| CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE CLINTON SAYS �MAYBE� TO HUMAN RIGHTS PANEL ON COMMUNIST CHINA The Clinton Administration has tentatively agreed to back legislation that would set up a watchdog commission to monitor human rights with Communist China. The president is hoping to win over undecided members of the House of Representatives for the May vote on Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with the People�s Republic of China. Passage by the Senate is a near certainty. Communist China has insisted on PNTR as their price for agreeing to trade concessions with the U.S. that would allow it to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, there is still no word of movement in negotiations between the PRC and the European Union. Without an agreement with the EU, Communist China cannot enter the WTO under any circumstances. Be that as it may, the President has tentatively agreed to a plan by Representative Sander Levin (Democrat-Michigan). Under the plan, Congress would set up a watchdog commission that would review Communist Chinese policies and recommend sanctions against Beijing pursuant to WTO rules. However, the White House wants to know how many Democratic votes the legislation can bring, and whether it would outweigh lost Republican votes for the market-opening agreement, before it commits. The proposal has been discussed for some time, but was not tough enough for House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt, who announced his opposition to PNTR last week. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called on Congress to pass PNTR for Communist China, calling the vote, �be the most significant economic and national security decision Congress will make this year.� AGRICULTURE SECRETARY IN BEIJING TO PUSH PNTR WITH COMMUNIST CHINA Dan Glickman, Agriculture Secretary and former Congressman from Kansas, is leading a much-reduced delegation � including only four House members � on a junket to Communist China that had been shelved for lack of interest. The group will spend two days in Beijing, then travel to Shanghai and Hong Kong before returning on April 30. The Administration had hoped to bring as many as 25 Congressmen on the trip to promote PNTR, but many Representatives backed out, forcing the trip to be temporarily cancelled last week. Glickman said the defeat of PNTR in the House �would slow the pace of change in China on important issues like religious freedom and labor rights.� However, Glickman did not have much to say about the arrests of 100 Falun Gong members in Tiananmen Square on April 25, the one-year anniversary of the first Falun Gong protest against the Communists� anti-Falun Gong campaign (see below). This was despite the fact that his delegation landed in Beijing mere hours after the arrests. The four Congressmen accompanying Glickman were Norman Dicks (Democrat-Washington), Greg Walden (Republican-Oregon), Reuben Hinojosa (D-Texas), and Gregory Meeks (D-New York). Dicks and Walden support PNTR, the latter two are undecided. Walden�s district includes the home office of Nike, which makes many of its shoes in Communist China. Boeing, a leading airplane manufacturer, has its headquarters in Dicks� district. COMMUNIST CHINESE OFFICIAL SLAMS PROPOSED U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE At a United Nations conference reviewing the implementation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty of 1968, Communist China�s head of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament blasted the United States for considering anti-ballistic missile defenses. Sha Zukang charged the U.S. with pursuing �another way of nuclear armament.� He said American missile defense plans were �an attempt to seek absolute security of its own,� which he claimed ran contrary to the spirit of the non-proliferation treaty. The U.S. is considering a limited anti-ballistic missile defense for itself and its East Asian allies against rogue states. Such rouge states include North Korea, Communist China�s long-time ally. Sha insisted the U.S. stick to the terms of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty signed with the Soviet Union. In 1989, then Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnaze admitted the USSR was in violation of the treaty. Although the USSR ceased to exist in 1991, the U.S. continues to adhere to it, and is hoping to negotiate a new treaty with Russia that would allow a limited ABM system. COMMUNIST CHINA SABOTAGING DISSIDENT WEB SITES IN �CYBERWAR� Desperate to prevent opposing voices from being heard in the PRC, the Chinese Communists are trying to block e-mails and web sites from dissidents in exile, according to the China Democracy Party. He Depu, head of the Beijing CDP, who was fired from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences for his politics, said the Communist police are sending viruses to CDP web sites based around the world. They are desperate to stop China Democracy Party members from New York e-mailing the party�s manifesto into the mainland. Hong Kong press on Sunday echoed He�s charges with reports of attempts to incapacitate the web sites and e-mail accounts of CDP members through viruses or the sending of large numbers of e-mails. He defiantly asserted the Communists would fail in their efforts to control the Internet. �Even though China's Internet police have invested a lot of money and manpower into blocking messages from our overseas members their efforts in the end will be futile,� said He. �Even if the police monitored the Internet 24 hours a day, they would not be able to stop all the messages getting through. The government is pushing the growth of the Internet in China to spur increased money making while at the same time trying to maintain strong political control. They will not be able to maintain such a contradictory position.