| Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. Link of the Week In a wide-ranging story on how Communist China deals with AIDS, Peter S. Goodman, Washington Post, took note of the PRC blood-drives whose lack of hygiene combined with its unusual plasma re-injection scheme � designed to encourage multiple donations � has lead not only to an epidemic in Henan province � where as many as one million may be infected (see 9/4/02 update) � but in several other provinces. What does several mean? According to the paper, �Recent interviews with government officials, Western diplomats and a network of Beijing-based activists who survey the countryside revealed a far broader problem, one that touches most of China's vast interior, including the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, Shanxi, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Shandong and Hunan.� Shudder. The story also deals with live in Gaoji, where �at least 20 percent of the population participated in the selling of blood.� Gaoji is now an �AIDS village,� where the disease is now a daily fact of life. As for the local Communists, who were foursquare behind the blood drive and likely profited handsomely from it, one activist said, �The local officials just want these people to die.� What the Link of the Week Would Have Been If The New Republic Didn�t Require Registration No fee is required, however, so Joshua Kurlantzick�s remarkable piece on the PRC economy makes it in. Kurlantzick completely explodes the myth of Communist China as a white-hot economy ready to make Western businessmen rich. In fact, he finds the Communists tightening control of the economy, growth figures badly fudged, and a banking system in which over half of the loans are bad. Kurlantzick, the foreign editor for TNR, finds an economy far weaker and unstable than starry-eyed Wall Streeters see � propped up only by foreign investment and deficit spending, and shot through with inefficient PRC-run firms (the beneficiary of most bad loans), and corruption. He also notes that the PRC is not only weaker economically, but far more dangerous geopolitically than most Americans realize. More on the Communist Economy The editors of the Washington Times also cast doubt on Communist China�s claims of red-hot economic growth, and take a pessimistic outlook on the party�s ability to give prosperity to the people of China without surrendering political power, which they still refuse to do. On Communist China and the Terrorist War The New Republic takes a look at how Communist China looks at the war on terror, particularly Iraq vis a vis the United States. Their conclusion is as follows: �Either China is going to be neutral, which is good news, or the Chinese government is playing a double game, which wouldn't be the first time.� On the Return of the �apparatchik� in Communist China Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN) finds that CMC Chairman Jiang Zemin�s determination to stay at the top has led to �career party functionaries have been making gains at the expense of professional, less ideologically-inclined administrators and managers.� The biggest beneficiary of the �stunning revival� of �apparatchiks� in the party has been, of course, the Shanghai faction led by CMC Chairman Jiang Zemin. More on Jiang�s Staying Power Matthew Forney, of Time Asia, examines the effect of Jiang�s refusal to give up the CMC Chair, the post Forney calls �arguably the country's most important, since it makes him the military commander in chief.� On Communist China and NATO Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, examines what Communist China desires in its recent attempts at outreach to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On Communist China�s political �temperature� John Derbyshire, Contributing Editor for National Review Online (and China e-Lobby Member since 2002), takes note of how a number of his Chinese friends have been warning him of a �tightening-up of social controls in the People's Republic recently.� He finds that �people raised in mainland China have incredibly sensitive instincts for the degree of repression current at any time,� including his wife, Rosie. Derbyshire makes his observation in the tenth section of his November diary. On Hong Kong In an open letter to the President, William Kristol, former Senator Connie Mack, former Attorney General Richard Thornburg, and former Congressman Stephen Solarz, among many others, blast the Communists for using the supposed anti-subversion law to undermine Hong Kong�s freedom and autonomy. They call on the President to �forthrightly oppose the introduction of new national security laws� in the letter, posted by the Project for the New American Century. Hong Kong resident Claude Adams gives his personal assessment of the �anti-subversion� law in Newsmax.com. On Tibet Adam Brookes, BBC, takes a look at the Communist effort to stamp out all resistance to their rule in the conquered nation. On Russian President Putin�s Trip to Communist China The BBC�s Stephen Dalziel examines Russia�s relationship with Communist China as Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Beijing to meet with Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin. Dalziel also includes a look at Russia�s relationship with India. Meanwhile, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, also from the BBC, wonders what impact, if any, Jiang and Putin�s joint declaration will have. Check out the latest on Communist China and the Terrorist War. Sign up now for the next North Korea Report, sent out every Monday. Sign the Boycott Petition: In reaction to the decision of the International Olympic Committee awarding Beijing the 2008 Olympic Games, 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 or North Korea that you happen to find to the same address. |