| 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. Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: NOVEMBER 6, 2002 TOP STORY: POLITBURO STANDING COMMITTEE REVEALED, JIANG GETS MAJORITY JIANG�S FACTION GETS FOUR OF SEVEN PSC SEATS, LI RUIHUAN OUSTED; PRC MAY FORM NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL IN MOVE THAT WOULD GIVE JIANG MORE POWER About two years ago, Hong Kong�s South China Morning Post fired its bureau chief, Willy Wo-Lap Lam, because he was too honest for the paper, whose ownership was looking to appease Communist China. Their loss in CNN�s gain: Lam got a hold of the seven-man roster for the new Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful body in the People�s Republic besides the Central Military Commission. The list was selected in the �long-standing party tradition� (Lam 11/4/02-1) of deals between the major leaders, in this case Jiang Zemin, outgoing Communist party chief and PRC President, Zhu Rongji, outgoing Prime Minister, and Li Peng, the butcher of Tiananmen Square and outgoing number two in the party hierarchy. Jiang ensured that four members of the PSC would come from his �Shanghai� faction. It was stunning political triumph for Jiang, likely won in large part because Li�s prot�g�, Luo Gan, Li�s only prot�g� on the PSC, will lead the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI), the anti-corruption post (Lam 11/4/02-2). Li�s fiefdoms, particularly energy, are riddled with corruption (see last update), so one could imagine Li being very willing to follow Jiang�s lead in exchange for that plum. Zhu also landed only one prot�g�, Wen Jiabao; he managed to ensure that Wen takes his old post of premier. The Jiang four will take Executive Vice-Premier (Wu Bangguo), chairman of the parliament (Huang Ju), chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Jia Qinglin), and leader of party affairs (Zeng Qinghong). The last spot is for Hu Jintao, the man slated to take over as party chief and PRC President, the titles Jiang is vacating. Hu will have no friends in the PSC. Meanwhile, one name made the news by not making the list � Li Ruihuan, the only PSC member not to parrot praise for Jiang�s �Three Represents� theories (Lam 11/6). The PSC selections will be rubber-stamped at Friday�s Party Congress. The PSC controls the Politburo, which controls the party. Prior to the Tiananmen Square massacre, it was the most powerful body in the PRC. The institutional effects of that day, and the political machinations since, have made the Central Military Commission just as, if not more, powerful. Who will head the CMC? Why none other than the man whose faction won the majority on the PSC � Jiang Zemin. Meanwhile, Lam (11/5) noted the �imminent� plans for a new foreign policy body, the National Security Council. The two driving figures behind the Communist NSC, whose current informal predecessor already has a role in everything from strategic military planning to international finance, are � surprise! � Jiang, and his prot�g� Zeng, the new party affairs leader. Fancy that. NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA, EAST TURKESTAN, AND THE TERRORIST WAR THREE BIN LADENITES ARRESTED FOR TRYING TO FINANCE STINGER MISSILES PURCHASE Three members of al Qaeda were arrested in Hong Kong for �allegedly planning to finance the purchase of four Stinger missiles, with profits from drug smuggling� (BBC). Their court date, and their possible extradition to the United States, will come next Friday. This was the only Hong Kong news this week. COMMUNIST CHINA BANS UIGHURS FROM BEIJING HOTELS IN CONGRESS RUN-UP In its effort to continue to stifle dissent or �socially destabilizing� news, Communist China has banned all Uighurs from hotels in Beijing as the Party Congress prepares to rubber-stamp the PSC slate (see Top Story). According to the Washington Post, �700 Uighurs are believed to have infiltrated Beijing and plan to hold demonstrations against China's rule of (East Turkestan, a.k.a.) Xinjiang, their home region.� Communist China�s brutal treatment of East Turkestan � which was independent in the 1940s � has fueled an anti-Communist independence movement there. The PRC has tried to tie the movement to al Qaeda, with a dearth of evidence to back them up. The campaign has clearly worked in Beijing, where one hotel employee said, �those Xinjiang groups have connections with Afghanistan.