Wednesday, October 12, 2005

News of the Day (October 12)

Christian arrested and beaten for seven hours: Hua Huiqi, a Christian in Beijing, was arrested by the cadres for “providing aid to Christians who go to Beijing” (China Aid Association via Boxun) to escape persecution in their hometowns. The Communists held, and beat, Hua for seven hours. Tens of millions of Christians risk jail, torture, and death because they resist the Chinese Communist Party’s effort to pollute their faith through the cadre-run “Patriotic” churches.

Communists claim plan to help poor as police attack worker protest in Chongqing: The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee ended its latest plenum with a plan that “according to state media . . . deals with the rising gap between rich and poor” (BBC). Apparently, the plan skipss the lack of promised severance pay for laid-off workers at Communist-run enterprises, such as the Chongqing Special Steel Mill (second item), where the cadres ordered in police to crush a worker protest (Epoch Times).

Second space launch: Communist China launched its second space flight in two years this monring. Reports: BBC, Cybercast News

Communists admit to nearly $12 billion missing in Guangdong: A Communist investigation into Guangdong “uncovered massive corruption in the southern Chinese province” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times). Over $4 billion was lost due to “illegal behavior” while the rest was blamed on “poor management.”

Hong Kong chief visits Beijing, syas nothing of democracy: Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, visited the Beijing rubber-stamp parliament to make a speech. Tsang, chosen to replace Tung Chee-hwa by a cadre-appointed panel, talked about jobs, trade, “harmony,” and “excellence in governance” (BBC) – everything but democracy.

Commentary: Jerome F. Keating laments the shabby treatment of Taiwan by the United Nations, while Andrew Carlisle, Epoch Times, examines the Nine Commentaries.

Now from the northern Korean colony . . .

SNK refugees reach South Korean school in Qingdao: Eight refugees from the Stalinist regime “entered a South Korean school in China in a bid to seek asylum in South Korea” (Channel News Asia). Friendly Blog One Free Korea weighs in.

U.S. envoy threatens “wilderness of isolation” for SNK if nuclear deal dissolves: Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. envoy on the SNK nuclear deal debacle, said the Stalinists would face “a wilderness of isolation” (One Free Korea) if they upended the deal.

U.S. publicly charges SNK with counterfeiting: Following the arrest of Sean Garland for his alleged role in a Stalinist plot to flood the U.S. with counterfeit $100 bills (tenth item), the U.S. publicly fingered SNK for the plot (Bill Gertz, Washington Times).

European Union to present SNK human rights record to UN General Assembly: The European Union, of all things, “has decided to present a draft resolution that denounces North Korea's poor human rights record, including its abductions of Japanese and other nationals, at the U.N. General Assembly” (Kyodo via Yahoo).

More from One Free Korea: The Friendly Blog ponders the question of the possible collapse of the Stalinist regime (but forgets to discuss what Communist China could do to protect its colony) and reprints the remarks of Dennis P. Halpin, staffer on the House International Relations Committee, on ther Stalinists’ charm offensive in South Korea.

1 comment:

joshua said...

OK, I'll bite. China could send troops into North Korea. That would be a short-term tragedy for Korea and a long-term opportunity for freedom in Asia.

Authoritarian states don't do guerrilla wars well, particularly since open public discussion of casualties is suppressed and tends to break out into the open in unpredicatable ways.

There's no way to be certain, but I suspect that if armed, the North Korean people would fight a Chinese occupation, and that a bloody insurgency could come at a very high political cost for the CCP.

I also suspect that if China intervenes, the nationalist dynamic in South Korea would swing wildly in support of the North Korean resistance, away from China, and toward the United States. Japan would also move much closer to the United States. Russia would seek to make mischief for China to curb Chinese hegemony over North Korea's east coast ports.

Plenty of states in that region would like to see China taken down a peg. So should we, if we are seeing things clearly.