News of the Day (November 7)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: One Free Korea focuses on South Korea’s growing anti-Americanism, its less-than-optimal Human Rights Commission (JoongAng Daily), and the pressure for it not to abstain on the UN anti-SNK resolution (thirteenth, eighth, and ninth items). Regarding the Communists’ would-be colony directly, OFK enjoys a bad week for Kaesong, laments Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il’s fashion police, and comments on Mongolia’s willingness to help SNK refugees. Meanwhile, talks between SNK and Japan ended, badly (Washington Times, second item).

Four arrests linked to Communist spy case, possibly most damaging in 20 years: The FBI arrested “two married couples . . . all ethnic Chinese” (BBC) as part of a Communist espionage case that “could prove to be among the most damaging spy cases since the 1985 one of John A. Walker Jr.” (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). Among the secrets allegedly given to Communist China by these four include electromagnetic pulse weapons, the high-tech Aegis system, and unmanned aerial vehicle technology. In the words of one unnamed American official, “The Chinese now know more about our military than we know about their entire country.”

Now Communists are saying bird flu may have killed Hunan girl: After two weeks of denial, Communist China is finally acknowledging the possibility that twelve-year-old He Yin died from bird flu. The cadres “asked the World Health Organization to examine the cause of death” (BBC). Of course, the Communist cover-up made sure there was nothing left to investigate (eighth item). Meanwhile, Conan Milner, Epoch Times, spoke to immunologist Dr. Lili Feng, who sees the cause of this in “the abysmal state of China’s industrial environment,” and the Washington Times, for some reason, reprints the latest propaganda sheet from the People’s Daily.

Tiananmen protestor reveals cadres’ use of mental institutions against dissidents: Wang Wanxing, who was “forcibly held in a Beijing asylum for the criminally insane for 13 years and forced to take powerful anti-psychotic drugs” (Epoch Times) because he led a Tiananmen Square protest in the spring of 1989, is now free, and with it are his harrowing tales of how Communist China uses mental hospitals as just another torture chamber for political dissidents (see also fifth and fourth items).

Gao Zhisheng’s office shut down: Communist China “shut down the law firm of a prominent civil rights lawyer after he refused to withdraw an open letter urging President Hu Jintao to respect freedom of religion and stop persecuting members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement” (Washington Post). That lawyer, of course, was Gao Zhisheng (sixth and tenth items).

Communists try the self-immolation smear against Falun Gong again: Meanwhile, the cadres appear to have tried to rehash their dubious charge that a Falun Gong practitioner deliberately burned herself to death (the last time they tried this was in 2001 – sixth item). However, the Beijing Daily News and Singtao Daily forgot to tell the local police what the correct story was – they insisted it never happened (Epoch Times).

Voice of America and Radio Free Asia sending TV signals via Eutelsat: What a difference half a year makes! In April Eutelsat was talking about kicking New Tang Dynasty Television off its satellites. Now, not only is NTDTV safe (thank you, Department of Defense – see third item), but Eutelsat is also broadcasting “Voice of America (VOA) TV programs and Radio Free Asia” (Epoch Times).

Deal struck on textiles: The United States and Communist China have a deal on the latter’s surge in textile exports to the former since January 1. Under the new deal, Communist exports in textiles to the U.S. could only rise to certain levels before 2008 (Washington Post). Communist China’s exports in textiles to the U.S. and elsewhere shot up when global textile trade curbs ended last January (fifth, fourth, second, fifth, third, and second items), crowding out several developing nations in the process.

New Zealand commemorates resignations as Australia braces for persecutor: Falun Gong practitioners in Australia have called on their government to block the visit of Zhang Dejiang, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Committee of Guangdong Province, and one of “a group of high-level Chinese government officials involved in implementing and sustaining the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China, particularly in Guangdong” (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, in New Zealand’s capital, a rally was held to honor the now 5.4 million Party members who have resigned (Epoch Times).

On Communist China and the United States: Martin Walker, United Press Int’l via Washington Times, talks to James MacGregor, the former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China who just won’t open his eyes on Communist China’s geopolitical objectives. Meanwhile, Chris Zambelis, of the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief, examines Communist China latest African project: Egypt.

Ignorant Comment of the Day: Today’s dubious prize goes to Dr. Bates Gill and Chin-Hao Huang, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Their China Brief column on the recent tensions between Taiwan and Communist China completely skips the obvious reason: the rise of democracy on Taiwan, and its absence on the mainland.

On Tibet: Tom Carter, Washington Times, interviews Lodi Gyari, top aide to the Dalai Lama, about the future of Tibet with Hu Jintao leading the occupying Communist regime. For reasons that elude this corner, Mr. Gyari is optimistic about Hu and his fellow cadres.

More Commentary on Communist China: Willy Lam, China Brief, examines the plans Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have for Communist China, and rightly concludes that without meaningful political reform and democracy they won’t be achieved. Nathan Nankivell, from the Canadian Department of National Defence, notes the pollution’s role in recent protests in Communist China (China Brief, see also sixth and sixth items).