News of the Day (November 21)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Member One Free Korea expresses growing alarm at Communist China, laments the imminent return of famine to SNK, and fires more well-deserve rhetorical shots at dovish South Korea. More on Communist China’s would-be colony can be found at the end of this post.

Bush wraps up Asia trip: President Bush is on his way home after his trip to Japan, South Korea, Communist China, and Mongolia. While inordinate attention was paid to President Bush’s visit to a Communist-run church (Washington Times, Cybercast News, Voice of America via Epoch Times, BBC), many noted his disappointing performance on pressing human rights concerns (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, United Press Int’l via Washington Times). In fact, roughly a dozen dissidents were “detained or put under house arrest . . . in advance of President Bush's visit to keep them from making their complaints heard” (Washington Times). Meanwhile, Louisa Lim, BBC, noted that even on the issues for which the President shunted human rights, he won essentially zip.

New German government drops Schroeder push to end EU arms embargo: Jacques Chirac is on his own in his effort to lift the European Union arms embargo on Communist China: “a spokesperson for the foreign office of the CDU said that a discussion of lifting the arms embargo on China is possible only if Beijing improves its human rights record and abandons its military threat to Taiwan” (Epoch Times). The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) is the party of incoming Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner reaches U.S.; Charles Li’s release date nears: Wang Huimin, a Falun Gong practitioner who “was kept in one of China’s forced labor camps and brainwashing centers for over three years” (New Tang Dynasty TV via Epoch Times), is now safely in the United States. Meanwhile, fellow practitioner Charles Li, an American citizen, is nearing the end of his three-year sentence (Epoch Times), although the effects of the Communist torture will not disappear.

Escapees detained in Australia could die on hunger strike: Two escapees from Communist China currently being held in a Sydney detention center “have been on a hunger strike for 30 days (and) are prepared to starve themselves to death” (AAP via Epoch Times) rather than risk being forcibly returned by Australian authorities. Australia has a history of weak behavior regarding Communist China, and the cadres have noticed.

Yet another land grab in Sichuan results in beatings, crop destruction: Sichuan Province, home of the Hanyuan County Massacre, has seen yet another example of corrupt, greedy Communists attacking local farmers. This time, it was in Jiefang Village, and thankfully, there wasn’t a slaughter of 10,000 people. However, several farmers were beaten, and “thousands of policemen uprooted all of the vegetables in the fields, destroying crops that the farmers had tended to for half a year” (Epoch Times).

Rally in New York to mark Nine Commentaries anniversary: Meanwhile, a rally in New York was held for the one-year anniversary of the first publishing of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party (Epoch Times), which have inspired over 5.7 million to resign from the Chinese Communist Party.

Boeing sells 737s to Communists who converted one such plane for military use: Communist China signed a deal for “seventy Boeing 737 aircraft” (BBC), just as Newsmax reported that the Communists “recently converted a Boeing 737 into an advanced military command aircraft.”

BP invests in corrupt Communist oil firm: Meanwhile, BP has decided to buy a 23% stake in China Aviation Oil (BBC), a Communist-owned firm that took investors to the cleaners by falsifying losses last year (twelfth and seventh items).

UN Torture official visits Communist China: For the first time, Communist China has allowed the United Nations rapporteur on torture to make a visit. However, since the Communists are directing the tour, don’t expect Manfred Nowak to find anything (BBC).

Dalai Lama visits Scotland and holds up local Parliament as model for Tibet: The Dalai Lama visited Edinburgh for a conference on Tibet’s future. During the trip, he “praised the Scottish Parliament” (BBC), calling it “a model which could be used to help give autonomy to Tibet.”

Chicago Mayor, inspired by Communist China, wants 6-day school week: Residents of the Windy City can only hope Mayor Richard Daley didn’t get any other ideas about governance from his recent trip to Communist China (World Net Daily).

Ignorant Comment of the Day: The dubious honor goes to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun (via Washington Times) for their moral equivalence on Communist China and the U.S.

Other Commentary on Communist China: The blog View from a Height has some suggestions for Communist China’s Olympic advertising (speaking of the Olympics, sign the petition calling of the U.S. to stay away). The editors of the Washington Post are deeply nervous about putting the Internet under “international” control. Lu Qingshuang and Guo Ruo, Epoch Times, talk to Cai Zhuohua’s attorney (fifth and eighth items).

Stalinist North Korea literally crushing Christians as part of its repression: The Communists’ would-be colony “is raising religious persecution to the same heights as ancient Rome” (National Post, Canadian). Among the preferred methods of executing Christians in the Stalinist North include “crushing the heads of underground church leaders under a steamroller.” Sadly, some folks prefer to turn their heads and pretend they don’t see, like the National Lawyers Guild, which rightly gets the rhetorical double-barrel for it from freelance writer Shawn Macomber in National Review Online.

APEC issues boilerplate statement on six-party talks: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea “welcomed the recent headway in the multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, but demanded ‘substantial progress’ to end the three-year-long standoff” (UPI via Washington Times). They called this “headway”?