China Has Come Full Circle': Former Top Official

Here is the latest attempt from Communist China to protect their harmonious society image. It looks good on paper!

Bao Tong gives a rare television interview.

RFA: 2007.03.17 - China's socialist politics have turned full circle with the advent of new property legislation, leaving the country "back where it started," a former top Communist Party official has said.

Bao Tong, former secretary to disgraced late premier Zhao Ziyang, said the law protecting private property rights, passed by China's parliament Friday, represented the "final bankruptcy" of Mao Zedong's brand of Chinese communism.

"It means the final bankruptcy of the theories and policies of the 'transitional stage' of socialism proposed by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1953," wrote Bao in an essay broadcast Friday on RFA's Mandarin service.

"It means that after repeated twists and turns for more than half a century, China has finally come full circle. Back to where it started."

History must be rewritten

China's contemporary history must effectively be rewritten, Bao said, because the first half of the communist movement in China had taken the abolition of private property as its central principle.

"The result was the blatant plunder of private property in the name of the nation and the people, and the loss of any stable basis for the continuance of socialism, throwing the entire country into a continual process of upheaval," Bao said.

He said the 40 million who died in the civil war, and the other 40 million who lost their lives in the famine of the Great Leap Forward (1958) and the violence of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) were a "high tuition fee paid in blood" for this history lesson.

Rampant corruption

"The second half of this circle was marked by the silent cries of ordinary Chinese citizens amid the bloodshed and horror of the 1989 massacre," Bao said, adding that the era of market-driven economics also paved the way for an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

"Those with houses close to the water saw the moon first, with an increase in both prosperity levels, and in corruption," Bao said.

"We saw the creation of millionaires, multi-millionaires, and billionaires. We saw a lot of people get rich quickly at township, county, city, provincial, and national levels."

Bao said it was too soon to judge whether the property law would have any effect on massive official corruption, by protecting the rights of individuals in their everyday lives, where they frequently face land-grabs from local officials keen to cash in on lucrative property deals.

"Some people have advanced the view that having a law is better than not having one. But I wonder what sort of effect it can possibly have, for good or ill, in real life. I wouldn't want to speak too soon," he said.

Original essay by Bao Tong, broadcast exclusively on RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written in English for the Web by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Olympics pose a unique dilemma: Taiwan

Peng Ming-min, a former adviser to the president, is sure to get everybody thinking. To be or not to be? They have 499 days left to make up their mind as to what to do about the Olympics. I sure hope they will show their strength and make the right choice.

Taipei Times: Thursday, Mar 15, 2007, Page 8 - As the excitement over next year's presidential election rises, I am wondering how many people have considered the fact that the nation will have to make a major choice after that election. On the world stage, before the eyes of billions of people, Taiwan must define its position clearly: is it part of China or is it a free and independent state? The decision will be of far-reaching and irreversible significance and have equally far-reaching and irreversible consequences.

China is working hard to prepare for next year's Beijing Olympics. Without thinking twice about sacrificing agricultural, industrial or local construction or the welfare of farmers and workers, China is investing tens of billions of US dollars in the destruction of historical sites and old residential areas to widen roads and build skyscrapers and public toilets. Beijing residents, taxi drivers and restaurant and tourism staff as well as other professions in the service industries are being instructed to learn the English language and Western etiquette. Even spitting is being banned.

While terrorists, dissidents and human rights groups will be stopped, Beijing is also taking the opportunity to reveal government neglect of human rights and anything else one can think of just to hold up China's new image as a civilized society to the tens of thousands of participating athletes and tourists who will visit the country, with foreign reporters a particular focus.

The Olympics have in recent years become increasingly political as less developed countries use them to show their progress while authoritarian states want to prove their political legitimacy and national strength. China's motives for wanting to hold the Olympic Games are comparable to Nazi Germany's motivation for organizing the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It has been said that excessive German pride over the Olympic success was one of the factors behind its invasions of neighboring countries and World War II.

So what should Taiwan do? Should it participate in the Beijing Olympics? How should it participate? The China issue and the complicated domestic political situation in Taiwan means that how we deal with these issues must be discussed in depth. The different political views of these issues could very well turn out to be diametrically opposed to each other.

First, the viewpoint that Taiwan should be independent. Not only does China oppose this, but it also repeatedly issues public threats to subdue Taiwan by military means and relies on verbal, military and commercial pressure in the international community to try and bring an end to Taiwan's existence. China would thus seem to be an open enemy of anyone holding the independence viewpoint, and unless China recognizes Taiwan's independence -- an impossibility -- this group will surely oppose participation in Olympic Games organized by a country that denies Taiwan's existence.

There are in fact numerous precedents of Olympic boycotts for political reasons: the US' boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980, and the Soviet Union's boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Then there is the viewpoint that the Republic of China (ROC) is independent. The Beijing Olympics puts the faction that supports this view in a very difficult and frustrating situation. This faction has always claimed that there is only one China and that this China is the ROC. They have sworn to defend the ROC's national title, flag, insignia and anthem to the death. What platform is more ideal for realizing this goal than the Olympic Games, watched by billions of people?

