News of the Day (October 3)

Communist China celebrates “People’s Republic” anniversary: As one would expect, this quarter mourned. Historian Song Yongyi expressed similar sentiments to the Epoch Times, as did Jack on his Democratic China blog. Meanwhile, the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield Hayes nearly ends up with the Ignorant Comment of the Day award from this whopper: “Today Chinese people are by and large free to think, and to do, as they please.” However, the rest of the piece contradicts and makes up for this error.

East Turkestanis mourn anniversary of “Xinjiang” founding: Saturday, October 1, was also the 55th anniversary of the creation of the “Xinjiang Autonomous Region,” the Communist puppet regime in the territory of occupied East Turkestan. The World Uygur Congress marked the day with an unfortunate warning that the occupied nation could become a “time bomb” (United Press Int’l via Washington Times). The U.S. issued a travel warning, and a “separate video, allegedly made by the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, said it would use all means possible to launch an armed struggle against China” (BBC). It was the first time anything was attributed to the ETLO in any form; in fact, most analysts on East Turkestan doubted its existence for years (third item). Neither is affiliated with this quarter’s friends at the non-violent East Turkestan Government-in-exile. Meanwhile, the Communist persecution of East Turkestan continued: China Aid (via Epoch Times) has the latest on the persecution of Christians in the occupied nation.

Legal team formed for Taishi village: The people of Taishi village and their elected, but unrecognized, leaders “has attracted national and international attention” (Epoch Times). A legal team formed to “provide legal services for Guo Feixiong and the Taishi villagers” in their battle against corrupt local cadres (fifth, tenth, sixth, and lead items).

As the number of resignations from the CCP approached 4.7 million, an Australian Senator (Green Party leader Bob Brown) called for the Australian government to help those who have become ex-Communists (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, a conference in Hong Kong on the document that started it all – the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party – “was forced to move at the last minute from the Conrad Hong Kong Hotel to a public park” (Epoch Times) after “the Conrad Hotel . . . had unilaterally cancelled” the forum. One country, one-and-a-half systems rolls on.

Communists prepare to battle flu with thoroughly corrupt health system: The cadres made great fanfare of their “emergency response plan to curb outbreaks of influenza” (Epoch Times). The announcement came as the cadres’ own China Youth Daily acknowledged “medical workers had taken around $30m in bribes” (BBC).

Communist China promises “equitable” growth as Time honors rural exposé: Communist China “vowed Friday to spread the benefits of economic growth more fairly among all levels of Chinese society, seeking particularly to close the wide income gap between farmers and city dwellers” (Washington Post). Less than a week later, Time Asia noted the publication of An Investigation of China's Peasants, a detailed indictment of the cadres’ treatment of the impoverished rural interior – it has since been banned.

Communists spending over $1 million a year for each retiring high-level cadre: The “retired first-rank members of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau” (Dongxiang via Epoch Times) are 117 in number. The regime is spending a whopping $124 million on this group, and average of just over $1 million per person.

Angry residents of Hubei Province shut down polluting battery factory: In order to stop a battery factory that so thoroughly polluted villages in Jianshan County that “many teachers and students were suffering from respiratory tract diseases” (Epoch Times), locals “took matters into their own hands,” blocked the entrance, and shut it down.

European Union joins the UN-internet crowd; U.S. holds firm: The European Union proposed “for Internet control to go to the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance” (UPI via Washington Times). This was a change for the EU, which had previously opposed the move spearheaded by Communist China to give the UN control of the Web (fourth, sixth, and fifth items). The U.S. is not budging. Meanwhile, Matthew Forney, Time Asia, details Communist China’s internet crackdown.

More on Communist China and the United States: Max Boot, Weekly Standard, ruins his otherwise excellent article on Communist China’s “plans for national greatness” with mindless criticism of “protectionist lobbies” uneasy about trading freely with the cadres.

On the Falun Gong War: Wang Mei, Epoch Times, details the heartbreaking story of persecuted Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Bin and his 10-year-old son Zhang Jiarui.

On Jiang Zemin: The editors of the Epoch Times present Chapters 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 on the ex-Communist leader and author of the crackdown against Falun Gong.

On Xinhua: What most blithely call the cadres’ “news agency” is in fact “completely subordinate to the CCP” (Boxun, who called it “the world's biggest propaganda agency”).

Communist China to install naval hotline with South Korea: Communist China and dovish South Korea “will install a hotline to facilitate communication between their naval forces” (UPI via Washington Times), in order to “defuse maritime tensions.”

This leads to all the news on Stalinist North Korea.

On the nuclear deal: Richard Halloran, formerly of the New York Times, calls on the U.S. to simply walk away from the talks – a nice idea if coupled with liberation – in the Washington Times. Meanwhile, Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute, rips the Bush Administration for knuckling under to the Stalinists (sound familiar?).

On the famine: On Saturday, the Stalinists announced that more than a million Koreans “are being sent each day on trains around the country to help with the annual harvest that is expected to be sufficient this year” (Washington Times, emphasis added). By Monday, word had leaked that the regime was rationing food again (Washington Times, second item). Friendly Blog One Free Korea weighs in.

On refugees: Questions are popping up as the authenticity of the aforementioned videotaped beating of a refugee from Stalinist North Korea (second item); Friendly Blog One Free Korea examines the situation. OFK also relays the letter of the woman who escaped from SNK despite having her feet amputated by the Stalinists (we got her gender wrong, too, second item), and reports of a new Communist Chinese refugee crackdown.

More on Stalinist North Korea: OFK also commented on Hyundai’s Kim Yoon-Kyu – “Kim Jong Il's favorite business partner” – and the arrest, and possible executions, of an underground Christian church leader and some of his relatives.