News of the Day (June 9)

Iran may be able to enrich uranium after all: The nuclear offer of "incentives" to the Iranian mullahcracy continues to get worse with age. According to Voice of America (via Epoch Times), "the State Department is not entirely ruling out Iranian enrichment in the future under a negotiated solution." This on top of the light-water nuclear reactors we are offering them, something the editors of National Review Online (eighth item) panned: "We have given the mullahs time to delay. We have strengthened their hand against Iranian democrats by conceding, in principle, that they can be treated as legitimate state actors." Amen.

Communist China says mullahcracy is not a terrorist state: As Communist China feels the heat for bringing Iran in as an observer to the "anti-terrorist" Shanghai Cooperation Organization (third item), Communist mouthpiece Zhang Deguang let loose this whopper: "We cannot abide by other countries calling our observer nations sponsors of terror. We would not have invited them if we believed they sponsored terror" (Cybercast News).

Communist China rips State Department on Tiananmen massacre: The Communists called recent American criticism of the June 4, 1989 crackdown "groundless" (Asia News). That would come as news to the folks who remembered that bloody day in the United States (Epoch Times) and Canada (Epoch Times).

Two more indictments in Phoenix TV spy ring: A "widening probe into an attempt to send sensitive information about U.S. Navy warship technology to China" (Newsmax) now include grand jury indictments against Fuk Heung Li and Billy Yui Mak, sister-in-law and nephew, respectively, of Chi Mak, brother of Phoenix TV engineering/broadcasting director Tai Mak. Chi Mak admitted to being a Communist spy earlier this year (lead, second, and third items).

More on Communist China and the rest of the world: Airbus plans a plane factory in Communist China (BBC). The European Union calls on the cadres to crack down on piracy (BBC). Jason Loftus, Epoch Times, examines Communist China's attempt to get its propaganda on Canadian TV (second item). Professor Wenran Jiang, University of Alberta, examines what Communist China's post-Koizumi relations with Japan may portend (China Brief). Wan Zhen, Epoch Times, sees a growing anti-Communism in Western corridors of power. Peter Biles, BBC, reports on the worries of South Africans about Communist imports.

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: The Korea Liberator reports on Yoduk Story coming to America, the refugees in Laos (see also Daily NK and fourth item), and the continuing decline of the doves in South Korea.

More on the Communists' Korean colony: The Stalinists admit Kim Young-Nam is alive (but not that they abducted him - Daily NK), and charges the South with violating their version of the inter-Korean sea border (United Press Int'l via Washington Times). The U.S. issues sanctions barring Stalinist ships from American harbors (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). Stalinist slave labor in the Czech Republic catches the eye of human rights groups (Daily NK); "Week of Prayer" will start three weeks from today for persecuted Christians in Stalinist North Korea (Daily NK). Daily NK also has the latest on the SNK agricultural fiasco.

On the Communist military: Willy Lam examines Hu Jintao's new ties to the military, and finds that "Hu, Wen and their Politburo colleagues will find it nearly impossible to refute theories about the 'China threat'" (China Brief). Meanwhile, Andrew Martin, also in China Brief, details just how that military threat is projecting itself.

Haung Ju - he's baaaack: Communist Politburo Standing Committee member Huang Ju (fourth and last items) was suddenly back at work, but "people still wondered whether he was deathly ill, under investigation for a security breach or tainted by a wife with her hand in the till" (Washington Post).

Underground Christians arrested in Henan: Communist police in Henan Province raided a "house church" and arrested 28 Christians (China Aid Association via Epoch Times). The term "house church" refers to Christian congregations who must meet in secret because they refuse to put the Chinese Communist Party between themselves and God.

Communist China to Google - shut up and keep censoring: In response to the misgivings of Google co-founder Sergey Brin about the firm's willingness to serve as internet censor for Communist China (sixth item), the regime insisted Google and other outsiders "must abide by its laws, which require censoring online material that is considered to be politically sensitive" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Zhao Yan trial delayed: The Communist regime pushed back the new trial for the New York Times researcher, but did not provide a trial date (see also second, sixth, tenth, and ninth items). Report: Washington Post, fourth item

Gao Zhisheng finishes up "portrait of the Communist spies": The human-rights attorney (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, ninth, lead, sixth, eighth, seventh, fifth, fourth, last, fifth, seventh, next to last, fourth, last, twenty-first, twenty-second, seventh, fourth, sixth, fourth, sixth, eleventh, eleventh, fourth, last, sixth, eighth, and tenth items), says he "completed this mission" of exposing the Communist internal espionage network, although, as an unnamed Epoch Times reporter ominously noted, the cadres may be finished with him.

Enlightened Comment of the Day: Jay Nordlinger (National Review Online, fifth item) praises real-estate/human rights lawyer Zheng Enchong (tenth, twenty-sixth, fifth, and ninth items).

Communists ban Da Vinci code: As of today, The Da Vinci Code is no longer being shown in Communist China. Possible reasons include everything from "protests from Chinese religious groups" (Daily Telegraph, UK) to the cadres' preference "for local Chinese films to be shown during the peak summer viewing period" (BBC). Also reporting: CNN