| CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: MAY 16, 2001 TOP STORY: COMMUNIST CHINA ENTRY INTO WTO LIKELY POSTPONED UNTIL NEXT YEAR AGRICULTURE SUBSIDY TALKS, MEXICO STILL ROADBLOCKS TO PRC ENTRY The much-ballyhooed entry of the People�s Republic of China into the World Trade Organization may not occur until next year, according to several analysts interviewed by CNN. Two obstacles, which most expected to be removed sometime this year, are still blocking Communist China�s WTO entry. The first is dealing with agriculture: the Communists want to maintain the right to massive farm subsidies. Link: CNN The other obstacle is � surprisingly enough � Mexico, which refuses to budge on its various demands. While most expect Mexico �has little chance of derailing talks,� the agriculture issue has enabled it to avoid international pressure to cave in. Most analysts agreed the real issue was U.S.-PRC relations as a whole, as in whether or not trade is more important than human rights and national security. The International Institute of Strategic Studies also whacked Bush for an �unformed� policy on the PRC. It called for �policies that help preserve the prevalence of pragmatists over hawks in Beijing.� These would be �pragmatists� such as Prime Minister Zhu Rongji (not mentioned in the story): a leading �reformer� who once sent a thinly-veiled threat to Taiwan just before President Chen Shui-bian was elected. Link: BBC HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS DISSIDENT FREED LAST JUNE RE-ARRESTED Li Wangyang, a 1989 Tiananmen Square protestor released last June, is back in prison. The Communists re-arrested Li about a week and a half ago in Henan province. His release last year coincided suspiciously with the debate in the U.S. about Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Communist China, which was approved in the fall. Link: BBC EXPOSER OF FALUN GONG IMPRISONMENT IN MENTAL HOSPITALS LOSES APPEAL Teng Chunyan a Chinese-born U.S. resident � and wife of a U.S. citizen � who exposed the Communists� method of keeping Falun Gong followers in mental hospitals lost her appeal for release. She was sentenced to three years in jail for �illegally supplying state intelligence� (i.e., revealing something the PRC doesn�t want revealed). Link: BBC �STRIKE HARD� CAMPAIGN EXPANDING, TAKING IN MORE DISSIDENTS The latest Communist �anti-crime� campaign is ensnaring �separatists, underground churches, unregistered Internet cafes and peasants resisting high taxes,� according to the Washington Post. The PRC, preparing for a major internal shake-up next year, is �nervous� about a perceived �plot involving overseas Chinese and the United States and Taiwan,� which may explain the arrests of naturalized Chinese-Americans. Link: Washington Post OTHER MAINLAND NEWS GAUNGDONG EXPORT TAX SCANDAL INCLUDES �OVER 100� CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES The export tax rebate scandal in Guangdong province � involving over $4 billion in faked tax records, and possibly over $12 billion in affected goods (see previous updates) -- is said to involve �more than 100 criminal groups.� The widespread corruption affected several towns and cities � one even provided fake loans. This is rapidly becoming the biggest of a legion of Communist corruption scandals. Link: BBC AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS STATE DEPARTMENT GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO CONGRESSMEN MEETING TAIWANESE PRESIDENT The U.S. State Department, through spokesman Rick Boucher, announced the Republic of China (Taiwan) President Chen Shui-bian, who will be in New York and Houston as stopovers for his trip to Latin America this month, will not be blocked from meeting members of Congress. The new policy, which now �encourages� such meetings, won high praise from Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (Republican-California). Link: Washington Times U.S. HOUSE VOTES AGAINST UN DUES REPAYMENT AFTER HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION VOTE Angered at being bounced from the UN Human Rights Commission, the House of Representatives voted against �paying back� about $244 million in dues to the organization. The U.S. attempts to have the Commission bring Communist China to account for its gross human rights violations was one of the major reasons it lost the vote. Sudan was elected to the commission in the same vote. Links: Washington Times, Washington Post President Bush also whacked the removal of the U.S. from the group, especially considering who replaced us � Sudan. He was not, however, willing to force the issue, and supported the �dues� repayment. Link: Washington Post NEW REPORT FROM NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL AIDE ON ASIA: NO MENTION OF TAIWAN A new report coming from a former RAND operative, now on President Bush�s National Security Council staff, discusses the �increasingly fluid� situation in Asia. While the report emphasizes the need from strengthening alliance with Japan and others, CNN�s story on the report never mentions Taiwan. The report also seems to skip focusing on the need to help the Chinese people free themselves from Communism. Link: CNN PRC BOOTY FROM DOWNED EP-3 INCLUDED INFORMATION ON US INTELLIGENCE METHODS Among the many things Communist China was able to take from the EP-3 surveillance plane on Hainan Island was a new understanding of U.S. intelligence capability. The information, including U.S. ability to eavesdrop on Communist officials, was part of reams of classified documents the PRC took from the plane. Link: Washington Times US ENVOY TRIES, AND FAILS, TO SELL MISSILE DEFENSE IN PRC James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific visited Communist China for �consultations� on U.S. plans for a missile defense. It didn�t do much good. The PRC remained �opposed� missile defense, despite U.S. assurances that missile defense �would not be a threat to China.