| Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2002 TOP STORY: COMMUNIST CHINA MAY STILL BE HELPING IRAQ WITH ITS AIR DEFENSE RUMSFELD: �WHETHER (THE COMMUNISTS) ARE CURRENTLY IN THERE, I DON�T KNOW� Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, during an announcement that the American planes patrolling �no-fly zones� in Iraq are now air-defense facilities in that country, was asked if Communist China is still helping Iraq upgrade its air defense. Rumsfeld had this answer: �They sure did for a long time. Whether they are currently in there, I don't know� (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). He doesn�t know?!?! News of two Communist Chinese firms � Huawei Technologies and ZTE � building a fiber-optic network for Iraq�s air defense first came to light in February 2001 (see 2/21/01, 2/28/01, 3/7/01, 3/14/01, and 3/21/01 updates). President Bush ordered air strikes against Iraq that month to degrade that network. Rumsfeld said he did not know how badly either past or current operations had damaged the network. OTHER NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA, EAST TURKESTAN, AND THE TERRORIST WAR COMMUNISTS STILL LOOKING AT �CARDS� TO PLAY WITH U.S., FM RIPS POSSIBLE ATTACK The U.S. made a major concession to Communist China in agreeing to label the East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist group (see last update and 8/28/02 update). It appears to have won the U.S. nothing. Communist Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan publicly attacked any possible American action against Iraq, calling it an �indiscriminate use of force� (CNN 9/14/02) in his Friday speech to the U.N. Other reports have hinted to the reason for the Communists� continued opposition � they�re aiming for bigger targets. Communist President Jiang Zemin is planning to offer �support, or at least assent, for action against Iraq in exchange for the U.S. to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait� (emphasis added) when he meets President Bush at the latter�s Crawford ranch next month (CNN 9/13/02). ETIM TERRORISTS? DIPLOMATS TELL TO TIME ASIA THE GROUP IS �DEFUNCT� As to the aforementioned East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Time Asia heard information on the group that was very different from what the so-called People�s Republic would like us to believe. The magazine reports this from its diplomatic sources: �ETIM is an Afghanistan-based group that is thought to be defunct and moreover never carried out operations on Chinese soil.� Oops. The Communist crackdown against the Uighurs, the majority ethnic group in East Turkestan, has made them one of the most pro-American Muslim groups on the planet (see also 10/17/01, 12/12/01, and 8/28/02 updates). The magazine acknowledged that when it noted, �The Uighurs, China's Muslim minority, look to the U.S. to provide moral support in their fight against oppression by Beijing.� U.N. CALLS ETIM TERRORISTS, PRC LOOKING TO USE TAG AGAINST ALL �SEPARATISTS� None of this stopped the U.N. Security Council from putting its own terrorist label on the possibly non-existent ETIM last week. The PRC � backed by the U.S. as part of the aforementioned possible Iraq deal � is hoping the U.N. action will �blunt Western criticism of Chinese efforts to stamp out Xinjiang separatism� (Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN)). The Communists refer to East Turkestan as Xinjiang. Of course, that means all �separatists,� including many who �do not espouse violent tactics.� Not that this detail matters to the Communists, whose brutal crackdown against the Muslim Uighurs in East Turkestan have lead many to support an independent Uighur state. Also reporting: BBC COMMUNISTS CLAIM TO HAVE �SMASHED� ETIM BASES Less than two days after the UN designated ETIM as terrorists, Communist China suddenly announced that it had �smashed� (Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN)) over 40 bases of ETIM, and �that large quantities of firearms had been seized.� As usual, no evidence of either followed the announcement. Of course, if Time Asia (see above) is correct, then evidence from the defunct group would be hard to acquire. PRC AND KYRGYZSTAN PLAN ANTI-ETIM EXERCISES FOR OCTOBER 1 Meanwhile, Communist China and neighboring Kyrgyzstan are preparing for joint military �anti-terrorist: exercises to take place on October 1. The military exercises will likely target � guess who? � the likely defunct ETIM. The PRC is hoping to use �the anti-ETIM campaign as an opportunity to revive military cooperation among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization� (Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN)). The SCO includes Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the aforementioned Kyrgyzstan and the PRC. Designed as an �anti-terrorist� organization, it fell into quick disuse after American-led forces in Afghanistan defeated the Taliban. Also reporting: BBC Check out these stories and more on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA SENDS TWO HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS TO PRISON Communist China has sentenced to pro-democracy activists, Mu Chuanheng and Yan Peng, to prison terms for �incitement to overthrow the state and insulting government leaders� (BBC). Mu�s sentence is for three years. Yan, one of the leading cyber-dissidents in the PRC, was sentenced to 18 months. ALTA VISTA TRYING END RUN AROUND �GREAT RED FIREWALL;� GOOGLE BLOCK LIFTED AltaVista is using secondary sites in Communist China to run its search engine and keep it from being blocked in the PRC. A company spokesperson said they wished to �put an end to this cat and mouse game with the sites being blocked,� but would not say if that involved agreeing to keep web content �deemed unsuitable� by the Communists. Report: BBC The Communists have blocked numerous sites, and forced others to censor their own sites or risk being blocked, as part of the �Great Red Firewall� erected in cyberspace. This