News of the Weekend (January 27-29)

Was the ASAT launch part of an internal Communist power struggle? That's what Lee Ming (Epoch Times) believes.

More on matters inside Communist China: Communist China admits its ecology is a mess (BBC); the regime is less honest about organ harvesting (Epoch Times). The cadres are concerned about Olympic corruption (BBC); Boycott 2008 has more pressing and immediate concerns.

More reaction to the ASAT launch: Mark N. Katz sees the launch as a reason to get out of Iraq (United Press Int'l via Washington Times); yours truly does not agree. Michael Goldfarb (Worldwide Standard) and James Hackett (Washington Times) are more focused on the issue at hand.

1.3 billion customers trumped by fifty-odd million thieves: Free-market capitalism does not exist without the rule of law. Andrea Mandel Campbell (Macleans) reveals just how far away the Chinese Communist Party is from the rule of law in business transactions, complete with Canadian victims.

Communist China claims a piece of Korea, again: This time it's the Mount Paektu region, an area currently "split between China and North Korea" (One Free Korea). This is a partial rehash of the Communists' "Koguryo" campaign, by which they claim "historical" title to almost all of Stalinist North Korea (third item).

Ignorant Comment of the Day: Today's dubious prize goes to Robert Carlin and John W. Lewis (Washington Post) for this shockingly bad representation of the Stalinists' point of view on the six-party talks: "Three strategic foes - China, Japan and Russia - sit in judgment, apply pressure and (to Pyongyang's mind) insist on the North's permanent weakness." Communist China is a strategic foe of SNK?! Please.

More on Communist China's Korean colony: The U.S. makes its ban of luxury exports to SNK official (OFK). The Stalinists rip South Korea for - get this - internet censorship (OFK). Daily NK calls on the new United Nations Secretary General to focus on human rights abuses in SNK. A Stalinist sympathizer is arrested in Japan on suspicion of "dispatching workers without properly notifying the labor minister" and "providing cutting-edge technologies to Pyongyang" (UPI via Washington Times).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: David Frum (National Review Online) discusses the Maher Arar fiasco and what it reveals - about Syria.

On Middle Eastern Proxy Number One: The mullahcracy's Holocaust Denial routine runs afoul of the UN General Assembly (Cybercast News and UPI via Washington Times; Anne Bayefsky presents her skepticism in NRO) and Manya Friedman (Cybercast News). The Washington Post editors fall for the Iran faction ruse; the Bush Administration does not (UPI via Washington Times and Washington Post). The editors of the Washington Times sees the Democrats going with the former; Small Dead Animals proves it with John Kerry's disgraceful performance. Bary Rubin (Jerusalem Post, h/t Mario Loyola of NRO: The Corner) examines what the mullahs could gain from becoming a nuclear power, as Tehran begins mass centrifuge installation (Washington Times), and Russia could care less (Cybercast News). The mullahcracy's influence in Hamas is condemned by Fatah - of all people (Cybercast News).