News of the Weekend (February 23-26)

Communist military buildup worries American officials, but the Beijing Surrender doesn't: Vice President Richard Cheney (Agence France Presse via Taiwan Security Research and BBC) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (AFP via TSR) sounded the alarm on Communist China's military buildup. Sadly Cheney also included badly naive takes on Communist China's relationship with its Korean colony.

Condoleezza Rice still says Communist China will help U.S. on Iran, all evidence to the contrary (AFP via News.com.au).

More on Communist China and the United States: Dr. Patrick M. Cronin of the International Institute for Strategic Studies discusses the objectives Communist China advanced with its anti-satellite launch in Asia Times. Ying Ma has recommendations for American China-watchers in the Enlightened Comment of the Day (Policy Review). Orville Schell has a bad review of a bad book in the Washington Post.

On Communist China and Canada: Amidst the debate in Ottawa over Kyoto, Boycott 2008 reminds everyone of the fact that Communist China is not bound by its provisions. Small Dead Animals comments of Li Ka-Shing's attempt to seize control of a Vancouver harbor. Peter Worthington praises David Kilgour for putting the spotlight on Communist China's organ harvesting (Toronto Sun). Salim Mansur calls for closer Canada-India ties (Toronto Sun).

On Communist China and the rest of the world: A leading Kuomintang politicians is the latest in Taiwan's opposition to visit Communist China (Washington Times). Wieland Wagner discusses the continued militarization of occupied East Turkestan (Der Speigel). James Kirchick (Weekly Standard) and Yomiuri Shimbun (via Washington Times) sound the alarm on Communist China's ambitions for Africa. Jia Jia comments on Wang Lian (Epoch Times). Lev Navrozov discusses Moscow's relationship with Zhongnanhai (Newsmax).

Hong Kong news: The candidates for city chief will have a debate, but it will be as scripted as the "election" (BBC). Meanwhile, Tiananmen survivor Wang Dan announces his return to Communist China (he'll teach in HK - Epoch Times).

Other human rights news: More of appellants come to Beijing to have their grievances heard; the cadres continue to ignore them (Radio Free Asia via Epoch Times); Christians are arrested in Beijing (Boycott 2008). Li Tu (Epoch Times) evaluates Deng Xiaoping; Professor Xin Haonian (Epoch Times) and Hugh Sykes (BBC) examine the prospect of freedom in China.

On the state of the workers in the workers' state - health: He Qinglian reveals the extent of Communist China's failure a stop the spread of several diseases (Huaxia Electronic Newspaper via Epoch Times).

Back to the Beijing Surrender: The Epoch Times finds that Stalinist North Korea's pledge to shut down its plutonium facilities means zilch; something visiting Int'l Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei should keep in mind (BBC). The Bush Administration is extending the cave-in to financial penalties against the Stalinists for counterfeiting (BBC). Kim Jong-il is flaunting the deal (Daily NK), which should give folks like Andrew Grotto (Washington Post) and David Albright (One Free Korea) pause. Among the skeptics are Daily NK, One Free Korea, and John O'Sullivan (National Review Online). Jim Hoagland (Washington Post) joins the fools who see a model for the Communist-backed mullahcracy of Iran in the SNK deal, and as such runs away with the Ignorant Comment of the Day.

More on Communist China's Korean colony: The plight of the people of northern Korea is shown by Daily NK and OFK. Japan launches another satellite to watch SNK (Washington Times). The regime catches a bunch of escaped border guards (OFK). Open Radio for North Korea wins a grant from Freedom House (OFK). Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il plans for the regime to go on after he dies (OFK). Meanwhile, as South Korea's dovish party goes through yet another metamorphosis (Washington Times), the United States delays South Korea's day of control over its own army - at South Korea's request (BBC and OFK).