Reverting to from

Communist China appears to have decided they've gotten all they can out of the Olympics from an international perspective. Not that the international perspective was the primary goal, the regime's real interest was making its people believe it had won international acclaim. However, recent events are making clear the cadres are more focused on hoodwinking their own people - the rest of the world be damned.

The best evidence for this is the latest Sudanese attack on Darfur (Times of London). This would have been unthinkable just a week ago for public relations reasons, but with the opening ceremony behind them (and with its value being steadily eroded by the exposure of fakery - Boycott 2008), the regime has obviously decided that it can ride out the international storm.

This will also mean that the already invasive security at the Games will continue (BBC and Boycott 2008), as will the human rights abuses (Between Heaven and Earth, Boycott 2008, and the Washington Times), antics by satellite state like Sudan and North Korea (One Free Korea), and the overseas intimidation (Epoch Times), although they may need to dial it down in Australia - or at least decouple it from the drug trade (Epoch Times). Meanwhile, any athletes hoping the cadres will move beyond their regime-controlled religious establishment (Washington Post) had best not hold their breath.

The other clear signal that the Olympics are all about bamboozling the Chinese people is the news that the cadres are now pointing the finger at Falun Gong for the Todd Bachman murder (Epoch Times). Frankly, this is a stunner - not necessarily because the Communists are trying to tar Falun Gong, but because it was the standard propaganda line from the get-go.

This tells us that the regime is no longer paying attention to the rest of the world. The cadres knew that Falun Gong has enough defenders out there (including yours truly) to make any accusation controversial. The regime would have to know that changing its story to blame the movement will be even worse - outside Communist China.

Inside Communist China, however, it could be another story. To get an idea as to how different the "news" is over there, take a look at how Michael Phelps has been covered (International Herald Tribune). It's abundantly clear that the Communists are determined to get as much internal propaganda value as possible, and that no longer means worrying about the rest of the world.

Still, the new Falun Gong smear smacks of desperation to me. The Games are almost halfway through, and the high from the opening ceremony has worn off with surprising speed (even those who don't focus on the fakery, like Meghan Cox Gurdon of the Washington Examiner, are no longer impressed). The closing ceremony - and more importantly, the post-Olympic hangover - are coming on fast. The Communists are playing defense now.

News of the Day (April 16)

American commission details plight of Korean refugees in Communist China, in particular how the Communists treat them as non-persons and send back any escapee they can find back its colonial viceroy, Kim Jong-il (BBC).

More news on "another Chinese province": The upcoming famine predicted earlier by One Free Korea catches the eye of the United Nations (BBC and Washington Post). Speaking of OFK, he has the latest links on northern Korea (and other things). Meanwhile, CNN and the Washington Times profile South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

Communist soldiers stationed with leading Zimbabwe thugs: The Holiday Inn in Harare is hosting "about 70 Zimbabwean senior army officers" (Zimbabwe Journalists) - and nearly a dozen PLA members "in their full military regalia and armed with pistols." Meanwhile, the Mugabe regime - a close ally of Communist China - is arresting more of the opposition (BBC).

The long arm of lawlessness reaches into Canada once more, with death threats for a Vancouber reporter (Boycott 2008).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: The editors of the Washington Post win the prize with a spectacular takedown of the cadres and their various apologists' claims of speaking for "the Chinese people."

More Olympic news: Communist China is demanding CNN's Jack Cafferty apologize for telling the truth. Clarence Page (Washington Times) calls on President Bush to stay home. Pat Robertson sticks up for the cadres - again (World Net Daily). Tibetans in India (Washington Post) await the Olympic torch, which is currently in Pakistan (CNN).

Communist China pledges to work with incoming Taiwanese President: The more I see this, the more it worries me (Washington Post).

Communist line on East Turkestan continues to draw cat calls: This time it's from Richard Weitz, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, who calls the cadres' claims of fighting terrorism in the occupied nation "dubious" (World Politics Review via Uyghur American Association).

Persecution news: Yanling Zhang tells her story in a letter to the Epoch Times.

News of the Day (March 28)

Witness says Communist cop disguised as Tibetan started riot: An anonymous witness told the Tibetan Government in exile that one of the "Tibetan rioters" was in fact a Communist policeman (Epoch Times):

A Chinese woman from Thailand (who prefers that her name not be used) was studying in Lhasa when the protests broke out in March. As one of her friends is a policeman, she visited him at the local police station quite often and got to know other policemen there.

After the protests on March 14, she and other foreigners were sent to the police station where she saw a man with a knife in his hand walking in with some arrested Tibetans. The man later took off the Tibetan-style clothes and put on a police uniform.

