News of the Day (April 30)

Awarding of Olympics to Beijing has made human rights worse in Communist China: Amnesty International's latest report on Communist China has revealed what many of us predicted - that the cadres are using the Games "as a catalyst for repression" (Boycott 2008). In particular, "the August 2008 Olympics was 'a catalyst for a continued crackdown on human rights defenders, including prominent rights defence lawyers and those attempting to report on human rights violations'" (BBC).

One more call for a Boycott, and other Olympic news: David Sforza comes down in support of staying away from the Games (Boycott 2008). Meanwhile, the path of the Olympic torch continues to fan the flames of controversy (Boycott 2008, Boycott again).

Taiwan's opposition party prostrates itself to Communist China - again: Every Communists' favorite Taiwanese - Lien Chan - and several Kuomintang legislators visited Hu Jintao in Beijing (BBC).

Catholic bishop detained for over a month: Bishop Wu Qinjing (a.k.a. Martin Wu) is in a Communist jail for refusing to hand over control of the Shaanxi diocese to a more malleable Communist prelate (Asia News). Bishop Wu was consecrated by the Communists and the Vatican, but the former do not consider him leader of the diocese. It is the latest in the long running battle between the Communist regime and millions of Catholics who refuse to put the Party between themselves and their God. Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly tried (and is still trying - Asia News and China Post) to mend fences with Beijing.

Other human rights news: Communist China once again has executed more people than the rest of the world combined (Boycott 2008). The cadres crack down on June 4th Poems (Voice of America via Epoch Times). The cadres are planning to use Confucius to erase Easter (Asia News). The Uyghur American Association has the latest on the persecution of the people of occupied East Turkestan. On the bright side, Yang Jianli was finally released (National Review Online).

Canada blocks grain shipments from Communist China: The Canadian government has made the following determination of grain shipments from Communist China - as summed up by Steve Janke, "Canadian border officials will assume that it's contaminated until proven otherwise." For now, this is a de facto ban on Communist grain until and unless the regime gets its act together on this (as Small Dead Animals and Janke note, spiking rice with the quasi-toxic melamine is fairly routine). Meanwhile, Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online's The Corner observes that "consumers should simply not buy pet food from China" - although he may be unaware that the human food chain has already been compromised.

Ignorant Comment of the Day: We have yet another pundit who refuses to take geopolitics into account while examining trade between the United States and Communist China. Richard Rahn, take a bow (Washington Times).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: We had some competition for this one. Guy Sorman's excellent observations on the Communist economy and human rights abuses were in the running (Between Heaven and Earth), as was Hu Shaojiang's examination of the former (Trend via Epoch Times) and AutoSavant's take on Communist China's moves against American and Japanese car makers. The winner, however, is Charles Smith's detailed history of the Communist firm CITIC (Newsmax).

Segolene Royal trying hard to win my support (and I'm nowhere near France): She's not there yet, but this letter of friendship to Falun Gong goes a long way (Epoch Times).

Communist China looks to slow down economy without raising its currency: Instead of an interest rate hike (which would put upward pressure on the deliberately devalued renminbi), the cadres chose to increase its reserve requirements (BBC).

More on Communist China and the rest of the world: Makina at Boycott 2008 relays and shares a sense of hopelessness on Huseyin Celil. Australia's opposition agrees in principle to a free-trade deal with Communist China (AAP via Epoch Times). New Zealand doctors rip Communist organ harvesting (Epoch Times).

Beijing surrender news: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits President Bush, and suddenly the President is taking tough again (BBC and United Press International via Washington Times) - thank you, Mr. Abe, and don't let the State Department grind you down (One Free Korea). As one would expect, Japan's refusal to knuckle under is not making the Stalinists happy (Daily NK); they much prefer dovish South Korea (Daily NK and UPI via Washington Times).