February 6, 2010 | Posted by admin
The Epoch Times
By Fu Ming & Zhu Jiaqi
Sound Of Hope Network
A new regulation titled Ordinance of House Collection and Compensation on State-Owned Land (Draft For Feedback Collection) was announced on Jan. 29. The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council is under criticism because people believe that the new laws, rather than preventing unlawful forced demolitions, legalize them.
Liu Feiyue, human rights activist in Hubei Province, pointed out that the regulations now include business-related forced demolitions, providing a legitimate excuse for business development/relocation. “The new regulations are supposed to focus on collecting state lands for the public welfare. Including the business sector is in reality a silent approval for forced demolition due to business needs.” Liu believes house demolition for business needs should be strictly regulated by the market.
Liu also remarked that in an autocratic country like China, the new laws are hard to enforce. “Officials hold absolute power, which makes the execution of the laws impossible. We are concerned that the new regulations will not force the local governments that collude with businesses to give up their vested interests.” more …
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February 6, 2010 | Posted by admin
Epoch Times
By Zhong Yuan
TAIPEI, Taiwan–Chinese human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng disappeared a year ago. A group of Taiwanese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gathered for a press conference to support Mr. Gao and to condemn the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for their flagrant disregard of human rights
Gao had previously been arrested and tortured in China for defending the rights of those persecuted for their religious beliefs, including adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
After his arrest and disappearance on Feb. 4, 2009, the first report to surface was a statement by a policeman to his brother, Gao Zhiyi, that “Gao Zhisheng lost his way and went missing in September 2009.”
At the National Taiwan University Alumni Club in Taipei, NGO leaders met on Feb. 3 to publicly call on the Chinese regime to reveal Mr. Gao’s whereabouts. They appealed for Gao’s lawyer and his family members to be able to visit him.
Those present at the press conference included attorney Yong-cheng Kao, representative of the Human Rights Protection Committee of the Taipei Bar Association; Ku Li-hsiung, chairman of the Judicial Reform Foundation; Tsai Chi-hsun, secretary-general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights; and others. more …
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February 6, 2010 | Posted by admin
Tehran News
February 6, 2010
By Arab News
It is not easy to understand why China is apparently prepared to confront the United States at this time on the two issues — arms for Taiwan and Obama’s plans to meet with exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama. Washington has been selling armaments to Taiwan for 61 years since the communists drove the old Kuomintang government from the mainland onto the offshore island then known as Formosa. The Americans are also trying to find some sort of settlement between the Tibetan exiles and Beijing, which seized control of Tibet in 1950.
The $6.4 billion arms deal, involving defensive missiles and helicopters for Taiwan hardly alters the balance of power. Taiwanese investors have become increasingly involved in China’s economic boom, transferring technology as well as cash. The government in Taipei has no interest in threatening its mighty neighbor, with whom it now shares the goal of ever-greater prosperity. Moreover, on Tibet, the Dalai Lama has been consistent in his disapproval of violence and his insistence on a peaceful settlement for Tibet.
China’s political role on the world stage still needs to catch up with its burgeoning economic power. The vision until now has been overwhelmingly pragmatic — dominated by trade and the country’s voracious appetite for raw materials. Thus to the fury of the West, it has been prepared to deal with any state. It has also demonstrated a firm opposition to sanctions motivated by political considerations of Washington. By and large its international behavior has been consistent and predictable. But this needs to evolve. The big question is how Beijing chooses to engage more fully in international affairs.
Thus far its major problem is that it has been reactive rather than proactive. Outside criticism of its human rights — Google’s end to its search engine filters being only the latest manifestation, irks the Chinese government, as does the lofty Western presumption that every state should be driving toward full representative democracy. more …
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February 6, 2010 | Posted by admin
The Christian Science Monitor
Michaela Rehle/REUTERS
By Robert Marquand Staff writer / February 5, 2010
Munich, Germany
Today Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi, speaking with unusual bluntness in front of 300 leading diplomats – including senior US officials – here in Munich publicly stated that China is getting stronger on the international stage. He said the US was violating international law by a proposed arms sale to Taiwan, offered that China’s TV and radio news service contains “more solid” and reliable news than Western media, and that China is not ready to address sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program, stating instead that the Islamic Republic “has not totally closed the door on the IAEA.”
Transatlantic – meet the Pacific.
Foreign Minister Yang is the first Chinese official to speak at the annual Munich Security Conference, the premier transatlantic security meeting, in its 46 year history. He turned heads in the group at a time when the People’s Republic and the US have come to loggerheads over Taiwan arms sales, Internet freedom, currency rates, and climate policy coming out of the Copenhagen meeting in December.
“I haven’t heard a high-ranking Chinese official say, ‘Yes, we are strong,’ in a public setting before,” said a senior German diplomat. “It was a very assertive message, different, and it means we will soon see a different Chinese policy.”
