to deepen its strategic cooperation with Malaysia.” Oh, joy.

Protest report: About 50 appellants – citizens who are bringing grievance against local cadres to the capital – “rushed into Tiananmen Square from the northeast entrance” (Epoch Times) to protest Zhongnanhai’s policy towards them – which is, basically, ignore and incarcerate. Meanwhile, recent anti-Communist protests were reported in Guangdong, Shaanxi, Liaoning, and Sichuan provinces (Epoch Times).

As resignations pass 4.1 million, CCP uses porn to increase its web interest: The number of Party members who have quit in reaction to the Nine Commentaries has passed 4.1 million (for more on this, see Epoch Times coverage here and here). The Communists in Henan have responded with the very thing the cadres have used to justify their internet crackdown (sixth item): erotic chat rooms (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, former 610 official Han Guangsheng wrote to his old labor camp, and called on the staff there to “quit the Party as soon as possible and stop all your evil deeds” (Epoch Times).

More commentary on Communist China: Linyu, Central News Agency (via Epoch Times), examines the political fallout from Communist China’s version of American Idol. Glenda Korporaal, in the Australian, examines the tentacles Li Ka-Shing’s son has exteneded into Australia. John Simpson, BBC, has an analsys of Communist China’s rise that practically begs for the Ignorant Comment of the Day moniker until this sentence: “China, in particular, will have to develop politically: no more locking up people who speak their minds and tell the truth, no more being the world's leading executioner.”