This group thus only has two choices. Unless China agrees that the ROC team can fly the ROC flag and national insignia and sing the ROC's national anthem -- another impossibility -- they will have to join hands with Taiwan independence supporters and boycott the games. The other choice is to abandon the ROC, surrender all dignity and forget all oaths to defend these to the death and participate under some nondescript name like "Chinese Taipei" or "Chunghwa Taipei," carry some nondescript flag and listen to some nondescript anthem while forlornly entering the sports arena.

This would be tantamount to admitting to the international community that the ROC no longer exists and that it has become part of China. It is also a confession to the Taiwanese people that past talk about the ROC being the one and only China and independent together with promises to defend these values to the death were nothing but lies. Their reputation and credibility will be dragged through the mud and no one will ever want to mention the Republic of China again.

Finally, there are the "Ah Q," "must not miss out," "who cares," and defeatist standpoints. The Ah Qs will accept the nondescript name, flag and anthem while holding signs that read "protesting" and claim to have won a moral victory.

But Taiwan's political arena also has room for a group that we can call the "must not miss outs." This approach is sometimes appropriate, for example during presidential elections, but that is an exception to the rule. This faction feels that it is necessary to participate in every possible sports competition or election regardless of whether it is right or wrong. Regardless of whether or not there is a chance to win and regardless of the consequences. Participation is the overriding value and it is always better than non-participation. The Beijing Olympics are no exception.

The "who cares" group is devoid of ideals, principles, standpoints and opinions. Dignity, identification, democracy, freedom or human rights are not important to them. Nothing matters to them and they always go with the flow.

The defeatists of course do everything according to China's wishes. To them, anything that may promote unification with China is good. If the group advocating an independent ROC joins hands with the Ah Qs, the must not miss outs, the who cares and the defeatists, they will become quite powerful and will surely demand that Taiwan participate in the Beijing Olympics, no matter what.

I wonder what will be the choice of the people of Taiwan and our next president.

Scorned UN rights body seeks identity

I have two words for this organization: Major Fiasco! The energy is not only focused at the wrong place but countries like Cuba and China, sitting on this council, keep getting away with murder. The world is upside down!

AngolaPress - Angola: GENEVA 03/12- The United Nations` top human rights body, scorned by the U.S. administration and shunned by the only two countries it has sought to scrutinize, is still trying to set the rules for combatting atrocities a year after its creation by the General Assembly.

The 47-nation Human Rights Council, which begins its first three-week session of the year on Monday, has already been widely criticized for its first-year failures over Israel and Sudan and finds itself in a power struggle. Member countries including China, Russia and Cuba object to being examined, while outnumbered Western nations are trying to hold everyone accountable to the highest standards.

"It hasn`t gotten off to a good start, there`s no doubt about that," said Peter Splinter of Amnesty International.

The idea behind the council was to replace the highly politicized Human Rights Commission with a new body that could keep some of the worst offenders out of its membership as it extended its work from an annual six-week session to multiple meetings year round.

There is a June deadline for rule setting, but it is still undecided whether the council will continue to produce reports about individual offending countries as the commission was able to do - much to the anger of some of the offenders. China was so indignant about being singled out that it yearly persuaded a majority of commission members to pass a "no action" motion whenever the West proposed a resolution condemning its abuses.

But the council has continued one commission tradition: putting much more emphasis on Israel than any other country. A recent report from one of its experts compared Israeli policies in Palestinian territories to apartheid in South Africa.

Prof links Darfur, 2008 ‘Genocide Olympics’ in China

'Genocide Olympics' -- this slogan is ought to get people's attention and inspire them to write a letter of protest to the IOC. The viral media campaign is on!

Jacques Rogge President
International Olympic Committee
Chateau De Vidy
Case Postale 3561007
Lausanne, Switzerland
Fax: +41-21-621-6216
jacques.rogge@ioc.olympic.org
info@olympic.org
info@ioc.olympic.org

Excerpt: In making his case for international intervention to stop the killings in Darfur, Smith College Professor Eric Reeves recalled another time in history when the world's apathy allowed genocide to continue.

In 1936, most of the world’s major countries agreed to participate in the Berlin Olympics, unaware that just days before the games opened, anti-Semitic signs had been removed, police had rounded up Gypsies and anti-homosexuality laws had been suspended for foreign visitors, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Few then realized that the Nazis had genocidal ambitions that would eventually lead to the deaths of 6 million Jews, the museum points out.

Reeves - who has become one of the foremost experts on Darfur and is writing a book about the conflict - now foresees another Olympics overshadowed by genocide.

China, scheduled to host the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, is Sudan’s biggest financier, buying the bulk of the country’s $3 billion in oil exports a year, he explained.

