Recent Coverage in Review

Here are external links to the latest coverage about activism from this quarter:

Association for Asian Research published the article I co-wrote with the Free China Movement and NoManZero:
http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2905.html

Epoch Times published the speech by D.J. McGuire, given July 21 to a rally opposite the White House:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-7-26/44263.html

And, the wider story about the rally including other speakers is here:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-7-26/44283.html

Singapore must be liberated

Another day, another regime change suggestion. In my Messages Of The Week, I noted that Iceland, France, and Russia have all been involved in extending Falun Gong persecution to their lands outside of China. I did not go so far as to suggest "liberation" for Iceland, France, and Russia, but I've dubbed them an "Axis of Shame."

Singapore is another nominee for the "Axis of Shame." Reasons why are detailed in this Epoch Times article:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-7-18/44014.html

It's not the first time that Singapore has run afoul of Falun Gong and the China Support Network. In fact, I've called for regime change there before; see below.

REPRINT OF EARLIER MATERIAL--

May 2, 2005 (CSN) -- How would you like to be thrown in jail, simply for leafleting (handing out free flyers and CDs) in a public park? To those who live in freedom, the thought seems outrageous. Likewise, for those who understand the information revolution, we know that similar things are downloaded, from millions of points to millions of users, every day. Should governments stand against the tide of information dissemination?

Free speech, and the information explosion, seem to be new ideas to the government of Singapore, where their recent treatment of two women of Falun Gong seems like a throwback to the middle ages. A flap and controversy now centers around two women, Ms. Ng Chye Huay and Ms. Cheng Lujin. The seven charges from Singapore include "Assembly without a Permit," and "Possession and Distribution of VCDs without a Certificate."

This, in a nation which purportedly follows the rule of law and has Constitutional protections for religious freedom, free speech, and freedom of assembly.

It should embarrass the government of Singapore to run afoul of Falun Gong, and sympathy protests have occurred in Taiwan, the US, and the UK. "Falun Gong protests, while always peaceful and orderly, are also relentless and brook no persecution," noted John Patrick, Director emeritus at the China Support Network.

Their arrest was in May, 2004, and their verdict, rendered April 27, 2005, ordered the women to pay $20,000 and $24,000 (Singapore dollars) respectively. (Those amounts in US dollars are $12,216 and $14,660, respectively.) They were also denied bail, a procedure that should have kept them free pending appeal. They were sent directly to jail, to remain prospectively up to 24 weeks. The two women have begun a hunger strike in prison, and in Singapore, "refusing to eat" is another charge that they are being slapped with under the Prisons Act.

A Singapore resident in New York expressed astonishment. "The laws don't exist to punish people for doing something good. The courts have better things to do than treat [Falun Gong] practitioners as criminals," said Elaise Poh, as reported in the Epoch Times. Human rights attorney Terri Marsh said, "The crimes that require redress are those perpetrated by the CCP in China," referring to the human rights atrocities that China visits upon Falun Gong practitioners and many other non-communist groups in Mainland China. "Marsh believes the court ruling may have been influenced by Chinese authorities in order to obscure the issue of who the real criminals are, namely, the CCP," per the Epoch Times.

CSN's John Patrick noted, "In light of the constitutional protections and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this becomes a human rights case." The President of Singapore, and four United Nations offices, are already being pressed on the case, through a human rights working group of Falun Gong. Patrick predicted, "The right side of history will prevail, and Singapore should feel ashamed by its authorities' pandering to Communists."
===================================
ANOTHER REPRINT FROM 3 DAYS LATER--

Singapore releases women

May 5, 2005 (CSN) -- The outrage of the week has been last Wednesday's move by a judge in Singapore, to jail two women who had passed out free literature in a public park -- "clarifying the truth" about China's brutal crackdown and persecution against Falun Gong. After a week of incarceration, the two women were released on Tuesday. This was not accompanied by a government statement, even though Singapore should acknowledge and recognize that they violated these women's human rights -- and the judge should apologize.

