| New Web Site Feature � �Communist China, the Taliban, and the Terrorist War�: From China e-Lobby Updates and �Week�s Links,� a chronicle of Communist China�s actions after the terrorist attack. Access it on our web site, either directly or via our main page. 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. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE: OCTOBER 31, 2001 TOP STORY: TALIBAN COMMANDER SAYS COMMUNIST CHINA IS HELPING THEM HAQQANI SAYS TYPE OF PRC COOPERATION AND SUPPORT �CANNOT BE DISCLOSED� Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Taliban commander, told Islamabad Pakistan that Communist China is �extending support and cooperation to the Taliban government.� Haqqani, who statement was picked up by Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, said the type of support �cannot be disclosed.� Gertz also noted Northern Alliance claims that the People�s Republic has been funneling arms to the Taliban for years. The Communists, naturally, denied this immediately, but they had also denied having any contact with the Taliban, after which the Times discovered that two PRC companies were building a telephone network in Kabul. There is also the Washington Post report on Beijing buying unexploded U.S. missiles from Osama bin Laden and the economic pact the PRC and the Taliban signed, on September 11. The stories mentioned her can be found in previous updates and/or the �Communist China, the Taliban, and the Terrorist War� page � see link at the beginning of the Update � on the China e-Lobby web site. OTHER WAR NEWS COMMUNISTS WHACK BUSH ON TERRORIST WAR, BLAMES AMERICA FOR SEPTEMBER 11 . . . Communist China, ever worried about a �pro-American regime in Kabul,� Afghanistan, blistered the Bush Administration for its conduct of the terrorist war, saying it had �failed to find out the real cause of terrorism.� The Communists also called America �the biggest exporter of violence,� and blamed the U.S. in part for September 11, according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam. . . . AS U.S. MULLS MORE ARMS SALES TO TAIWAN The PRC, who used the state-run Outlook Weekly to slam the U.S., but Lam noted one other big concern of Beijing�s � namely the Bush Administration�s message to Congress that �it was considering the sale of $228 million worth of fighter aircraft equipment to Taiwan.� To Communist China, no foreign policy issue is more important than isolating, and eventually swallowing, the island democracy of Taiwan. See Republic of China (Taiwan) News Section for more on Taiwan. EAST TURKESTAN (�XINJIANG�) NEWS: THE CRACKDOWN IN EAST TURKESTAN BEGINS COMMUNISTS DECLARE LAUNCH OF �STRIKE HARD, SEVERE SUPPRESSION� CAMPAIGN The intensified crackdown against Uighur Muslims in East Turkestan has begun. Wang Lequan, the region�s Communist Party Secretary � i.e., the guy in charge � announced the �'strike hard, severe suppression� action against what he called �separatists and terrorists.� While this has been going on for five years, Wang�s statement revealed a new level of crackdown according to CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam. Communist China has never been kind to the Uighurs in what the Communists call Xinjiang. Communist rule has been so horrifying that many Uighurs back an independent state � known as East Turkestan � which the region was briefly both before and during World War II. GAO ZHAN WHACKS COMMUNIST CHINA�S FALSE SUPPORT OF ANTI-TERRORISM Gao Zhan wrote a wonderful piece in the Washington Times revealing Communist China�s use of the terrorist war as an excuse to �conveniently lump all its enemies, dissidents and separatists of Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang into one ready category of terrorists.� In a rare move for a Chinese national, she took aim at the �vicious oppressions of the Uighurs in Xinjiang who fought to flee the Communist regime.� Gao, an applicant for U.S. citizenship imprisoned for five months in the PRC for �spying,� gave a timely reminder that Communist China�s chief foreign policy objective has been, and still is, �To be against all that is sponsored and supported by the United States.� She said President Bush �should not be fooled by China's jumping onto the bandwagon of anti-terrorism.� OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS DISSIDENTS IN PRC �DISAPPOINTED� WITH BUSH�S PERFORMANCE AT APEC A number of Chinese dissidents expressed their concern with President Bush�s performance at the APEC conference last weekend. While they could understand the president�s focus on the terrorist war � and all expressed sympathy for the Americans lost � they told the Washington Post that Beijing�s �support� for the terrorist war was largely a ploy to deflect attention from its horrific human rights record. U.S. WHACKS COMMUNIST CHINA ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, PRC SLAMS REPORT The U.S. State Department criticized Communist China for ratcheting up its crackdown on Falun Gong and other religious movements. The report, according to the BBC, said the crackdown had affected other unregistered faiths throughout the PRC. The Communists, naturally, whacked the report as �groundless.� HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS NEWS (See also East Turkestan News) COMMUNISTS TO ALLOW UN TORTURE PROBE, BUT WILL LIKELY IMPOSE CONDITIONS Communist China has agreed to allow the United Nations to investigate claims that its police torture prisoners. However, the last time it made the offer, in 1999, it refused to give allow �unmonitored prisoner interviews and unannounced visits to detention centers and police stations,� and the UN balked. The Washington Post reports that the Communists are hoping the UN will accept the restrictions this time. OTHER MAINLAND NEWS TUNNEL DIGGERS WIN LABOR LAWSUIT Nearly 200 tunnel diggers who contracted lung disease due to lax safety conditions won a landmark labor lawsuit against �several engineering firms, and an individual.� CNN did not say who the defendants were, or whether the firms were state-run. The diggers, now farmers, won between $4,700 and $47,000 depending on their illness. Unfortunately, Communist verdicts have a history of not being followed. INTERNATIONAL NEWS JOHN PAUL II APOLOGIZES TO CHINA FOR PAST �ERRORS,�ASKS PRC TO RESTORE TIES Pope John Paul II made a public apology last week to �the Chinese people� for �errors and limits of the past,� and called on Communist China to restore diplomatic ties with the Vatican. The pontiff made a similar apology to the Chinese people last year � but the BBC reported that this one � coupled with the call for a restoration of diplomatic ties � was �an unprecedented gesture towards normalising relations.� After the Pope�s statement, Beijing insisted the Vatican �abide by the One China principle and not recognize Taiwan, and . . . not use religion as a means of interference in China's internal affairs� in order to have ties restored, according to CNN. The Vatican has recognized Taiwan for fifty years, and the loss of that recognition could be a major blow to the island democracy, according to Cybercast News Service. Cybercast News Service also had a story on Communist China�s reaction, as did the Washington Post. COMMUNIST HEIR APPARENT VISITS EUROPE Hu Jintao, Vice President of Communist China, is visiting Europe this week to establish his foreign policy credentials. Hu is widely expected to take over as Communist Party boss next year. CNN�s Willy Wo-Lap Lam looked at what Hu hopes to gain from the trip, and gave a brief profile, which omits his role as leader of the anti-Dalai Lam crackdown in his tenure as Tibet party boss (1988-1992). BBC had its own profile of Hu � this one also skips his Tibet past, unusual given Britons� heavy sympathy with the region � plus reports on his trips to Moscow and London. Lam also noted that Hu could �be obliged to cut a deal with the hawks as well as nationalists� in order to maintain power after next year. COMMUNIST CHINA GETS $1 BILLION FOR OLYMPIC GAMES The International Olympic Committee has pledged $1 billion to Communist China to defray some of the cost for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The BBC story also noted the sponsorships of Coca-Cola and Kodak for the Communist Olympiad. To support an American boycott of the 2008 Games, see the link at the beginning of the Update. ANTHRAX SCARE CLOSES PART OF BRITISH EMBASSY The consular and visa section of the United Kingdom�s Embassy in Communist China shut down today after a package containing white powder was found. Source: CNN. REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) NEWS NATIONALIST PARTY FACES INVESTIGATION INTO ITS VAST WEALTH The Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party, which governed Taiwan until suffering defeat in last year�s presidential election, is now under investigation. The ROC government is probing the vast wealth of the party, one of the wealthiest in the world. The BBC reports that the investigation is centering on property taken from the Japanese at the end of World War II. The Nationalists took much of the property for themselves, rather than hand it over to the government. This has made the party a major economic player, with a net worth of $1-10 billion. The probe comes two months before elections for the Legislative Yuan (Parliament), leading the party to claim the probe was a political stunt by President Chen Shui-bian, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party. MAINLAND VISA RESTRICTIONS LOOSENED The ROC government announced a loosening of restrictions on visas for visitors from the mainland. Visa application waiting periods will shrink from two months to five days. Source: Los Angeles Times Hong Kong was quiet this week. TIBET NEWS COMMUNISTS SAY ARRESTED PANCHEN LAMA LIVING �A NORMAL LIFE� Communist China announced to the world that the Tibetan Panchen Lama, a now 12-year-old boy arrested in 1995 at age six, is living �a normal life.� The Communists arrested the boy just after the Dalai Lama confirmed him as the Panchen Lama, according to the BBC. Beijing had given no word of the boy�s whereabouts for years; human rights groups call him �the world's youngest political prisoner.� |