| SIERRA CLUB TO OPPOSE PNTR FOR COMMUNIST CHINA The passage of Permanent Normal Trade Relations � formerly known as Most Favored Nation (MFN) status � for the People�s Republic of China suffered another blow on Monday, when the Sierra Club announced it would oppose the measure and join efforts by the AFL-CIO to defeat it in Congress. Carl Pope, the Sierra Club�s Executive Director, slammed the trade accord signed by the U.S. and Communist China that includes the U.S. granting PNTR to the PRC. �We are once again confronted by a trade agreement that fails to protect workers, their families and the environment,� Pope said. �The United States must retain the leverage afforded by annual review of our commercial relationship with China in order to ensure fair trade, clean trade and green trade.� The accord cleared the way for U.S. approval of Communist China�s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). At present, however, the PRC�s entry is being blocked by the European Union, who broke off trade talks with Communist China last week, as reported in last week�s update. The fate of PNTR in the House of Representatives is still unclear. STATE DEPARTMENT CHARGES LOCKHEED MARTIN The U.S. State Department charged Lockheed Martin with over 30 violation of the Arms Export and Control Act on Wednesday. The State Dept. charged that in 1994, Lockheed Martin provided improper technology data regarding satellite equipment to AsiaSat, a Hong Kong-based satellite company partially owned by China International Trust and Investment Company (CITIC), a massive conglomerate owned by the Communist Chinese government. Lockheed Martin denies any wrongdoing, and claimed the data, which explained the failure of a satellite �kick motor,� was transferred to AsiaSat only after the Department of Defense edited the document to avoid the transfer of information that could be converted to military use. The State Department, however, charged that 10 unedited versions of the document were given to AsiaSat, and that Lockheed Martin, �made no effort to retrieve the 10 unexpurgated assessments or seek to learn the ultimate disposition of these assessments.� Lockheed Martin also shared the edited document with Chinas Great Wall Industries, a state-owned company that produces solid rocket motors. That action, according to the State Dept., was also a violation of export regulations. Communist China, as expected, denied all allegations. CITIC is one of the most powerful state-owned conglomerates in Communist China, with holdings in banking, textiles, automobiles, power plants, and pharmaceuticals. They also have a number of interests in the United States, including a steel mill in Delaware. The chairman of CITIC, Wang Jun, was a White House coffee guest in 1996. CITIC holds a majority stake in AsiaSat according the State Department; Lockheed Martin claimed CITIC�s stake in AsiaSat is only a third. The civil penalties from the violations could total as much as $15 million and a three-year ban on Lockheed Martin from exporting satellites or satellite technology. Four days after the charges were made public, 2,300 machinists at Lockheed Martin�s Fort Worth plant went on strike for unrelated reasons. CHINA DEMOCRACY PARTY CHARGES COMMUNISTS WITH HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS The China Democracy Party, in a fax to the press in Beijing, charged the Communist government with numerous violations of human rights in its crackdown on the dissident party. The CDP was formed in 1998, after Communist China signed the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. When the CDP tried to register as an opposition party, its leaders, Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin and Wang Youcai, were promptly arrested. Xu was not allowed to speak in his own defense, and the others were denied attorneys. All were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 1998. The CDP also noted the arrests of many of its members last year. "In 1999, during a second wave of oppression launched against CDP leaders, dozens more were rounded up and summarily sentenced for simply this: the peaceable advocating of political pluralism. Ironically, the only actual crimes in evidence were the flagrant human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese government against the political dissidents." The statement called the actions the �harshest crackdown on political dissidents since the brutal treatment of student leaders after Tiananmen Square in 1989.� The statement was addressed to the UN Human Rights Commission, which is considering a U.S.-sponsored resolution condemning the Communist People�s Republic of China for gross violations of human rights. The resolution was not mentioned in the document. HONG KONG DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST SLAMS PRO-BEIJING LEADERSHIP Christine Loh, a well-known activist for democracy in Hong Kong and member of the city legislature there, has announced she will not run for re-election. Ms. Loh, who is chairwoman of the Citizens Party, no longer believes the council is the best way to fight for democracy in Hong Kong. Beijing appointed the Hong Kong leadership just before the United Kingdom handed the city over to mainland China in 1997. Loh says the appointed leaders are not interested in implementing democracy. Hong Kong was supposed to be governed as a special district under its largely British Basic Law for 50 years, but Communist China has been slowly encroaching on Hong Kong�s autonomy ever since the handover. TIBET ENVOY SAYS MANY SEE UN RESOLUTION AS COVER FOR PNTR The envoy for the Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader and leading figure in the push for human rights in Tibet, said that many countries believe the UN human right resolution condemning Communist China is a ploy to mollify Congress into voting for Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for the PRC. Lodi Gyalsten Gyari made his comments in testimony before the House International Relations Committee on Thursday. "There is vocal and widespread cynicism among delegates at the commission that the U.S.