� He is the sole spokesman for the CDP on the mainland. The party�s main leaders are serving long prison sentences for their attempts to being pluralism to Communist China. The China Democracy Party is not the only victim of this �cyberwar.� Agence France Presse reported that overseas members of the banned Falun Gong movement �said 10 days ago Chinese police crashed at least five of their U.S. and Canadian web sites, by hitting them with an overload of carefully-prepared digital information.� COMMUNIST CHINA ARRESTS FALUN GONG MEMBERS ON PROTEST ANNIVERSARY About 100 Falun Gong members were arrested in Tiananmen Square on Tuesday for marking the one-year anniversary of the first Falun Gong protest, which led to Communist China banning the group as a �cult.� Last year, 10,000 protestors converged on the square to demand the government stop its anti-Falun Gong campaign. The Communists responded by calling the non-political, spiritual organization the greatest threat to �stability� since the 1989 pro-democracy protests were crushed. The protestors unfurled banners in small groups, one after the other, which kept police occupied for hours. In Hong Kong, which has no ban on Falun Gong, a spokesman vowed the movement would continue to fight oppression in the rest of Communist China. In Taiwan, where Falun Gong is also legal, members called on Beijing to end the crackdown, and said they would support followers on the mainland. In a somewhat surprising admission, an unnamed government official was quoted by the PRC�s Xinhua news agency last week admitting that Falun Gong members have been protesting the Communist government ban �nearly every day.� The statement was part of their campaign to smear the movement as a �pawn� of �anti-Chinese forces.� A Falun Gong spokesman vehemently denied the charge. The official said 99 Falun Gong protests cases had been tried in the courts, with 84 resulting in prison sentences, before yesterday. As previous updates have reported, 35,000 Falun Gong followers have been arrested; over 5,000 have been sent to prison labor camps without trial, and hundreds are imprisoned in mental institutions. Three leaders were charged Monday with running a protection racket on members. Fifteen practitioners have died in custody since last year, including three over the last two months. Communist China also blamed the movement for 1,500 deaths, resulting from refusal of medical care for terminal illness, suicide, and �mental health problems.� Analysts said such numbers, even if true, were normal in a group the Communist government itself admitted had two million members before it was banned last spring. Most believe the number is much closer to Falun Gong�s claim of 100 million. RURAL PROTESTOR�S TONGUE REMOVED BY COMMUNIST POLICE The Information Center on Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong, reported that an anti-corruption protestor in Shanxi province had his tongue cut out by local Communist police after being beaten unconscious. Li Lusong, 20, had tried to talk to the county office of the Communist Party about a decrepit school building in his village. After he was chased away, he returned to protest by writing �Get rid of corruption, get rid of corrupt officials,� on the building on December 10. Li was arrested two days later by police. According to the Information Center, police beat Li unconscious and then woke him up with cold water, for which Li cursed them. Police responded by trying to remove his tongue with pliers, but he resisted. They then used an electric baton to stun him and cut off half his tongue with a knife. Li cannot speak or eat; he can only drink milk since the attack. No officers were punished. Shanxi is a northern, rural province, which makes it easier for local Communist authorities to block and delay stories like this. NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES RIOT IN COMMUNIST CHINA JAILS TO FIGHT REPATRIATION Refugees from famine-racked North Korea, a long-time ally of Communist China, rioted in a PRC detention camp this week, according to the Washington Post. In a Wednesday editorial on Communist China, the paper noted the refugees were slated for repatriation to North Korea �despite warnings by the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees that they would face �grave consequences.� Execution is likely.� The editors also took note of the Communist Chinese crackdown against Falun Gong (see above). This included the treatment on practitioner Chen Zixiu in the following manner. �(They) shocked her with cattle prods and forced her to run barefoot through snow until she died in custody Feb. 21.� After her daughter told her story to the Wall Street Journal, the police arrested her, too. The above actions violate several international accords that Communist China has signed over the years. However, as the editors of the Post succinctly noted, �this is a regime that plays by its own rules.� BRIBERY ENSNARES MORE CHINESE COMMUNISTS, ONE IS EXECUTED In yet another sign of what absolute power can do, Cheng Keije, Vice Chairman of the Standard Committee of the National People�s Congress, the Communist Chinese parliament, was bounced from the party for corruption, according to the party�s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Xinhua, the Communist Chinese news agency, reported Cheng received $4.5 million in bribes from 1992-1998 while head of the government of Guangxi, a region in southern China. Cheng has admitted taking the bribes according to Xinhua. Four Guangxi officials who bribed Cheng were also arrested. Three have posts in the provincial government; the fourth heads Guangxu Zhizhuan Corp. All four bribed Cheng to get the current posts, according to Agence France Presse. President Jiang Zemin has pledged to stop corruption in Communist China, which is so widespread that officials have called it a �life or death political struggle.