Tuesday, April 22, 2008

News of the Day (April 22) - UPDATED

Communist China is " the U.S.'s biggest cyber menace": The words were from Business Week which summarized the view of top defense and intelligence officials in the United States.

Communist Chinese heparin caused "scores of deaths": The Communist-exposed version of the blood-thinner included over-sulfated chondroitin, which caused "hundreds of serious adverse reactions and scores of deaths among patients" (Washington Post). The cadres insisted their own research disproves that, based on its own research, but the firm whose samples provided the basis of that research contradicted them. UPDATE: Yours truly explores the product safety issue, and what it says about the lack of true economic freedom in Communist China, over at RWL.

The Boston Globe gets it on Communist China and nationalism: "It is not easy to determine how much of this nationalistic frenzy may have been fostered and organized by Chinese communist officials . . . nationalism has replaced Maoism or Marxism as the legitimating credo of China rulers" (h/t Boycott 2008). Xin Fei and Ren Baiming (both in the Epoch Times) discuss this further.

Will Communist China recall its Zimbabwe arms shipment? That has become a distinct possibility (BBC), as the United States began asking African governments not to let the ship dock (Mail and Guardian, SA). More surprisingly, the president of Zambia - who was backed heavily by Communist China in his re-election bid two years ago - "has urged states in southern Africa to ban the ship, the An Yue Jiang, from entering their waters" (Times of London).

Olympic torch draws more protests, this time in Indonesia (BBC and CNN).

"Education" campaign under way in Tibet: As expected, a large part of the plan is propaganda "in which the Dalai Lama will be denounced " (BBC). France may also be a target, especially after Paris made him an "honorary citizen" (BBC).

News on "another Chinese province": As the State Department's leading Korea expert visited the Stalinist North (BBC and CNN), Frank Gaffney rips the Singapore surrender in the Washington Times.

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