-sponsored resolution is merely a ploy to win Congressional approval for permanent normal trade relations for China," Gyari told. "It is also understood that the European Union nations who will vote as a block in Geneva, are divided among themselves. Nonetheless, President Clinton . . . chose to be silent on the resolution when he visited Geneva two weeks past. Not only did he not use a critical opportunity to lobby for the resolution, but he did so in the context of a campaign that has him on an almost daily basis speaking out publicly for passage of PNTR." Gyari did say the State Department was pushing hard to get the resolution passed, but his comments reinforced many concerns on Capitol Hill that the Administration is not going the extra mile in getting the resolution passed. Communist China has managed to bury similar resolutions in the UN human rights committee for ten years. Tibet has been of particular concern to many since the Communist Chinese invaded the country in 1950. An uprising against the Communists in 1959 was ruthlessly put down, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile in India. It is estimated that the Communists have murdered over one million Tibetans since the uprising. CHINESE LABOR ACTIVISTS FORCED INTO MENTAL HOSPITAL The Information Center on Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, a Hong Kong-based human rights group, has reported that Communist China has forced Xue Jifeng, an unofficial labor activist, into a mental hospital against his will. Xue had organized a gathering of laborers and retirees whose pay and pensions were in arrears, and to protest child labor. It is Xue�s second forced trip to a psychiatric hospital for organizing labor protests. The mental hospital, in Zhengzhou, admitted to having a patient with Xue�s name, but refused to give details. The Information Center reported that Xue has been force-fed psychiatric drugs and left with mental patients who harass him by day and keep him awake at night. Psychiatric imprisonment is a common practice in Red China; over 400 Falun Gong activists are being held in mental hospitals. COMMUNISTS PURGING GOVERNMENT POSITIONS Orthodox Communists are purging liberals from government positions in an attempt to boost President Jiang Zemin. He Depu, a former employee at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences who was fired for his links to the China Democracy Party, told Agence France Presse that Jiang was �taking away the economic livelihood of people advocating liberalism.� Political scientist Liu Junning, long a proponent of reform in Communist China, was fired recently from his job at the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He Depu said, �Liu Junning put forward a lot of theories on political reform both in mainland publications and on the Internet, so that's why he was kicked out." CASS also dismissed Wang Yan, the publisher of Beijing's popular Jingping Consumer's Guide and the national weekly China Business, two newspapers that have flourished during the last 15 years. Yan had started China Business with his own money and bank loans he had arranged personally. The two papers are estimated to be worth over $50 million. The continuing purge is part of the Communists� campaign against �bourgeois liberalism� � i.e. western ideals such as freedom of speech, the press, and individual rights. The Washington Post reported the purge began after academic Li Shenzhi wrote essay slamming the Communist Party for their murderous campaigns against �rightists� and �liberals� over their 50-year rule of mainland China. During the 1960�s, over 20 million Chinese died in mass purges and slaughters inspired by Mao Tse-Tung�s �Cultural Revolution.� After his essay was posted on the Internet, Li promptly became the first victim of the current purge, singled out by President Ziang in a speech on January 17 railing against the �liberal economic wing.� President Ziang went so far as to say, �We absolutely cannot implement the West�s model of bourgeois democracy. If we do, chaos is inevitable.� He also called for a revival of Marxism, which has almost disappeared from the PRC�s cultural vocabulary. CORRUPTION STILL RUNNING RAMPANT IN COMMUNIST CHINA Corrupt bureaucrats have embezzled billions of dollars from government programs, according to Communist China�s National Audit Office. The office�s Auditor General reported funds for poverty relief, resettlement, and water projects lost as much as $15 billion in misuse or theft last year alone. The situation is so bad the central bank does not even now how much of the $725 billion in savings accounts on the mainland is clean, non-embezzled money. Beijing recently banned opening any accounts under false names, but to date they have refused to act on falsely named accounts that already existed for fear of starting a crippling flight of available capital. INTERNET ACCESS BOTHERING BEIJING A supervisor in the Shanghai Public Security Bureau is complaining about Internet access in his country. Liu Yong railed against younger Chinese accessing foreign adult web sites directly. Domestic web sites are kept under strict content controls, but foreign sites are beyond the Communists� reach. Although Liu specifically mentioned pornographic material as a problem, Agence France Presse, which reported the story, also mentioned the Communists were worried about �sensitive political news available to ordinary Chinese citizens.