News of the Day (December 1)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Member One Free Korea’s guest blogger Andy Jackson attends Kang Chol-hwan’s second lecture, while OFK takes aim again at dovish South Korea. For more on the communists’ would be colony, see the end of the post.

Communists raze Catholic Church, wounding sixteen nuns in the process: Over two days, cadres in Xi’an (Shanxi Province) sent in a bulldozer to destroy a Catholic Church. Communist police also beat several nuns “who were defending the church building. Sixteen nuns suffered eye injuries and/or broken legs” (China Aid via Epoch Times).

The Falun Gong War continues: Liu Ruping, an attorney from Jinan (Shandong Province), tells Clearwisdom.net (via Epoch Times) how the Communists imprisoned him, tried to brainwash him, and sent his father to an early grave. Meanwhile, a former member of the Communist military – and current Falun Gong practitioner – is missing in Beijing (he has already been imprisoned once), worrying his brother (Epoch Times).

Could Communist China turn RFID into a dissident-tracking system? That’s the question posed by Frederick W. Stakelbeck, Jr., in the Washington Times. Stakelbeck notes the Communists’ enthusiasm for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, and worries it could become a method for “‘tagging’ human beings.”

Benzene slick hits Russia, possibly killing eight, as Communists face more criticism: The poisonous benzene slick caused by a Petrochina plant explosion in Jilin – and initially covered up by Communist China (seventh, fourth, ninth, and fourth items) – has just reached Russia, and already there are reports that it has claimed eight lives there (Mosnews, Russia via Boxun). Meanwhile, the critics of Communist China’s aversion to the truth about Jilin continue to grow, and now include Peter Goodspeed (National Post, Canada, via Boxun), and Edward Lanfranco (United Press International via Washington Times), who noted that the slick will freeze in the winter, then thaw to kill again in 2006.

Chief of exploded mine – praised by cadres two weeks ago – now under arrest: As part of its attempt at damage control in the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Group mine explosion (twelfth and third items), Communist China let its press rip the local cadres (BBC) and also arrested a local party chief and the mine’s head, Ma Jinguang, who “had been declared a role model in mine management 10 days before the accident” (BBC).

Communist China lectures on AIDS cover-ups, but doesn’t mention Henan: The cadres sent “a warning to officials not to cover up HIV cases as they spread beyond high-risk groups to the general population” (UPI via Washington Times). Of course, said “warning” does not apply to Henan province, where the Communists have been silent about a blood-donation scheme they led that caused one million HIV infections (sixth and fourth items). Sadly, MSM is also silent, as best shown by Charles Hadlock of NBC (via MSNBC), who has today’s Ignorant Comment of the Day.

On the Mak spy case: Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, examines the Mak-brothers espionage affair and Communist Chinese spying in the U.S. in general.

Woe Canada! Mining companies trying to get Tibetan activists off their backs: Three Canadian mining companies have decided to help Communist China exploit the resources of occupied Tibet. However, they are so worried about an ensuing public relations fiasco that they “are quietly engaged in talks with Tibetan activists to seek agreements that might prevent protests against their projects in China” (Globe and Mail, Canada, via Phayul). How about staying away from the CCP entirely, guys?

Nepal jails more Tibetans: Eighteen Tibetans who escaped Communist China for Nepal are now in a Nepalese prison (Phayul) – another sign that Nepal’s tyrannical King Gyanendra is now a Communist Chinese errand boy (ninth and seventh items).

On Tibet: Australian opposition MP Michael Danby speaks up for the occupied nation at a conference in Edinburgh (speech reprinted by Tibet Net via Phayul).

On Stalinist North Korea: Alexander Vershbow, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, discusses SNK’s antics and nuclear ambitions with the Washington Times. The Stalinists cancel a discussion on U.S. penalties from their counterfeit schemes because they couldn’t tie it to the nuclear talks fiasco (Washington Post, hat tip to OFK). According to the Korea Times, SNK will soon allow cell phones again, but with “American-style code division multiple access” technology “due to security concerns.” Uh oh (fourth item)!