Mr. Yang, a former ambassador to the US and highly respected, gave a somewhat conventional speech – though in a strong voice. He affirmed that China is both a developed and a developing country, that it seeks “win-win solutions,” and that it is preparing for greater “shared responsibilities” on the world stage – and that it played a transformative role in helping avert a global financial crisis in the past year.
Yet during three probing follow-up questions, Yang mopped his brow repeatedly in answering on Taiwan, cyberspace, and China’s position on Iran’s nuclear program, which he earlier admitted was “at a crucial stage.”
“Does China feel stronger? Yes,” he said as questions opened. more …
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February 5, 2010 | Posted by admin
It is in my opinion, that it is imperative that the United States not give in to the bullying tactics of Communist China. Notice I said “Communist China”? Let no one forget that Communist China is still one of the most repressive dictatorial governments in the world.
Communist China’s latest bullying tactics are akin to economic war. Sadly, the United States, my country, put itself in this position because of the lust for more and more low-priced gadgets and toys and larger and larger corporate profits. All at the loss of hundreds or thousands of American jobs.
The US won a major war over 250 years ago. The war against England for our independence. England was then deploying similar tactics against the US. Thousands of men did not shed their blood then so that now the US could cow-tow to the bullying of Communist China. We won that war and we’ll win this one.
I understand that major companies may sacrifice great revenues if they are forbidden to sell and do business in Communist China. In war, we all have to make sacrifices. The overwhelming lust for revenue and profit should not come at the expense of America’s heritage and national honor. I also understand the desire for cheap gadgets and electronic toys. After all, if it weren’t for the low price, most of us wouldn’t own a new flat screen HDTV today.
But I urge my fellow Americans to buckle down and show Communist China that we will not simply bend over to their bullying tactics. We must show them who truly is the super power in the world.
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February 5, 2010 | Posted by admin
Reuters
Feb 5, 2010
MUNICH (Reuters) – China is indignant about new U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and its opposition to them is “very reasonable,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Friday.
China has said it will impose unspecified sanctions on U.S. firms selling weapons to Taiwan in retaliation for the U.S. announcement that it planned to sell $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.
“The Chinese government and people feel indignant about this,” Yang told a security conference in Germany. “I do hope the U.S. will change its behavior … and will stop arms sales to Taiwan.”
“What China has done is very reasonable and what any dignified people would do,” he added.
Beijing has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT fled to the island.
China has threatened to attack if Taiwan tries to formalize its de facto independence. more …
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February 4, 2010 | Posted by admin
Reuters
Feb 4, 2010
Chris Buckley – Analysis
BEIJING
BEIJING (Reuters) – “Ride on a tiger and it’s hard to climb down,” goes a Chinese saying that is proving apt for Beijing’s quarrels with Washington this year, when swollen ambitions at home are driving China on a harder tack abroad.
Barack Obama | China | COP15
China’s outrage over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and President Barack Obama’s planned meeting with the Dalai Lama has shown that, in the wake of the global financial crisis, Beijing is growing pushier in public.
In past decades, a poorer, more cautious China greeted U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island with angry words and little else.
Not now, as China enters the Year of the Tiger in its traditional lunar calendar cycle of talismanic animals.
The Obama administration last week announced plans to ship $6.4 billion of missiles, helicopters and weapons control systems to the self-ruled island Beijing calls its own. China threatened to downgrade cooperation with Washington and for the first time sanction companies involved in such sales.
Beijing this week also condemned Obama’s plan to meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader reviled by China.
China’s loud ire adds to signs the country is becoming surer about throwing around its political weight, growing along with an economy soon likely to whir past Japan’s as the world’s second biggest, though it will still trail far behind the United States.
Behind this assertiveness are domestic pressures likely to make it harder work for China’s leaders to cool disputes with Washington and other Western capitals.
“There is this paradox of increasing confidence externally and lack of confidence domestically,” said Susan Shirk, a professor specializing in Chinese foreign policy at the University of California, San Diego.
“There’s also what I consider a serious misperception of the country’s economic strength and how that translates in power.” more ….
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February 3, 2010 | Posted by admin
amtrak.com
Feb 3, 2010
By Chris Buckley and Doug Palmer
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama still plans to meet the Dalai Lama, the White House said on Tuesday, despite China’s warning that such a meeting would hurt ties already strained by U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.
Digging in on two points of discord, China vowed to impose unspecified sanctions against U.S. companies selling arms to Taiwan and said any meeting between Obama and the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader would hurt bilateral ties.
The White House shrugged off Beijing’s warning.
“The president told China’s leaders during his trip last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama and he intends to do so,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling with Obama to New Hampshire.
“We expect that our relationship with China is mature enough where we can work on areas of mutual concern such as climate, the global economy and non-proliferation and discuss frankly and candidly those areas where we disagree.”
