| Quite a busy week. Link of the Week Jeff Jacoby, in the Boston Globe, writes on what appeasing Communist China for the past 12 years has wrought. He is one of the few who remembers that the soft touch on Beijing goes as far back as President Bush I. Time Asia Examines the Falun Gong War Matthew Forney on the Communist crackdown in the mainland. Sin Ming-Shaw, on Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. Sin is deeply troubled by how Tung, elected by a Communist-appointed committee, �consistently toes the party line.� She also dissects the anti-Falun Gong arguments of the Chinese Communist Party with refreshing precision. Also from Time Asia Matthew Forney on the fall of the once liberal (i.e., critical of Communists) newspaper Southern Weekly. Asiaweek on Taiwan�s Future Allen Cheng, on the growing debate of whether cross-Strait economic integration threatens Taiwan�s democracy or Chinese Communism. William Kirby, on why reunification under the Communist �one party, two systems� is not only a bad idea, but far from a guarantee, no matter how much cross-Strait economic integration occurs. From the Washington Times �President Bush�s decision to not sell Taiwan the Aegis destroyers and Patriot PAC-3 missiles they need to defend themselves against the Chinese missiles arrayed against them was obviously an effort to placate the mainland Chinese. And it failed.� � Jed L. Babbin, former Undersecretary of Defense. For the rest of his op-ed column. Editorial demanding that the Bush Administration pay more attention to the plight of Li Shaomin and Gao Zhan. From Daniel Griswold, some useful policy ideas (even though he backs PNTR). From National Review Online Jay Nordlinger, on why Beijing should not get the Olympic Games in 2008. John Derbyshire, on the same theme, somewhat more in-depth. From Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN) On Li Ruihuan, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and practically unknown outside Beijing. Lam reports Li may pave the way for a more open regime in Communist China. Almost nothing is known about him, except that he has been �been relegated to the sidelines by Jiang since 1989.� One must admit that this is at least a good start.. On the PRC�s continuing �mindbattle� with democratic Taiwan. 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]. |