| CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: NOVEMBER 1, 2000 TOP STORY: TAIWAN ROCKED BY PLANE CRASH, POLITICAL TURMOIL 80 DIE IN PLANE CRASH NEAR TAIPEI CNN reported flight SQ006, a Singapore Airlines flight headed to Los Angeles, crashed after take off near Taipei yesterday, killing 80 as of this morning. The flight may have had trouble with an approaching typhoon � winds of up to 60 mph were recorded at the time of takeoff � but authorities will not rule out other possibilities in their investigation. The story also includes accounts of the crash from some of the survivors. Link: CNN OPPOSITION PARTIES MOVE TO RECALL PRESIDENT CHEN The opposition Nationalist and People First Parties are joining forces to put forth a resolution forcing a recall of ROC President Chen Shui-bian. According to the Washington Post, the parties have the votes to force a debate. Whether or not they can force the recall vote � a two-thirds majority in the legislature is needed � remains to be seen. If a recall vote is adopted, a referendum is held; a majority vote forces another election. Link: Washington Post HONG KONG: LEADERSHIP QUESTION REVEALS COMMUNISTS� TRUE COLORS COMMUNIST PRESIDENT JIANG RIPS MEDIA FOR CRITICIZING TUNG CHEE-HWA, PROCESS Communist President Jiang Zemin took time out of his usual press conference to lay into reporters who criticize Hong Kong Chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, who is vastly unpopular in the city, and the method by which he is soon to be re-elected. Jiang backed re-election for Tung, whose fate will be decided by a Beijing-appointed committee of 800 in 2002, but called reporters challenging the succession method �na�ve.� Jiang also told the media, �You should not say we have an imperial order and then criticize me. Got it? Naive! I am so angry!� According to the Washington Post, the comment was in reference to reports that Tung�s re-election, backed by all the Communist leaders, was an �imperial order.� Jiang�s tirade was front-page news in Hong Kong, but their reporting of his �temper tantrum� was unlikely to make him feel better. Link: Washington Post Agence France Presse also took note of Jiang�s tirade, and the argument over the succession method. The Communists� liaison office with Hong Kong, denied Tung�s re-election had been pre-ordained, despite his being endorsed by the President and Prime Minister of the People�s Republic of China. Meanwhile, Jiang�s picture was burned during protests. Link: AFP EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ATTACKED FOR CRITICIZING ASSAULT ON FREEDOM IN CITY The Communists� vitriol reached across the continents as well. In response to a resolution in the European parliament criticizing the erosion of judicial independence as freedom of the press in Hong Kong, the PRC ripped what it called �interference in China�s internal affairs,� according to AFP. Link: AFP CAMPAIGN 2000: COMMUNIST CHINA LEANS TOWARDS GORE, COMFORTABLE WITH BUSH As the United States prepares to choose its next President, analysts from the mainland say the Communists are leaning Al Gore�s way. They are concerned Governor Bush considers the PRC a rival � even though he never said that � and they�re convinced he will be tougher regarding Taiwan. Hong Kong analyst Bob Bradfoot, however, says the PRC is �confident� about warm ties with Bush, in part due to his father. Link: AFP OTHER REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS COMMUNISTS SAY THEY�RE WILLING TO BE �FLEXIBLE� ON TAIWAN PRC Vice President Hu Jintao was quoted by the Communist Xinhua News Agency as saying Communist China was willing to be �flexible� with Taiwan, but that it still must accept being part of a Communist �one China.� The PRC has previously insisted Taiwan be rejoined under �one country, two systems,� the same concept that has worked to great success in Hong Kong, unless one happens to live there. Link: AFP PRO-REUNIFICATION MARCH MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF JAPANESE PULL-OUT FROM TAIWAN Last Wednesday, from Taiwan activists from the China Unification Alliance marched to support reunification and oppose the government of President Chen Shui-bian. They chose the 55th anniversary of the end of Japan�s occupation of Taiwan to hold the march. Chen�s party, the Democratic Progressives, supports Taiwanese independence. The two major opposition parties back reunification with a democratic mainland. Link: AFP PARTIALLY BUILT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO BE SCRAPPED ROC Premier Chang Chun-hsiung announced last week that the country�s fourth nuclear power plant will not be finished due to safety and environmental concerns. The decision fulfills a campaign pledge by President Chen to keep the plant from ever opening. Chang said rumors of power shortage in Taiwan as a result of scrapping the plant were false. Link: BBC VANUATU MAY SWITCH RECONGITION FROM BEIJING TO TAIPEI The South Pacific Island chain of Vanuatu is expected to establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan soon, according to United Evening News. AFP, which cited UEN in its story, noted Vanuatu had been close to the ROC since 1992, even though it officially recognized Beijing. Communist China refuses to hold diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes Taiwan. Presently, only 29 nations do. Link: AFP OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS PENTAGON HIRES 450 COUNTERINTELLIGENCE EXPERTS AFTER PRC THEFT After learning Communist China stole highly secret information on American missile technology (see last update), the Pentagon announced the hiring 450 counterintelligence experts. The experts would �protect technical secrets at the Defense Department laboratories and defense contractors,� according to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon. The move comes five years after the first reports of espionage by a Chinese defector. Link: Washington Post HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS THREE MORE FALUN GONG MEMBERS KILLED BY POLICE AFP reported police in Communist China killed three more Falun