News of the Day (December 8)

China Support Network founder John Patrick's memorial column on the late Liu Binyan was reprinted by the Epoch Times.

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Member One Free Korea's guest blogger Andy Jackson comments on a speech by David Hawk, of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Meanwhile, OFK is not alone in noticing dovish South Korea's refusal to notice Stalinist atrocities (BBC, Cybercast News).

Communist police fire on protestors in Dongzhou: Police in Dongzhou Village (Guangdong Province) "are reported to have opened fire on protesters" (BBC) in order to break up the protest over compensation "for land taken by the government to build a power plant." According to witnesses, at least two protestors died.

From the Falun Gong War - a 610 Officer switches sides: Lin Chenyuan, who was brave enough to use his real name, was transferred into the brutal anti-Falun Gong 610 office "because I did not bribe any officials" (Epoch Times). He called the torture he witness, but of which he refused to take part, "even worse than the bloody torture the Japanese inflicted on the Chinese people during the Second World War." Of course, he also joine the over 6.1 million who have quit the Communist Party. A rally in honor of the resignees was held in San Francisco (Epoch Times).

Communist abuse of petitioners panned by Human Rights Watch: The Communists' continuing abuse of petitioners - citizens who seek redress in Beijing for mistreatment by provincial cadres (eighth, second, and fifth items) - caught the attention of Human Rights Watch, who ripped it. HRW cited "provincial officials known as 'retrievers' (who) would follow local residents to Beijing and harass them, often beating or kidnapping them and forcibly returning them to their hometowns" (United Press International via Washington Times). HRW "has even spoken to a few petitioners who have lost the use of limbs due to torture in detention" (BBC).

December 4 becomes "Mass Arrest Day": On what the Communists call "Legal System Promotion Day," about 1,000 citizens staged a "rule of law" protest at the China Central Television Beijing building. Communist police promptly arrested all of them, and beat up more than a few (Epoch Times).

Jilin Vice Mayor "hanged himself": Jilin Vice Mayor Wang Wei - the fellow with one of the most self-damning quotes in regard to the Jilin-Harbin-benzene fiasco, a.k.a. "China's Katrina" (seventh, fourth, ninth, fourth, fourth, fifth, fourth, fifth, and third items) - apparently hanged himself (Independent, UK).

On the health care breakdown in Communist China: Shen Hua, Epoch Times, interviews Liu Zhengyou, a Sichuan peasant who lost "three of his family members . . . because they could not afford to see a doctor" and North Carolina Professor Gordon G. Liu on the terrible state of health care in Communist China.