That’s why Reeves announced during a Feb. 8 University of Rochester lecture that he has launched a viral media campaign (a type of marketing that is spread from person to person) to dub the 2008 Olympics “Genocide Olympics.” He said his goal is to show the world how China has bankrolled a genocidal regime.

“We can take this message to every single computer in the world,” he said. (more)

Letter to the President of the International Olympic Committee

David Kilgour and David Matas send a letter to the IOC President pointing to the obvious. It would be great if the IOC would take this plea seriously. Genocide Olympics shouldn't be allowed in the first place.

Amnesty International, Human Rights in China and Human Rights Watch have noted increasingly deteriorating human rights conditions in China. We are confident that the IOC would not have awarded the Games to Beijing had they then known of the human rights abuses happening in China.

Please, consider the following:

1) How will the Games benefit China's citizenry if the IOC doesn't speak out against China's human rights violations?

2) Can the IOC assure the rights and safety of Falun Gong practitioners and members of other peaceful groups repressed by China's regime if they wish to attend the Games without fear of being arrested and imprisoned?

3) Will Falun Gong practitioners travelling from abroad be allowed entry into China without reprisal?

We urge you to please take effective action by calling on the Chinese authorities to bring an end to the ongoing persecution against millions of innocent citizens in China, and we hope that the 2008 Games will embody the principles of the Olympic Charter. (more)

Cross-posted at Between Heaven and Earth

HRW: China: Repression Spikes as People’s Congress Closes

Human Rights Watch just released a news report depicting how chaotic things have been in China during the last couple of weeks...just one big mess after another, after another.

Largest “Clean-up” of Protesters and Rights Activists in Years

HRW (Hong Kong, March 14, 2007) – China’s annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing has been marred by increasingly violent crackdowns on protesters, petitioners and rights activists across the country and a surge in house arrests of activists, Human Rights Watch said today.

Protests in Hunan and Guangdong provinces were violently suppressed on March 11 and March 12 respectively. In both cases, specially dispatched riot police attacked the crowds, according to eyewitnesses cited in international news reports. In Beijing, hundreds of petitioners have been rounded up over the past two weeks, in the largest “clean-up” operation by the police in recent years. Dozens of rights activists across the country are being held under house arrest or being so closely monitored that their freedom has been significantly impaired.

“House arrest is becoming the weapon of choice for the authorities in silencing and repressing civil rights activists,” said Adams. “It is imposed at the entire discretion of the police and takes place outside of any legal procedure – you can’t get more arbitrary than that.”

"If this is how the government is going to deal with dissents before and during the Olympics, it will backfire spectacularly,” said Adams. “The heavy-handed measures we have witnessed in recent weeks are completely out of line with the expected behavior of an Olympic host. They show China as a repressive police state instead of the modern country its leaders hope to portray.” (more)

China says it will reduce number of executions

I can’t see China giving up on the death penalty anytime soon because of the booming organ trade they have going. Ten thousand executed prisoners represent big money, although we know now that the military relies heavily on organs from political prisoners like the Falun Gong to curb their expenses. (more) Everybody knows that the cadres have a hard time to stick to the rule of law. This is nothing more than window-dressing.

Globe and Mail by Scott McDonald (AP) BEIJING — China – the world's leading executioner of prisoners – should reduce the number of death sentences it carries out but cannot abolish capital punishment altogether, the country's top legal bodies say.

In a joint statement released late Sunday, the Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice and the country's top prosecutor also said condemned prisoners should not be paraded through the streets and suspects should not be tortured.

China is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined. Amnesty International says China executed at least 1,770 people in 2005 — about 80 per cent of the world's total.

The true number is thought to be many times higher. London-based Amnesty has cited a senior member of China's national legislature as saying some 10,000 people are executed each year.

“Our country still cannot abolish the death penalty but should gradually reduce its application,” the statement said. “But where there is a possibility someone should not be executed, then without exception the person should not be killed.”

Along with crimes such as murder, rape, and drug smuggling, the death sentence also has been imposed in nonviolent cases such as tax evasion and corruption.

China sought to tighten the rules over the application of the death penalty following a series of high-profile cases involving wrongful convictions and torture. Rules enacted last year restored a requirement that all executions first be approved by the Supreme People's Court, something that had been waived amid the ongoing “strike hard” anti-crime campaign.

In one 2005 case, a woman believed murdered in the 1980s in the central province of Hunan reappeared, 16 years after the man convicted of killing her was executed. At the time of the execution, the court said the defendant had confessed.

Chinese police often are accused of torturing suspects into making confessions, and the document said it was wrong to use statements or confessions obtained through torture or threats “as the basis for a case.”

Officials were obligated to “ensure crime suspects and defendants can fully exercise their rights to defence and other procedural rights,” the statement said.

The document said police must be more thorough and obey the laws in identifying and collecting evidence.

It also required officials to ensure that condemned persons were not paraded through the streets or presented before crowds at anti-crime rallies, practices that once were common but are now usually only found in rural areas.

