Update on National Security
China’s space shots are seen as a warning for the West. China has joined the elite club of America and Russia as the only three powers to have undertaken manned space exploration. Astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the earth 14 times in 21 hours on Oct 15, 2003. China is planning to set up a base on the Moon. The Telegraph [London], 10-19-03
U.S. defense officials said China’s spacecraft carried an infra-red camera with a resolution of 1.6 meters and conducted photographic spying. This technology highlights China’s plans to use space as a battlefield, with weapons such as satellite-killing missiles, as well as satellites and lasers, that can disable U.S. military and intelligence satellites. Chinese commentary reported the space shot with nationalistic pride. China Reform Monitor, No. 516, 10-21-03
At the launch site, China’s Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jinto said: "I hope all comrades on the space industry front . . . will conscientiously carry forward the ‘two bombs and one satellite’ spirit." He called on the crowd "to seize new victories . . . for national defense." When U.S. House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) was asked whether Americans should see China’s space program as a military threat, he said, "Absolutely." Human Events, 10-27-03
Update on Human Rights
Nostalgia for Mao Tse-tung, one of the world’s all-time champion murderers, is sweeping the country. His grandson, who "worships" his late grandfather, is promoting his biography of Mao as the country celebrates the 110th anniversary of his birth. Young Chinese are buying up Mao memorabilia. The official view in China is that Mao’s policies were "70% correct," and his political theories are a compulsory course at Chinese universities. Washington Times, 1-5-04
Dr. Charles Lee, a U.S. citizen holding a U.S. passport, has been subjected to daily brainwashing sessions in a Chinese prison, ac-cording to information provided to his fiancé by a U.S. consulate official in Shanghai. Lee is visited every day by a top Communist Party official who tries to "transform" him into a tool the government can use to eradicate Falun Gong. http://www.faluninfo.net, 11-14-03
125 Christian meeting halls in China have been shut, cutting off 3,000 believers from their places of worship. The makeshift churches in Jiangsu province were ordered closed by local officials to crack down on what they call underground religious activities. China allows religious worship only in state-sponsored churches, temples and mosques. Associated Press, 11-20-03
Update on Space Plans
Simon & Schuster, the U.S. publisher of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s memoirs, withdrew rights for the Chinese translation because the Chinese censored her references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests and altered her comments about human rights activist Harry Wu. Simon & Schuster posted the original versions of the censored sections on its website. Associated Press, 12-24-03
After six months of debate be-hind closed doors, on Dec. 21 China’s national legislature amended the Constitution to say that "private property obtained legally shall not be violated." This is the first time the Communist Party ever for-mally recognized any right to private property since taking power 55 years ago. However the phrase "obtained legally" still makes the Communist Party the arbiter of property rights and maintains government control over businessmen who fall out of favor. New York Times, 12-23-03
China announced a new bail-out of its big banks on Jan. 6, transferring $45 billion from its foreign exchange reserves to two of the four big government-owned banks. This is the third large bailout in the past six years. Years of poor credit decisions have saddled China’s four big state-owned banks with a high percentage of bad loans. New York Times, 1-7-04
|
