News of the Day (May 31)

Calling all Californians: Yours truly is not informed enough to recommend for whom you should vote in Tuesday's gubernatorial primary. However, this quote is enough for me to advise that no one should vote for Steve Westly: "My friends, when I am governor of California, you will see the governor of California and the president of China sitting down together to chart an environmentally sustainable future for our world" (Sixers blog, National Review Online).

More on Communist China and the United States: Patrick Goodenough, Cybercast News, previews the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, and the plans of its principals - Russia and Communist China - to use it against the U.S. Part of that strategy includes Iran, which is getting more telecommunications help from the cadres (United Press Int'l via Washington Times). Three children of Rebiya Kadeer - former Uighur prisoner of the Communists now exiled in the U.S. (fifth, second, eleventh, last, and second items) - are themselves being "detained" by the regime (BBC). Meanwhile, Dell computing is building a second plant in Xiamen (UPI via Washington Times).

Canada file: Terry O'Neill, Western Standard, has the latest on the Chinese head-tax issue, albeit with a couple of omissions about the National Congress of Chinese Canadians - namely that it has ties to the Communists, and it was slated to pocket $2.5 million of the "anti-racism education" money (sixth, lead, second, second, second, third, second, and third items).

On the ecology in Communist China: The regime is in the midst of its "worst drought in over 50 years" (BBC) in many areas, but rampant overdevelopment continues. Meanwhile, Zhou Ren (Epoch Times) marks the completion of the disastrous Three Gorges Dam.

South Korean local elections appear to be a big win for the hawkish, pro-American opposition (BBC). B. J. Lee (Newsweek Int'l) thinks an anti-incumbent feeling in the South is playing a large role; Han Young Jin (Daily NK) compares elections in the democratic South to the farcical version in the Stalinist North.