| Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: AUGUST 21, 2002 TOP STORY: PRC GENERALS PROPOSE AIR STRIKE AGAINST TAIWAN CITE U.S. WAR ON TERROR AS A �GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY NOT TO BE MISSED� Generals in the so-called People�s Republic of China, who are growing more politically powerful by the day thanks to Communist President Jiang Zemin�s attempts to stay in power (see the Special Report below), proposed a one-day air strike against Taiwan during the annual Communist retreat in Beidaihe this month. The air strike would �teach Taiwan a lesson,� according to Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN). The generals also revealed their real views on the terrorist war: a �golden opportunity not to be missed� for actions against the island democracy. Lam, who described the military mood as �bone-chillingly disturbing,� also noted the support it won from a number of Communists whose support Jiang � or whoever, if anyone, succeeds him � needs to survive, including �reformer� Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. According to Lam, Jiang is hesitant to take any action before his October 25 meeting with President Bush at the latter�s Crawford ranch. Jiang did promise �to deliver the equivalent of an ultimatum to Bush: unless Washington makes it clear that it does not support Chen's �splittist plots,� the U.S. might one day find itself embroiled in a military conflict that it does not want.� Of course, Jiang also promised to �put pressure on Bush to immediately halt the sale of sophisticated weapons� to the island democracy. More disturbingly, Jiang also �had to acquiesce . . . in provocative military maneuvers held in Shanghai last week.� The fact that Jiang Zemin has to �acquiesce� to the generals is an ominous sign of the growing political strength of the so-called People�s Liberation Army. For more on Taiwan, see Republic of China (Taiwan) News. Check out this story and more on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page There�s still time to contact the President and tell him not to appoint PRC sympathizer Doug Paal as de facto ambassador to Taiwan. SPECIAL REPORT: JIANG STILL MANEUVERING TO KEEP TOP PARTY POST WOULD CREATE NEW POSITION FOR ZHU RONGJI OR LI PENG, MAY HAVE �UPPER HAND� Communist Chinese President Jiang Zemin is still lobbying to keep the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party, ending earlier assumptions that he would only wish to hang on to the Central Military Commission Chairmanship. Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN) August 18 reports that Jiang is trying to win over Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Tiananmen Square butcher Li Peng with a new post for either of them. Whether Li �now chairman of the legislature and number two in the party hierarchy � or Zhu would go along with Jiang was not clear. Li has previously angled for the Presidency of the so-called People�s Republic, and according to Lam he still has his eye on it, although the post may go to heir-no-longer-apparent Hu Jintao. The three are expected to place their prot�g�s on the Politburo Standing Committee. Lam made no mention of the CMC Chair � the post from which Deng Xiaoping authorized then-PM Li to order the 1989 massacre, likely because Jiang has already won wide agreement to keep this very powerful but lesser-known post. To keep the party job, and thus shatter plans for a party-wide reshuffle this October, Jiang needs a majority of the PSC, of which Zhu and Li are still members, to back him. In a later piece (August 20), Lam reported that Jiang may be �gaining the upper hand� in his battles. The Communist�s chief corruption fighter, Wei Jianxing, emphasized party discipline � focusing on Jiang at the �core� � in a recent address. Lam also saw the prosecution of a prot�g� of Zhu Rongji (see Other Mainland News) as a sign that corruption is now merely one more field �in on-going factional struggles.� NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA AND THE TERRORIST WAR UN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF WHACKS �ANTI-TERRORIST� CRACKDOWN Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, criticized the lack of freedom in Communist China. Robinson, in Beijing for the last time as Commissioner, specifically cited the crackdown against Muslim Uighurs in East Turkestan � a deeply anti-Communist group that would prefer its own state in the region the Communists call Xinjiang. Report: CNN Communist China has repeatedly charged, with almost no evidence, that the Uighurs � arguably the most pro-American Muslims on the planet � are supporters of Osama bin Laden (never mind the PRC�s own support for al Qaeda, as reported in the last update). Robinson also criticized the Communists� �response to labour (British sp) unrest and the treatment of members of the Falun Gong spiritual group� (BBC). This was the only news regarding East Turkestan this week. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS NATIONAL SEMI-CONDUCTOR TO BUILD PLANT IN PRC National Semiconductor � a firm that makes microchips for mobile phones � has decided to �invest $200 million over five years in China to build a chip-assembly and test plant� (CNN). The company, like plenty of others, has been deluded into seeing the PRC as �an opportunity for growth.� CITIBANK LOOKS FOR MINORITY STAKE IN COMMUNIST CHINESE BANKS More on the �investment� front: Citibank is looking to buy �up to 10 percent� in two Communist-owned banks. While this is reported to be part of the PRC�s move to the World Trade Organization, the CNN report overlooked one critical point: Communist China can still keep a majority share in all major banks under the WTO deal. Thus Citibank is simply the latest firm to help the Communists raise money. 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. HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS LABOR PROTESTS OF 2002 WERE LONGEST SINCE 1989 The editors of the Washington Post cited a report by Human Rights Watch that said the industrial labor protests of this past spring (see March 13, March 20, and March 27 updates) �longer than any protests since the violent suppression of the 1989 Democracy Movement.