No such circumstances surrounded the release, though the case became high profile as Falun Gong spotlighted this matter around the world -- bringing to bear a full court press of attention and activism. No, Ms. Cheng Lujin and Ms. Ng Chye Huay were released, because their families paid the exorbitant fines on their behalf. (They were fined $12,216 and $14,660, respectively.) Both women had been refusing to pay these fines, and they continue to want the government to return the fine money. At the China Support Network, Director emeritus John Patrick agreed wholeheartedly. "This leads me to [favor] a regime change in Singapore. I will change my position on that only if and when the government returns that money. I suppose I'm short of sympathy for Communist toadies who perpetrate outrages. My patience [with them] is long since gone."

Is the key to peace in Iraq a war in Syria?

I know you didn't want me to do this, Curry, but as I'm looking for as much feedback as I could on this question, I decided to risk your wrath.

"North Korea confronted the U.S. in an effort to please Beijing."

That's the viewpoint of one analyst regarding the Stalinist North Korea's Projectile Dysfunction; the latest hypothesis on Communist China's encouragement of SNK's threats against Japan is also a must read (third and second items, respectively).

Syria

I call for its liberation here.

Journalists arrested, Kim Jong-il protected . . .

. . . business as usual for the CCP today.

News of the Day returns!

Things are back to normal.

Stand with India against terrorism and Chinese Communism

A few more words (OK, a good deal more) on my reaction to the India bombings.

Mumbai (Bombay) mourning

Today's China e-Lobby post was to be much more extensive, until a data screw-up junked most of the source links. Then again, perhaps there is a method to the madness, for it will likely force more attention on the terrorist attack in India today - likely committed by terrorists in Pakistan. Lest anyone forget, the Pakistani dictatorship has a long history of two things: support for Islamic terrorists (seventh and lead items), and a fifty-year-plus alliance with you-know-whom. In the meantime, yours truly joins those who mourn the dead, pray for the injured, and stand with the Indian people.

Remembering Iran's solemn day

From the beginning of today's News of the Day:

This Sunday, June 9, is the seventh anniversary of the nationwide anti-Khomeinist student protests in Iran. In their honor, here are some reminders of why we must help the Iranian people take their country back from the Communist-backed mullahcracy.

Kilgour-Matas report on Communist organ harvesting

Here are the links.

Here's the money quote: "Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that theallegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

Cross-posted to China e-Lobby

Some good news on the DIA-spy-case front

Lonnie Henley, the high-ranking intelligence officer who publicly came to the defense of Ronald Montaperto is now under investigation himself. While using the he-didn't-spy-that-much defense is stupid on its own, saying it as an intelligence official in the midst of an espionage investigation is breathtaking in its gall. It's good to see the intelligence community deciding this is worth a hard look.

Handling North Korea

I quite agree with D.J. McGuire, that North Korea must be liberated. But as for how to handle it, were I George W. Bush, I might now be enunciating five words for Kim Jong Il: "Treachery will get you nowhere." If any offers were on the table for North Korea, it is time to take those offers off the table.

Three years ago in April'03, I authored, with Majer Zhou, our article, "Just say 'no' to North Korea." The idea was that there should be no reward for nuclear blackmail -- taxpayers in the free world should not be tapped to give Kim Jong Il a bonus for bad behavior. As a result, "treachery will get you nowhere" is rooted in the same idea. This article is consistent with the earlier one.

The earlier article advised against military action against North Korea, and in part that was said in order to buy time for National Missile Defense (NMD) to become operational. If the U.S. is able to shoot down North Korean missiles, then a military action becomes viable, while such action should be out of the question if NMD is not ready.

At this time, I still would not reach for military action as a first resort. Now is a good time to reinforce Japan, reinforce South Korea, and reinforce Taiwan. Now is a good time to increase support for North Korean political dissidents, their programs, and anti-communist efforts globally (yes, including the China Support Network). Also, now is a good time to prioritize North Korean refugees, putting more attention on their issues, efforting solutions in the international community, and even spending a little more for refugee camps (to save them from the dangers of starvation and ill health). Attention in the mass media on this would be good. Why are these refugees there? --The answers to that question would be the deprivations of the Kim Jong Il regime. The answers to that question are the major points that political dissidents attempt to make. (And above, I also suggested more for dissidents, and yes that means attention in the mass media as well as funding.)

And of course, under good policy that I would follow, Kim Jong Il would hear a large crashing sound from outside his window: The collapse of the Communist Party in China. When that goes down, then it will be possible to *completely* pull the plug on the North Korean regime (unless bleeding hearts in South Korea move in the reverse direction, plugging in the regime).

