News of the Day (June 6)

More Tiananmen remembrances: A former captain in the Communist military tells Australians what he saw the day after (Epoch Times).

Olympic blowback news: Nearly three thousand peasants in Fujin City, Heilongjiang, signed a petition "that demands their rights be placed before the Olympics" (Epoch Times); the cadres are expected to remove over a million people from their homes in preparation for the games (Boycott 2008). Meanwhile, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party considers recommending a boycott (Boycott 2008).

Communist Chinese repression of internet catching on with other regimes: Amnesty Int'l is sounding the alarm on internet censorship, noting it could "change beyond all recognition" (quoted by the BBC) the web as we know it. Communist China is leading the way on the crackdowns: "The Chinese model of an internet that allows economic growth but not free speech or privacy is growing in popularity, from a handful of countries five years ago to dozens of governments today who block sites and arrest bloggers."

Bird flu kills Communist Chinese soldier: The Communists acknowledged the death through the World Health Organization (Mingpao via Epoch Times).

Global warming activists looking at Communist China in the hope that bringing the regime to heel on greenhouse gases will make it politically easier to do the same to the Bush Administration (Washington Post); the cadres, however, aren't playing ball (CNN).

Communist China issues new plan to tackle supposedly non-existent poisoning issue: Just days after insisting there was nothing wrong with their administration of food and drug exports, the cadres "published a five-year plan late on Tuesday to increase inspections and tests on exported food" (BBC). Oops.

Communist China rips plans for Pacific missile defense: Communist mouthpiece Jiang Yu cited the regime's "grave concerns" (Washington Times) about Japan and America's plans to build a local missile defense, ominously noting the move "may also cause new proliferation problems." Given that the Communists have the largest military in the region, this is more a threat than a "concern."

President Bush meets Rebiya Kadeer in Prague: Bush and the Uighur exile met "at the sidelines of a conference in Prague attended by political dissidents from around the world" (Agence France Presse via Yahoo, h/t Uyghur American Association); he also blasted Communist China for jailing her sons still in occupied East Turkestan.

Communist China relents to Canadian pressure and allows Huseiyn Celil to see a lawyer: The Communist regime had allowed no one besides the lackey lawyer it appointed to see him. That changed last week. According to Mehmet Tohti, head of the Uyghur Canadian Association, the change was due in part to "the current government's tough stand on the issue" (Globe and Mail, h/t UAA).

Japan blocks Wei Jingsheng's entry: Some are speculating that the refusal to allow the exiled dissident to enter Japan was due to pressure from Beijing (Epoch Times).

Protesters in Australia call for an end to Communist organ harvesting: The demonstration was held outside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's health ministers' meeting (Epoch Times).

On the fate of Korean refugees caught by Communist China: One Free Korea references a Nicolas Kristof piece on the suffering of Korean refugees sent back to Stalinist North Korea by the colonial masters.