� The protest involved �tens of thousands� of workers, and was largely put down by heavy police and military presence. Unlike 1989, there was no bloodbath � this time. Workers in Communist China are all members of the Communist union, which effectively means they have no rights in a country economically under Communist control. Non-Communist unions are illegal, and the PRC is more than happy to extend their crackdown services to any foreigners filling the Communists� coffers with �investment capital.� �ONE CHILD� POLICY SHIFTING TO ECONOMIC COERCION IN SOME COUNTIES Certain parts of the PRC are altering enforcement of the Communist China�s hideous �one child� policy, according to the Washington Post. Instead of forced abortions and sterilizations, a few counties are emphasizing heavy fines to punish families for a second child. However, this is only in certain counties, and after investigating those counties, the Population Research Institute still found forced abortions there. The North Korea Report has the latest on the Stalinist ally of Communist China. Sign up now to receive it every Monday. OTHER MAINLAND NEWS ZHU RONGJI PROT�G� BOUNCED FROM PARTY FOR TAKING BRIBES Zhu Xiaohua, a prot�g� � but not a relative � of Communist Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, has been kicked out of the Communist Party for �taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks� as head of the PRC-owned China Everbright Group, a major financial corporation that has as its subsidiary the sixth largest bank in Communist China (Washington Post). The actions �could well lead to his execution.� Zhu has been under house arrest for three years, but this is the first that anyone has heard of his specific acts of corruption. He is the third prot�g� of Zhu Rongji � supposedly the lead reformer in the Communist China � to fall from grace due to corruption. Li Fuxiang was head of the Communist agency that regulated foreign exchange, and Wang Xuebing led the PRC-owned Bank of China. COMMUNIST FIRM TO PRODUCE ANTI-AIDS DRUG, BUT AT A PRICE FEW CAN AFFORD The Communist Chinese firm North East Pharmaceutical Group is planning to introduce �a Chinese-made version of the anti-Aids drug AZT as early as next month� (BBC). However, the firm will sell the drug at a price �too expensive for the majority of China's HIV/Aids patients.� The firm has been making the drug for some time now � for export. AIDS in the PRC is a massive time bomb, in large part due to hideously unsanitary Communist blood-drives � in which blood platelets were removed and remaining blood re-injected into the donor � during the 1980s and 1990s. In Henan province alone, site of one of the largest blood-drives, the number of AIDS cases is estimated at one million. REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS ROC VICE PRESIDENT LU BLASTS COMMUNIST CHINA FOR KEEPING HER OUT OF JAKARTA Vice President Annette Lu, who was denied entrance into the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, ripped Communist China, whose pressure on Indonesia had a lot to do with Lu being forced to fly straight to the island of Bali. Lu, a fiery advocate for Taiwan, said this of the PRC: �Mainland China can persecute mainland Chinese - it is not qualified and has no right to persecute others� (BBC). Later, the Washington Times (fifth paragraph) reported that Lu would be �meeting politicians in Indonesia and staying in the country for two more days than expected.� She is headed for Australia next. Australia has already snubbed the Dalai Lama (see May 22 update) and feted the Communist Chinese leader of Tibet (see June 12 update), to keep the PRC happy. How it reacts to Lu will be something to see. PRC TRYING TO DISSUADE NATIONS FROM ALLOWING PRESIDENT CHEN TO VISIT The Communists are trying to play travel agent, according to Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN). Lam reports that the PRC � not satisfied with interfering in Vice President Lu�s travel plans (see above), are now trying to convince nations not to host President Chen Shui-bian either. HONG KONG NEWS FROM THE FALUN GONG WAR: SIXTEEN PROTESTORS CONVICTED IN HONG KONG Hong Kong has convicted 16 Falun Gong practitioners of obstruction charges stemming from a March 14 protest outside of the offices of the Communist mainland. It is the first conviction of Falun Gong followers in the former UK colony. Although the movement is legal in HK, the PRC-appointed regime has been under heavy pressure from the Communists to ban the group. Report: CNN Communist China banned the group on the mainland in July 1999, calling them an �evil cult.� The movement was legal for years, and had higher membership than the Chinese Communist Party � which probably had a lot to do with the ban. For the past three years, the Communists have engaged in a brutal crackdown against Falun Gong, jailing thousands and killing hundreds. The sixteen will appeal (BBC). HONG KONG UNEMPLOYMENT SETS ANOTHER RECORD Hong Kong�s unemployment rate for the three-month period ending in July stood at 7.8%, a record high (CNN). The city�s moribund economy broke the record set last month (HK track unemployment in rolling three-month intervals). ATV, OF WHICH LI KA-SHING IS A MAJOR SHAREHOLDER, WINS PRC BROADCAST RITES Hong Kong-based Asia Television (ATV) won broadcast rites in Guangdong province this week (CNN). One of ATV major shareholders, with a 33% stake, is a firm controlled by Li Ka-shing, the pro-Communist Hong Kong tycoon whose Hutchison Whampoa controls two container ports in the Panama Canal, and part of the partnership that won control of Global Crossing (see last update). HK CHIEF EXECUTIVE TUNG CHEE-HWA IS HIGHEST PAID LEADER IN ASIA As Hong Kong continues to suffer under the slow erosion of freedom and its worst recession ever, its Communist-appointed Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa is getting a larger paycheck than any head of state in Asia. According to the South China Morning Post, cited by CNN, Tung�s salary is a whopping $625,641. Nice work if you can get it. TIBET NEWS RUSSIAN BANS DALAI LAMA FROM ENTERING COUNTRY, LOCAL BUDDHISTS ANGRY Russia refused to grant an entry visa to the Dalai Lama, angering many Russian Buddhists by snubbing Tibet�s spiritual leader (BBC August 16). The move was �a political gesture towards China,� which happens to be Russia�s largest arms customer. About 30 Buddhists protested the decision in Moscow a day after the decision (BBC August 17). 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. |