� The American plan would be for defense against �rogue states,� such as Iraq, Iran, Libya, and North Korea � all of which have bought weapons or military technology from the PRC military. Links: BBC The Communists also threatened an arms race yesterday if a missile defense were to be deployed. Considering how much they have built-up their military lately (their defense budget is up 18% from last year), one�s left to wonder how much would really change. Link: CNN SUBSIDIARY OF COMMUNIST-OWNED DEFENSE FIRM PAYS $2.3 MILLION IN FINES TAL Industries Inc. � a subsidiary of the PRC-owned China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp. (CATIC) � agreed to pay $2.3 million in fines for using aircraft manufacturing equipment bought from McDonnell Douglas in a Silkworm missile factory. It should be noted that CATIC is the main purchase for the PRC military; TAL, based in California bought the machinery in 1994. Link: Washington Post PROPOSED MEMOIR FROM U.S. NUCLEAR SCIENTIST INVOLVED IN PRC EXCHANGES BLOCKED Danny Stillman, a nuclear scientist who visited Communist China several times for �authorized discussions with Chinese scientists and generals,� is trying to get lifted a Pentagon block on the release of his memoirs. Stillman had several interviews with Communist Chinese nuclear scientists, and other military officers. He seems to assume they were completely honest with him in all their discussions, which others doubt. Link: Washington Post CLINTON ENDS FORUM IN HONG KONG, WINS COMMUNIST PRAISE Former President Bill Clinton ended the Fortune Global Forum in Hong Kong, following Communist President Jiang Zemin, who spoke yesterday. Clinton said the most important issue was �getting the China relationship right.� A Communist Chinese �think-tank� official said the PRC would hype Clinton�s soft message: �Jiang Zemin will be arguing that Clinton's approach on China will work better than Bush�s.� Links: CNN, BBC (See Hong Kong News for more on the Forum) �HONKER UNION� CALLS TRUCE IN HACKER BATTLE The self-styled �Honker Union of China� � claiming to have hacked �more than a thousand United States web sites� � called a truce in the �cyberwar� with American hackers. The electronic guerilla campaign began with several American hackers hitting PRC sites in retaliation for the collision of the EP-3 surveillance plane on April 1. Link: BBC INTERNATIONAL NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA REACHING OUT TO WESTERN COMMUNISTS Yet another link between Cold Wars I and II was reported last week in the Washington Times. Bill Gertz reported a meeting between Cao Xiaobing, a director of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, and Sean Garland, head of the Irish Workers� Party (Dublin), who previously offered his services to the Soviet KGB. Garland is also suspected of several counterfeiting schemes in the US and UK. Link: Washington Times BEIJING, TORONTO, AND PARIS LEAD RACE FOR 2008 GAMES A report yesterday from the International Olympic Committee marked Beijing as one of three cities left in the running for the 2008 Olympic Games. Paris and Toronto are also in the hunt. In fact, the three cities were said to be �more or less at the same level.� Many human rights activists and Chinese dissidents have asked for Beijing to lose the Games unless dramatic improvements are made in how the PRC threats its own people. Link: BBC REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS PRESIDENT CHEN CALLS FOR COMMUNIST CHINA TO WITHDRAW INVASION THREAT ROC President Chen Shui-bian led a ceremony to commission 58 French-made Mirage fighter jets, and called on Communist China to drop its long-standing invasion threat. Chen also vowed that Taiwan would resist any invasion. Link: CNN COMMUNIST PRESIDENT MEETS ROC CABINET MEMBER Chen Po-chih, head of the ROC Council for Economic Planning and Development, became the first Taiwanese cabinet member to meet Communist President Jiang Zemin in nearly six years. Chen is the ROC delegate to the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing this week. Of course, in �deference� to the Communists, APEC calls the ROC �Chinese Taipei� to maintain the �one China� fallacy. Link: CNN HONG KONG NEWS FALUN GONG CELEBRATES FOUNDING IN HONG KONG The Falun Gong spiritual movement celebrated its nine-year anniversary in Hong Kong over the weekend. About 300 people were there, double last year�s number. The movement is still legal in Hong Kong, although an effort by pro-Communist officials is afoot to have the HK government ban it. Link: CNN FREE SPEECH NOT SO FREE FOR THOSE PRTOESTING SUMMIT Three demonstrators are under arrest in Hong Kong, and several more are upset at the myriad restrictions placed on those who protested Communist President Jiang Zemin�s appearance at the Fortune Global Forum. As reported last week, up to 100 Falun Gong practitioners found themselves barred from entering the city during Jiang�s trip. Jiang�s thin skin regarding protests is legendary. Link: CNN TIBET NEWS DALAI LAMA SUPPORTS OLYMPIC LINK TO HUMAN RIGHTS The Dalai Lama, Tibet�s spiritual leader, asked the International Olympic Committee to focus on human rights, and award the Olympics to Beijing only if it would advance human rights. He also recommended acting on the advice of human rights groups in determining what role the Games would have. Link: CNN COMMUNIST RAILWAY PLAN CONDEMNED A new Communist Chinese plan for extending a railroad over 1,100 miles to Lhasa, Tibet�s capital, has earned the scorn of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Spokesman Kalon T. C. Tethong said the plan would �contribute to undermining (the Tibetans) ability to maintain their distinct cultural identity.� Communist China has repeatedly used government-sponsored over-development to plow under dissident cultures. Link: CNN BILL IN CONGRESS TO SUPPORT DALAI LAMA IRKS COMMUNIST CHINA Legislation in Congress that would mark March 10 as Tibet �national day� has infuriated the Communists. March 10, 1959 was the day a peaceful demonstration by Tibetans was crushed by a bloody Communist crackdown. Over one million Tibetans have died from that day forward. Link: CNN XINJIANG/EAST TURKESTAN NEWS POSSIBLE NUCLEAR TEST PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY Maybe this is why the Communists are so determined to hang on to the region. The Washington Times reported last week of possible PRC preparations for a nuclear test in Lop Nur, a remote military facility deep in the region. Link: Washington Times 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]. |