Thursday, September 08, 2005

News of the Day (September 8)

Communist-run Bank of China in U.S. probe of SNK rackets and nuke buys: Less than a month after Royal Bank of Scotland agreed to head a $3.1 billion investment into Bank of China (seventh item), the Communist-run bank was “named in media reports as the subject of a US inquiry into an illicit North Korean fund-raising network” (BBC). The investigation is focusing on the bank’s “links to criminal syndicates” involved in “lucrative North Korean enterprises producing narcotics, counterfeit US currency and fake cigarettes,” that the Stalinists used to fund its nuclear weapons program. Bank of China has a long history of corruption (eleventh, sixteenth, nineteenth, sixth, seventh, last, and tenth items), but this is the first public link to SNK and its nuclear ambitions.

Communists say SNK nuke talks to restart Tuesday: Meanwhile, Communist China announced that the six-party talks on the Stalinists’ nuclear ambitions will resume this upcoming Tuesday (BBC). Communist China has hosted and participated in all rounds of the overhyped talks, always claiming to be neutral despite the fact that it is a half-century-plus ally – and as we now know, a literal partner in crime – of SNK.

Yahoo tries to justify aiding in Shi Tao’s arrest amid boycott call: After getting ripped by Reporters Without Borders for helping Communist China find and arrest journalist Shi Tao (fourteenth and fifth items), internet firm Yahoo meekly said it “must ensure that its local country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and customs of the country in which they are based” (Cybercast News), i.e., since we’re in a police state, we’re going to help the police against dissidents. In response, Privacy International “called on Internet users to boycott Yahoo” (ZD Net, UK) – yours truly may very well change the e-mail address as a result. Meanwhile, RWB and Human Rights in China called on President Clinton – in Huangzhou for an internet conference (eighth item) – to raise the issue in his speech there (Cybercast News).

More on American technology firms and Communist China: Jane Wakefield, BBC, examines the argument between technology firms desperate to get into Communist China and the human rights activists appalled at how subservient those technology firms are willing to be. Meanwhile, at least one firm, Microsoft, is finding that getting into Communist China is not all it’s cracked up to be (Andrew Orlowski, The Register, UK).

Pacific Command head visits Communist China: Admiral William J. Fallon, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, announced while in Beijing that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will visit Communist China in October. The trip is “part of a U.S. effort to ease tensions and expand military ties with China” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times), which begs the question: has Rumsfeld seen his own department’s report?

Russians see joint exercise as a flop: According to Russia’s Independence TV station (cited by the Epoch Times), Communist China didn’t do too well in its joint military exercises (fourth item) with Russia: “The Chinese soldiers’ equipment and morale is worse than ours. It seems that they did not prepare in advance!”

More on Communist China and the United States: William R. Hawkins, of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, hopes a more low-key summit with Hu Jintao will mean President Bush can “deal seriously with emerging threats rather than perform in Beijing's public relations show” (Washington Times). Charles R. Smith, Newsmax, details Communist China’s military ambitions in space and other fields.

Woe Canada! According to the Supreme Court of Canada, Lai Changxing, the reputed author of the multi-billion dollar Xiamen smuggling scandal – and given how high the scandal rose, a lock for execution no matter what his real role – should be sent back to Communist China. However, Rodolfo Pacificador, accused of assassinating political opponents, can stay. British Columbia’s Asian Pacific Post is, rightly, aghast.

More Commentary on Communist China: Caylan Ford, Epoch Times, reviews the disturbing record of Communist leader Hu Jintao, and hopes “his first visit to North America as China’s leader will alter his course.” Ford also has an excellent piece on the real state of the economy in Communist China (with an assist from Brian Marple). Meanwhile, Chinese Rights Defenders (via Boxun), blast the Communists for arresting anti-“one child” activist Chen Guangcheng (tenth and second items).

On Taiwan: Ben Hurley, Epoch Times, calls on the international community to end the ridiculous “one China” charade and support the island democracy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Geeze, DJ, I wonder if there were "calls on the international community to end the ridiculous “one US” charade and support the Confederacy's right to self determination"?

And you say Taiwan doesn't support Epoch Times. Boy I wondery why those Falun Gong reporters aren't saying stuff like US government is possessed by evil aliens. What, afraid of crack-down?

- bobby fletcher

D.J. McGuire said...

Bobby,

You're going to have to do better than a cheap Confederacy reference.

The facts are these:
1) The Communists have never set foot on Taiwan
2) The Taiwanese government is in fact the government that was founded in 1912 for all of China
3) Taiwan has established a democracy (or, if we're going into 19th C-speak, a republican form of government) which would be wiped out and replaced with a corrupt appendage of the brutal CCP.

Somehow, Hu Jintao as Abe Lincoln just doesn't fly.

Anonymous said...

DJ, face it - you are just too biased to admit other people's civil war is none of our business.