This woman was sent out of Lhasa with other foreigners the next day. When she arrived in India via Nepal, she recognized the policeman she had seen in Tibetan garb from BBC TV news and photos that the Chinese embassy had provided to the media.

Ngawang Nyendra said the witness was shocked when she saw the policeman in the BBC broadcast. She realized then that the man had disguised himself as a Tibetan in order to incite people to riot.

This isn't the first piece of evidence revealing Communist instigation of violence in Tibet; it is, however, the first time (I think) that we have an eyewitness to the cadres' actual role in all of this. Another Epoch Times piece examines the way Communist media handled the "riot," and finds compelling evidence of Communist orchestration - including the fact that thousands of Communist police were already at the scene the day before the "riots" began.

Canada rips "military crackdown" in Tibet: Canada's Minister for Democratic Reform (who also serves as House Leader - their version of a legislative Majority Leader) openly supported "the people of Tibet" and became one of the few elected officials on the planet outside Taiwan to call the Communist action a "military crackdown" (Globe and Mail). Meanwhile, Canadian blogger Ezra Levant took aim at the Communist regime's "ventriloquist puppets" in Canada.

More on Tibet: Communist China invited diplomats into the occupied nation to examine its handiwork (BBC). Joseph Klein (Front Page Magazine) focuses on lack of action at the UN. San Diegans stand with the Tibetan people (Epoch Times). Andrew Martin Fischer details the history of Communist China's occupation (Far Eastern Economic Review). Tsering Woeser (via Epoch Times) provides a running account of the last two weeks in Tibet. Tibetan teenagers protest the mass arrest by the cadre-friendly Nepal government (BBC).

Calls for Boycotting the Olympics continue to come in: Jason Lee Steorts (NRO) calls for the free world to stay home, while the editors at the Canadian National Post leave the option open (h/t Boycott 2008). Naturally, the cadres are not happy (Washington Post). Meanwhile, Congressman Frank Wolf (one of our favorites), moves to defund any political junket that would include the Communist Olympiad (Below the Beltway). Czech President Vaclav Klaus will skip the opening ceremony (ABC). Meanwhile, the IOC begs the cadres not to force the Olympics to tape delay (Financial Times, UK).

U.S. officials count 1,400 Communist missiles pointed at Taiwan: The unnamed officials based their calculation on new "intelligence assessments" (Washington Times). The number is even higher than outgoing Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's estimate of 1,328.

Australian Foreign Minister insists his government is tough on Communist China, all evidence to the contrary, including the minister's own words on the Olympics (AAP via Epoch Times).

Hong Kong bans Falun Gong practitioners from entering the city: The latest example of one country, one-and-a-half systems, was noted by the HK Standard (h/t Between Heaven and Earth).

News on "another Chinese province" (Stalinist North Korea): It was a busy day for Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il, with a missile test (BBC and CNN) and anti-American screed (CNN).

News of the Weekend (March 22-24, 2008)

Tibetan "violence" exposed as a Communist plot: Communist China is insisting that they are fighting a violent riot in occupied Tibet. That caught the attention of Ruan Ming, former speechwriter to the late Party boss Hu Yaobang, who explained how the cadres staged the event (Epoch Times):

"The demonstration on March 10 was meant to be peaceful. You can see from the pictures that the demonstration was all monks," Ruan explained.

"The CCP arrested some of these monks and killed them. The killing angered some young Tibetans. By March 14, the Tibetans could no longer stand the killing of innocent monks and protested."

From that provocation came all the claims of "violence in Tibet."

Ruan also believes this was part of a plot to influence the Dalai Lama to resign (which he threatened to do last week), in order to move him out of public view. Meanwhile, the cadres kept up the charade with a list of "most wanted" (BBC and CTV), and labelled the Dalai Lama a terrorist to boot (Times of London). Sadly, the combination of Communist propaganda (Epoch Times) and a refusal to let anyone outside the regime report the truth (Epoch Times and NRO - Media Blog) has combined to give the Chinese people a badly distorted picture (Washington Post).

Yet not everyone is swallowing the propaganda. Several intellectuals - including one under house arrest in Beijing - "appealed to the Chinese government Saturday to admit that its policy of crushing dissent in Tibet and blaming the ensuing violence on the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was failing" (Washington Post).

Persecutor-in-chief for East Turkestan is also in charge of Tibet suppression: Michael Sheridan has the scoop in the Times of London, which includes how the Party has decided to wipe out native cultures in the occupied nations with massive ethnic Chinese migration. Abrahm Lustgarten has more on that subject in the Washington Post.