China has become increasingly vocal in opposing meetings between foreign leaders and the Dalai Lama, who Beijing deems a dangerous separatist. A meeting between the Tibetan leader and Obama would raise tensions between the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies. more …
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February 2, 2010 | Posted by admin
Reuters
Feb 2, 2010
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Foreign Ministry warned on Tuesday against giving a Nobel Peace Prize to leading jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, a nomination made by the U.S. chapter of rights group International Pen.
A Chinese court jailed Liu, a prominent critic of Communist Party rule, for 11 years on Christmas Day on a subversion charge after he co-authored Charter 08, a petition calling for broad political and democratic reforms.
Pen American Centre president Kwame Anthony Appiah last week sent a nomination for Liu to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, noting his “distinguished and principled leadership in the area of human and political rights and freedom of expression”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said it would be a mistake to give Liu such an award.
“If the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to such a person, it is obvious that it is totally wrong,” Ma told a regular news briefing in Beijing, without elaborating.
Liu is a member of the Chinese chapter of Pen, which campaigns for freedom of expression. more …
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February 2, 2010 | Posted by admin
Over the past 15 years now, I have warned about America becoming too dependent on Communist China. I have warned that one day it would bite us in the ass. Well, I hate to say “I told you so”; but that’s exactly whats happened now.
Before I continue I think a history lesson is in order. In 1911 the Emperor of China was overthrown by a democratic regime. After thousands of years of tyrannical rule by emperors, the people of China finally had a democratic republic. It was known as the “Republic of China” (ROC).
After some years, a group of rag tag communists, led by rebel Mao ZeDong, began to set the stage to overthrow the democratic ROC. To make a long story short, the USA was not in the mood to engage in any more military conflicts after WWII. So it did not intervene to aide the ROC fight off the Communist rebels (we did in Korea, however).
About 1947 the Communist rebels had strengthened in numbers and the tide of the civil war was in their favor. Many of the military and the government of the ROC retreated to an island then named Formosa. From then until 1971, the world recognized Formosa as the seat of government for the ROC and China. Indeed, the ROC was one of the founding members of the United Nations. However, in 1979 the UN voted to recognize The People’s Republic of China (Communist mainland China) as the UN representative of China. Not The ROC. This included the US severing formal diplomatic relations with the ROC in Formosa.
In return for this dirty deed, the US passed a law in Congress known as the Taiwan Relations Act. The act, basically, says that the US will provide Taiwan with weapons and other measures to help defend itself from the mainland, Communist, People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Why do they need to defend themselves from the PRC? Because Communist China has pledged to take Taiwan, against it’s will and by force if necessary. Interestingly enough, the US official policy is that they believe in a “One China”. Presumably, that means a reconciliation of Taiwan and Communist China.
Why on earth would any civilized government want a free and democratic nation to become a part of Communist China? Yet the USA, my government, continues to nudge Taiwan towards that end. Even though our government’s policy is that all people should enjoy a free and democratic government. Their policy certainly smells of hypocrisy. Check out this link which shows more hypocrisy on the part of our government…
China asserts they they own Taiwan. This is as far from the truth as one can get. Taiwan was legally ceded to Japan by the last Emperor of China. When the Japanese surrendered at the end of WWII, the US government appointed the ROC in Taiwan to host the signing of some of the surrender documents and to handle the surrendering Japanese soldiers who occupied Taiwan. Since Taiwan was actually legally owned by the Japanese, there was no disposition of Taiwan then or now. Under international law, the island of Taiwan is actually under the control of the US government. A fact that the US clearly doesn’t advertise nor enforce.
Communist China has over 900 missiles aimed at Taiwan. It has also made it clear that it will take Taiwan by force if necessary. The Taiwan Relations Act does state the following: hat section of the law concludes by saying that the United States will “maintain the capacity … to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system of the people on Taiwan.” Let’s hope when the day comes that the US will keep that promise in the law.
In my opinion, the real reason that the US dropped recognition of the ROC in favor of the PRC was to satisfy US-based, multinational corporations who want to make a killing in China economically. This all happened shortly before Deng Xiaoping, Communist China’s No. 1 man, declared that capitalism was not bad. He met with then president Jimmy Carter in 1979. From that point to today, US multinational companies have closed their manufacturing plants in America with the loss of thousands of American jobs. They also began selling to China in a greed fest of unimaginable proportions. In my opinion, most multinational companies have no allegiance to their homeland. Only to the almighty buck.
So I leave you with the thought that the US government wants the Taiwan quagmire to just go away so they can continue to borrow Billions of dollars from Communist China. The multinational companies also want the problem to go away. So they just want 32 million free and independent Taiwanese quietly join the dictatorial, Communist mainland of China. If it were a Taiwan citizen, would you want that? I think not!
This web site is blocked in China by their state owned Internet firewall. Unlike the people of Communist China, your thoughts and comments are always welcome.
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