� In an attempt to prevent such information from reaching the people they rule, the PRC had attempted to force all companies with web sites used on the mainland to provide the government with their encryption codes, ostensibly to help investigate criminal activity. The law was slated for a re-write after foreign businesses raised objections. PRC GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED COMPANY�S IPO BOMBS ON WALL STREET PetroChina, a subsidiary of the Communist-owned China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), had an astonishingly flat initial public offering on Thursday. PetroChina�s stock price opened at 16 7/16, and stayed there for most of the day, rising slightly to 16� at one point. That the stock never fell below its initial opening price led many to believe the IPO underwriter, Goldman-Sachs, was supporting the share price. A coalition of human rights and business groups, whose efforts to slow the IPO were reported in last week�s update, were thrilled by the less-than-successful performance of the IPO. The stock fell on Friday, and has yet to recover its losses. ISRAEL SET TO SELL PHALCON RADAR TO COMMUNIST CHINA The Israeli government, despite numerous American protests, is prepared to finalize the sale of the Phalcon early radar warning system to the People�s Liberation Army. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has told U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen that future Phalcon deliveries to the PLA � of which three are scheduled � may be postponed or cancelled, but he insisted that the system already contracted would be sold. The U.S. is concerned the Phalcon system could upset the balance of power between Communist China and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Some Congressmen have suggested that $250 million in U.S. aid to Israel could be threatened by the sale. Israel informed the U.S. of the Phalcon�s production for sale to the PLA in 1996, and according to the Washington Post, �heard only silence� until a few months ago. TAIWAN Communist China continued their threats against Taiwanese independence, and also advised Chen to back �One China.� Why they still assume the people of the Republic of China actually follow their advice is a mystery, especially as they mangled their facts a bit. They �reminded� Chen that he won only by pledging to drop the independence plank from his party�s platform. Such a move was only proposed after the election, by a legislator, and has been tabled for discussion. Chen has said talks are possible on anything Beijing wants, but that �One China� can only be an issue to be discussed at the talks, not a precursor to them. Chen further said he could not begin talks in a �One China� framework because it reduces Taiwan to provincial status. Meanwhile, Vice President-elect Annette Lu became a target for Communist propaganda thanks to her support for an independent Taiwan. The Communist press has labeled her a �lunatic� and the �scum of the nation,� for her views, labels previously reserved for outgoing President Lee Tung-Hui. Agence France Presse reports the new slanders are not just aimed at Ms. Lu, but are also for domestic consumption. Apparently, the mainlanders have seen Beijing�s relative silence since Chen�s election as a sign of weakness, something no dictatorial regime can ever afford. In Taipei, Defense Minister and premier-designate Tang Fei has announced he will appoint the head of Chen�s Democratic Progressive Party to be deputy premier. Tang also announced he would promote the deputy defense minister to his old job, a clear sign that the military reform begun under Tang will continue. Chen has pledged a non-partisan government, a pledge quickly confirmed by the appointment of Tang, a longtime Nationalist. Still, it�s widely believed the DPP will have the most ministers. Taiwan may lose diplomatic recognition from Panama. Li Peng, the second most powerful politician in the PRC, has expressed hope that Panama will switch recognition to Beijing, especially after the chairman of the Panamanian legislature�s Foreign Affairs Committee paid a visit. Many have suspected Communist China seeks to win recognition as a consequence of Hutchison Whampoa, a company partly owned by the PRC, running the canal�s container ports. As reported in last week�s update, the Pentagon believes Hutchison intends to use its management of the ports to take complete control of the canal. WASHINGTON POST SLAMS CLINTON ON TAIWAN POLICY The Washington Post read President Bill Clinton the riot act for his vacillating policies on Taiwan this week. In its lead editorial on Monday, the paper said that Clinton�s �approach to Taiwan security is losing credibility.� The editors recommended the Administration implement many provisions of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, �such as greater (Taiwanese) access to U.S. information and the training of Taiwanese officers.� The Post proceeded to give a stern warning to the President. �The Clinton administration will object that China would be furious at either arms sales or stepped-up military contacts � and it probably would,� the paper said. �But new military and political realities are fast converging to make this argument increasingly untenable. The administration needs to make some tough choices about Taiwan's security; if it can't or won't act, then Congress should.� |