News of the Day (March 1)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: The Korea Liberator has the latest news - which includes an op-ed by co-author James Na in the Seattle-Times - picks up the Kaesong story (lead item), and comments on Communist China's role in its colony's nuclear ambitions.

Canada file: Tara Ashtakala, a law lecturer in British Columbia, has sent an open letter to Communist Party boss Hu Jintao calling on him to stop persecuting Gao Zhisheng (sixth, tenth, fifth, lead, third, last, twelfth, eighth, third, second, third, eighth, eleventh, eighth, fourth, fourth, last, fourth, fifth, twelfth, fifth, second, lead, next to last, seventh, last, next to last, lead, second, last, sixth, and tenth items) and Guo Feixiong (fifth item). She is also joining Gao's relay hunger strike. Report: Epoch Times

Communist growing military fueling geopolitical ambitions: Communist China's military is expanding, especially its "nuclear missiles, ships and submarines -- with the apparent goal of expanding its power throughout Asia" (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). Meanwhile, the U.S. and Japan are in the midst of military drills to prepare for possible Communist and Stalinist aggression (United Press Int'l via Washington Times).

Hu Jintao personally attacks Taiwanese democracy: Communist leader Hu Jintao decided to publicly call Chen Shui-bian's decision to end the obsolete National Unification Council (seventh item) a "dangerous move" (Washington Post, last item).

Hugo Chavez looks to Communist help for space program: The Venezuelan strongman sent 30 scientists "to China to begin work on Venezuela's first satellite" (BBC).

Los Angeles rally for ex-Communists: Over 2,000 people "rallied in Los Angeles' Chinatown, to support the over 8.4 million Chinese who have withdrawn from the evil Chinese Communist Party and all its affiliated organizations and to promote further withdrawals from the CCP" (Epoch Times). The number of ex-Communists just passed 8.5 million this morning.

Rolling Stone knuckles under to Communist China: The Rolling Stones have decided to "succumb to government pressure by dropping Brown Sugar, Let's Spend the Night Together, Honky Tonk Woman and Beast of Burden from their playlist" (Guardian, UK) during their concert in Shanghai.

Communist China ripped by leading poet and Human Rights Watch: Lian Yang, an award winning poet, has written a powerful letter to Hu Jintao and Tony Blair calling for an end to Communist human rights abuses - and the West's tolerance of them (Epoch Times). Human Rights Watch also castigated the Communists for their abuses against religious faiths (UPI via Washington Times).

Hu Jia missing: AIDS activist Hu Jia (sixth, eleventh, twenty-first, seventeenth, and second items) "dropped from sight after staging a hunger strike to protest violence against dissidents" (Washington Times, second item). Hu was already under house arrest when he disappeared.

On Communist China, the internet, and American tech companies: Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. and Peter Suderman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute score the Ignorant Comment of the Day with a deeply naive piece on the internet in Communist China (Washington Times). Du Won Kang and Howard Wang (Epoch Times) examine Congressmen Christopher Smith's Global Online Freedom Act of 2006.

China Aviation Oil directors admit to hiding losses: Three directors of China Aviation Oil "pleaded guilty in Singapore to insider dealing charges and failing to disclose losses" (BBC). The Communist-owned firm took investors to the cleaners by falsifying losses in 2004 (twelfth, seventh, and eighth items).

Communists admit to mass education corruption: Communist China "fired 794 schoolmasters in a campaign to curb graft in the nation's schools" (UPI via Washington Times). However, nearly seven times that number managed to escape with merely "administrative and party disciplinary punishment."

On the future of the Chinese Communist Party: Ouyang Fei (Epoch Times) sees "two different Chinese communist regimes . . . the fake Chinese communist regime that instills its ideology in the population through the educational system and the media" and the real one, which "cares about above all else . . . keeping power at all costs." Minxin Pei, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sees largely the same thing about the CCP in Foreign Policy (hat tip John Derbyshire, National Review Online, and Member since 2002). The two column authors share today's Enlightened Comment of the Day award.