| CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: MAY 30, 2001 TOP STORY: BUSH TURNS TO SOFTER POLICIES ON COMMUNIST CHINA RENEWS �NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS� WITH PRC AND WON�T BLOCK BEIJING OLYMPIC EFFORT; CONGRESS NEEDS 2/3 MAJORITY TO STOP FREE TRADE RENEWAL As part of an apparent warming toward Communist China, President Bush announced to the World Affairs Council that he intends to renew Normal Trade Relations with the People�s Republic, despite the Hainan incident, human rights abuses, and the repeated threat to Taiwan. Bush said free trade with the Communist behemoth �is a force for freedom� despite the PRC�s growing repression as trade with the U.S. increased. Link: Washington Times Also, a Bush Administration official told the Washington Times that the U.S. would not get in the way of Beijing�s effort to convince the world it can host the 2008 Olympic Games. The official said the matter of the Olympics �will be up to the Olympic Committee.� The official also cited �cultural exchanges and educational exchanges,� as evidence of a �positive� relationship between the U.S. and Communist China. Link: Washington Times The Communists are noticing Bush�s new accomodationist attitude, according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam. Communist President Jiang Zemin told party comrades he hoped �the NTR debate in Congress will shift the focus of bilateral ties from politics and security matters to trade and economic issues� � i.e., away from national interests in favor of specious and fleeting possibilities for profits. Link: Lam Meanwhile, the defection of James Jeffords (Vermont) from the Republican Party gave the Democrats control of the Senate. Last year, Senate Democrats overwhelmingly supported Permanent NTR with the PRC, but they strongly opposed NTR when the last Republican president (the incumbent�s father) asked for it. While getting a 2/3 majority required to overrule the President in unlikely, a majority is possible. Links: BBC, CNN Meanwhile, Jeffords� decision ends Jesse Helms� reign as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The anti-Communist North Carolina Republican must make way for Joseph Biden (D-Delaware). Biden is much softer on Communist China: he is pro-PNTR, opposes high-tech weapons for Taiwan, and is against a commitment to protect the island democracy from a PRC attack. Link: Washington Post OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS SURVEILLANCE FLIGHTS NEAR SOUTHERN COMMUNIST CHINA RESUME With an American RC-135 flew over the South China sea on Saturday, the U.S. resumed surveillance missions near southern Communist China for the first time since the Hainan collision. Several surveillance flights have already occurred near the northern and central PRC coasts. Links: CNN, Washington Times DOWNED EP-3 PLANE TO BE TAKEN APART AND FLOWN BACK American officials said the downed EP-3 on Hainan Island would be flown back to the U.S. in pieces, under an agreement struck over the weekend with the PRC. The Pentagon had hoped the plane could be repaired and flown home, but Communist China refused to allow it, citing the possibility of �national humiliation.� Link: BBC USS INCHON DENIED PORT IN HONG KONG Communist China denied a request by the USS Inchon to dock in Hong Kong this week. It was the first such request since the Hainan collision, and the first refusal since the accidental bombing of the PRC Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Link: BBC FIRM SOLD RADIATION PROTECTED COMPUTER CHIPS TO COMMUNIST CHINA Means Come Enterprises, a multinational company with offices in Orlando, Montreal, Beijing, and Hong Kong, sold radiation protected integrated circuits to Great Wall Industry Import and Export, a Communist-owned military procurement firm. News of the sale came from court documents regarding Means Come � currently under investigation for the sale � which became available to the Washington Times. Link: Washington Times JIANG WHACKS PRESDIENT BUSH Communist President Jiang Zemin went after President Bush�s PRC policies as based on �anti-China containment.� He also criticized Bush personally, calling him �logically unsound; confused and unprincipled; unwise to the extreme.� He emphasized a continuing pushing the �business card,� since trade is where Bush, along with the rest of the corporate Republican establishment, is softest on Beijing. Link: CNN: Willy Wo-Lap Lam At the Asia-Europe Meeting last week, Jiang attacked the current status of world affairs as �unjust and irrational.� BBC reported what he was really upset about was American �dominance.� Link: BBC INTERNATIONAL NEWS COMMUNIST CHINA LOOKS FOR CLOSER TIES WITH VENEZUELA Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flew into Communist China last week to meet with Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji. The PRC Prime Minister told Chavez, a neo-Marxist who rewrote his country�s constitution to vastly increase his own power, that they should �do more business together� in light of their �strategic alliance.� Link: BBC SOUTH KOREA SEEKS COMMUNIST CHINESE HELP IN KOREA TALKS South Korea hosted Tiananmen butcher Li Peng last week, and asked for his help in advance talks between North and South Korea. Li blamed the slowdown in talks on the U.S., which has grown skeptical of the North Korean regime. North Korea still continues missile development despite mass starvation caused by mismanagement. Link: CNN HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RIPS COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT ON FALUN GONG, UIGHURS Amnesty International, on its 40th Anniversary, highlighted Asia as a particular danger zone for human rights. The group focused on Communist China continued crackdown against Falun Gong � which AI says killed 93, and others say killed more � and against the Uighur Muslims of Xingjiang/East Turkestan. AI has routinely been the only group (besides us) to highlight the plight of the Uighurs, thousands of whom languish in prison. Link: CNN COMMUNIST CHINA�S BATTLE WITH THE INTERNET CONTINUES Armed with regulations requiring web site owner to hand over all posted