Wednesday, April 11, 2007

News of the Day (April 11)

American debate on Communist China heats up, and not along the usual lines. Two authors from National Review Online compete for Ignorant Comment of the Day for a combination of economic naivete and geopolitical ignorance (Cato's James Dorn edges out Donald Luskin for the dubious honor), while a call for a stronger Pacific military presence to counter the Communists comes from the Council on Foreign Relations - of all people (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). However, the indomitable William Hawkins of the U.S. Business and Industry Council once again takes Enlightened Comment of the Day honors for another excellent piece (Washington Times).

Communists put Rebiya Kadeer's son in charge of efforts to collect fines against her: Kahar Abdureyim is Rebiya Kadeer's eldest son; the cadres have demanded he lead efforts to liquidate her assets in occupied East Turkestan to pay fines levied against her (Uyghur Human Rights Project). Ms. Kadeer, in exile in the United States for two years and counting, sees a plot by "PRC authorities (who) hope to find an excuse to arrest him."

More on Communist China and the rest of the world: Communist Premier Wen Jiabao visits Japan (BBC). Bill Powell discusses Communist China's lack of concern over piracy (Time).

Beijing surrender news - Stalinists get their money but still press for time: Now that Stalinist North Korea will get its ill-gotten $25 million after all (David Frum - National Review Online, Washington Post via MSNBC, and Washington Times), the regime was still hoping " for a further 30 days" (BBC) to shut down its nuclear reactor (which it had promised to close by Saturday).

More On Communist China's Korean colony: Bill Richardson gets the remains of six American troops who died in the Korean War (BBC), but according to Kenneth R. Timmerman of Newsmax, he may have torpedoed his presidential campaign in the process. Defectors from the Stalinist North form the Committee for Democratization of North Korea (Daily NK), and start the group with a revelation of Kim Jong-il's 17 palaces (Daily NK and One Free Korea). Nora Boustany (Washington Post) interviews three Korean refugees being held in Laos who may be sent back.

The China Human Rights Forum rips the cadres' campaign against Gao Zhisheng: The group published an open letter reprinted by the Epoch Times.

Communists demand computer game designers impose time limits: This BBC story leaves open the possibility that the cadres' demand will force gamers into time limits worldwide. If that happens, my older kids may finally have an interest in what I'm doing over here.

On the Communist academic world: Michael Goldfarb (Worldwide Standard) examines Carson A. Holz's detailed account of Communist China imposing its will on academic researchers, both native and foreign.

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