News of the Day (May 19)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: The Korea Liberator comments on the latest cave from the Bush Administration (see also second item, Independent - UK, Cybercast News), the latest defectors from Stalinist North Korea (see also United Press Int'l via Washington Times), reports of an upcoming SNK missile test (see also UPI via Washington Times, Cybercast News), and the guilty plea of Ko-Suen Moo (see also fourth item). TKL also calls (again) for the U.S. to leave South Korea's doves to their own devices and reviews Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader.

More on the Communists' Korean colony: Mike Chinoy, CNN, examines the links between the Stalinists and Macau. The Korean military talks go nowhere (UPI via Washington Times). Seoul National University holds a conference on the SNK economy (Daily NK). A Grand National Party member reveals that South Korea knew some if its abductees were still alive in SNK in the early 1990s (Daily NK).

Iranian nuclear enrichment fueled (literally) by Communist China: Various "diplomatic sources" informed the BBC that the uranium enriched by Iran "may well have come from a small stock of material sold to Iran by China back in 1991" (see also second item). The reaction, stunningly, is relief - because it means Iran is apparently not as advanced in its nuclear program as was once believed. The fact that the mullahcracy wouldn't be as advanced as it is now without help from Communist China has been maddeningly ignored.

State Department takes Lenovo computers off classified networks: The Department initially "chose to install about 900 of the PCs on its secure network in Washington and at embassies around the world" (Agence France Presse via Washington Times) before relenting under pressure from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (sixth item) and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia). What the Department will do with the Communist-owned firm machines is not known.

Congressional critics of closer U.S.-Communist China military ties raise their voices: Two of Wolf's fellow House Republicans, Rob Simmons and Dana Rohrabacher, called into question recent moves toward closer military ties between the U.S. and Communist China (sixth and eighth items). Report: Bill Gertz, Washington Times

Communist Catholics rip The Da Vinci Code: In its latest attempt to look more like a church and less like the Communist bureaucracy it is, the "Patriotic Catholics" called The Da Vinci Code "insulting" (BBC). Maybe if Dan Brown or Ron Howard had made Tom Hanks' character a Chinese Communist Party member . . .

Reebok honors AIDS activist/dissident from Communist China: Li Dan "helped 100,000 AIDS orphans by building the Orchid School and AIDS Orphanage in Henan province" (Epoch Times) before the cadres shut it down, and "detained and beat him" for good measure. Henan is the province where cadres ran and covered up an unhygienic Communist-run blood-donation scheme that infected one million people with AIDS (sixth, fourth, and sixth items).

More on Communist China and the United States: The indomitable Lev Navrozov sounds the alarm once again in Newsmax.

Canada's New Maple Leaf on Communist China gets more attention: This time it's Caylan Ford, Epoch Times, who notes and approves.

Scandal hits Taiwan President's family: Reports of insider trading are surrounding President Chen Shui-bian's wife and son-in-law (UPI via Washington Times). Chen's popularity is now at record lows, but he will not be running for re-election in 2008 in any event.

Communist denying medical treatment to Zhang Lin: Imprisoned dissident Zhang Lin "has been complaining of headaches and pains throughout his body for the past six months" (Reporters Without Borders via Boxun), and is likely suffering from "a slipped cervical disc that is affecting his central nervous system." To this day, however, Zhang has not been transferred to a hospital for treatment.

Cyberdissident quits Communist Party: Yanboyuzhe (a.k.a. Xiong Zhongjun, a.k.a. Liu Yiming) joined the ten-million-plus ex-cadres (Epoch Times).

Woman fights for justice for father killed for his organs: Ma Xiuqing has sent five years petitioning to have the cadres "who collaborated to freeze her father, Ma Hongju, to death and steal his organs in August 2000" (Epoch Times) punished for the crime. As one would expect, the effort continues to be fruitless.

Communists continue silence on the Cultural Revolution: Of course, no one else in Communist China is allowed to talk about it either (Epoch Times).

On the state of the workers in the workers' state - education: Wang Debang tells the story of his rural family's attempts to educate their children (Observe China via Epoch Times).