News of the Day (April 13)

European Union may link Communist arms sales to rights record: A desperate attempt to revive plans to lift the European Union arms embargo against Communist China has surfaced: a plan to “sell arms to China only in exchange for human rights concessions” (United Press International via Washington Times). Efforts to lift the embargo hit the skids after the cadres passed their “anti-secession” law aimed at Taiwan.

Communist China votes against persecution of Islam with a straight face: The United Nations Human Rights Commission voted 31-16 for a resolution “deploring the intensification of a ‘campaign of defamation’ against Muslims following the Sept. 11 attacks” (Agence France Presse via Gulf Times). Among the “ayes” was Communist China, which would certainly surprise the Muslims of occupied East Turkestan, who suffering under persecution the Communists have justified as “counter-terrorism” by defaming all East Turkestanis as supporters of Osama bin Laden (fifth item).

Communists let venom against Condoleezza Rice stay on the web: Mere days after the Communists looked the other way while a mob attacked the Japanese Embassy in Beijing (third item), dissident Liu Xiaobo collected a series of racist and sexist internet posts aimed at Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The Communist crackdown on internet speech somehow missed these venomous posts entirely (World Tribune).

Japan looks to drill in waters claimed by Communists: Speaking of Japan, its government announced it “would begin reviewing applications from companies” (BBC) from gas exploration in an East China Sea area that Communist China claims as its own.

Textbook that spawned anti-Japan mob is “shunned” in Japan: Meanwhile, the history textbook that gave Communist China the excuse to ratchet up its nationalist rhetoric and sit on its hands while Japan’s Embassy was attacked “used in less than 1% of Japanese schools” (BBC). The odds of the cadres revealing this is likely absolute zero.

Resignations from Chinese Communist Party pass 800,000, and include seven who made their withdrawals known with “a bright red poster on a power substation wall in front of the Jilin railway station” (Epoch Times). The resignations were inspired by the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party, a seminal anti-Communist document the Party has tried to repress, but cannot refute (Epoch Times).

Communist firms that helped Saddam Hussein integrate air defenses win contracts: India signed two equipment contracts with Huawei Technologies and ZTE (BBC). If those firms sound familiar, that’s because they were the one that installed a fiber-optic network in Iraq so Saddam Hussein could integrate his air defenses (tenth item).

Eutelsat ripped again for ending NTDTV signal: A group of non-government organizations, including Radio France Internationale, The Tiananmen Massacre Commemoration Association, the Asian Youth Democratic Coalition, Friends of Hmong People, the French Tibetan Association, the Chinese Democratic Party (French branch), Chinese Solidarity, and the Vietnamese Committee of France Liberties, wrote to Eutelsat demanding they “support the mission of NTDTV” (Epoch Times) and reverse its cancellation of a contract with the dissident television station (sixth item). NTDTV will lose its Eutelsat signal – and thus go off the air in Communist China – this Friday. Simon Veazey also blasted Eutelsat for caving into Communist pressure on NTDTV (Epoch Times), while Zhao Dagong of Clearwisdom.net calls on the free world to end its “pacifism” toward Communist China and take “the initiative to influence China to reform its political system” (Epoch Times).

Rally in Toronto mourns victims of Communist persecution: As Sydney, Australia witnessed an event mourning the deaths of 80 million at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (eleventh item) on Qing Ming day – which is the day for all Chinese to honor those who have died – a similar event was held in Toronto (Epoch Times).

Bank of China admits loan of over $80 million was fraudulent: The Communist-owned Bank of China has admitted that a loan of 645 million yuan (more than $80 million) was based on “false sales contracts and false proof of income” (Epoch Times). The damaging news comes as the Communists press to sell a piece of the bank on the open market (last item) despite allegations of embezzlement (seventh item).

On the lack of press freedom in Communist China: Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Fox News talks to Jiao Guobiao the journalism professor fired by Communist China for criticizing Communist China’s propaganda machine and its media censorship (second item).

South Korean ship strays into SNK waters, is captured: A South Korean vessel that “ignored warning shots and crossed into Northern waters” (CNN) is now being held by the Stalinist regime. South Korea has asked for the ship back. How many people were on board, and why it crossed the sea border, is unknown. Of course, Stalinist North Korea has never recognized the border, and has crossed it several times, once sparking a shooting incident which killed four South Korean sailors and wounded 19 more.