News of the Day (January 10)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Between Heaven and Earth picks up the banner for those in Canada challenging the Communists' attempt to get their propaganda television stations to air in the Great White North. We endorse this effort wholeheartedly, and ask all Canadian readers to call on the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to keep Communist propaganda off the air (contact information can be found via the BHaE link). BHaE also highlights the painful plight of Parhat Yasin, a Uighur in the United States whose family is under house arrest by Communist China, who is using them to "pressure him into spying" on the cadres' behalf. Meanwhile, One Free Korea takes note of Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il's visit to Communist China (see also BBC, Washington Times), points to a demand by South Koreans for the Stalinist North to compensate them for imprisoning and torturing them (JoongAng Daily), and notes more friction between South Korea's dovish government and American military forces (but misses, oddly enough, the increasing anger within South Korea's military at the doves - Washington Times). OFK also rails against the return to dictatorship in Cambodia (fifth item).

More from the Canada file: Montreal marks the seven-millionth resignation from the Chinese Communist Party (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, Roland Jones, MSNBC, finds Communist China's Geely cars at an auto show, and runs into Malcolm Bricklin (fourth and sixteenth items - for more on why Mr. Bricklin belongs in the Canada file, see this piece from last February by Kevin Steel, Western Standard).

Bolivian president-elect calls Communist China "ideological ally": Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, still in Communist China after inviting the regime into his home country's energy sector (twelfth item), called Communist China an "ideological ally" (Washington Times), asked Communist leader Hu Jintao for "the help of your government and your party" (emphasis added). This quarter repeats its heartfelt warning to Mr. Morales - if Ronald Bruce St John (Foreign Policy In Focus) is correct, a dictatorship is not what you want for your homeland, but Communist China much prefers dictators to popularly elected officials.

India tries to ease Communist fears of its nuclear deal with the United States: Indian Foreign Minister Shayam Saran is in Communist China hoping "to win China's support for its U.N. Security Council membership, and its emergence as a nuclear power" (United Press Int'l via Washington Times). The latter is a reference to last summer's deal between the U.S. and India on nuclear cooperation, which has spooked the Communists (thirteenth and tenth items). Yours truly recommends that India not hold its breath on this one.

Slovakian victim of Communist persecution gives hope to the Chinese people: Father Jan K. Balazs, a Catholic priest and dissident in Communist-controlled Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia) in the 1980s, tells the Chinese people: "Don't lose hope. They can be sure that we think about them and that they are not alone." Father Balazs made those comments in an interview with Peter Sedik, Epoch Times reporter and Slovakia Director for the China Support Network.