� Sigh. Check out these stories and more on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA KICKS OUT ACTIVIST WHO HELPED NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES Communist China expelled Hiroshi Kato, a Japanese national who had been helping North Korean refugees hide in the PRC and escape to South Korea via democratic nations� embassies. Hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees hide in Communist China � which sends back to the Stalinist North any refugee it finds � to escape the totalitarian regime and a massive famine. Report: CNN MORE INTERNET CAFES MAY REOPEN SOON, NOW THAT NEW RESTRICTIONS ARE IN PLACE Communist Chinese officials told a select number of internet caf� managers that they would allow for more caf�s to open soon. Of course, this comes only after Communist China had imposed new restrictions on the web as part of its �Great Red Firewall� (BBC). Sign up for the North Korea Report today and get the October 21 special edition, which had North Korea�s admission of its nuclear weapons program, along with new Reports every Monday. OVER 1,000 LAID-OFF WORKERS PROTEST CORRUPTION IN NORTHEAST PRC Uh oh. This sounds like the �socially destabilizing� news that worried the Communists so much (see 10/23/02 update). In Liaoyang and Changchun � two cities in the Communist Chinese northeast, over 1,000 laid-off workers �protested against corruption and unpaid benefits . . . just days before the ruling Communist Party holds a key congress� (BBC). CORRUPTION NEWS FORMER BANK OF CHINA CHIEF KICKED OUT OF PARTY FOR CORRUPTION Wang Xuebing, fired from his post as head of the PRC-run Bank of China for corruption, was kicked out of the Communist Party for �a debauched lifestyle� that �corrupted morality,� according to a Communist statement cited by the BBC. Wang was a prot�g� of Zhu Rongji, the outgoing Prime Minister who was waxed by outgoing PRC President Jiang Zemin in the battle over the Party reshuffle (see Top Story). OTHER MAINLAND NEWS �SNAKEHEAD� RING CRACKED BY COMMUNIST POLICE Thousands have been so desperate to get out of Communist China that they have been willing to mortgage themselves to criminals helping them escape. The largest of those �snakehead� groups was put out of business, it was reported this week. Once out of the PRC, the refugees must either choose between subservience to the crooks or telling host authorities � and risk being sent back. Reports: CNN, BBC THREE GORGES DAM PROJECT NEARS COMPLETION The corruption-plagued, ecological disaster of the Three Gorges Dam came closer to completion this week, according to the BBC. The dam project � brainchild of Tiananmen butcher Li Peng, has been called an environmental mess, and has seen funds embezzled by over 90 Communists (see 07/26/00 update). It is also reported to have cracks in it (see 04/17/02 update). �LACKLUSTER DEMAND� POSTPONES CHINA TELECOM INITIAL PUBLIC OFEERING The PRC owned China Telecom had to postpone today�s initial public offering in Hong Kong, and next week�s in New York, due to �lackluster demand� (CNN 10/31). The Communist firm had hoped to sell about a third of itself � maintaining Communist overall majority ownership � to raise capital. The new offering will be for merely half that amount of shares (CNN 11/5). Meanwhile, the firm�s efforts to improve its image among investors, including an �eightfold increase in connection fees for international calls� (BBC), enraged the people of Hong Kong, who are reeling from an economic recession. INTERNATIONAL NEWS ASEAN, PRC BACK DEALS ON SPRATLY �CODE OF CONDUCT,� FREE TRADE AREA The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has endorsed a �code of conduct� for the Spratly Islands to which Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines agreed in talks last year. All four nations claim part of the Spratly Islands. The PRC, which claims all of the islands and everything else in the South China Sea, also backed the deal over the weekend. Reports: BBC 11/4-1, Washington Post Meanwhile, ASEAN and Communist China also agreed to create a free trade within ten years (BBC 11/4-2). The move is worrying other nations, particularly Japan, which is responding with its own free-trade entreaties. One Japanese embassy official called Communist China a �frightening figure.� REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS COMMUNISTS SAY �THREE LINKS� MUST NEVER BE �COUNTRY TO COUNTRY� Communist China said establishing the �three links� � trade, mail, and travel � between itself and Taiwan must never be called �country to country� (BBC). The Communist said talks on the links could continue if �the Taiwan administration accepts the one China principle�. The PRC has insisted on �one China� as a way to justify their claim to be the rightful rulers of Taiwan � despite having never ruled there. TIBET NEWS DALAI LAMA VISITS MONGOLIA The Dalai Lama, Tibet�s spiritual leader, visited Mongolia for the first time since 1995. Communist China, of course, ripped the Mongolians for allowing him to visit the country, calling him �a political exile who had engaged in activities to split what it called �the motherland�� as the BBC put it. 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