| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. The Week�s Links: Feature and Opinion Pieces on Communist China March 5, 2004 Listen to the Chinascope, hosted by D.J. McGuire: Tuesday midnight EST or Wednesday 2PM EST (tape delay), on WXEI 95.3 FM in Crestview, FL, or here. Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror is now available: here, at Amazon, or call 1-888-280-7715. Link of the Week The editors of the Washington Times blast the Communists for their determination to stamp out democracy in Hong Kong under one country, one-and-a-half systems. On the Falun Gong War Zhang Tianliang, Epoch Times, notes how the Communist-run Xinhua News Agency steers clear of the actual truth in its reporting of the imprisonment of those who exposed the rape of Falun Gong practitioner Wei Xingyan (see last Update). More on Human Rights in Communist China Matthew Forney, Time Asia, interviews and profiles Li Fan, the within-the-system democracy activist who was the inspiration behind the Pingba election, which the Communists promptly annulled when the results went against them (see 10/1/03 Update). Tim Luard, BBC, sees some hope in planned constitutional changes to be enacted by the upcoming National People's Congress, but as one of his sources, Robin Murno of the China Labour Bulletin, notes �There is a history in China of constitutional rights being ignored.� More On the Opening of the NPC Jamie FlorCuz, CNN, uses the opening of the Communist Parliament to give the PRC leadership �good reviews.� The rest of the piece is more bland than outrageous. Louisa Lim, BBC, interviews a few delegates. The pieces share one common attribute: the brutal reality of Communist rule remains inexplicably hidden. On Corruption in Communist China Jin Yaoru, Epoch Times, examines the case of former Beijing Communist Party Secretary Chen Xitong, and what it tells us about the Communists� lack of nerve in fighting corruption. On North Korea David Piper, Fox News, takes some naivete on Communist China and extends it to North Korea: �it seems to want to change but its leaders just don�t know how to do it without the regime collapsing like a house of cards when its people find out what the reality is.� Since when is the collapse of a brutal, Stalinist regime a bad thing? On Communist China�s Past James Mann, Washington Post, reviews Jonathan Fenby�s Chiang Kai-shek and Patrick Lescot�s Before Mao. He concludes that while Chiang was a far from perfect ruler, his failings �paled in comparison with the later, more thoroughgoing brutality of Mao.� On Taiwan The folks at the China Support Network reprint the verbiage of the referenda set for March 20 � same day as the presidential election in Taiwan � that have the Communists so steamed. On Communist China and Latin America F. Andy Messing, Jr., in the Washington Times, calls on the Bush Administration to notice, and stop, the rise of Communist Chinese influence in Latin America. On Space Jeremi Suri, of the Hoover Institution, completely misses the boat in this Washington Times column: �the United States faces no immediate competitors in space.� Has he missed the Communist space flight and their plans to reach the moon (see 5/22/02, 9/17/03, 9/24/03, 10/1/03, 10/8/03, 10/15/03, and 2/4 Updates)? Check out the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. Sign up for the North Korea Report to get the next edition on Monday. Sign the petition for an American boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our home page. 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 or North Korea that you happen to find to the same address. |