would, if successful, allow the Communists to exploit all the power and benefits of the web without it being used by dissidents. An earlier block of the search engine Google (see last update) has ended (Fox News, BBC). OTHER MAINLAND NEWS DEFLATION HITS COMMUNIST CHINA Remember all those statistics trumpeting red-hot growth in Communist China? Here�s one that puts those into serious question: prices in Communist China have fallen for the second straight month. The PRC has touted its �capitalist socialism,� i.e., the state as a holding company or 19th century trust for years, but now some are wondering if it is falling under the same deflationary bug that has felled Japan (BBC). UNICOM OFFERS STOCK WITHIN PRC � FOR ONLY A 45% STAKE This is how an Initial Public Offering (IPO) works in Communist China. Unicom, one of the PRC-run telecommunications giants, launched its IPO this week. However, the IPO was only for 45% of the company � the rest will continue to by state-owned � and �strategic investors� who pledge to hold stock for the long term get the IPO all to themselves until Friday (BBC). Sign the Boycott Petition: In reaction to the 2008 Olympic Games being awarded to Beijing, the China e-Lobby has begun a petition for an American boycott of those games. INTERNATIONAL NEWS PRC DEFENSE MINISTER MEETS CANADIAN PM IN SECRET PRC Defense Minister Chi Haotian secretly met with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien last Tuesday. Chr�tien �said Canada is happy to see that the two military forces have established a mechanism of exchange and co-operation and hoped that the friendly and co-operative relationship will be enhanced,� according to the Communist Xinhua news agency, cited by the National Post (Canadian). The opposition Canadian Alliance ripped the secret meeting and demanded to know why Chi � the PRC military chief of staff on June 4, 1989 � was feted while Taiwan�s Foreign Minister Eugene Chien was denied entry into Canada. Chi, for his part, once said no one died in the Tiananmen massacre. JAPAN-NORTH KOREA SUMMIT WORRIES COMMUNIST CHINA After North Korea�s one-day summit with Japan comes � which went well outside of the outrage over the 12 Japanese kidnapped from 1978 to 1983 � worry is arising in an odd quarter: Communist China. According to Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN), Communist China fears that its �clout over its client state may decrease gradually� as Japan grows closer to the Stalinist North, a Communist ally for over five decades. However, if the reaction of the Japanese press to the news of the dozen kidnapped � eight of whom died in North Korea � is any indication (BBC Media Monitoring), the Communists don�t have much to fear. The North Korea Report has the latest on the Stalinist ally of Communist China. Sign up now to receive it every Monday. REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS TAIWAN BLOCKED FROM UN, AGAIN As Communist China was insisting on United Nations backing for any Iraq action, they were also busy insuring that the island democracy of Taiwan would remain the one piece of real estate without any representation in that body. Naturally, Taiwan was miffed at the Communist-instigated rejection � the 10th in 10 years � all due to the Communists� insistence that they are the rightful rulers of Taiwan (BBC). There�s still time to contact the President and tell him not to appoint PRC sympathizer Doug Paal as de facto ambassador to Taiwan. ADVISORS TO PRESIDENT CHEN CALL TAIWAN �AN INDEPENDENT, SOVEREIGN STATE� They were simply stating the obvious, but for Taiwan language is always more complicated than it should be. Advisors to President Chen Shui-bian, visiting the Washington Times, called for the rest of the world to recognize the truth, that the island democracy �is an independent, sovereign state.� Such comments usually drive the Communists � who insist they are the rightful rulers of Taiwan � completely hysterical. HONG KONG NEWS �ANTI-SUBVERSION� LAW ON THE WAY Elsie Leung, Hong Kong�s Secretary for Justice, said an �anti-subversion� law would be on the city�s books very soon, claiming, �it is time we must do it� (CNN). Human rights activists, including Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor director Law Yuk-ki, warned, �If the law is intended to find those who say things against Beijing guilty, Hong Kong will be no different from any other mainland Chinese city.� Hong Kong�s Basic Law, which took effect under �one country, two systems,� requires the city to enact a law banning �any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets� (emphasis added). Given the Communists� tactic of calling any embarrassing piece of information a �state secret,� Hong Kong might as well be renamed Shanghai II. SECURITIES CHIEF UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR AWARDING CONTRACT TO EX-COLLEAGUE Speaking of embarrassing information, Andrew Cheng, Chairman of Hong Kong�s Securities and Futures Commission, is under investigation for an information technology contract he awarded to Peter Hsueh, a former colleague of his. Report: BBC UNEMPLOYMENT SLIPS IN HK, STILL NEAR RECORD HIGH Unemployment in Hong Kong fell slightly to 7.6 percent for the last three months (the city tracks unemployment in rolling three-month periods), but it is still at a level not seen before Communist China took control of Hong Kong in 1997. Report: CNN TIBET NEWS DALAI LAMA�S ENVOY VISITS TIBET For the first time in 20 years, an official delegation from the Dalai Lama is visiting Tibet this week (BBC, CNN). The delegation met with PRC officials last week in Beijing (Washington Post, last update). Leg Qog, leader of the Tibet Communists, then said the Dalai Lama himself could visit, if he were �patriotic,� a code word for accommodating to the Communists. The condition was, of course, �not new.� Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it Anyonewho 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 you happen to find to the same address. |