Amnesty International: The human cost of an economic ‘miracle’

Take a look at this enlightening Amnesty International report to see how China’s migrants are treated – many of them are the labourers working so hard to transform Beijing into a super Olympic City.

Amnesty International: People's Republic of China

Internal migrants: Discrimination and abuse

The human cost of an economic ‘miracle’

Tens of millions of migrants are denied rights to adequate health care and housing, and are excluded from the wide array of state benefits available to permanent urban residents.(4) They experience discrimination in the workplace, and are routinely exposed to some of the most exploitative conditions of work. Internal migrants’ insecure legal status, social isolation, sense of cultural inferiority and relative lack of knowledge of their rights leaves them particularly vulnerable, enabling employers to deny their rights with impunity. The children of internal migrants do not have equal access to free, compulsory, education, and many of them have to be left behind in the countryside. (more)

WANTED: Bibles for Beijing

The Communist Party’s latest tactic of putting bibles in every hotel room prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics serves only to trick the free world into thinking that the regime tolerates and welcomes religion, when in fact the reality is quite the opposite

Vancouver Sun: March 10, 2007 BEIJING -- Beijing hotels may be asked to provide Bibles for foreign visitors during next year's Olympic Games, Xinhua news agency said Friday.

Liu Bainian, vice-president of the China Patriotic Catholic Association, said Bibles would help meet the religious needs of some of the 500,000 tourists expected during the Games.

The church has already decided to provide Bibles in several languages for more than 10,000 athletes competing at the Olympics.

To meet a shortfall of Bibles, Liu said authorities should ask Chinese believers to donate their own Bibles to the hotels on the understanding that they would get them back after the Aug. 8-24 Olympics concluded. The Beijing Diocese estimates that there are 60,000 Catholics in the capital and 10 million nationwide.

The real China threat

Peaceful development my foot...

The world's free-market democracies appear indifferent to China's role as enabler to murderous regimes. So it is left to international civil society to challenge Beijing and teach China's leaders that there can be no path to peaceful development that does not lead to respect for human rights. That is the lesson to be taught by human rights groups that plan on branding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as the Genocide Olympics.

Boston Globe Editorials / Op-Ed: March 7, 2007 - After China's recent announcement of an 18 percent increase in its official military budget for 2007, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte requested that China be more transparent about its true levels of defense spending and its intentions. The coincidence of China's announcement and Negroponte's visit risks giving the impression that China is becoming the dangerous military adversary that ultra-conservatives have long foretold.

The reality is quite different. There are reasons to worry about China's expanding role on the world stage, but they have less to do with military power than with China's economic influence and the regime's disdain for human rights -- both at home and abroad.

To be sure, Chinese leaders remain as neurotic as ever about Taiwan. They complained to Negroponte about the Bush administration's plan to sell 400 missiles to Taiwan. He had to assure his hosts that the missile deal in no way alters America's commitment to a longstanding one-China policy.

Beyond their touchiness about Taiwan, Chinese leaders are also squabbling with neighbors about islands and undersea resources in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. But there is no hint these disputes over resources might become a cause for war with historical foes such as Vietnam or Japan.

A spokesman for the National People's Congress repeated a formulaic assurance Monday when he said, "China is committed to following the path of peaceful development." For his part, Negroponte drew a crucial distinction, saying, "It's not so much the budget and the increases as it is understanding these things through dialogue and contacts." This was a tactful way of saying that Washington's need for transparency is less about China's capabilities than it is about its strategic intentions.

Negroponte's poised reaction to China's military budget reflects an understanding that China long ago ceased being a revolutionary power. Few countries have a greater stake in preserving the current world order, rooted in a globalized economy with its free flows of goods, services, and capital.

The major threat from Beijing comes rather from its pursuit of energy resources, trade, and profits at the expense of human rights. China, as a preeminent investor in Sudan's oil reserves, has been financing that regime's genocidal crimes in Darfur. Beijing also acts as the principal ally of Burma's military dictatorship and as a ruthless overlord in Tibet.

The world's free-market democracies appear indifferent to China's role as enabler to murderous regimes. So it is left to international civil society to challenge Beijing and teach China's leaders that there can be no path to peaceful development that does not lead to respect for human rights. That is the lesson to be taught by human rights groups that plan on branding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as the Genocide Olympics.

Washington Post: China plans sharp rise in military spending

China, Taiwan Tensions Threaten To Politicize Olympic Games

The cadres are showing signs of frustration with Taiwan over the Olympics -- to what extent -- remains to be seen.

Excerpt: Escalating tensions between China and Taiwan threaten to cast a dark shadow on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. From the route the Olympic torch takes to under which name and flag Taiwan athletes march into the stadium for the Games, everything suddenly seems in doubt.

Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian's announcement on Sunday to pursue full independence from China and to change the country's name from the current Republic of China to Taiwan was labelled a "threat to peace and stability in the region" by China.

