News of the Weekend (February 2-5)

Communist Chinese trade with its Korean colony rose last year, despite nuclear test: While the cadres try to talk a good game by insisting that they had "no investments in North Korea since the nuclear test on Oct. 9" (United Press Int'l via Washington Times), a further examination of the facts reveals otherwise; "two-way trade between North Korea and China further increased 7.5 percent last year." Oops.

Dovish South Korea caves into Communist China - again: Beating up the United States and Japan is one thing, but for South Korea's "nationalist" left, going after the regime that de facto colonized half its country is another matter (One Free Korea).

The long arm of lawlessness enters the U.S. - again: This time, the cadres place an AIDS activist under house arrest to keep him from receiving an American award (Washington Post) and jam the phones of New Tang Dynasty Television's New Year's gala to prevent people from ordering tickets (Epoch Times).

ASAT test leads U.S. to end joint space ventures with Communist China: Due to the cadres' anti-satellite launch, "The Bush administration has suspended plans to develop space ventures with China, including joint exploration of the moon" (Bill Gertz, Washington Times).

More on Communist China and the United States: Both Arnaud de Borchgrave (Washington Times) and China Intel warn of Communist China's continuing geopolitical rise to superpower status. The cadres and American businesses appear to be headed for the break-up phase of the relationship (BBC, BBC again, Financial Times via MSNBC, and Washington Post). Human rights activists call on the United States to use the 2008 Olympics to prod Communist China into treating its people better (Boycott 2008 and Cybercast News).

Hu Jintao's Africa trip garners more attention - not all of it good: The Communist leader signed deals in Liberia (BBC) and Zambia (BBC), but the high-profile visit was to Sudan (BBC), a close ally and oil source for Communist China. That Sudan is also the instigator of the Darfur genocide has led many to wonder about the Communists - who has given Sudan diplomatic cover on Darfur for years - and their global intentions (BBC, National Review Online, and Washington Post).

More on Communist China and the rest of the world: Grenada welcomes a Communist Chinese delegation with the Taiwanese national anthem (BBC); National Taiwan University Professor Ming Juzheng talks about the diplomatic minuet between Communist China and Japan (Epoch Times).

Communist media crackdown shows no signs of slowing down: The cadres are getting deeper into the television programming business (Epoch Times) and forcing bloggers to make themselves more open to arrest and punishment (Radio Free Asia via Epoch Times).