| CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: DECEMBER 27, 2000 TOP STORY: 300 DIE IN LUOYANG DANCE CLUB FIRE REPORT SAYS CLUB FALIED SAFTEY INSPECTION, BUILING CODE NOT ENFORCED BBC reported a terrible story this Christmas. Approximately 300 people were killed in a dance club in Luoyang after the building of which it was a part caught fire. Worse yet, the building had failed a safety inspection, meaning no one should have been there in the first place. In the People�s Republic of China, however, building codes are rarely enforced, leading to the Christmas tragedy that occurred in this case. Link: BBC Several have been arrested in connection with the fire, and Communist media has called for more tougher laws on building safety, but the BBC says that is nothing new. Link: BBC TOP AMERICAN STORY: LEE MAY HAVE BEEN TRYING TO HELP TAIWAN, NOT PRC The case of Wen Ho Lee took another dramatic twist over the holidays. According to the Washington Post, investigators are now looking into the possibility that Lee, far for giving nuclear secrets to Communist China, was actually trying to help Taiwan, where he was born and where several of his relatives live. While this is not the first report of such a possibility, it is the first time investigators are seriously considering it. Link: AFP The paper says Lee, when visiting the Chung Shuan Institute in Taiwan, may have left an electronic road map to his access codes, and thus all the nuclear secrets with which he worked. This leads to the very troubling question of why, amid reports of several possible leaks to Communist China by counterintelligence sources, the FBI saw fit to go after the one man who had so many links to, and may have been assisting, Taiwan. OTHER REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS ROC MILITARY TAKING STEPS TOWARD CONTACTS WITH PLA Through meeting with U.S. generals and the establishment of a foundation of retired Taiwanese generals, the ROC military is taking steps toward direct contacts with their counterparts in the Communist People�s Liberation Army, according to AFP. The man who heads the foundation, a Nationalist legislator, says the group will only work for contacts between retired generals, not anyone on active duty. Link: AFP AS "THREE MINI-LINKS" NEAR, COMMUNISTS WHACK PRESIDENT CHEN The Communist Xinhua news agency took another shot at ROC President Chen Shui-bian today, even as Taiwan prepared to open trade, transportation, and mail links between two of its islands and the mainland. Xinhua insisted that Chen was merely choosing to "sidestep the key issue of" reunification, something almost no one in Taiwan wants with a Communist-run mainland. Link: Xinhua PRESIDENT CHEN SAYS PRC USING JAPANESE AID FOR MILITARY BUILDUP ROC President Chen accused Communist China of using economic aid from Japan to build up its military, including missile deployments, in meetings with a Japanese parliamentary delegation. While the multi-party delegation made no comment on the issue, Japan is examining the aid issue (see above). Link: Taiwan�s Central News Agency (CNA) via BBC VICE PRESIDENT LU TO PRESS AHEAD WITH LAWSUIT Vice President Annette Lu has decided to go ahead and file a lawsuit against The Journalist magazine for reporting she was spreading rumors of an alleged affair by President Chen. A mediation effort to stave off the suit had failed. Link: CNA via BBC OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS PRC SPY MANUAL TRANSLATED; TECHNOLOGY STEALING STANDARD PROCEDURE The Pentagon has translated a Communist Chinese manual on spying that, according to the Washington Times, reveals espionage as one of the chief sources of the PRC�s technological development. Link: Washington Times COMMUNIST CHINESE SOLDIERS MAY HAVE BEEN PART OF RAIDS INTO U.S. A report by YOWUSA presents a disturbing possibility. Mexican immigrants told local law enforcement involved in recent border skirmishes say that some of the raiders into America territory were believed to be of Chinese ethnicity, and in military dress. Previously, it was reported that the small battles were over attempts to import drugs into the U.S. Courtesy of member Ron Vogel. Link: YOWUSA ZHONG GONG LEADER PETITIONS FOR RELEASE Zhang Hangbao, leader of the Zhong Gong movement, has filed for his release from a holding cell in Guam. U.S. immigration officials denied asylum to Zhang, who is wanted in Communist China as part of their crackdown on Zhong Gong, but said he could stay while appeals are filed. Zhong Gong as a spiritual