The communist leadership in Beijing has threatened "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan if the island seeks independence or if the possibility of "peaceful reunification" is exhausted. (more)

China: National People’s Congress Should Adopt Human Rights Reforms

Human Rights Watch sends an open letter to Premier Wen Jiaboa highlighting sensitive areas of improvement...

(New York, March 7, 2007) – China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) should adopt reforms in 10 areas to strengthen human rights protections, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today. The congress, which meets annually and is attended by more than 3,000 delegates, is meeting through March 15.

“Chinese leaders have committed themselves to promoting social justice, ensuring freedom of expression, and building the rule of law, but only concrete reforms will bring real change,” said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. (more)

Canada ranked high for protecting human rights

... but not high enough.

CJNEws Excerpt: Despite Canada’s high score, there is room for improvement, Neuer stated. UN Watch looked at the 19 worst human rights abusers as determined by Freedom House, an independent democracy advocacy organization, and examined Canada’s speeches and votes at the HRC and the General Assembly. Canada either voted positively (gaining a point) or made statements concerning the rights abusers in only six cases. “However, there were so many worst of the worst countries – 13 of the 19 – for which Canada took no action at all.”

Canada was silent on China’s “violations of civil, political and religious rights,” on “Fidel Castro’s [Cuba] police state,” “Saudi Arabia’s refusal to allow women to vote or drive a car” and “its state-sponsored schoolbooks that teach children to hate Christians and other non-Muslims” and repression in Zimbabwe.

“There are many times Canada can speak out,” Neuer said. “It’s important to the victims. It has a potential impact to put governments on notice that the world is watching.” (more)

Christians jailed for walking near Olympic hotel

Who was it that said the Olympics would make everything better in Communist China by 2008 (and with any luck - afterwards)? Something went wrong because it's quite the opposite that is happening nowadays.

Persecution ramping up as 2008 Games in Beijing approach

WorldNetDaily.com February 22, 2007 - A Christian house church leader in China and his mother are facing a criminal prosecution that appears to be part of that government's campaign to eliminate messages that are contrary to the official publicity releases as the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing approach.

According to reports from Voice of the Martyrs, a Christian organization that works in support of persecuted Christians around the world, house church leader Hua Huiqi has been formally arrested and his 76-year-old mother arrested a second time for the offense of walking near a construction site for a hotel being built in preparation for the Olympics.

China house church leader Hui Huiqi

VOM said Hua was arrested by the Beijing Public Security Bureau Chaoyang Branch and his mother arrested by Beijing Security Bureau Chongwen Branch. They had been injured in January when seven police officers attacked them while they were walking near the hotel construction site in Beijing.

"We are deeply concerned about Brother Hua and his elderly, ill mother. They are faithful Christians seeking only to serve the Lord in accordance with their conscience," said Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs.

"We encourage Christians around the world to pray for their family, and we strongly urge the Chinese government to release them immediately," he said.

China Aid Association officials told VOM that Hua has been very active in trying to help persecuted Christians and others who are oppressed by local officials who travel to Beijing trying to obtain justice from the central government.

He and his mother were attacked, and while on the ground, kicked. Then later they were taken to a police station for questioning, according to reports. "When Hua asked the police to release his sick mother and explain the legal ground for the detention, he was beaten repeatedly. While the temperature in Beijing was in the 20s, cold water was poured on him. He was later taken to a detention center," the organization said.

"The Chinese government says they ensure freedom of religion, but this case clearly shows the truth," Nettleton said. Police from the Olympic Sports Stadium Police Station also threatened to arrest Hua's brother, officials reported.

Authorities in China told CAA that Hua was under criminal detention on the charge of "intervening public affair," essentially damaging public and private property at the construction site.

The arrest notice for China house church leader Hui Huiqi

"The charge against Brother Hua is totally baseless and it's clearly revenge to Hua's Christian ministry to the oppressed," said Bob Fu, who works with Hua. "Hua's case should be seen as a litmus test on whether China is sincere to improve its worsening human rights record before the 2008 Beijing Olympics."

Co-workers told CAA that they believe the aggressive actions in the arrest of Hua and his mother could be because of instructions from high government officials to send a message to those who present a message during the Olympics that does not fit the government's formal statements.

CAA said letters of concern can be sent to: Premier Wen Jiabao, PRC, PO Box 1741, The State Council, Beijing, PRC (zip code 100017). The telephone contact is: +86-10-66012399.

"The detention of innocent peaceful Christians like Mr. Hua and his mom is certainly contradictory to the Chinese government's human rights commitment for 2008 Beijing Olympics," said Fu.

A number of human rights organizations ¨C both faith-based and secular ¨C have raised concerns about China's human rights record, and its preparations for the 2008 Games, which were awarded to Beijing in a vote by the International Olympic Committee in 2001.

Human Rights Watch said Chinese police have cracked down on "subversive Internet users" who have been censored in their efforts to post information that contradicts the government's public relations statements.

