News of the day (December 27)

Greetings to all of the folks sent to us by Friendly Blog Small Dead Animals. In what can only be described as a cruel irony, the Canada file is empty today; apologies to all. That said, keep checking; there's a new post nearly every weekday. In the meantime, here's the last Canada file.

Norinco's back - Communist firms penalized for helping Iran's missile and WMD efforts: The Bush Administration barred "six Chinese government-run companies, two Indian firms and one Austrian company" (Bill Gertz, Washington Times) from doing business in the U.S. due to violations of the Iran Nonproliferation Act. The actions of the firms, which include repeat offender Norinco, were not revealed, but likely involved Iran's program in chemical weapons and missiles. Communist China has also been helping Iran's nuclear weapons program.

General Xiong Guangkai headed for "retirement": According to Charles Smith, Newsmax, Communist General Xiong Guangkai will soon retire from his post as number two officer in the so-called People's Liberation Army. However, the General, best known for threatening to incinerate Los Angeles, will still be chairman of the China Institute for Strategic Studies, making him a major Communist gatekeeper for foreigners, according to Rick Fisher, a longtime watcher of Communist China.

Communist China's colonization of Africa continues: Communist China is making major inroads into Angola, a dictatorship that hasn't seen a free vote in over a dozen years (Boston Globe). Of course, as in Zimbabwe, the locals are getting a little miffed, but the dictatorship is thrilled.

Japan signs on to missile defense as Communists frame dissident for anti-Japan riots: The Communists must have been hoping Japan would stop spreading the truth about them (eleventh item) if they turned on the people they encouraged to riot at the Japanese Embassy last spring. The only trouble is, they chose instead to frame a democracy activist: Xu Wanping, whose wife "told the AFP news agency her husband had played no role in organising (UK sp) or participating in anti-Japanese protests and should be freed" (BBC). One day earlier, Japan "approved a joint missile defence programme (UK sp) with the U.S." (BBC) due to what Chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe called "current international circumstances."

As post-massacre crackdown intensifies in Shanwei, another Guangdong protester is arrested: Communist police in Dongzhou village, site of the Shanwei massacre, have expelled over 200 residents, in some cases "leaving children alone at home" (Epoch Times), and have arrested as many as forty others. The massacre has triggered another wave of resignations from the Chinese Communist Party (Epoch Times), putting the number of ex-Communists at over 6.6 million. Meanwhile, in yet another part of Guangdong Province, a land-grab by local cadres has resulted in the arrest of a citizen who led a protest to stop it: Chen Weiying of Sanshan (Washington Post).

Guo Feixiong set free: However, there was some good regarding, of all places, Taishi. One day after he was mentioned here, Guo Feixiong - the attorney who helped Taishi locals try to recall corrupt cadres under the Communists' own "village elections" law - "has been released without charges" (BBC) after being held for over three months. Of course, the damage has already been done: the villagers' attempts to recall their leaders were crushed. That said, the cadres' falsehoods on the nature of "village elections" were exposed to the world.

Communist surveillance in Beijing increasing: Communist China will soon install "cameras in entertainment centers in star-rated hotels before the 2008 Olympics" (United Press Int'l via Washington Times). The surveillance cameras will also include "business centers, gas stations, elementary and middle schools, and more than 3,000 automated teller machines" (Epoch Times).

Communists trying, and failing, to lure Gao into discretions: The efforts Communist China are making to ruin attorney Gao Zhisheng's reputation (sixth, tenth, fifth, lead, third, last, twelfth, eighth, third, second, and third items) are somewhat creative, but too transparent. Cadres are now resorting to offering "money and sex" to ensnare the human rights lawyer; the latter ruse actually got him laughing. Meanwhile, Dr. Cheng Xiaonong, Editor-in-Chief of Modern China Studies, said Gao's investigation of the Communists revealed persecution of Falun Gong practitioners "worse than the Nazis" (Epoch Times).

Communists rips U.S. support for Hong Kong democracy: In response to the U.S. lending vocal support to those in Hong Kong wanting "a timetable for full democracy" (Washington Times), Communist mouthpiece Qin Gang "reacted angrily" and "told Washington not to interfere."

Communist-picked Tibetan monk praises occupiers' policies: Communist China's hand-picked Panchen Lama "emerged in China's state-run press yesterday to praise the country's religious policies" (Washington Times). The real Panchen Lama - second in rank only to the Dalai Lama - has not been seen since Communist China detained him and his family over a decade ago, when he was six years old.

More on Communist oppression: Sandra Keaton, Epoch Times, has the latest on the Sydney International Tribunal, whose mandate is to expose "the Chinese Communist Party's crimes against humanity."

Posion slick from Jilin hits Khabarovsk: The now infamous poison slick put into the Songhua and Amur Rivers by a Communist-owned chemical factory (seventh, fourth, ninth, fourth, fourth, fifth, fourth, fifth, third, seventh, and tenth items) reached the Russia city of Khabarovsk, whose residents "switched to stockpiled drinking water, ignoring officials' statements that filtering and other precautions would protect them against the slick" (Washington Post).

Former Communist minister gets life in prison for taking bribes: Ex-Minister for Land and Resources Tian Fengshan was convicted of taking over $500,000 in bribes and sentenced to life in prison (BBC). Tian's trial just happened to begin less than a week after the Shanwei massacre, which itself stemmed from a Communist seizure of land (last item).

On the Communist economy: Will Smale, BBC, expects Communist China's supposedly white-hot growth to continue (fifth item), as does Citibank apparently (Washington Post, last item), but Dr. Gao Weibang, of the Victims Association for Taiwanese Investors in China, issues another warning to anyone looking to cash in on the "one billion customers" myth. This time, Dr. Gao notes that even money safely deposited in a bank is anything but (Epoch Times).

On Stalinist North Korea: China Freedom Alliance Blog Member One Free Korea comments on the return of famine to the Communists' would-be colony, and marvels at dovish South Korea's refusal to accept reality about Stalinist counterfeiting. Meanwhile, SNK lambasted U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow for speaking the truth about it (The New Republic, last item), while Vershbow himself called on the Stalinists to stop hiding behind America's punishment of them for the fakery as their excuse to avoid the talks on their nuclear ambitions (Washington Times).