| CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: AUGUST 16, 2000 TOP STORY: COMMUNIST PRESIDENT�S TOP AIDE GOES DOWN IN XIAMEN SCANDAL REMOVED FROM POST FOR ROLE IN SCANDAL SO BIG ALL BOOKS AND FILMS ON IT BANNED The Hong Kong iMail web site, cited by BBC, reported this week that Jia Tingan, the closest aide to Communist Chinese President Jiang Zemin, is under investigation for involvement in the $6 billion Xiamen smuggling ring. Jia was removed from his post for �suspected violation of party discipline,� but he�s too close to Jiang to face criminal charges. Link: Hong Kong iMail The wide-ranging scandal, for which nearly 300 officials face trails in the next two months, has shocked the nation. Some feel it could permanently damage Communist credibility. Hong Kong iMail also reported last week that Communist authorities are so worried that they have banned all books and films on the scandal. Link: Hong Kong iMail HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS DISSIDENTS WHO STARTED PRO-DEMOCRACY SITE CONDEMN CRACKDOWN Agence France Press reported the dissidents who founded the New Culture Forum web site issued a statement through Human Rights in China blasting the crackdown on them. The dissidents, using the pseudonym Xin Wenming, mistakenly thought to be one person in the last update, also called for free speech on then internet. New Culture Forum was the first pro-democracy web site based inside Communist China. Link: AFP TIANANMEN PROTEST LEADER FREED EARLY, CREDITS INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE Liu Wensheng, sentence to prison until 2002 for his role in the pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square, was freed early this week. Liu was one of several activists mentioned in a list present to Congress by labor unions working to block Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Communist China. Two others on the list have also been freed. Liu told AFP that without international pressure, he�d still be in jail. Link: AFP LITERARY MAGAZINE EDITOR HELD ON �SUBVERSION� CHARGES, LATEST EDITION SEIZED Police charged Bei Ling, the editor of the literary magazine Tendency, with subversion and seized over 2,000 copies of his latest edition over the weekend. Citing the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in China, AFP reported the magazine, first published in 1993, ran afoul of the Communists for writing about underground Chinese writers and publishing poems and articles that are �normally censored.� Link: AFP INTERNATIONAL PRESS GROUP CONDEMNS PRC FOR ATTACKS ON PRESS FREEODM AFP reported the international journalist organization Reporters Without Borders announced Wednesday it condemned Bei�s arrest and the holding of 10 other internet reporters in a letter sent to Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. Link: AFP ZHONG GONG FOLLOWERS APPEAL TO U.S. TO GRANT ASYLUM TO THEIR LEADER . . . Practitioners of the Zhong Gong spiritual movement, similar to Falun Gong in many ways, have appealed to the U.S. to grant asylum to Zhang Hongbao, their leader, who is currently in Guam. AFP reported the Communists are as fearful of Zhong Gong, which had 38 million followers in 1990 and probably more now, as they are of Falun Gong. Link: AFP . . . AS MOVEMENT HE HEADS COMES UNDER INCREASING PERSECUTION AFP, citing the ICHR&D, reported police in southern Communist China are ratcheting up their crackdown on Zhong Gong, including the arrests of the group�s leaders. The Communists have labeled the movement as dangerous as Falun Gong, and consider the two together the biggest threat to the Communist regime since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Link: AFP REPORTER HELD BY COMMUNIST POLICE FOR TALKING TO FOREIGNER ABOUT TAX SUIT AFP reported a television journalist in Shaanxi province was held by police for question after discussing a local court case with a Wall Street Journal reporter. Peasants are suing local Communist officials over high taxes, which usually pad the officials� low salaries. A petition for the release of a jailed paralegal helping the peasants in the suit won 30,000 signatures. Link: AFP THREE TELEVISION EDITORS DEMOTED FOR AIRING TIANANMEN FOOTAGE AFP reports three editors of a Communist television station have been fired for airing 1.8 seconds of footage from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. A spokesman for the station, who remained anonymous, told AFP the editors did not know the footage had been aired and would stay with the station �under a different, yet undetermined, capacity.