| 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. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: JUNE 19, 2002 TOP STORY: COMMUNISTS USE CYBERCAFE FIRE AS EXUCSE FOR CRACKDOWN Communist China is using a recent fire at a Beijing internet caf� as a convenient excuse �for more draconian steps against the nation's estimated 200,000 Web outlets� (CNN 1). Beijing closed all internet cafes over the weekend (CNN 2, BBC 1), many likely never to be reopened. Internet users in the city are livid; two teenagers confessed to the fire, at least according to Communist police (BBC 2). The so-called People�s Republic of China has never liked the freewheeling nature of the web, or the web cafes, and CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam noted that Communist police are not only checking establishments� safety, but also �the political correctness of the software and programs available in these facilities.� FOLLOW UP: COMMUNIST CHINA STORMS SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY IN BEIJING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE SEIZED, DIPLOMAT HURT; TWENTY REFUGEES IN SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY, AMERICAN ACTIVIST ARRESTED FOR AID TO REFUGEES The way this is going, we may need to have a daily update just on the North Korean refugees. Communist Chinese police �forced their way into the South Korean mission� (CNN) and seized a North Korean refugee seeking asylum, but his teenage son made it into the embassy. Police �pushed and punched six South Korean diplomats� (Washington Post 1) in the incident. The number of North Korean refugees on South Korean diplomatic grounds in Beijing is now at twenty (BBC). Communist China angrily demanded that all refugees be handed over to them. South Korea, in turn demanded the release of the seized refugee, and called in the ambassador from the PRC to read him the riot act over the incident (Washington Post 2). Communist China sends back all North Korean refugees it finds to its Stalinist ally they left to escape starvation, due in no small part to the North�s mismanagement and its rerouting of international food aid to the Communist Party and the military. It is the second time that Communist police have breached the sovereign diplomatic territory of an Asian democracy to take a North Korean refugee. To emphasize just how determined the Communists are to snuff out any hope for the refugees, they announced they would try Joseph Choi, a Korean-American, for helping North Korean refugees in the PRC. They also tacked on the charge of raping children, a customary ploy the Communists use to cover the real reason a dissident or activist of which they don�t approve is in prison. Report: Cybercast News For more on the plight of the refugees, sign up for the North Korea Report, sent every Monday. Check out the latest as it happens on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA WHACKS BOOK BY EXILE PREDICTING ITS COLLAPSE Gordon Chang�s The Coming Collapse of China has gotten the attention of the PRC, and it is not happy. The Communists used their People�s Daily newspaper to whack the book as �deliberate slanders.� Chang, a lawyer in the PRC for twenty years, stood by his work, and predicted the fall of Communist China �in half a decade� (Cybercast News). See the November 23, 2001 Week�s Links for more from Chang. WOULD-BE PRC SPY ASKS FOR HIS LIFE Brian Regan, �a retired Air Force master sergeant accused of trying to sell satellite surveillance reports to Iraq, Libya and China,� petitioned the court likely to try his case to stop the federal government from pushing for his execution (Washington Post). See April 24, 2002 update for more on Regan. HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS FROM THE FALUN GONG WAR: ICELAND BLOCKS PROTESTORS TO ASSUAGE JIANG In a sickening sign of �big-bucks diplomacy,� Communist China browbeat Iceland, his host for a four-day trip this month, to block Falun Gong members from entering the country to protest the Communist crackdown. Denmark had been willing to speak out against Communist Chinese practices in 1997; then the PRC pulled �all commercial contracts with the Scandinavian nation� (CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam). Lam did note resistance to �business card� diplomacy, particularly in Taiwan, Japan, and the United States, where the mere actions themselves have woken up many to the real nature of Chinese Communism, which Lam called the �China Threat Theory.� OTHER MAINLAND NEWS JIANG �BUILDING BRIDGES TO THE LEFTISTS� In his attempt to keep his faction as �the dominant faction� in the Chinese Communist Party, and of course make easier his chances of hanging on to the Central Military Commission Chair, PRC President Jiang Zemin is supporting the retention of Maoist hard-line officials, known as �leftists.� CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam cited an unnamed party cadre who noted that Jiang is �building bridges to the leftists.� INTERNATIONAL NEWS SRI LANKAN DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS COMMUNIST CHINESE COUNTERPART Tilak Marapana, Defense Minister of Sri Lanka, visited Communist China last week to meet PRC Defense Minister Chi Haotian. Report: Hindustan Times, Courtesy Ron Vogel, Member since 2000 REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA ALLOWS PRO-CHEN SCIENTIST TO VISIT MAINLAND Communist China has dropped its ban on Lee Yaun-tseh, a Nobel prize winning scientist who had �angered the authorities in Beijing two years ago by supporting the pro-independence election campaign of the Taiwanese president, Chen Shui-bian� (BBC, Washington Post). FOREIGN INVESTMENT SURGES IN TAIWAN Foreign investment in Taiwan �more than doubled� last month, raising �hopes for a recovery� (BBC). Taiwan has suffered one of its worst recessions ever, but this foreign investment number is one of many pointing to that recession�s end. There�s still time to contact the President and tell him not to appoint pro-PRC Doug Paal as de facto ambassador to Taiwan. HONG KONG NEWS NUMBER TWO TV STATION IN CITY BOUGHT OUT BY PRC EX-PROPAGANDA OFFICIAL Asia Television, the second largest TV station in Hong Kong, has been bought out by Today Asia, a firm �under the control of Liu Changle, a former senior propaganda official in China's People's Liberation Army� (BBC). Liu�s partner is HK�s �representative� to the Communist legislature. The concerns about the channel falling to a pro-Beijing firm are, to say the least �extensive.� As Stephen Vines, a media analyst, put it, Liu is certainly �not going to have anything broadcast on ATV . . . which causes concern in China.� PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTORS WALK OUT OF DEBATE ON GOVERNMENT �REFORM� Four members of Hong Kong�s Legislative Council from pro-democracy parties walked out of a debate to allow Communist-appointed Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to appoint ministers to supervise the civil service. According to the BBC, the four walked out due to the lack of the willingness of the legislature, also largely appointed by the Communists, to consult the public on the issue. It should be noted that the civil service is the piece of city government least affected by the Communist takeover, and in part due to that is the most popular. Many fear that the ministerial �reform� will give Tung and the Communists greater control over the civil service. A NEW FRONT IN THE FALUN GONG WAR: HK TRIES FALUN GONG PROTESTORS The trail of sixteen Falun Gong protestors in Hong Kong for obstruction during an earlier protest began this week. It is the first trial of Falun Gong followers in Hong Kong, and many consider it �a test of the freedoms Beijing guaranteed to maintain in the former British colony after it was returned to China in 1997� (BBC). The PRC has �steadily eroded� Hong Kong�s autonomy ever since the handover. UNEMPLOYMENT HITS RECORD HIGH, AGAIN Hong Kong�s unemployment rate hit a record high of 7.4% (BBC) for the three-month period of March to May of this year (the city measures employment in rolling three month intervals). No news was reported from Tibet or East Turkestan (�Xinjiang�) this week. 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 you happen to find to the same address. |