More on the Tibetan crackdown: More Westerners are calling for the Communists to let the truth come out in Tibet, including the German Foreign Minister (Washington Post), several Canadian MPs (Epoch Times), and thousands of Britons (BBC). A monk in Gansu talks to the BBC. The Epoch Times has the latest from Lhasa. The Communists are also using the long arm of lawlessness to take down pro-Tibetan websites (Washington Times).

Amidst the blood in Tibet; boycott talk hits the Olympics: The president of the European Union called upon EU member nations to consider staying away from the Communist Olympiad if the crackdown in Tibet continues (CNN). At least one on-line poll shows that Canadians agree (Bourque), and Lorne Gunter of the Edmonton Journal certainly does, but few others are rising to the challenge, for now (Chicago Tribune via Detroit Free-Press).

Meanwhile, the Olympic Torch route began with a protest (BBC and CNN); sponsors of the Communist Olympiad are facing more pointed questions (Washington Post); and the cadres are even considering forcing the Olympic to tape-delay to prevent damaging footage (MSNBC).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: Robert Kagan (Washington Post) and Matthew Continetti(Weekly Standard) each have terrific pieces on what the Tibetan crackdown has revealed about the Chinese Communist Party. But for the other, both would have won easily. As it is, it's Continetti by a nose.

Ma Ying-jeou wins Taiwanese Presidency, calls for "peace treaty" with Communist China: The most acceptable face of the Kuomintang Party overcame the party's terrible recent history to score a landslide victory over Frank Hsieh, the candidate of the ruling and anti-Communist Democratic Progressives (CNN). Ma promised to "work towards a peace treaty with Beijing" (BBC), but "only if China removed missiles pointed at Taiwan" (although that wouldn't solve the issue of long-range missile from the heart of the mainland). Mroe troubling is his plan to "shelve" (Washington Post) the question of Taiwan's future and his apparent belief that Hu Jintao is as interested in peace as he is.

Communists step up the persecution of Falun Gong: Naturally, the "stability" and the "Safety of the Beijing Olympics" were the justification for the crackdown (Epoch Times).

On "another Chinese province": David Ignatius makes some bad mistakes in this Washington Post column on Stalinist North Korea, but he does show how the Stalinists have once more resorted to stonewalling the United States - this time on revealing the extent of their nuclear cooperation with Bashar Assad.

Spring cleaning with Communist characteristics

by Curry Kenworthy

China's Communists are working hard to tidy up the country before hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Of course, "cleansing" is nothing new for the heirs of Mao. Following other preparatory crackdowns, the latest project for the CCP clean-up crew has been getting rid of foreign missionaries.

Voice of the Martyrs reported on the expulsion of more than one hundred missionaries from April to June, marking the largest operation of its kind since 1954. The winds of this year's Operation "Typhoon No. 5" targeted religious workers from the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia, and Israel. Earlier reports this year noted increasing actions against Chinese Christians and house-church leaders, also motivated by the approach of the Olympics.

When Chinese citizens go "bad" (from a Communist point of view) and desire unconscionable things like freedom or faith, foreign influence always gets some of the blame. If we send the house-church leaders off to prison camp and then kick out the foreign church workers, the Reds may reason, we may finally put a lid on this thing.

But in truth, these problems worrying China's tyrants are movements that are very Chinese, carried out by China's own. The house-church movement is adding more than one million members per year. These people join despite facing incredible risks and mind-blowing persecution, and they are not passive members--they make huge sacrifices to spread their movement to others.

Far from being puppets of the West, some Chinese Christians actually question the state of their brethren's faith in Western countries such as the U.S. Why? Interestingly enough, because of a lack of persecution--at least at the severity level they are accustomed to seeing. The Bible speaks of persecution for believers, and they consider this a universal symptom, to be fully expected. In other words, Chinese underground believers are not going to be put off their faith by one more crackdown or by sending away the foreigners--they enter their faith expecting persecution as the natural result of their commitment, and the Christians of China plan to launch their own missionary movements to other parts of the world.

Falun Gong is another Chinese movement whose growth scared China's government, leading to massive crackdowns which have spread, rather than silenced, the beliefs and messages targeted. China's own political movements, too, have continued to press for freedom.

China's political and religious janitors are going to have their hands full scrubbing away at all the unsightly stains that keep spreading on their own, thwarting the shiny propagandistic veneer that the Communists would like to display at upcoming Games.

Curry Kenworthy is vice president of the China e-Lobby. Visit china-e-lobby.blogspot.com for China news, opinion, and action opportunities for making a difference.