| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. The Week�s Links: Feature and Opinion Pieces on Communist China October 17, 2003 Link of the Week The prize goes to Lev Navrozov, Newsmax, who notes that any supposed reform by PRC President Hu Jintao will do nothing to undermine the domination of the Communist Party. On Human Rights in Communist China John W. Whitehead, of the Rutherford Institute, lambastes Communist China for its treatment of Christians, including the recent arrests of Zhang Yinan and Xiao Biguang (see last Update) and calls on the U.S. to play �hardball� with the PRC, in Razormouth. On the Communist Chinese Space Program James T. Hackett, in the Washington Times, gives readers a well-deserved wake-up call on Communist China�s space program, its military benefits for the PRC, and why the United States �must have a space program, including military space, that is second to none.� Charles R. Smith, in Newsmax, echoes those concerns, as do the editors of the Washington Times. In his EasterBlogg, The New Republic�s Greg Easterbrook calls for the end of the space shuttle program, so the U.S. can �develop a new, safer, cheaper, more reliable means of flight to space.� Thus, �grand goals such as a return to the moon might become possible. Or at least we could stay ahead of the Chinese.� Easterbrook has a point. Rand Simberg, in National Review Online, takes a far less concerned view. Still, even he notes the Communists� space program �should cause concern from a military standpoint.� Tim Bowler, BBC, finds several possibilities for the space program. Richard Stenger, CNN, also weighs in. As for the Chinese people themselves, the BBC�s Time Luard finds the reaction to be �a mixture of pride, relief, apathy, cynicism - and ignorance that it's happening at all.� Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN, details what Communist China hopes to gain, in both propaganda and military matters, with its space program. Dr. David Whitehouse, BBC, explores the Russian roots in Communist China�s space program. In a later BBC piece, he gives a brief overall history of the program and looks to its possible future. BBC also profiled taikonaut Yang Liwei. On Taiwan Greg Master, of Miller and Chevalier Chartered, lays out the case for a Taiwan-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (PDF via Project for the New American Century). John Pomfret, Washington Post, interviewed Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian last week. He later talked to Taiwan�s �Mr. Democracy,� former President and virulent anti-Communist Lee Teng-hui. David DeVoss, of the East-West News Service, has this summary of the political and economic situation in the island democracy, in the Weekly Standard. On Tibet Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC, visits Tibet by Communist invitation, but that did not stop him from finding �a Tibet riven by tensions, where reluctant acceptance of Chinese rule was tempered by fear, and by an enduring passion for the Dalai Lama.� On Communist China and Trade Mary Hennock, BBC, explores Shenzhen � the latest �Potemkin city� (our term) in Communist China � and what the rapid economic growth there means for the PRC and the rest of the world, including the U.S. Check out the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. Sign up for the North Korea Report before the next edition is sent 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. |