movement is similar Falun Gong, and is suffering the same fate in the PRC. Link: AFP Meanwhile, Yuan Xizahe, co-founder of the China Democracy Party, and Ming Wong, spokesman of the Free China Movement, went to Guam to support Zhang and protest his surprisingly shabby treatment by American authorities. Link: AFP HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS UNDERGROUND CHRISTIANITY GROWING DESPITE CRACKDOWN As Communist China intensified its crackdown on religious freedom by wiping out over 1,200 churches (see previous update), non-Communist Christian faiths, called "underground" because of their resistance to the PRC, continued to blossom. AFP reported the upsurge in underground church attendance on Christmas, and noted that in Beijing alone, the number of unofficial Protestant churches sprang from 200 to over 1,000. Link: AFP TWO POLITICAL DISSIDENTS IN COMMUNIST CHINA LOSING THEIR HEALTH Human Rights in China (HRIC) said police in Communist China were allowing the health of two dissidents to deteriorate. Zhang Shanguang, a union organizer, has been in jail for two years, and is suffering a respiratory infection, according to his wife. Fang Jue, an ex-bureaucrat in prison for publicly calling for democracy, was also ill. Link: AFP EXECUTIVE WHO FOLLOWED ZHONG GONG ARRESTED Communist police arrested Feng Linxi, a follower of Zhong Gong and a former executive with a company the movement founded. Feng worked for Jianghaiyang Co., a firm in Shaanxi province that Zhong Gong created when it was still favored by the Communists. The movement has been illegal for over a year, and followers are suffering the same persecution as the more well-known practitioners of Falun Gong. Link: AFP 300 EX-STORE WORKERS PROTEST DISMISSAL BY CORRUPT COMMUNISTS AFP reported up to 300 former workers in a Zhuhai department store blocked the stores' entrance to protest their firing and low severance compensation. The state-run store was led by Zhang Miaoliang, a Communist official arrested for taking bribes. Link: AFP "ANTI-CULT" GROUP FORMED BY COMMUNISTS HOLDS FIRST "SEMINAR" AFP reports that Communist China�s Anti-Cult Association, whose founding was reported in the November 15th update, held its first "seminar" over the weekend. Several "experts" came forth to slam Falun Gong, the Communists� domestic Public Enemy No. 1 for nearly two years. AFP reported the number of arrests is now in the thousands. Link: AFP OTHER MAINLAND NEWS SHENYANG MAYOR QUITS, LIAONING GOVERNOR CANNED FOR TIES TO CORRUPT VICE-MAYOR The Communists fired Zhang Guoguang as governor of Liaoning province after one of his proteges, Shenyang Vice-Mayor Ma Xiangdong, resigned. Ma, who quit after he and two of his associates were caught gambling away $40 million in state funds, is purported to have ties to the criminal underworld. Bo Xilai will take over the province. Link: AFP Mu Suixin, mayor of Shenyang, resigned last week for "health reasons" days after the arrest of Ma and his associates, on of whom was Mus ex-wife. Last week�s update erroneously reported Mu was still married to one of the three arrested. Link: AFP FORMER HEAD OF STATE-OWNED FIRM TO BE EXECUTED FOR TAKING BRIBES Yu Bufan, former head of a Communist-owned engineering firm, faces execution for taking roughly $500,000 in bribes in the Xiamen smuggling scandal, according to BBC. Despite the death sentence, many in the PRC do not believe the anti-corruption is very effective � 40% consider it "ineffective or a complete waste of time." Link: BBC POLICE CHIEF GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR TAKING BRIBES Yu Ding, former police chief in Liuzhou, received a death sentence for taking over $250,000 in bribes, according to the BBC. His wife was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Link: BBC XIAMEN SMUGGLING SCANDAL ENSNARES MORE OFFICIALS Li Minzhong, Communist Party Secretary of Zhangzhou Fujian, became the latest official to be arrested as part of the Xiamen smuggling scandal, according to AFP. Children of two other officials, Deputy Party Secretary of Fujian Shi Zhaobin, and Yuan Qitong, chairman of Fujian provincial legislature, were also under arrest. Other officials are still at large as Communist China�s largest corruption scandal continues to grow. Link: AFP WARDEN WHO TOOK BRIBES TO EASE UP ON PRISONERS GIVEN TEN YEARS A warden in Jilin province received a ten-year jail sentence for releasing prisoners who bribed him, according to AFP, which cited the Communist Xinhua news agency. The warden, Ma Weihua, had amassed