| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. The Week�s Links: Feature and Opinion Pieces on Communist China January 10, 2004 Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror is now available! My book detailing Communist China�s history of aiding terrorist states, Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, and al Qaeda can be ordered here, at Barnes and Noble, or at Amazon. � D.J. McGuire Link of the Week The editors of the Epoch Times (HK) detail the Communist persecution of Falun Gong since 1999, and the weak response from the rest of the world. Their damning editorial comes in two parts (Part I and Part II). More on Human Rights in Communist China Zhang Tianliang, Epoch Times, honors the late Liu Chengjun, a Falun Gong practitioner killed while in prison for broadcasting Falun Gong information through Communist television. Richard Spencer, London Telegraph via Washington Times, reports on the struggles of the Chinese Orthodox Church, which has suffered under PRC crackdowns and now has no priest. On Taiwan Kenneth Lieberthal, Bill Clinton�s senior director for Asia on the National Security Council, takes some potshots at Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian in the Washington Post, and calls on President Bush to further �chasten� the elected leader of the island democracy. On Communist China and the United States David Ignatius, Washington Post, takes a disturbingly myopic view of Communist China�s economic relationship with the U.S., likening it to �the Europeans after World War II � using cheap exports to the United States to power their economic revival.� Ignatius never examines the alarming national security repercussions of this. Meanwhile, the Post�s editors are not so Pollyannaish. While unhappy at the Bush Administration�s attempt, however, feeble, to get the Communist to let their currency float upward, the editors still call on the PRC to revaluate the currency, whose deliberately weak value has damaged both U.S. manufacturing and the export sectors of our allies. On Communist China and Canada Charles R. Smith, Newsmax, notes the imminent buyout of Air Canada by Victor Li, son of pro-Communist Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing. On SARS in Communist China Karl Taro Greenfeld, Time Asia, asks if SARS is back, and doesn�t like the answer. Meanwhile, Tim Luard, BBC, sees the anger and stupidity of Mao Zedong echoing in Beijing�s plan to slaughter civet cats to stop the disease. The editors of the Washington Times note the SARS cover up of 2002-03, and say the PRC commitment on SARS �will only be proven with time.� On Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN, finds that while the recently installed PRC President and the Premier have embraced �fresh approaches to doing things," it does not mean the regime supports reform, choosing instead to �hide behind dubious defenses such as Wen's recent argument that Chinese lack the requisite suzhi, or �qualifications,� for universal-suffrage elections. On Hong Kong The BBC gauges the reaction of the Hong Kong press to Tung�s refusal to present a blueprint for full democracy in the city. Naturally, the closer the papers are to Communist China, the nicer they are to Tung. On Tibet Soutik Biswas, BBC, interviews Pema Dhondup, the force behind We�re No Monks, a film on the Tibetan community in exile that highlights the anger among young Tibetans at the loss of their homeland. 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. |