It's a shame that George W. Bush doesn't take suggestions coming from here. Policies towards North Korea, China, and Vietnam all need adjustment. Above, you've read my North Korea suggestions, which are consistent and compatible with my China and Vietnam suggestions. Would that all three policies became adjusted! --The Bush foreign policy of the 'Bush Doctrine' that was announced in Inaugural II is a good one in its words (freedom for all), but it is not followed up by way of deeds. That makes the Bush Doctrine into a toothless piece of convenient lip service, expedient for the purposes of good White House PR, and yet a false and hollow promise for the world's people. Asia is the region that still has the tyranny, but has lacked the attention from policy makers while they all focused on the Middle East. Asian people are people too! The imperative for freedom knows no exceptions. Efforts for freedom in Asia need to be more than just speeches and lip service.

We need a consistent policy about Asian dictatorships. Asian dictatorships are a bad thing, and we should oppose them!

North Korea must be liberated

Here's why.

What the "engagement" crowd will do

Sometimes, one wonders whether the "engagement" crowd is willing to acknowledge the threat from Communist China if the facts are put in front of them. After all, one would like to believe that people are flexible and reasonable enough to recognize when they are wrong about something (as I did when I abondoned "engagement" in the 1990s).

Then you see soemthing like this, and it's hard to avoid despondency.

Independence Day

Today, Jim Davin (CSN Intern) and I went down to the National Mall to hand out information about China during the Independence day parade. We left my house at 9 am with 6 boxes of flyers about organ harvesting in China. At the parade site, we met up with some Falun Gong practitioners and gave them most of the boxes so that they could hand out information. Then we hit the street. Things were quite well arranged. Right next to where we parked, there were thousands of Vietnam Pilot Vets. I went up to each of them and thanked and then gave them a copy of the Nine Commentaries. They were surprised that anyone would actually go up to them and thank them, so they were quite receptive to taking a many page report, in spit of some suggestion that no one would want to read such a long document at the parade.

Meanwhile, Jim was getting his sea legs. At first, he wasn't sure what to say, but I gave him some simple phrases, such as "Human Rights in China" or "Freedom in China" and "Please read this." At first when the rejection level was high for him, he was ready to head back, but then as his righteous thoughts strengthened, and his confidence gained, he kept on surprising me, by seeing, "Just 10 more minutes." That process went on for maybe an hour. I was quite proud of him.

We probably went through almost a bankers box of flyers. There were so many people there, just waiting in line to get in, and once the momentum set in, no one would refuse a flyer from me. I was also handing out flyers for New Tang Dynasty TV's Chinese New Celebration. I had a lot of fun talking about it, and kept on encouraging people to take their friends, their family, their whole school.

In total, we were there for about 4 hours handing out flyers. I am quite glad that we had a chance to let people know about freedom in China on this day when America is celebrating it's own freedom.

Going further in this vein

For anyone interested in a more detailed account of why Europe's hypocrisy on the Uighurs has me so upset, here it is.

European Elite Hypocrisy - Too much to handle

The big story here in the U.S. is the Supreme Court's decision effectively invalidating the military-tribunal process the Bush Administration uses for enemy combatants in the War on Terror. This has naturally led to an orgy of "coverage" on the American military's terrorist prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Now, CSN has no official position on "Gitmo," for the obvious reason that it would be impossible for us to hammer one out (yours truly finds it imperfect but necessary, I'm guessing John and Demetrius have no use for it at all, and I don't know where Curry stands). That said, someone has to speak out about the hypocritical reaction of many European elites to this issue.

Plenty of them have wailed and gnashed their teeth over the existence of the prison, so one would expect that when the United States finds several detainees that are in fact not threats to the civilized world, but can't be returned "home" because their homeland (say, East Turkestan) is occupied by a vicious, brutal dictatorship (say, the Chinese Communist Party), these "betters" of European society would be more than willing to agree to American requests to take these poor souls in, right? Wrong (third item).

So forgive me if I sound harsh, but the next time a European critic of Guantanamo opens his or her mouth, they should be reminded of their rank hypocrisy on this issue (Albania excepted: see fifth, third, third, fifth, and second items).