over $35,000 in bribes. Link: AFP THOUSANDS OF POLICE OFFICERS SUSPENDED Reacting to myriad complaints about police corruption and brutality, AFP reported that Communist China has "temporarily relieved of their duties" thousands of policeman and slated them for "reeducation." The move comes amid reports of a police academy graduate stabbing ten people in a drunken rage, and of course, the charges against public security Minister Li Jizhou for his role in the Xiamen smuggling scandal. Link: AFP INTERNATIONAL NEWS LAI CHANGXING SAYS COMMUNISTS BROUGHT JAILED BROTHER TO CONVINCE HIM TO RETURN Lai Changxing, the central figure in the Xiamen smuggling scandal, said the Communists brought his brother, currently imprisoned, with them to Canada to convince Lai to return to the PRC. Lai is being held in Canada on an immigration, and Communist China wants him back to face trial for bribing hundreds of officials to look the other way while goods were smuggled in. Canadian officials denied any knowledge of Lai�s claim. Link: AFP Canada is slowly moving toward sending Lai, the man who handed out the bribes in the Xiamen smuggling scandal, back to the PRC, even though he faces an almost certain execution. AFP reported the Canadian authorities are also investigating Lai for possible criminal activity while in Canada. Link: AFP COMMUNIST ARMY COMMANDER VISITS CUBA General Fu Quanyou, commander of the Communist People's Liberation Army, flew into Havana Tuesday for four days of talks with Cuban military commanders. Fu said the talks would discuss closer ties between the PRC and Cuba, and, in his words, "the construction of socialism." Link: AFP COMMUNIST VIETNAM SETTLES BORDER DISPUTE WITH PRC Vietnam and Communist China have signed an agreement to settle a Gulf of Tonkin border dispute that lasted for over 20 years. The two Communist governments have had a history of problems, including a brief border war in 1979 and an ongoing dispute over who controls the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Link: BBC JAPANESE AMBASSADOR SAYS AID TO PRC COULD FALL BY 30% Citing economic and budgetary troubles, Japan�s Ambassador to Communist China said developmental aid could be reduced, according to AFP. Ambassador Sakutaro Tanino, who met with PRC trade official Long Yongtu, also noted that in Japan, "where there have been calls for a 30 percent reduction" in economic aid. Link: AFP COMMUNIST CHINA VIOLATES IRAQI SANCTIONS, FLIES INTO BAGHDAD A Communist delegation flew into Baghdad, Iraq last week, violating the sanctions against Saddam Hussein�s regime. Communist China has recently soured on the sanctions, telling Iraqi official Tariq Aziz that it opposed them. Link: AFP HONG KONG AND MACAO NEWS HK DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN LEE SAYS JIANG WANTS "ONE COUNTRY, ONE SYSTEM" Martin Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, slammed Communist President Jiang Zemin for criticizing Hong Kong�s media last week. Lee said that if the media heeded Jiang�s advice, "then I think this is the end of Hong Kong anyway." He also said, "I think this is �one country, one system.�" Link: Radio TV Hong Kong via BBC For his part, Jiang, while admitting he was "blunt" regarding the Hong Kong media, stood by his criticism of them. Though he said he didn�t "bear any ill will," to the Hong Kong press, he has routinely criticized them in the past as "simple," "na�ve," and, in this case, not being properly "socially responsible." Link: South China Post via BBC MACAO CHIEF EXECUTIVE PLEDGES TO INVESTIGATE POLICE BRUTALITY CLAIMS Edmund Ho, chief executive of Macao, said he would investigate charges of beatings by police during the one-year anniversary of the region�s hand-over to Communist China. Falun Gong practitioners attempting to enter Macao made the charges, including one who was sent to a hospital. Link: South China Post via BBC TIBET NEWS NEPAL, UNDER HEAVY PRC PRESSURE, STARTS SENDING ESCAPED TIBETANS BACK Feeling the pressure from Communist China, Nepal has begun repatriating Tibet escapees back to Communist China, according to AFP. The Tibet Information Network says roughly 60 escaped Tibetans have been forcibly sent back. Nepal, which under UN agreement is supposed to send the refugees to India, denied the claims. The PRC has tightened the screws on Nepal ever since the Karmala Lampa escaped. Link: AFP No news from Xinjiang/East Turkestan this week. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving this. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. |