News of the Day (February 1)

Communist China muscles in on United States in Middle East and space: The cadres are builiding ties with Egypt (United Press Int'l via Washington Times), prepares for the battle for space (Newsweek via MSNBC and Weekly Standard) - and continues to advance its military weaponry on all fronts (China Intel).

Communists upset over a Taiwanese text book: The new tome for students "will cease to refer to the mainland, or 'our country' or 'this country' and substitute the word China" (Times of London). The response of Taiwan's Prime Minister did nothing to assuage the cadres (BBC): "Su Tseng Chang has strongly defending changes to the high school history textbooks and backing his education minister. During the weekly cabinet meeting, he said students should be taught about their own country and their history." The Communists continue to claim the island democracy as theirs, despite having never set foot on Taiwan.

Hong Kong's "election" for chief begins as one country, one-and-a-half systems rolls on: Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced "that he will seek a second term of office" (BBC). Since the "voters" are actually an 800-member committee largely controlled by Communist China, Tsang is all but certain to wax pro-democracy candidate Alan Leong (Epoch Times). It is just one of several ways the Communists have repeatedly thwarted the will of the people of the city (Daily Standard).

Updated Kilgour-Matas report released: The duo that first detailed Communist China's organ harvesting last summer released the new report yesterday (Agence France Presse via News.com.au). They found heavy involvement by the Communist military, and "41,500 unexplained organ transplants from 2000 to 2005—the 6-year period since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999—that do not come from convicted executed prisoners, the brain-dead, or family donors" (Epoch Times). The report can be found here.

More on matters inside Communist China: A cadre accidentally reveals the weakness of a Communist "stock market" (UPI via Washington Times): "only 30 percent of companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange were worthy of investment by Western standards." One the matter of "worthy" books, however, the Communists are the usual, efficient, and tyrannical selves (Daily Standard).

Kim Jong-il's son in Macau: Kim Jong Nam is visiting the Communist Chinese island "in an apparent bid to address assets frozen in a Macau bank" (UPI via Washington Times). Daily NK fears Kim may get some unexpected help from the U.S. Treasury Department.

More on Communist China's Korean colony: Sky News has video of Koreans escaping the Stalinist North; One Free Korea saw and spread word of the story. South Korea's dovish prepares for the next round of SNK nuclear talks which begin n one week (UPI via Washington Times). South Korean sailor and Stalinist abduction victim Choi Wook Il describes his ordeal to the South Korean legislature (Daily NK).