content and a moratorium on new internet caf�s, Communist China is marching on in its battle with the internet. Up to 20 provinces now have �Internet police forces,� but how well they can stop the spread of information � particularly the kind the Communist don�t want getting around � remains to be seen. Link: CNN OTHER MAINLAND NEWS WORD OF BLOOD DRIVE/AIDS SCANDAL SPREADING, PRC PUNISHES WHISTLEBOWING DOCTOR BBC ran its on piece on the horrors of Wenlou village, ravaged by an AIDS epidemic caused by a Communist-sponsored blood drive. The needles from the drive were heavily contaminated; earlier reports of the disaster noted that the blood plasma was mixed in with others and then re-injected after the vital components were taken out. Link: BBC Dr. Gao Yaojie, who won an award from Global Health Council for exposing Communist Chinese incompetence with the 1990�s blood drive, was barred by the PRC from going to the U.S. to receive the award. Dr. Gao took the Communists to task for the astonishingly lax procedures. Now, some Henan villages, such as Wenlou, are nearly 2/3 infected. Link: Washington Post �ONE CHILD� POLICY LEADING TO MASS SHORTAGE OF GIRLS Not that this is the first story on the matter, but the Washington Post examined the major demographic problem with the Communists� �one child� policy: a shortage of girls. The results are already starting to come into sharp focus, a lack of available mates for young men, the widespread kidnapping of women from neighboring countries for �marriages,� widespread sex-selective abortions, and widespread abandonment. Link: Washington Post PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT DIRECTOR EXECUTED FOR EMBEZZLEMENT Jin Jianpei, ex-director of the Hong Kong and Macao provincial government offices, lost his life for embezzling over $2 million and gambling it in Macao. The Communists, in their battle against widespread corruption, have often resorted to executing �white-collar� criminals, particularly over the last few years. Link: BBC REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS HUGE COMMUNIST INVASION EXERCISE BEGINS A major exercise of an invasion of Taiwan by Communist China is under way. While the impact of the exercise � and whether it portends an imminent future attack on the island democracy � is unclear, an intelligence official told the Washington Times that �the numbers were three times higher than during past exercises.� The ROC military called the PRC exercise �routine,� but Taipei�s stock market took a dive. Link: Washington Times JIANG IS HAPPY WITH CURRENT TAIWAN POLICY Communist President Jiang Zemin let it be known he was quite �satisfied,� according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam, with his policy of isolating ROC president Chen Shui-bian and his supporters. Communist China has heavily courted the Kuomintang (Nationalist) party in Taiwan ever since its 51-year rule of Taiwan was ended by Chen�s election. Link: CNN PRESIDENT CHEN, IN LATIN AMERICA, EMPHASIZES HE IS NOT A THREAT TO BEIJING ROC President Chen Shui-bian, in Latin America for a tour of nations that recognize his government over the PRC, laid down �Five New Nos Principles,� which, according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam, are designed to ease cross-strait tensions. Communist China, meanwhile, is busy establishing contacts in the states that recognize Chen in the hope that it can convince several to switch, including Macedonia. Link: CNN Chen said he was �infinitely grateful,� to those nations that recognize Taipei over Beijing. He also visited Panama, which still recognizes the ROC despite increasing PRC influence in the Panama Canal, via Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa. Beijing�s growing presence in the canal has made Panama ground zero in the battle for diplomatic recognition between the island democracy and the Communist mainland. Links: CNN, BBC HONG KONG NEWS LEUNG WAH�S DEATH STILL REVERBERATES IN HONG KONG The death of Leung Wah, a quiet Hong Kong pro-democracy activist who burned body was found in neighboring Shenzhen last month after he was missing for five months (see previous updates), is still rattling democracy supporters throughout the city. Leung disappeared after taking part in a dissident conference in San Francisco; he routinely helped dissidents and others under Communist China�s thumb behind the scenes. Link: Washington Post IMMIGRANTS FROM COMMUNIST CHINA ON LAST APPEAL Over 5,000 �immigrants� from Communist China are having their last appeal heard by Hong Kong�s highest court. The court ruled they could all stay in 1997, since they all had �least one parent with residency rights in the territory.� That was overturned after the Communist-appointed government asked Beijing for a �reinterpretation� of the rule. The move, seen as a surrender of local autonomy, shocked the city. Link: BBC TIBET AND XINJIANG/EAST TURKESTAN NEWS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AGAIN CALLS FOR NGAWANG CHOEPHEL�S RELEASE London-based Amnesty International repeated its demand that Communist China release Ngawang Choephel, a Tibet-born musician sent to prison for 18 years while producing a film on Tibetan performing arts. Choephel, sentenced for �espionage and counter-revolutionary activities,� is in very poor health, suffering from �liver, lung and stomach ailments, and possibly . . . a urinary tract infection and tuberculosis.� Link: BBC PRC STILL TRYING TO USE DEVELOPMENT TO STIFLE MINORITIES STRUGGLING FOR FREEDOM CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam analyzes the continuing efforts of Communist Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to develop the western �provinces,� including the disputed Xinjiang � called East Turkestan by many Uighur Muslims � and Tibet. In both regions, economic development is seen as the key to �political stability.� The fact that is hasn�t worked, because the people there prefer more freedom, has apparently still not sunk in. Link: Lam See Also Human Rights and Freedoms News for Amnesty International�s report on the PRC and the Uighurs. 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]. |