Gong practitioners. Two, Zou Wenzhi and Wang Youju, died while in police custody. The third, Dong Yongwei, died hours after his release. The Information Center on Human Rights and Democracy in China reported that 59 Falun Gong members have died in custody since the group was banned last year. Link: AFP MORE FALUN GONG PROTESTS IN TIANANMEN SQUARE Confounding police yet again, Falun Gong practitioners unfurled banners and gave out leaflets in protest of Communist China�s attempts to destroy it, according to the BBC. Witnesses said �at least one hundred� followers of the persecuted faith were involved in the protest before they were �pounced on� by police on Thursday. The BBC also reported 50 protestors were beaten during arrests on Friday. Links: BBC - Thursday, BBC - Friday KITE FLYING BANNED OVER FALUN GONG, NEWSPAPER CALLS GROUP �CORROSIVE� The Falun Gong protestors had the Communists so upset they banned kite-flying in Tiananmen Square, much to the chagrin of at least one kite-flyer. He told AFP the move was probably because, �They must think the kites will obstruct them if there is a demonstration.� Police forced him off the square. Meanwhile, t he Communist-run Quishi newspaper whacked Falun Gong as �corrosive� and �empty,� according to the BBC. Links: AFP - kites, Quishi via BBC CORRUPTION NEWS GUANGDONG SCANDAL SNARES 500, FRAUD COST PRC OVER $12 BILLION AFP reported a scandal in the southern province of Guangdong has led to 500 arrests, and has cost the government an estimated $12 billion in lost foreign currency remittances. This makes the scandal one of the largest in Communist China, larger in arrests and money than even the Xiamen smuggling affair. Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, reported that remittance losses in the PRC totaled nearly $100 million in 1997-99. Link: AFP AUDIT SAYS OVER $ 11 BILLION IN GOVERNMENT FUNDS EMBEZZLED DUE TO CORRUPTION Li Jinhua, auditor general in Communist China, reported that over $11.5 billion � yes, billion � had been stolen from government funds by corrupt officials since 1998. The massive corruption has ensnared hundreds of Communists according to AFP. Li also said he would be probing provincial leaders and second-level department heads next year, but the PRC cabinet and Politburo will still be outside his scope. Links: AFP - report, AFP - probe OTHER MAINLAND NEWS UN ECONOMIC RIGHTS PACT DROPPED Legislators in the PRC said this week the UN pact on economic rights, signed in 1998, will not be ratified, according to AFP. Despite assurances to Western leaders that the pact would be approved �soon,� the Communists now say the country isn�t ready for it. Link: AFP COMMUNIST CHINA TO BECOME TOP POLLUTER IN 2020 AFP reports this week that Communist China refused to slow its rampant development despite being on track to become the biggest polluter on the planet by 2020. Estimates are that almost 300,000 die in the PRC every year from �pollution-related ailments.� Link: AFP INTERNATIONAL NEWS CAMBODIAN STUDENTS DEMAND PRC APOLOGY FOR BACKING KMHER ROUGE Two groups of Cambodian students have demanded Communist China apologize for providing aid to the ruthless Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, killed two million Cambodians in 1975-77, before being overthrown. They fought a Vietnamese-backed regime and two elected governments that succeeded it for over 20 years. The PRC rejected the call, and labeled the issue �an internal affair of Cambodia.� Link: AFP INDIA�S DEFENSE MINISTER DENIES CLAIMS OF COMMUNIST CHINESE RAIDS Indian Defense Minster George Fernandes denied claims of raids by Communist China over the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that has existed since a border war in 1962. Fernandes traveled to Arunachal Pradesh to examine the claim of PRC incursions by state premier Mukut Mithi, who still insists the incursions took place and called for more security. Link: AFP NORTH KOREA PLEDGES STRONG TIES WITH COMMUNIST CHINA DESPITE U.S. THAW Eager to calm fears in Communist China, North Korea again reaffirmed that thawing relations with the U.S. will not damage the alliance of the two Communist regimes. North Korea welcomes American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang to met with Kim Jong-Il, North Korea�s President, and pledged to �consider� stopping testing of a long-range missile capable of hitting the United States. Link: AFP TIBET NEWS EU PARLIAMENTARIAN RECOMMENDS DALAI LAMA FOR GOVERNOR OF TIBET Per Gahrton, a Swedish member the European Parliament, recommend Communist China appoint the Dalai Lama as Governor of Tibet this week, according to the BBC. Gahrton, a Green Party member who headed a delegation from the EP to Beijing, brought up the suggestion in talks with PRC Legislature Chairman Li Peng. Link: BBC Li, who as Prime Minister who ordered the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, was not pleased with the idea. Earlier, Li claimed European politicians, who have been at the forefront of criticizing the PRC�s horrific treatment of the Tibetan people, �know little� about Tibet. Meanwhile, Guo Jin Long, Tibet�s Communist-appointed governor, told officials in Lhasa that he would �continue the fight against separatism.� Link: BBC SOUTH KOREA CONFIRMS BAN ON DALAI LAMA VISIT, RELIGIOUS GROUPS OUTRAGED South Korea�s Foreign Ministry confirmed earlier reports that it had denied the Dalai Lama entry into the country. Tibet�s spiritual leader had been invited to South Korea by a Buddhist group, which has vowed to press the Foreign Minister to resign over the issue. The BBC reports the Korea Times also criticized the government for caving to �arrogant pressures by the Chinese authorities.� Link: BBC The South Korean Ambassador Hong Soon-young told a delegation from his nation�s parliament that the government was hoping to approve a visit by the Dalai Lama next year, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Link: Yonhap No news from Xinjiang/East Turkestan this week. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving this. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. |