News of the Day (December 22)

My next entry will be posted on December 26 at the earliest. Merry Christmas to all (or Happy Hanukkah, or Joyous Yule, etc.)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Between Heaven and Earth has posts on Falun Gong's plight in Communist China and Vancouver, respectively. Boycott 2008 has three posts, two on letters to Olympic Committees, and one on more victims of the Communist building spree. One Free Korea has an excellent piece on Korean women trapped in Communist China, analysis of the six-party talks (for more on the talks, see BBC and Washington Times), and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun (which did not include this whopper reported by Voice of America via Epoch Times).

Communists try using threat of jail to keep Gao Zhisheng on a short leash: The cadres convicted the human rights attorney of "subversion" (Washington Post). However, rather than send him directly to prison, his sentence was suspended - meaning he can remain free, but only if he keeps his mouth shut. Meanwhile, Ma Wendu (Fire of Liberty via Epoch Times) rips the arrest.

Cadres trying eight Christians for defending their church: Eight Christians in Che Lu Wan, Hangzhou, are on trial for "instigating violence and interfering with the law" (BBC). Their actual "crime" was trying to prevent the Communists from bulldozing their church last summer.

Ignorant Comment of the Day: Mark Mullen (NBC via MSNBC) is all agog over Communist China's "great leap forward," and utterly dismissive of nearly anyone who raises concern for the cadres' geopolitical ambitions or their treatment of the Chinese people.

Zimbabwe wants Communist loan to stem inflation: Robert Mugabe has decided to save his dictatorship by making it more dependent on his Beijing friends (BBC).

Trail of Taiwanese first lady continues without her: Wu Shu-chen is still in the hospital, so she could not attend the resumption of her embezzlement trial (BBC).

On the Middle Eastern Proxies: The Communist-backed mullahcracy of Iran boasted it would "become a member of the nuclear club within weeks" (Telegraph) - UN sanctions or no UN sanctions. Meanwhile, an interpreter for a British general in Afghanistan is under arrest and on trial for spying on the mullahs' behalf. As for Syria, its weapons are caught with a Lebanese splinter group (UPI via Washington Times), and its motives are questioned by the editors of the Washington Times.