"Chinese authorities reinforced repression against Internet users, Tibetans, members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, foreign scholars, the Muslim Uigur minority, democrats, foreign journalists and delinquents, all 'in the name of the Chinese Olympics,'" the organization said.

There are estimates several thousand Chinese are executed each year for their "crimes." WND recently reported on an assessment of China's human rights situation that alleges the government keeps members of the Falun Gong religious sect in detention camps, and then executes them as their organs are needed for that nation's transplant industry.

Also, at the current time, hundreds of thousands of Chinese are being evicted from their homes just so that the redevelopment projects in preparation for the Games can continue, the HRC said.

"The IOC has invested the Chinese regime with a task it will carry out zealously: host safe Olympics. This means arrests of dissidents, social 'cleansing,' and censorship against 'critical' elements," the group said.

"The Olympic movement was discredited in 1936, when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle to glorify the Third Reich. In 1980, in Moscow, the IOC suffered a terrible defeat when more than 50 countries boycotted the Olympics," the group said. The 2008 Games should not be allowed to advance the restrictions China imposes, it said.

VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released

Who needs Kyoto while China pollutes?

A brilliant piece by Neil Reynolds. It says it all.

"Were Canada to eliminate all of its GHG emissions, China's increases would replace them - every last ounce - in 18 months. Were Canada to eliminate 10 per cent of its emissions, China's increases would replace them all in 60 days. As noble as self-sacrifice can occasionally be, it must have - somewhere - a rational purpose."

Who needs Kyoto while China pollutes?

2007 Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick): 22 Feb 2007 - China pollutes deliberately, strategically. The World Health Organization says that seven of the 10 most polluted big cities in the world are in China.

Beijing's ambient air holds 360 micrograms of particulate pollutants per cubic metre - compared with zero readings (for all practical purposes) in London and Los Angeles. Two-thirds of China's 350 biggest cities pump sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere in vast quantities in routine violation of China's clean-air laws. (The Americans have tracked these mobile pollutants 16,000 kilometres away, at the Donner Summit near Lake Tahoe, as they pass by.) China's biggest lakes are all seriously polluted. So vast are the diversions of water from it, the Yellow River runs dry every year, failing to reach the ocean in one instance (1997) for 226 days.

China's own environmental protection agency reported last year that pollution costs the country 10 per cent of its US$2.2 trillion economy - $200 billion a year. The World Bank has gone further, calculating the cost of the premature deaths of thousands of Chinese killed each year by pollution. Economic losses from pollution-induced mortality and morbidity, the bank found, equals as much as three per cent of China's gross dometic product - $60 billion a year. By contrast, the country spends roughly one per cent of its GDP to fix environmental messes which, according once again to China's EPA, have multiplied - on average - by 250 significant environmental "accidents" a year for the last decade.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are another thing altogether. China reportedly builds a coal-fired power plant every week, and expects to maintain this pace for years. Few of these plants are equipped with pollution-control technology. Not that it matters. Writing last year in Foreign Affairs magazine on the limitations of the Kyoto Protocol, U.S. environmental bureaucrat Ruth Greenspan Bell says that pollution-cutting technology often goes unused in China - even when provided to the country free. "Evidence from China demonstrates," she writes, "that plants equipped with superior pollution equipment do not run these controls when doing so proves inconvenient." When might it prove inconvenient? Whenever, Ms Bell suggests, no one is watching.

Ms Bell held management positions in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 20 years and is now a resident scholar with Resources for the Future, a Washington-based think tank. She supports reductions in GHG emissions but warns people not to expect too much from Kyoto. "There are 900 environmental treaties on the books," she observes. "Unfortunately, few have achieved any reduction in pollution." This cautionary note reflects the judgment of another Kyoto scepto-enthusiast, British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "The truth is that no country is going to cut its growth or consumption [to deal with] a long-term environmental problem." Ms Bell says this impediment will be even greater in China than elsewhere - because the government owns or controls so many industries that environment enforcers find themselves working "with hopelessly divided allegiances." These enforcers, she says, have no capacity for independent regulatory action.

Implicit in these observations is the fact that environmental advances occur when rich countries, acting unilaterally and independently, invest large amounts of money, privately and publicly, either to preserve environmental legacies or to restore them. China will turn environmentalist, too - someday.

Economists have calculated that countries begin to clamp down on sulfur dioxide when per-capita GDP reaches $9,000 a year, on particulate pollution when per-capita GDP reaches $15,000 a year - a variation on the "Kuznets Curve" which holds that you have to get dirty before you get rich and you have to get rich before you get clean. China will get much dirtier. Its per-capita GDP reached $1,000 last year.

The producer of 18 per cent of the world's GHG emissions, China is gaining fast on Europe (22 per cent) and the United States (21 per cent). The International Energy Agency says that China will expand GHG emissions by 120 per cent in the next 20 years, averaging six per cent a year, far surpassing Europe and the U.S.

For a small-population country such as Canada, with two per cent of global emissions, the awkward question that compels awkward answers is this: Why bother with Kyoto? What difference will it make?

