| New Web Site Feature � �Communist China and the Terrorist War�: From China e-Lobby Updates and �Week�s Links,� a chronicle of Communist China�s actions after the terrorist attack. Access it on our web site, either directly or via our main page. Sign the Boycott Petition: In reaction to the 2008 Olympic Games being awarded to Beijing, the China e-Lobby has begun a petition for an American boycott of those games. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. Please feel free to send any news on Communist China you happen to find to the same address. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: JANUARY 2, 2002 TOP STORY: PRC TO EXECUTE LEADER OF NON-COMMUNIST CHRISTIAN CHURCH Gong Shengliang, founder of the South China Church � a Christian sect of roughly 50,000 believers � received a death sentence for �using a cult to undermine the enforcement of the law,� according to the Times of India, which cited the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in China. Gong�s niece, also a leader in the church, received a suspended death sentence, which likely means life in prison. Protestants and Catholics who do not worship in Communist-approved churches face arrest or worse. Over 10 million Catholics defy the Communists, remaining loyal to the Vatican. Sadly, numbers for non-Catholic Christians are not known. Also reporting on this story: Los Angeles Times OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS WENG JIABO, E-MAILER OF ANTI-COMMUNIST ARTICLES TO FRIENDS, GETS 4 YEARS IN JAIL The Communists sentenced Wang Jiabo to four years in prison for �subversion,� according to the Washington Post. Wang �seemed� to e-mailed articles �critical of China's Communist government� to his friends, and said the Tiananmen Square protestors were �honorable champions of democracy.� COMMUNIST CHINA EXECUTES MORE THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED Communist China ended 2001 with a spate of executions for everything from �murder to embezzlement,� according to the BBC. More than 40 lost their lives last week, including one who embezzled $300,000. All in all, the Communist killed more people in 2001 �than the rest of the world put together.� COMMUNISTS CODIFY �ONE CHILD� POLICY The Communist put into law their brutal �one child� policy, which has already been in force for over two decades. As the Washington Times put it, �The government has acknowledged its family-planning policy has led to excesses such as infanticide, (and) forced abortions.� ANTI-COMMUNIST CATHOLIC PRIEST UNDER HOUSE ARREST DIES IN BEIJING From the Los Angeles Times: �Msgr. Mattia Pei Shangde, 83, who had been under house arrest in China after a wave of arrests of leaders of the unapproved Roman Catholic Church in April, died Monday of kidney failure at a hospital in a city near Beijing.� The priest remained loyal to the Vatican despite a decade of prison labor and Communist �reeducation.� OTHER MAINLAND NEWS JIANG SHIFTS TOWARD HARD-LINERS IN POSSIBLE BID TO KEEP CMC POST As CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam reports, Communist President Jiang Zemin is mending fences with his Maoist would-be rivals in his efforts �in getting a firm grip on China's (Communist) political center.� Lam has two reasons for Jiang�s rapprochement with the �leftists� � either to hang on to the lesser known but very powerful post of Chairman of the Central Military Commission, or to promote his prot�g�s. While few outside the PRC have heard of the CMC, its chairmanship was the post from which Deng Xiaoping wielded power for years from �behind the scenes.� This included his decision to give then Prime Minister Li Peng the green light to slaughter the protestors in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. COMMUNIST POLICE LET WORKERS TAKE INNOCENT IMPORTER PRISONER This is one of those lovely stories of Communist promises broken to the workers in whose name the PRC was built. According to the Washington Post, a factory owned by the local Communist government went bankrupt after taking �loans� from its workers. The factory blamed importers � falsely � for not paying for orders. Now, one of those importers is stuck in a hotel, trapped by those workers. Many of the workers loaned �several years' worth of savings,� to the factory, so one can understand their anger at the mythical deadbeat importers. As for the local police, they haven�t lifted a finger. The importer, Zhu Haiou, wants the issue settled in court, since � and its best to read this quote sitting down � �China is in the World Trade Organization now, and I thought we could follow legal procedures.� COMMUNISTS SILENT ON CAUSE OF ANOTHER FIREWORKS EXPLOSION IN JIANGXI Less than a year after a massive fireworks explosion in Jiangxi province killed tens of children forced to make fireworks in school (see previous updates), the Communists are throwing up a wall of silence on another fireworks blast in the same province. The latest explosion killed �more than 40,� according to the BBC. CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam reports that the PRC has given no details on what happened. NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA AND THE TERRORIST WAR PAKISTANI LEADER MUSHARRAF VISITS BEIJING Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan since a military coup in 1999, spent five days in Beijing meeting with top Communist leaders (BBC). Musharraf asked for more trade and investment with its long-time ally �to really cement the bond between the two countries.