News of the Day (February 28)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Shaun Kenney joins the growing movement to stop the Communist Olympiad (boycott petition here). Meanwhile, the Korea Liberator has the latest Stalinist news, but has yet to comment on the Ignorant Comment of the Day - a hideously bad piece by Anthony Faiola (Washington Post) on the Kaesong industrial park. Have fun with that one, fellas!

Canada file: This quarter joins Joe Warmington and Peter Worthington (Toronto Sun) in mourning the passing of Bob MacDonald, a Sun columnist for decades, and a China e-Lobby Member for many years.

Communists threaten "disaster" for Taiwan: As expected, Communist China threw a tantrum over Chen Shui-bian's move to end the National Unification Council (seventh item), shrieking that the move would "bring disaster to Taiwan society" (BBC). Given the hundreds of missiles the Communists have pointed at the island democracy, said "disaster" would largely come from the Communists themselves in a military attack. The U.S. reaction, while far from perfect, was a bit more sober. Speaking of the BBC, perhaps the next time they examine a "press attack" against the democratically elected Chen, they might want to remind their readers that the "mainland papers" must all speak the Party line (the news agency's survey of Taiwanese opinion was marginally better).

Russia works with Communist China on Iran even as it suffers from Communist pollution: One has to wonder if Vladimir Putin has eye trouble. He is more than willing to see eye to eye with the Communists - his chief weapons customer - on the Iranian mullahcracy and the Darfur carnage (Weekly Standard blog Worldwide Standard), despite the heavy pollution in Communist China's northeast that has led to yellow snow - yes, you read that right - falling in Sakhalin (Radio Free Asia via Epoch Times).

If you thought the United Arab Emirates regime was a questionable port operator, take a look at the China Ocean Shipping Company, a Communist-run firm that "was able to build its own terminal" (Newsmax) in Long Beach, California despite having been caught trying to smuggle in 2000 AK-47s into the Oakland in 1996. Making matters worse, the folks at the Port of Humboldt Bay (near Oakland) want to let the Communists "build and manage a marine terminal" (Eureka Times-Standard) there.

Epoch Times office in Hong Kong attacked; Israel staff goes on hunger strike: A group of thugs attacked the Epoch Times building in Hong Kong and destroyed the print shop computer (Central News Agency via Epoch Times). It was the latest in a series of crimes against the paper, the most dramatic of which was the beating of Yuan Li (lead, second, sixth, and last items. The paper's Israeli staff is now on a hunger strike to protest the violent acts.

Guangzhou businessman assaulted after protesting friends of cadres, who black out the story: Li Gang must have been friendly with the cadres, for they let him run his own business in Guangzhou. That must have been in his mind when he tried to negotiate with a cadre-friendly developer about a bus route that had been cancelled. The cadres sided with the developer - and Li was beaten to within an inch of his life by thugs (Epoch Times). The Communists then ordered a complete media blackout of the beating, leading one reporter in the city to say that "he now hates his profession."

Court documents confirm Yahoo's role in catching Li Zhi: Documents related to the case of dissident Li Zhi (third and eighth items) confirmed that the Communists caught Li based on information given to them by Yahoo (Boxun). Yahoo also helped the Communists catch dissident Shi Tao (fourteenth, fifth, lead, third, eighth, seventh, third, fifth, eighth, last, third, fourth, and fourth items).

Communists to built airports and nuclear power plants: It appears the national cadres have found two areas of acceptable graft - ahem, construction - for the locals: airports (BBC) and nuclear power plants (The Scotsman).

The state of the workers in the workers' state - health: The Hong Kong Sun (via the Central News Agency and the Epoch Times) has found that occupational illness afflicts roughly 200 million workers in Communist China.

Baby selling cadre sent to jail: Ten conspirators in a baby selling ring (fourth item), led by the Communist-appointed head of an orphanage, were sent to prison for "buying and selling dozens of babies who were then adopted abroad" (BBC). Nearly two dozen other cadres were involved in the scheme.