� On Sunday, Li Chenglong, deputy mayor of Guigang, was executed for corruption. He was charged with taking over $470,000 in bribes while Communist Party secretary of Yulin. Cheng could join him soon. Despite the high-profile actions, many analysts are skeptical about the anti-corruption drive. The Washington Post reported a major smuggling case, which included up to $10 million in oil and other commodities, involves close associates of President Jiang, and as such has been largely unexamined. In Cheng�s case, his motives � he was planning to dump his wife for a mistress � certainly made his prosecution much more politically expedient. TAIWAN NEWS Chen Shui-bian, President-elect of the Republic of China (Taiwan), said last week he would be able to smooth relations with Communist China if �the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have sincerity and goodwill.� He underscored this by invoking Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu with a pledge to �overcome the hard with gentleness.� However, he said no improvements were possible if �only Taiwan has sincerity and goodwill and all along the Chinese side has no sincerity and goodwill.� "To narrow the gap between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, we must rely on goodwill and magnanimity. Why must we resort to venomous words and arms?" Chen said yesterday. "If some controversial, sensitive political topics are temporarily set aside, why can't the peoples on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait share out the work, cooperate with one another and make up for each other's deficiencies?" Taiwan�s incoming leader also said he was open to the idea of �confederation� with the mainland. However, he insisted that �One China� is open to interpretation, and can mean different things on either end of the Taiwan straits. Known as �One China, several interpretations,� this was a pillar cross-straits policy for outgoing President Lee Teng-Hui. Chen�s Democratic Progressive Party supports Taiwanese independence, while Communist China considers it a �renegade province.� Chen also said, according to Agence France Presse, that Communist Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji�s tirade against him just before the election was partly responsible for his victory on March 18. Zhu had threatened Taiwan �might not get a chance to regret� their choice if they elected Chen. Communist China conducted military exercises on their side of the Taiwan Straits this week. The ROC�s defense establishment called them �psychological warfare.� Meanwhile, Annette Lu, Vice President-elect, managed to get under Communist China�s skin once again. She had earlier been branded �scum of the nation� by the PRC for commenting that Communist China is a �distant relative and close neighbor.� Last week, she called the Communists� reaction �unbridled,� and demanded an apology. Yu Keli, one of Communist China�s point men on Taiwan, responded with a demand of his own: that Chen call himself �Chinese.� Yu also rejected the idea of �One China, several interpretations.� Yu said �two interpretations� is the same as �two countries.� Leading oppositionist James Soong, who finished second to Chen in the recent elections, met with former Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord on Sunday. Soong, who founded the People First Party after the election, is pro-reunification, but not until the Communists are unhorsed on the mainland. �We . . . are not willing to accept the rule of the Communism, and do not want to fight with mainland,� he said in a press conference following the meeting. �But any decision that will affect Taiwan's future should let the 21 million (Taiwan) people make a free choice.� TIBET NEWS The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, told an audience in Tokyo that he would be forced to end his work for Tibetan autonomy if he returned to the region now controlled by Communist China. He has lived in exile ever since a ruthless Communist crackdown on Tibet in 1959. The Communist Chinese have said the Dalai Lama must support reunification for Taiwan, oppose independence for Tibet, and cease to engage is �separatist activities.� While the Lama has repeatedly called for Tibetan autonomy, he does not support independence for either region. Despite this oft-repeated view, Communist China still accuses him of engaging in �splittism.� �I can return if I make one beautiful statement which the Chinese government wants. I can return next week,� said the Dalai Lama. �The Tibetan problem will still remain,� he said. �Plus then, on my mouth, is one big seal.� In a report to the United Nations, the Tibetan government-in-exile exposed the gross environmental damage Communist China has committed in Tibet. Using accounts from eyewitness and stories from Communist China�s own Xinhua news agency, they showed the PRC�s use of Tibet as a �storehouse� for nuclear weapons test and nuclear waste �dumpsite� is affecting rivers that flow to Bangladesh, Burma, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. The Tibet exiled government also noted heavy mining and logging that have caused many events extinction, soil erosion, and flooding. "Given the high altitude and the extreme climatic conditions of Tibet, the damage caused to the environment and the fragile mountain ecosystem is becoming irreversible," the report says. The government in exile, led by the Dalai Lama, called for greater international monitoring and pressuring of Communist China�s ecological actions so that the damage to Tibet can be reversed. Communist China attacked Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, for a planned meeting with the Dalai Lama on May 21. The PRC accused the Dalai Lama of �splittist� activities. Despite concerns from Danish business interests about the meeting hurting Danish commercial interests on the mainland, Rasmussen issued a communique saying, "I have taken note of China's reservations but I intend to meet the Dalai Lama." Amnesty International, meanwhile, called on the Danish PM to condemn the Communist China�s abuses during his visit to the PRC on May 7-15. 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