| 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. Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: OCTOBER 30, 2002 TOP STORY: JIANG AND BUSH AGREE ON NUCLEAR FREE KOREA, LITTLE ELSE BUSH TWEAKS JIANG ABOUT REPRESSION IN EAST TURKESTAN, VP GOING TO PRC IN �03 Communist President Jiang Zemin�s Friday summit with President Bush was largely uneventful. Jiang and Bush agreed that they �both oppose any nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula� (BBC 10/28), but they did not agree on much else, besides Vice President Richard Cheney visiting the People�s Republic sometime next year, and the President himself doing so at some future date (BBC 10/29). In fact, President Bush even tweaked Jiang�s attempts to tie the terrorist to its repression of East Turkestan. As Jiang tried to pass his regime off as �a victim of terrorism� (Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN)), Bush responded by telling the media, �at a press conference no country should suppress the rights of ethnic minorities under the pretext of fighting terrorism.� Prior to the summit, Jiang was the guest of honor at a banquet in Houston, but Falun Gong practitioners �protested against China's ban and crackdown against them� (BBC 10/23) outside the hotel where the banquet was held. Jiang, notoriously thin-skinned about protesters during his trips abroad, had no comment. Also reporting: Fox News, Washington Times, Newsmax.com Sign up for the North Korea Report today and get the October 21 special edition, which had North Korea�s admission of its nuclear weapons program, along with new Reports every Monday. OTHER NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA, EAST TURKESTAN, AND THE TERRORIST WAR JIANG CALLS COMMUNIST CHINA A �VICTIM� OF TERRORISM Just before Friday�s summit, Jiang Zemin called for �improved teamwork in recent times against terrorism, of which he said both the U.S. and China were victims� (Cybercast News). By that he was referring to the Uighur people of East Turkestan (what the Communists call �Xinjiang�), whose ties to terrorism and al Qaeda are only believed by the Communists themselves and, sadly, the U.S. government. PRC HELPS NORTH KOREA SELL ARMS TO TERRORIST STATES, MEETS TALIBAN NO. 2 This was in the last Week�s Links, but it had enough new information to make it relevant here as well. Newsmax.com reported that Communist China is helping Stalinist North Korea sell arms to terrorist states. In the same story, it reported that the number two official in the Taliban � the Afghan hosts of al Qaeda � was in the PRC to meet with Communist officials. COMMUNIST CHINA WANTS RUSSIAN GAS Nearly everyone wants to know what the Russian gas that felled Chechen terrorist � and 100 hostages � in Moscow was. Communist China, however, just wants the gas, to use it in its own supposed anti-terrorist efforts, and for possible use against �unemployed workers and peasants --and other so-called disgruntled elements in society� (Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN)) that may resort to violence. Check out these stories and more on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE, LEADING ANTI-PRC DEMOCRAT, DIES IN PLANE CRASH Paul Wellstone, one of the leading anti-Communist China Democrats in the U.S. Senate, died in a plane crash while campaigning for re-election in Minnesota. Wellstone was a leading opponent of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the PRC, leading North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms (R), also a PNTR opponent, to call him �Churchillian.� Reports: Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, Cybercast News With Wellstone�s death, four anti-Communist China Senators � Republicans Helms and Robert Smith (New Hampshire), and Democrats Wellstone and Robert Torricelli (New Jersey) � will not be in the Senate next year. The current Senate was already less than perfect on Communist China; the next one may be brutal. OFFICE OF INTERNET FREEDOM PROPOSED TO TARGET �GREAT RED FIREWALL� California Representatives Christopher Cox (R) and Tom Lantos (D) introduced a bill to create the Office of Global Internet Freedom �to help people in countries like China and Saudi Arabia circumvent tight restrictions on their Internet access� (Fox News). Senators Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) sponsored the Senate version of the bill. Communist China has been employing internet blockers and forcing internet service providers to censor material on their own systems as part of its �Great Red Firewall� (see 7/31/02, 9/4/02, 9/11/02, and 9/18/02 updates). Kyl, Cox, and Lantos wrote about the firewall, and their legislation to help get around it, in a column cited in the last Week�s Links. U.S.-COMMUNIST CHINA MILITARY CONTACTS RESUMED The United States and Communist China agreed to resume military contacts, eighteen months after the Hainan outrage (see 4/5/01 and 4/11/01 updates) led the U.S. to suspend them (Washington Times). Military contacts during the Clinton Administration received heavy criticism from opponents of the PRC who warned against possible espionage, and being too conciliatory to Communist China in general. FBI TO OPEN OFFICE IN COMMUNIST CHINESE CAPITAL Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that the FBI would now have an office in the Beijing, the capital of Communist China. The office will be �seeking Chinese help to combat terrorism� (CNN). According to Newsmax.com, however, it may have more to do with �corrupt officials and organized criminals, some of whom have fled to the United States to avoid prosecution.� BUSINESSMAN FROM PRC WHO FLED TO U.S. INSISTS UPON INNOCENCE Yang Rong, the man who founded Brilliance China Automotive, insisted he was innocent of all the charges thrown at him by the Chinese Communists. Yang fled Communist China for the U.S. as Liaoning Province prepared charges of �economic crimes� against him. The province is a part owner in BCA, and Yang and his allies are convinced it is simply trying to takeover the entire firm (CNN). Yang�s plight � his defection to the U.S. was first noted in the 10/2/02 update � should give pause to the myriad commentators and analysts who praise the rise of �private� business in Communist China. Yang himself found out that �private� in a Communist regime means anything but. NEW HUMAN RIGHTS TALKS SET; PRC HAPPY, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS NOT The U.S. had agreed to set a new round of talks on human rights for December 16. The move was requested by Communist China, and condemned by human rights groups. While that may sound odd, it was due to the fact that the U.S. had previously held off new talks until the PRC was willing to deal with issues from last year�s talks. Report: Washington Post The U.S. now says the Communists �have reached� goals set out in the last talks. Mike Jendrzejczyk, advocacy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, though otherwise: �They seem to be setting the threshold extremely low.� HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS CHINA NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA DIRECTOR ARRESTED, DEEMED TOO �WESTERN� Qian Cheng, director of the China National Symphony Orchestra, is now under house arrest due to Communist anger at him focus on European works. As a cover, the Communists �began an investigation into his management of the venue's finances� (Washington Times). REFUGEE SENT BACK BY COMMUNIST CHINA BEATEN TO DEATH ON THE SPOT Sohn In Kuk, a North Korean refugee hiding in Communist China, suffered the same fate of all refugees from the Stalinist regime � the Communists sent him back. North Korean border guards beat him to death in the PRC border prison where he was being held �while the Chinese border guards and prison officials simply watched� (Washington Post). CORRUPTION NEWS CORRUPTION CHARGES BRINGING DOWN THE WEALTHY IN COMMUNIST CHINA Communist China�s anti-corruption campaign is taking aim at the �rich and famous� in the PRC. Some of the most prominent �businessmen� have found themselves victim to the charges, ranging in validity from Yang Bin (who would have led North Korea�s �special economic zone� but for tax evasion) to Yang Rong (a victim of a really hostile takeover by Liaoning Province). Reports: CNN, BBC, Newsmax.com The CNN report notes that the actions are �to show foreign investors that the Chinese government does carry a big stick and it is establishing a rule of law any respectable member of the World Trade Organization will be proud of.� Of course, as it also notes, �Whether anyone buys it is another question.� OTHER MAINLAND NEWS AS JIANG�S PROTEGES LOOK SET FOR PROMOTION, OTHERS IN COMMUNIST PARTY MIFFED �One feels so light-hearted when one is without any official position,� said Jiang Zemin, whose set to drop his titles of party boss and PRC President � but not Chair of the Central Military Commission. However, as Willy Wo-Lap Lam (CNN), notes, this may have more to do with his prot�g�s scoring big in the upcoming reshuffle next month, which has a number of folks within the party less than happy. Three of Jiang�s prot�g�s, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, and Jia Qinglin, are slated to make the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. This would give Jiang�s faction a near majority on the most powerful governing body outside the CMC. Jiang�s movements to bolster his faction �have aroused a storm of controversy among cadres and intellectuals in Beijing.� ECONOMIC FIGURES FROM COMMUNIST CHINA �OVERSTATED� Two economists from BNP Paribas Peregrine reported that Communist Chinese economic growth statistics � the ones that allow them to boast about their supposedly white-hot economy � �are overstated by 1 percent to 1.5 percent due to faulty collection methods� (CNN). The Communists themselves were forced to admit �62,000 violations of its statistics law from May to October 2001 alone.� The economists, Raymond Fu and Eva Chu, also note the Communist China�s economic growth, relative to that of its population, �has been outpaced by Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.� Moreover, currency devaluation has �significantly� reduced the actual growth in the PRC economy. STATE POWER TO BE SPLIT UP Communist China announced that its massive state energy firm, State Power Corporation, is to be split up. The move is supposedly to bring competition to the electricity and other energy markets. However, given the fact that State Power�s chief, Gao Yan, is �thought to be hiding in a Western country after being responsible for a string of dubious deals� (BBC) there is certainly �controversy� regarding the move. It should also be noted that the energy sector is one of the main political power bases of Li Peng, the butcher of Tiananmen Square and current number two in the Communist hierarchy. COMMUNISTS BEGIN TO NOTICE RURAL MEDICAL DISASTER The PRC announced a new plan to improve health care in the rural interior. However, the BBC says the plan is really an �admission of just how bad the health care situation in rural China has become.� PRC medical care in the impoverished interior �has all but collapsed� with tuberculosis �on the rise� and AIDS ravaging whole provinces, spread largely by unhygienic Communist blood drives (see 9/4/02 update). INTERNATIONAL NEWS PEUGEOT GOING BACK INTO COMMUNIST CHINA Will they ever learn? Five years after �its ignominious departure � from Communist China, automaker Peugeot is coming right back in, joining up with Communist-run Dongfeng Motor Corporation in a joint venture. Report: BBC REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS SENATOR JESSE HELMS HONORED BY ROC FOR HIS SUPPORT OF THE ISLAND DEMOCRACY The aforementioned Senator Jesse Helms (see American-Related News) received the Order of Propitious Clouds with Grand Cordon from the Republic of China for his 30 years of supporting Taiwan. Helms said he was �humbled� by the award, and further said, �It is this courage (of the Taiwanese people) that we should be honoring here today� (Washington Times). HONG KONG NEWS HONG KONG BISHOP RIPS �ANTI-SUBVERSION� LAW Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen criticized the HK government�s �anti-subversion� law last week, calling it �the worst thing that can happen to Hong Kong after the handover� (CNN). The proposed law would ban all acts of �subversion,� including stealing �state secrets,� the Communist catchall for any information that embarrasses them. Bishop Zen has been a leading supporter of human rights in Communist China. CURRENCY MAY BE DEVALUED IF GOVERNMENT SPENDING DOESN�T FALL The post-handover economic problems continue. Hong Kong�s dollar may have to be devalued, according to Standard and Poors �unless it can drastically rein in spending� (BBC). It was only the latest bad news to befall the city, which has suffered record unemployment and bankruptcies since the United Kingdom surrendered it to Communist China in 1997. No news was reported from Tibet this week. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it Anyonewho wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. Please feel free to send any news on Communist China you happen to find to the same address.. |