� Musharraf will meet with the leaders of the People�s Republic again tomorrow, also according to the BBC. Also reporting: Los Angeles Times Musharraf also got the Communists to call for �restraint� in its war of words � so far � with India over a terrorist attack last month by Pakistan-based terrorists on the Indian Parliament (BBC). India is insisting Pakistan crackdown on the Kashmir-based groups, which have received �moral support� from Pakistan for years, and according to the Washington Post, a lot of other support. Where have we seen this before? AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS AS BUSH GRANTS PNTR TO COMMUNIST CHINA, HARRY WU BLASTS U.S. TRADE POLICY As President Bush formally granted Permanent Normal Trade Relations to Communist China � as part of their entry into the World Trade Organization (Washington Post) � Harry Wu, a twenty-year political prisoner in the PRC now in exile � ripped the policy. Wu called the policy of �engagement� with Beijing �a blood transfusion of money to the Chinese government,� according to World Net Daily. Wu also noted Communist China�s multiple military purchases from Russia � something largely unnoticed by the rest of the world (although faithfully reported in numerous previous updates). Wu noted that �the majority of the (Western business) money is going to the Chinese government in order to upgrade their military.� (World Net Daily piece courtesy of Ron Vogel, Member since 2000) INTERNATIONAL NEWS AS JAPAN AND PRC END TRADE DISPUTE, SPY SHIP AND FALLING YEN SOUR RELATIONS Despite a resolution to a nearly yearlong trade dispute (BBC), hostility between Communist China and Japan is growing deeper, according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam. The PRC is convinced the latest slump in the Japanese yen is a Tokyo plot against its exports � another sign of how poorly the Communists understand markets � while Japan�s Foreign Minister said she was worried about the PRC�s rise. North Korea has also been a flashpoint for Beijing and Tokyo, especially with the shooting and sinking of a vessel off Japan�s coast widely suspected of being a North Korean spy ship (CNN, BBC). Communist China was enraged at the incident, calling Japan�s actions �abnormal.� In Japan, meanwhile, many now believe the continuing PRC-North Korean alliance is Beijing�s tool �to rein in Japan.� PRC WARNS ISRAEL AGAINST SELLING AWACS TO INDIA, SENDS F-7 FIGHTERS TO PAKISTAN Remember those PHALCON air radar systems Israel nearly sold to Communist China last year. Well, according to the Times of India, they may have found a new � and worthier � customer: India. The PRC has �taken notice of that,� and, of course, raked Israel over the coals for even thinking of the idea. Of course, while they ranted against Israel�s possible AWACS sale to India, the Communists also sent the first shipment of F-7 fighter planes to Pakistan, according to the Pakistani News Service. They also shifted some military personnel near the Indian border. The PRC swiped about 400,000 square miles from the South Asian democracy in 1962, and has long been the chief military backer of Pakistan. FOX SUBSIDIARY NETWORK ENTERS PRC TV MARKET; AUSTRALIAN MONEY FIRM PULLS OUT Star Network, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch�s News Corp., gained official entr�e into the province of Guangdong. News Corp., owner the Fox network and Fox News, agreed to air Communist programming in the U.S. (CNN). Meanwhile, AMP, an Australian financial services firm, pulled out of an investment in PRC-run firm, citing �no clear benefit to shareholders,� according to AMP management (also CNN). REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS TAIWAN JOINS WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION ON NEW YEAR�S DAY The Republic of China formally entered the World Trade Organization yesterday, years after meeting all the necessary criteria. The PRC had blocked Taiwan�s entry for years, insisting that it be accepted first. The ROC was forced to join as a customs zone � also due to Communist complaints. Reports: CNN, BBC UNEMPLOYMENT DIPS IN NOVEMBER Unemployment was slightly lower in November than October, according to the BBC. It�s the first drop in over a year, but it was �merely a blip since factory closures are still on the rise,� officials warned. EAST TURKESTAN (�XINJIANG�) NEWS PRC GIVES ANTI-COMMUNIST UIGHURS UNTIL CHINESE NEW YEAR TO �SURRENDER� According to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam, the Communists have put East Turkestan (what they call Xinjiang) on a �first-degree alert� and told all �terrorists and separatists� that they had until the Chinese New Year � at the end of this month � to turn themselves in. Lam also noted the arrest of �separatists� and folks out to �fabricate trouble,� but that the Communists had no evidence of actual terror activities. HONG KONG NEWS AIR POLLUTION LEVELS HIT TWO-YEAR HIGH CNN reports that the New Year saw air pollution levels hit a two-year high in Hong Kong. Pollution has routinely been a problem in the city, and it has largely gotten worse recently, despite pledges to tackle the problem from the regime of the much-disliked Communist-appointed Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. No news was reported from Tibet this week. |