News of the Day (January 4)

Communist China's anti-American alliance continues apace: Tim Murphy of the Center for Defense Information details the Communist regime's aims for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (h/t Intelligence Summit). Meanwhile, one of the SCO's observer regimes - the Communist-backed mullahcracy of Iran - sends its nuclear negotiator to Beijing (BBC).

More on Communist China's military buildup: The regime's air force "has developed its own F-10 fighter jet" (Taiwan's Central News Agency via Epoch Times).

Is Communist China trying to push South Korea into blocking the Seoul NTDTV Event? That is apparently what South Korea's National Theater of Korea told the Epoch Times: "China is threatening to cancel the theater's future performances in China" if the anti-Communist television network's event is not blocked.

On Communist China's Korean colony: Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il "has banned talks of his successor at the governing table " (Daily NK); Japan moves ahead with missile defense to counter the Stalinists (Worldwide Standard).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: Doug Bandow provides an excellent account of Communist China's history with the Roman Catholic Church, replete with the proper warnings about religious freedom and the fate of Taiwan, in National Review Online.

More on human rights in Communist China: Human-rights attorney Gao Zhisheng's house arrest becomes a real arrest (Epoch Times). Yodo Soma (Epoch Times) examines the horrors of Communist land seizures in Beijing.

On the state of the workers in the workers' state - health: The regime can arrest lawyers at will, seize land in a heartbeat, and reach into the democratic world to intimidate artists, but providing even the most elemental of structure in the eye care market is apparently beyond them (CNA via Epoch Times).

Another call for the liberation of Middle Eastern Proxy Number One: Robert Tracinski makes the case for the military version of liberating Iran (Real Clear Politics, h/t Michael Ledeen, NRO: The Corner).

Ignorant Comment of the Day: Senator John Kerry takes the prize for thinking Middle Eastern Proxy Number Two (Syria) can become helpful in Lebanon (Boston Globe). Kerry's former running mate John Edwards takes second billing once more, for forgetting Communist China's role in running interference for Sudan's Darfur outrage (Worldwide Standard).

As for Middle Eastern Proxy Number Three (Hezbollah), Michael Totten recounts his personal experience with the terrorist group (h/t Jonah Goldberg, NRO: The Corner).