News of the Day (March 13)

We're baaaack.

Sujiatun horror continues to reverberate as more details emerge: The parent org (i.e., the China Support Network) hit the nail on the head regarding the Sujiatun organ-harvesting, person-killing camp (fourth item): "Mid-week, news surfaced that China has a secretive prison camp in the Sujiatun district in Shenyang City of Liaoning Province. The camp is said to be a death camp, not a labor camp. It houses 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners with a one way ticket to the crematorium that is built in to the facility. China thereby vaulted into a category with Nazi Germany, running a genocidal death camp to exterminate its own citizens." Meanwhile, "Mr. R," the reporter who broke the story, revealed more about the horrific camp, including graphic photos of the bodies after the organs are removed (Epoch Times). Among the outraged speaking up were Stephen Gregory and Zhang Tianliang (Epoch Times). Human rights attorney 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, tenth, eighth, second, eighth, and ninth items) also weighed in (Epoch Times), as did several at an Epoch Times Nine Commentaries forum. Mr. R also revealed that Communist China was hiding the extent of bird flu (among other things) in his interview with the Epoch Times (see eleventh item for more on bird flu).

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Between Heaven and Earth reprints comments by parent org Canada Director Brian McAdam on the Communist threat. China Intel has a terrific send-up of the World Health Organization's excuse for dissing Taiwan, excerpts Communist leader Hu Jintao's comments on his military's future, and reprints a very good Taipei Times editorial on the Communist threat to the island democracy. The Korea Liberator, in addition to the latest news, has two posts on the Stalinist missile launch, and presents Part 2 of its assessment of the threat from the Communists' Korean colony (Part 1 can be found here).

More on the satelite regimes: Efforts to array the United Nations Security Council against the Iranian mullahcracy's ambitions to become a nuclear power are still being stymied by Communist China (Washington Post). Why this surprises anyone, especially given what Charles R. Smith (Newsmax) and this quarter have on Communist China's support for the Iranian regime, remains a mystery. As for Stalinist North Korea, the regime responded to American-South Korean military exercises (Newsmax) by delaying inter-Korean talks in a fit of pique (Washington Times). South Korea's Unification Minister resorted to boilerplate over the issue of Stalinist counterfeiting (United Press Int'l via Washington Times, fourth item), while a South Korean "peace" group embarassed itself by opposing investigatiosn into Stalinist human rights abuses (Daily NK). There is alsoa tale from a defector now in South Korea (Daily NK), and a revealing look at how the Stalinists use money remittances to steal from their own people (Daily NK).

Hunger strike news: Over 120 activists have called on Communist China to release the strikers it has arrested (Epoch Times). Among those arrested included a student leader at Lanzhou University (Epoch Times). Among those outside Communist China who are participating in the strike is Hao Fengjun (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, the hunger strike relay groups founder, the aforementioned Gao Zhisheng (see top story above) has been given a death threat by his tormentors (Epoch Times).

Dissidents arrested during rubber-stamp Parliament session: According to Amnesty International (cited by Taiwan's Central News Agency via Epoch Times), hundreds of "appellants" - citizens who bring disputes with local cadres to Beijing in the largeyl unfulfilled hope that they will be resolved - were arrested or "sent home" in order to ensure none could interrupt the rubber-stamp session of the National People's Congress.

Religious dissidents were tortured by Communists: Several religious leaders who were arrested for refusing to let the Chinese Communist Party control their faith told a court trying them "that the authorities had subjected them to torture, including sexual abuse, in order to extract confessions" (China Aid Association via Epoch Times).

Hong Kong Cardinal blasts Communist-picked prelate: Liu Bainian, vice-chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, i.e., the Communist-controlled Catholic Church, criticized Pope Benedict XVI for elevating Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen to Cardinal. Cardinal Zen, a longtime supporter of democracy in Hong Kong (twentieth, seventh, sixth, second to last, third to last, and tenth items), called Liu's comments "an exaggeration and extremely disrespectful towards Pope Benedict XVI" (Sound of Hope Radio via Epoch Times).

The Communist violence against the Epoch Times spreads to Japan: Less than one day after the Sujiatun camp was exposed by the Epoch Times, the paper's Japanese office "was broken into between the hours of 5 p.m. and 12:10 a.m." Two computers, one laptop and one digital camera were taken.

Communists establish anti-counterfeit court: Communist China has created a Judicial Court of Intellectual Property to "focus on enforcing intellectual property rights" (BBC). Whether or not the court will serve the interests of justice of those of the Chinese Communist Party remains to be seen.

Dalai Lama expresses wish to visit Communist China: Tibet's spiritual leader "repeated his wish to visit China" (BBC) in order to "see for himself China's development and visit Buddhist pilgrimage sites." Communist China has repeatedly refused his request.

Tibetan rally marks uprising anniversary: A rally in New York City's Union Square Park marked the 47th anniversary of an anti-Communist uprising in Tibet (Epoch Times).

U.S. trade deficit with Communist China surges again: January's trade imbalance reached $17.9 billion, while the 2005 annual deficit was reduced slightly to $202 billion - still a record (Washington Post).

Corruption - and baby theft - in adoption agencies run deep: The Hunan baby trafficking ring (fourth and last items) was just the tip of the iceberg. As Peter Goodman (Washington Post) revealed, Communist China's adoption process, especially for foreign would-be parents, is shot through with corruption and baby theft.

India still trying to get Communist China to agree on disputed border: Talks on the disputed border between India and Communist China continued, and are so intricate that the "basic framework" (UPI via Washington Times) could take two or more rounds of discussion.

More on India and Communist China: The Pricewaterhouse-Coopers survey that had Communist China as the world's largest economy by 2050 (sixth item) did not have it as the fastest growing: the survey "sees India surpassing China's economic growth rate by 2013" (UPI via Washington Times). Meanwhile, Robert Kagan, in the Washington Post, advocates the U.S.-India nuclear deal (second item).

Australians oppose selling uranium to Communist China: The common sense of the Australian people has come trough (albeit barely) in a SBS-commissioned Newspoll which "found that 53 per cent were opposed to uranium exports to China" (Epoch Times).

On the future of the Chinese Communist Party: Author Gordon Chang talks to Jamie Glazov (Front Page Magazine) about the CCP's short-term future (note: he doesn't think it has a long-term future). Anne Waest (Epoch Times) declares, and rightly so, that as more Chinese recognize the bloody history of the Party, its days are numbered. Stephen Gregory (Epoch Times) echoes West.

On the propaganda bonanza (the 2008 Olympics): CNN - in revealing how the Communists hope to use the Beijing Games to "deliver a clear message to the rest of the world: The 21st century belongs to China" - unwittingly lays out the case for Americans to stay away.

Ignorant Comment of the Day: David Rothkopf, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was in the running with a long column on foreign policy that included this whopper: "in the case of our relations with China, we need to develop a Doctrine of Interdependence" (Washington Post). However, the dubious honor actually goes to Edward Cody, Washington Post, for with a puff-piece on Huaxi village that blithely dismisses the fact that the enriching economic development was continuously under strict Party control.

Ignorant Title of the Day: Poor Jim Hoagland, the Washington Post columnist exmaines the issue of American business propping up the Communist regime in an intelligent and thoughtful manner; then his editors slap the ungodly naive "Business Can Change China" title on the piece.