� Link: AFP AUSTRALIA RETURNS 22 ESCAPEES BACK TO COMMUNIST CHINA Australia has repatriated 22 �boat people� back to Communist China. Australia, like the U.S., and increasingly Canada, routinely deports escapees from Communist China back to the PRC. Many emigrants paid thousands of dollars to criminal organizations to get the documents needed for travel. Apparently, no one is bothering to consider why. Link: AFP DISSIDENT SENT TO LABOR CAMP ON TRUMPED-UP CHARGES FREED AFTER 18 MONTHS Communist Chinese dissident Peng Ming, held for 18 months in a labor camp for supposedly hiring prostitutes, was freed last week. BBC reported that Peng is also suffering kidney stones. The report is at the end of a story on the case of Tibetan musicologist Ngawang Choephel, jailed for five years for �espionage.� (See Tibet News) Link: BBC OTHER MAINLAND NEWS THREE GORGES DAM FORCES 230,000 MORE OUT OF THEIR HOMES The Communist-run Xinhua news agency reported over 230,000 residents of Chongqing will be �relocated� in the next three years. The story, as expected, says nothing about the massive ecological damage and corruption resulting from the dam, a brainchild of Li Ping, who ordered of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989. Link: AFP MASSIVE LAYOFFS APPROVED BY COMMUNIST LEADERSHIP Desperate to make state-owned enterprises more efficient, Communist China approved a plan to remove the lifelong job guarantee that comes with service to the Party, according to AFP, which cited the Communist-run China Daily. The number of unemployed when the plan is fully implemented is expected to be in the millions. Authorities are begging the state-owned firms to find them other jobs to avoid �social instability.� Link: AFP AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS CONGRESSMAN DEFIES STATE DEPARTMENT, VISITS TAIWAN PRESIDENT CHEN IN LOS ANGELES The Washington Times reported Congressman Dana Rohrbacher (Republican-California), a staunch supporter of Taiwan and critic of Communist China, visited Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian during the latter�s brief stop in Los Angeles. He defied State Department warnings, issued to avoid angering the PRC, against seeing Chen. Link: BBC COMMUNIST FILM ON AMERICAN SYMPATHIZER BLASTED BY WIDOW AS ILLEGAL PROPAGANDA The Communist-inspired biography film of the late Edgar Snow, a well-known American sympathizer of Mao until his death in the 1970s, was bitterly criticized by his widow last week as a violation of copyright and a propaganda piece. Mrs. Snow, who made her comments to AFP, broke her ties to Communist China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and has been working with the families of the victims since then. Link: AFP U.S. CONGRESSMAN MEETS WITH CHIEF TIANANMEN SQUARE MURDERER LI PENG House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) met with Li Peng, chairman of the legislature and No. 2 in the Communist hierarchy, on Monday. Peng, who ordered the Tiananmen Square massacre while Prime Minster in 1989, praised on Archer, who supported PNTR with the Communist China, and even opposed the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act. Archer, thankfully, is not running for re-election. Link: AFP COMMUNIST CHINA CALLS CIA REPORT ON ARMS PROLIFERATION �BASELESS� Communist China blasted the CIA report, which made the Washington Times and the last update, as �baseless� and derived from �ulterior motives.� They also criticized, again, the proposed missile defense system for the U.S. to protect itself against many of the states mentioned as Communist Chinese clients in the report � North Korea, Libya, and Iran. Link: AFP STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS ARMS TALKS ARE MAKING PROGRESS, EXCEPT FOR MISSILE ISSUE State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said arms talks with Communist China in Hawaii, reported in our last update, led to �additional progress.� The issue of PRC missile aid to Pakistan, Libya, and others, however, remained �unresolved.� Link: AFP FIRMS FROM COMMUNIST CHINA BOLT HARDWARE CONVENTION OVER TAIWANES FLAG Chicago�s National Hardware show witnessed a Communist-enforced boycott by firms located in the PRC, in protest over the refusal by show officials to take down displays of the Taiwanese flag. One Hunan manufacturer had his merchandise all but forcibly removed by Communist officials. A representative of a Taiwan firm was sympathetic to the unwilling protestors. �They have no choice. It�s just an official thing.