Canada produces 160 million tons a year of the world's eight billions tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Were Canada to eliminate all of its GHG emissions, China's increases would replace them - every last ounce - in 18 months. Were Canada to eliminate 10 per cent of its emissions, China's increases would replace them all in 60 days. As noble as self-sacrifice can occasionally be, it must have - somewhere - a rational purpose.

Neil Reynolds, a former editor

nreynolds@xplornet.com

Exploit China's Desire for Successful Olympics, Rights Advocates Urge US

I'm starting to believe that it's a blessing in disguise to have China host the Olympics--how else could we beam the spotlight on their abysmal human rights track record for the world to see?

(CNSNews.com) - By Payton Hoegh - As the 2008 Olympics approach, human rights and religious freedom advocates are urging the U.S. government to "exploit the need" China has to host a successful event and step up the pressure on Beijing to improve its record.

"A smooth and successful Olympics is paramount to China," Sharon Hom of Human Rights in China told a statutory panel on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Yet despite the fact that the games are only 18 months away, she said the communist regime's repression has been getting worse.

Hom joined representatives of four major religions and others in testifying before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which advises the executive and legislative branches on efforts to counter religious persecution around the world.

Since Beijing in 2001 won the hosting rights to the 2008 summer games, human rights groups have called on the international community to exert pressure on the government to improve its record.

Some groups, such as Reporters without Borders, advocate boycotting the Olympics, while others hope to use the event to pressure Beijing into reforming.

Critics point to the Olympic Charter, which states, "Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles."

Under pressure from the International Olympic Committee (OIC), China promised during its host city bid that if the event came to Beijing, the nation would reform its human rights policies.

"[In] allowing Beijing to host the Games, [the OIC] will help the development of human rights," Vice President of the Beijing Bid Committee, Liu Jingmin, said at the time.

Beijing's then Mayor Liu Qi also promised social progress and improved human rights policies in the event the city won its bid.

Analysts who spoke Wednesday supported the idea that China's position as host nation could be used as a lever.

Hom advised the panel to use the event, along with China's desire to be a recognized and respected power in world politics, to press for improvement on religious freedom and human rights.

"Exploit this need" for a successful Olympics, she urged the panel, adding that in the lead-up to the Olympics, the struggle will get harder although there would be "windows of opportunity."

Michael Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies stressed that the issue of human rights in China is sometimes pushed to the background and that it was important that "we bring these issues to light."

"The last thing we want to do is let China think we are willing to compromise on issues involving human rights," he said.

Arrest, torture

Commission Chair Felice Gaer invited officials from five organizations to give evidence and to help the U.S. as it decides how to "most effectively advance freedom of religion and related rights" in China.

Representatives of the Protestant, Catholic, (Tibetan) Buddhist and (Uighur) Islamic faiths echoed the analysts' call for Washington to intervene.

The constitution of the atheistic nation grants its people freedom of religion, but the government monitors each of the nation's five major religions and allows only government-sanctioned religious practices.

Members of churches that do not register with the state authorities or are refused registration because they are considered "evil cults" are under constant threat of arrest and attack.

The representatives submitted reports on behalf of their respective religious group telling the commission of specific instances of government repression, including reports of religious leaders being arrested, tortured, and detained for months or years under frivolous charges.

The China Aid Association (CAA) released a report documenting the level of persecution against Protestant house churches and giving the known number of arrests, attacks, and churches destroyed.

It said China detained at least 600 Christians and destroyed numerous churches in 2006.

"Zhejiang and Henan province should be put on notice [as] having the worst religious persecution record," said Rev. Bob Fu of CAA. "It is morally imperative for any conscientious foreign investors in Henan to address this serious issue."

Joseph Kung of the Catholic Cardinal Kung Foundation told the panel of the latest instance of Catholic bishops being arrested, and he called on the commission to help locate them.

"Religious persecution in China is not ancient history" Kung said, adding that it "should be one of the top priorities of the U.S." in the coming year.

Bhuchung Tsering of the International Campaign for Tibet voiced concerned that Beijing may use the games to legitimize its control over Tibet. China has occupied the Himalayan region since 1950 and is accused of repressing the Buddhist religion there.

The commission is a panel reporting directly to the president and Congress which examines the religious rights policies of nations and advises the government on how to deal with those that are of "particular concern."

China is one of eight "countries of particular concern" the administration lists as especially oppressive. The others are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Burma, North Korea, Sudan, Eritrea and Uzbekistan.

Green and harmonious Olympics--not quite

After reading this article, I am appalled to see how far China, the great pretender, is willing to go to boost its image. And it's a very costly facelift at that! But things are not always what they seem. They can brag all they want about being so great, nevertheless a new report on organ harvesting of prisorners should serve as an eye opener to us all. However, China has it right on one count -that is- they should worry about human rights activitists in the leadup to the Olympics. Intervention from rights activists, trouble as the Communist officials would call it, could easily be avoided if they'd only stop brutalizing their own people. Another Olympic-size headache for China is the environment. Superficial measures won’t resolve the core of the problem. And saying things are allright don't make it so.

