News of the Day (October 17)

South Korean legislator demands Communist China not repatriate SNK refugees: Hwang Woo-Yea, a member of South Korea’s National Assembly from the more hawkish Grand National Party, wrote Communist Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing to demand his regime not send back refugees from Stalinist North Korea currently in Qingdao (seventh item). Friendly Blog One Free Korea reported and approved.

More on the northern Korean colony: OFK also marvelled at the sheer courage of some South Korean acitivists who are planning an anti-SNK demonstration – in Pyongyang – has some nice things to say about America’s new Ambasador to South Korea, and notes some news in SNK defector Kim Tok-hong’s battle with the South’s dovish government for a passport. Meanwhile, former U.S. Army sergeant-turned-defector to SNK-turned-Stalinist prisoner Charles Robert Jenkins (fourth item, seventh item, last item) has written his memoirs. Time Asia excerpted them.

Communist China begins new crackdown in Tibet: Communist China “expelled some 40 Buddhist nuns from a convent in the Tibetan regional capital, Lhasa” (Epoch Times), for refusing to join in a “re-education” campaign. The expulsion was part of “a renewed crackdown on suspected separatists in Tibetan Buddhist institutions”

Australia possible source for Communist uranium – and abuse complaints: Communist China has inquired with the Australian government about the possibility of mining uranium in Australia. Sadly, no one in the federal government seems to be upset with this, but “state and territory governments – responsible for licensing mining and exploration – opposed further uranium mining and exploration” (AAP via Epoch Times). Meanwhile, Xue-Jun Wang, the Australian dancer kicked out of Communist China for possessing the Nine Commentaries (third item), “challenged the Australian Government to condemn Beijing over human rights abuses” (AAP via Epoch Times).

U.S. and Communist China to talk on currency, again: American and Communist officials “started two days of talks” (BBC) on finance issues, chief among them the cadres’ deliberately devalued currency. The Communist currency, still believed to be roughly 20-30% below its free-market value despite an infinitesimal floatation move last summer, has greatly damaged both American manufacturing and other Asian exporters.

Communist space mission ends: Communist China ended its second space mission in two years when Shenzhou VI spacecraft “safely returned to Earth” (BBC). The cadre-controlled press was, of course, ecstatic (BBC, United Press Int’l via Washington Times).

Rally in support of ex-Communists: A rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday offered “moral support to the 5,000,000 people who have quit the Chinese Communist Party” (Epoch Times) since the publication of the Nine Commentaries last year.

Deutsch Bank joins rush for piece of corrupt Communist banking industry: The German bank “bought a 10% stake in Chinese lender Huaxia Bank” (BBC) for roughly $329 million. The news came as word leaked to the Epoch Times that the Communists were investigating a “group flight of 42 branch governors of China's four major commercial banks.” The money stolen by this corrupt consortium was over $11 billion.

On Taishi: The battle between Taishi’s corrupt cadres and their villagers (fifth, tenth, sixth, lead, third, third, lead, lead, and lead items), has now caught Time Asia’s attention (Matthew Forney’s column). Meanwhile, Li Fan, World and China Institute, examines the larger picture in the impoverished, seething interior (Time Asia), and the Epoch Times reprints yours truly’s post on the matter.

More on Communist China’s repression: Gong Ping, Epoch Times, calls on Hu Jintao to end the bloody crackdown against Falun Gong. Jennifer Chou, Radio Free Asia, examines Linyi, the hideous “one child” policy, and the beating of Chen Guangcheng (tenth, second, ninth, ninth, thirteenth, and lead items), in the Weekly Standard. D.K. Sweet, in Metroactive, details Silicon Valley’s complicity in the cadres’ web crackdown.

Woe Canada! The editors of the Calgary Herald rip the Canadian government for cowtowing to the cadres and “shunning an emerging liberal democracy,” i.e., Taiwan.