� Link: AFP INTERNATIONAL NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA BLASTS AUSTRALIAN FOLLOWERS OF FALUN GONG AFP reported Communist China�s embassy in Australia attacked Australian Falun Gong practitioners for spreading the truth about what is happening to their fellow followers in Communist China and protesting the actions in front of the embassy. Link: AFP PALESTINIAN LEADER ARAFAT WINS WEAK PRC SUPPORT, EX-PM PERES BEGINS VISIT TODAY Yassir Arafat, head of the Palestinian Authority, won grudging support from Communist China this week. The BBC reported Communist President Jiang Zemin saying the PRC believed Arafat would make a declaration of an independent state �at an appropriate time.� Meanwhile, ex-Israeli Prime Minister Simon Peres began his visit to Beijing today. Link: BBC REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS PRESIDENT CHEN SLAMS COMMUNIST CHINA FOR �ONE CHINA� DOUBLESPEAK ROC President Chen Shui-bian, in remarks picked up by Taiwan�s Central News Agency and relayed by the BBC last week, blasted Beijing�s hypocrisy on the issue of �One China.� Chen noted that while the party line to the international community is the only �China� is Communist China, some PRC leaders tell him otherwise. He also said the Taiwanese people would not accept becoming �another Hong Kong or Macao.� Link: CNA TAIWAN PLEDGES NOT TO FIRE FIRST IF WAR WITH COMMUNIST CHINA OCCURS Taiwan�s Defense Ministry publicly stated it �will by no means seek to fire the first shot� in potential hostilities with Communist China. The statement came after the Communist army�s People�s Liberation Army Daily reported that ROC fighters had crossed the middle of the Taiwan Straits, the de facto border, last month. Link: AFP TAIWAN PLANNING CYBERWAR DRILL Taiwan�s Central News Agency, citing the French newspaper Liberation, reported Taiwan plans a cyberwar military drill later this month. A Defense Ministry spokesman said Taiwan is confident it can protect itself form a digital assault by Communist China. Link: CNA HONG KONG NEWS COMMUNIST MILITARY ADDING MORE MISSILES TO �DEFEND� HONG KONG AFP, citing the independent Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, reported the People�s Liberation Army has decided to create a new �air defense zone� covering Hong Kong and neighboring Shenzhen. The new defense zone will have �advance weapons, including guidance missiles.� The buildup is designed to augment the PRC�s military position against Taiwan. Link: AFP TIBET NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA LETS JAILED TIBETAN SEE HIS MOM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS Ngawang Choephel, a musicologist arrested in Tibet five years ago on spurious �espionage� charges, was allowed to see his mother for the first time since his arrest. BBC, citing the Tibet Information Network, noted he suffers from several illnesses. Ngawang was arrested for espionage while planning a film on traditional performing arts. Link: BBC COMMUNIST CHINA FIRES ALL TIBETAN GUIDES EDUCATED OUTSIDE THE PRC In a move to tighten their control on Tibet information, Communist authorities dismissed all 29 Tibetan tour guides who were educated in India, home to the Dalai Lama�s government in exile. The three guides educated in the PRC were spared. AFP reported 100 Han Chinese tour guides have been sent to Tibet to ensure the proper political line is towed. Link: AFP COMMUNIST CHINA BOOTS RESTORATION GROUP OUT OF TIBET The restoration group THF, which had been historically restoring several houses in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, was kicked out of Tibet by Communist China, which denied political reasons. The Communists did say the group printed �publicity brochures.� Link: AFP U.N. INVITES DALAI LAMA TO LAST DAY OF RELIGION SUMMIT ONLY In a move somewhere between an olive branch and an insult, the United Nations Millenium Peace Summit, a conference of religious leaders, has invited the previously snubbed Dalai Lama, but to only the last day of the summit, to avoid angering Communist China. The Dalai Lama refused. Columnist Nat Hentoff revealed the clumsy move in his column on the subject. Link: Washington Times No reports this week from Xinjiang/East Turkestan. As the region is very remote, reports from there take time to reach the outside world. If you find a report on Xinjiang/East Turkestan, or anything else regarding Communist China, please send it to the address below. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving this. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. |