America's Future Update on China

Update on China's Censorship

Microsoft Corp. has shut down a popular Chinese-language blog that has published content Chinese authorities claim is offensive. The blog, written by Chinese journalist Zhao Jing under the pen name Michael Anti, had criticized the government's firing of two editors at a Beijing newspaper in December. Those trying to access the site from inside and outside China now receive a notice that "the space is temporarily unavailable." This crackdown is part of China's ongoing efforts to control information on the Internet. China's censorship standards are among the most comprehensive in the world, approached only by Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. WallStreet Journal, 1-6-06

Cai Zhuohua, an underground church leader, was sentenced to three years in prison for distributing Bibles and other Christian materials. His wife was sentenced to two years in prison and her brother 18 months. Friends of Falun Gong, a religious movement disapproved by the government, say that 100,000 of its adherents have been detained, 20,000 sent to labor camps without trial, and 250 died from torture and beating while in prison. Washington Times, 11-9-05

Update on Trade with China

China has displayed a model car that will soon be exported to the United States. The Chinese auto workers are paid $3.50 per hour (without benefits, of course). (CBS-TV News, 1-6-06)

Communist China has developed a profitable industry that is shocking the world, but raises few eyebrows in China. A Chinese company called Transplants International is marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from executed prisoners. Operations are carried out at Guangzhou Air Force Military Hospital by doctors affiliated with Sun Yat-sen Southern University. Thousands of these transplant operations are conducted every year, all in military hospitals which have access to the police and therefore ready access to organs available from execution sites. Recipients are from Asian countries and Saudi Arabia. Foreigners are guaranteed an organ within two weeks. The company plans to charge Western patients $40,000 for a kidney, of which $15,000 goes to the middleman and the rest to the hospital.

The British magazine Hospital Doctor reported Dec. 8 that the firm is trying to recruit British patients, but so far has not found a British buyer. Washington Times, 12-26-05

Update on National Security

The North Korean government's mass counterfeiting began on a large scale 25 years ago at a mountain in the North Korean capital. A former North Korean chemist who drew the design says that a team of experts was hired to make fake U.S. $100 bills with equipment from Japan, paper from Hong Kong, and ink from France. The bills were printed in sheets of 30 bills each and are virtually indistinguishable from U.S. currency. The bills have shown up all over the world. U.S. authorities have been working on this case for 15 years and only now are revealing the extensive criminal network involving North Korean diplomats and officials, Chinese gangsters, organized crime syndicates, prominent Asian banks, and an alleged ex-KGB agent. Los Angeles Times, 12-12-05

The Bush Administration has sanctioned six Chinese companies for selling missile goods and chemical-arms materials to Iran. The penalties bar the companies from doing business with the U.S. government and prohibit U.S. firms from obtaining export licenses to sell sensitive products to these companies. Washington Times, 12-27-05