The China Chronicles

Update on China Stealing Body Parts

Communist China has a policy of executing prisoners, especially of the forbidden quasi-Buddhist group Falun Gong, in order to harvest their body organs for worldwide sale. This policy has now been expanded to include Tibetans, "house church" Christians, and Muslin Uighurs. In a news conference on Washington, DC's Capitol Hill, several speakers said their investigations have uncovered a grisly trade in which an estimated 9,000 Falun Gong members have been executed in order to sell their corneas, lungs, livers, kidneys, and skins.

This practice is very profitable to Communist China's government. Organs from just one person can bring $100,000 on the worldwide market. Although the practice of harvesting organs from prisoners was documented back in 1992 by dissident Harry Wu, Chinese Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu acknowledged in 2005 that 95% of all transplanted organs come from executions.

It is estimated that 450,000 to 1 million Falun Gong members are in prison at any given time. The estimated membership in China of Falun Gong is over 70 million. Its philosophies incorporate ideas from Buddhism and Taoism and include slow-motion meditative exercises on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Washington Times, May 3, 2010

Update on China's Money Policy

A recent New York Times editorial titled "Will China Listen?" explained China's currency policy. China bases its economic growth on exporting deliberately undervalued goods, and that creates huge trade deficits in the United States and Europe, and threatening economies all over the world.

President Obama vowed in February to "get much tougher" about China's cheap currency, and 130 members of Congress sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanding that Obama designate China as a currency manipulator. So far, China has been defiant. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao rejected U.S. complaints as "a kind of trade protectionism" and made clear that China has no plan to do anything differently. China has warned that if the U.S. presses about this, China could retaliate by dumping U.S. Treasury bills from their central bank's holding of $2.4 trillion.

Since 2003, China has been buying huge amounts of dollars to keep the value of the renminbi artificially low against the dollar. This is exactly the sort of devaluation forbidden by the International Monetary Fund's charter. The New York Times' recommendation is for the U.S. to try to get other countries to start asking China to play fair. March 17, 2010

Update on China's Version of Free Trade

Millions of tons of Chinese drywall, or gypsum board, were imported into the U.S. during the building boom from 2004 through 2007. Thousands of homeowners discovered that the drywall installed in their new homes corroded metals, ruining copper plumbing, air conditioning, ventilation units, insulation, electrical wiring, and even flooring. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that Chinese drywall emits hydrogen sulfide, a flammable gas with such an offensive rotten-egg smell that people were forced to move out of their homes. Thousands of Americans have filed lawsuits. A federal court in New Orleans just awarded $2.6 million in damages to 7 Virginia families who sued Taishan Gypsum Company, one of the Chinese state-owned drywall manufacturers. Other lawsuits are pending. However, no Chinese manufacturer has admitted responsibility and probably will deny or evade any court order for damages. Good luck to the people trying to collect restitution from Communist China.

Communist China has imposed a second set of import tariffs on U.S. chicken products. U.S. companies face import duties ranging from 3.8% to 31.4%, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. Wall Street Journal, 4-29-10