News of the Day (January 5)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Between Heaven and Earth has Ethan Gutmann's speech in Jerusalem from last November on Israel and the CCP, balances former Ignorant Comment of the Day winner Robert Sharp (eighth item) with an excellent piece by Cao Chang-qing on how the Communist dictatorship gets in its own geopolitical way (UPDATE: Sharp's piece is no longer there, it's just Cao), and reprints the piece by Kevin Steel (Western Standard) on Communist China's ties to Canada's ruling Liberal Party (for those still in the dark as to why we endorsed the opposition Conservatives in the upcoming Canadian election). Meanwhile, One Free Korea highlights Stalinist North Korea's desperate attachment to radical anti-Americanism as the long-suffering people of northern Korea continue to starve to death.

More from the Canada file: The decision by the Liberal Party to hand $12.5 million in head tax compensation to the pro-Communist National Congress of Chinese Canadians - with absolutely zero going to actual victims of Canada's Chinese head tax (sixth and lead items) - is starting to cause a stir. John Gleeson, Winnipeg Sun, gauges the anger in the Chinese Canadian community, while the blogger at TDH Strategies has noticed that the decision has some Liberal from British Columbia (home of a large number of Chinese Canadians, and Between Heaven and Earth) running for cover.

More on Communist China and its would-be colony: The dovish South Korean government continues to believe the counterfeiting of U.S. currency by the Stalinist North (last item) is an issue for negotiation, only now they're saying Communist China should be included in the "consultations" (Epoch Times). This would mean the conspirators - don't forget the role the Communist-owned Bank of China is reported to have had in this criminal activity - would outnumber the victims at the "consultations," which are really SNK's attempt to get out of being punished for printing fake U.S. $100 bills.

India lets Li Ka-shing's Hutchison build ports as Communist drugs crush local producers: India, Communist China's longtime rival, has decided to stop freezing out pro-Communist Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Port Holdings; the firm can now take part in building Indian water ports (Financial Times, UK). Meanwhile, a combination of local price controls and Communist China's predatory labor and trade practices have led to India pharmaceutical plant shutting down (United Press International via Washington Times).

Microsoft caves in to Communist China again, blocks dissident blog: Microsoft admitted to removing the blog of a dissident in Communist China in order to "comply with global and local laws" (World Net Daily). Sadly, this isn't the first time Microsoft has knuckled under to the cadres (second and sixth items).

Human rights award granted to Zheng Yichun: Jailed journalist Zheng Yichun (seventh, ninth, and tenth items) was given the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt medal for "publishing the truth about the Chinese Communist regime" (Epoch Times). Sadly, that is also the reason why he languishes in a Communist prison.

Buddhist nuns nearly get arrested in Tiananmen Square: A group of Buddhist nuns from the holy place known as Mount Wutai came to Tiananmen Square to pray. They finished just before Communist police were ready to arrest them (Epoch Times).

Power station construction resumes, environment be damned: The halt of construction at the Xiluodu Hydropower Station was taken to be a sign that Hu Jintao was bringing ecological concerns to the madcap and corrupt sector of energy and power (sixth item). Well, never mind all that, construction at Xiluodu has resumed (Central News Agency, Taiwan, via Epoch Times).

More on Communist China and energy: F. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, examines Communist China's energy forays into Kazakhstan (third and fifth item), and what they mean for Central Asia and the United States, in the Asia Times.

Anti-corruption move anger Nanjing cops: Communist police in Nanjing "are angry at a new demand to disclose details of their private lives" (BBC). The cadres in that city are ordering the cops "to tell their superiors if they are getting married or divorced . . . (and) . . . to report any major purchases such as houses and cars, as well any private holidays abroad," all as part of the effort to stop corruption, which in Communist China is usually tied to a cadre's desire to buy gifts for mistresses (fifteenth item).