| New Web Site Feature � �Communist China, the Taliban, and the Terrorist War�: From China e-Lobby Updates and �Week�s Links,� a chronicle of Communist China�s actions after the terrorist attack. Access it on our web site, either directly or via our main page. 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. 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]. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: NOVEMBER 21, 2001 TOP STORY: COMMUNIST CHINA DEMANDS SUPPORT FOR ITS UIGHUR CRACKDOWN SAYS IT HAS �HARD EVIDENCE� OF EAST TURKESTAN LINKS TO INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM TIBETAN OPPONENTS CALLED �TERRORISTS,� HUNDREDS ARRESTED For the umpteenth time, Communist China has demanded the world support its brutal crackdown on East Turkestan and its majority Uighur population. Citing �hard evidence,� none of which was reported by CNN or the BBC, the Communists claimed �several hundred� Uighurs had been trained by Osama bin Laden. They also tried to link pro-independence groups with acts of violence during the 1990s. As CNN noted (link above), �most Uighur activists have no links with bin Laden and campaign peacefully for greater political, economic and religious freedoms.� This has not stopped the People�s Republic from conducting a massive crackdown that has included the execution of political prisoners, including two more last week according to the BBC (link above), which cited Agence France Presse. Meanwhile, CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam reported that the Communists have arrested hundreds of �splittists� in Tibet, including �included monks and nuns as well as intellectuals who had criticized Beijing's Tibetan policies.� Lam also noted, again, that the Communists have tarred anti-Communists in East Turkestan, Tibet, and the Falun Gong movement as �terrorists� to give their brutal crackdowns a fig leaf. There was no other news on Communist China and the Terrorist War, East Turkestan, or Tibet this week. HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS COMMUNISTS SHUT DOWN OVER 17,000 INTERNET CAFES Communist China has shut down nearly 17,500 internet cafes, and ordered another 28,000 to install monitoring software, according to the BBC. While the Communists cited chat rooms, games, and pornographic web sites as their reasons for the crackdown, the BBC noted that the PRC�s obsession with keeping its people cut of from dissidents and foreign news services played a major role in the action. FROM THE FALUN GONG WAR: THIRTY-FIVE FOREIGN PROTESTORS TO BE EXPELLED Communist China arrested and ordered the expulsion of thirty-five foreign Falun Gong practitioners after they staged a �surprise protest in Tiananmen Square,� according to the BBC. The Washington Post noted that several Beijing residents who saw the protest were stunned to find out that Falun Gong is actually an international faith. Also reporting on this story: CNN, Cybercast News Service, Los Angeles Times AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS TENG CHUNYAN, U.S. CITIZEN WHO EXPOSED FALUN GONG TORTURE, BROKEN BY PRC Also in the CNN, BBC, and Post stories above, the Communists broken Teng Chunyan, the U.S. citizen jailed for exposing Communist China�s imprisonment of Falun Gong followers in mental hospitals. The PRC aired an interview in which she denounced the movement. Unspeakable torture by the Communists to get followers to renounce the movement is standard operating procedure in Communist China. OTHER MAINLAND NEWS HARD-LINE MOAISTS JOURNAL SLATED FOR PUBLISHING AGAIN Two Maoist journals � titled Seeking Truth and Mainstream � are ready for a re-launch after what CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam speculated as a �temporary truce� between them and PRC President Jiang Zemin. The hard-line �leftist� journals had been shut down due to their intense opposition to Jiang�s plan to allow businessman into the Communist Party, revealing that even die-hard Communists can suffer repression. TAX BREAKS FOR FOREIGN INVESTORS TO BE PHASED OUT Communist China is preparing to phase-out the income tax breaks for foreign investors, placing into question the fate of business-friendly special economic zone that, according to the BBC, �have become a pillar of China's economy by offering foreign investors tax breaks.� This is one of the steps the PRC must take as a member of the World Trade Organization, and its choice of where to begin is quite telling. COMMUNIST CHINA GOING AHEAD WITH MASSIVE WATER PROJECT As reported in last week�s update, Communist China�s plan to pull water from the south to irrigate the drought-plagued north is continuing apace. The project � which could cost anywhere from $22 billion (BBC) to $60 billion (CNN) � is an attempt to counteract a lengthy dry spell, caused in part by reckless overdevelopment that would never have gone past the drawing board in a market economy. INTERNATIONAL NEWS HUTCHISON WHAMPOA OPENS NEW PORT IN BAHAMAS Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong firm owned in part by HK resident and Communist sympathizer Li Ka-Shing, and possibly owned in part by the PRC itself, opened a new port in the Bahamas, according to the Washington Times. HW controls the container ports in the Panama Canal, and its new venture � plus Li�s strong ties to the Communist military � have many worried about PRC influence in the region. The Bahamas switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Communist China four years ago. The story notes that many believe the port was a �payoff� for the switch. Panama has grown cozier with Beijing since HW took control of the ports when the U.S. withdrew from the Panama Canal in 1999. Li himself once tried to threaten the Hong Kong media into nicer coverage of him (see previous updates). MICROSOFT DECIDES NOT TO LAUNCH X-BOX IN PRC IN LIGHT OF WIDESPREAD PIRACY Microsoft, a sufferer of massive software piracy in its attempt to gain a foothold in Communist China, announced it would skip the PRC altogether in its release of the X-Box game system. According to CNN, Microsoft�s efforts at market share in Communist China have been �stunted� by piracy. Over 90 percent of software in the PRC is pirated. REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA BACKING ANTI-CHEN PARTIES AS ROC LEGISLATURE CAMPAIGN BEGINS As the campaign for elections for Taiwan�s Legislative Yuan begins (BBC), Communist China is pulling out all the stops for the opposition Kuomintang (Nationalist) and People First Parties to maintain their dominant legislative position, according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam. ROC�s President Chen Shui-bian�s Democratic Progressive Party has 66 of the 225 seats in the ROC legislature going into the election. Lam reports that Communist China has offered the Nationalists �political and other kinds of support to ensure the DPP's defeat at the polls.� The Nationalists� new coziness with their old Communist enemy has led its last president � Lee Teng-Hui, loved for bringing democracy to Taiwan � to form his own party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union. Lee�s group is allied with the DPP in the upcoming elections. TAIWAN ENTERS RECESSION, BUT GROWTH PROJECTED TO RETURN IN FOURTH QUARTER Taiwan�s GDP fell for the second straight quarter, signaling that the island democracy is in recession. Wu Chung-Shu, an economist at the ROC-funded Academia Sinica, quoted by the BBC, said this year would be �the worst year for Tawian�s economy,� although projections for the fourth quarter predicted growth would return. The third quarter was the worst contraction in 26 years, according to CNN. PARLIAMENT RATIFIES WORLD TRADE ORGAINZATION ENTRY The ROC Parliament ratified the island democracy�s entry into the World Trade Organization last week. Sources: BBC, CNN HONG KONG NEWS HONG KONG CHIEF TURNS DOWN TAIWAN VISIT, CALLS FOR REUNIFICATION Tung Chee-hwa, the Communist-appointed Chief Executive for Hong Kong, rejected an invitation to Taiwan from ROC President Chen Shui-bian. Tung said he looked forward to a future visit, and tried to sell �one country, two systems� to Taiwan as a reunification mechanism, according to the BBC. Of course, Beijing�s constant pressure on HK has made the notion laughable, especially in Taiwan. |