Freedom of the press is certainly not a done deal either. Journalism is the third most dangerous profession in China. Regardless of the new regulations to protect journos, a journalist was brutally murdered outside a mining company office January 11. What new laws? Even Hu Jintao felt he had to apologize for that one. Look here for Reporters Without Borders' annual report for 2007.

Send a letter to the IOC and let them know that China has broken its promise of improving their human rights record before the Games--and it's even worst than ever!

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia: Faster, higher and on target

Unlike Athens, Beijing is forging ahead with Olympic Games preparations. There's just the small matter of chronic pollution, writes Jacquelin Magnay.

Hard-hatted Henry Zhang stood atop the towering birds' nest that has come to signify the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and cast his eyes over the surrounding Olympic Green, not so much lush as huge brown mounds of construction dust. "I felt very proud and very scared at the same time," says Zhang, the deputy general manager of the national stadium, of that moment last year.

Zhang has overseen the construction of the Olympic stadium, now 70 per cent complete, which is really three tiers of seating that can stand alone without the cosmetic envelope of the huge steel that wraps around it like string.

"To be honest we have never had this experience of building such an external steel structure and it was a very big challenge for us, but since last September we feel very, very confident that we can finish it on schedule and with quality," Zhang says, noting with a hearty laugh that when the supporting pylons were removed nothing fell down.

Zhang's thoughts about his eye-popping 91,000-seat stadium that will convert to a football stadium after the Games mirrors the entire ambitious Beijing Olympic project. It is bold, it is out there and it is very risky.

China's authorities have chosen the August 2008 Games to exhibit the new China: a more open, vibrant, energetic, high-tech country that is breathtaking in its transformation. Authorities have moved villages, invested many billions of dollars and searched the highest peaks for inspiration.

The Olympic torch and flag, for instance, will be taken by climbers to the top of Mount Everest. And the pictures of this moment will be beamed live by Chinese television around the world.

The logistics of this exercise are mind-boggling - how to keep the torch alight in such a low-oxygen, high-altitude environment; how to carry satellite dishes and broadcast equipment to beam the moment; how to select a skilled Chinese climber for this privilege; and how to keep the team safe.

"We want to put the Olympic flag on top of the world. The training has already started," says Wang Wei, the executive vice-president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).

The funding of some of the Olympic venues has broken new ground and illustrated how Communist China has opened to the world. Authorities looked outside of the state's revenue and won private investment in the stadium. Three companies, Citic Group, the Beijing Urban Construction Group and the US Golden State pension fund, have funded the total cost (which has not been revealed) in return for a 42 per cent stake over the next 30 years.

Several hundred metres away the Australian-designed spectacular aquatic centre, "the water cube", features translucent walls and ceilings of "bubbles", and can change colour. The 1.02 billion yuan ($169 million) cost of this construction was totally funded by contributions from 80,000 expatriate Chinese who will have their names recorded on a wall nearby. "They had a very strong will to contribute," says the centre's executive deputy general manager, Zhao Zhixiong.

While there is tremendous enthusiasm and a seriousness of attitude, the Chinese political leaders and the Olympic organisers face enormous challenges to control aspects that can bring the Games undone, such as the Falun Gong, which is campaigning among supporters to disrupt the Olympics, human rights protesters or the acutely uncomfortable, choking air pollution.

Beijing organisers are worried China's image will suffer if the pictures beamed around the world show athletes whingeing about being unable to breathe or if the Great Wall of China is cocooned in a thick blanket of smog.

The high pollution levels are of such concern that many Australian training camps will not be held on the Chinese mainland and many teams will delay their entry into Beijing until the last possible moment.

The Beijing Municipal Authority has been open about the problem and since 1998 has spent 119.1 billion yuan to find a solution, closing coking factories, halving the production of the Capital Steelworks factory, and embarking on a widespread public transport system that by 2012 will mean any Beijing citizen will be just five minutes walk from a train station. All of the industrial burners have had to change to cleaner fuels and the city's 9000 construction sites have been covered to prevent dust storms.

Their efforts are paying off, with the number of clean air days (judged by whether the pollution has exceeded Beijing's five-point standard test) at 241 last year, up from 101 days nine years ago. But the number of worst pollution days also rose - to 20.

The vice-director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, Du Shaozhong, acknowledges the rapid urbanisation was an issue and says the next 12 months are critical.

"We try our best and we invest a lot of money [in] Beijing's air-pollution control, but the air and water quality still has a lot to improve," Du says, describing this year as "a crucial year for Beijing to realise an Olympic green environment and the Beijing municipality will try our best to increase the air and water quality".

Compounding the problem is the sale of nearly 1000 new cars a day to Beijing citizens, all of which require the highest quality emission standards. Sales of cars, mobile phones and real estate underpinned the country's eighth consecutive year of double-digit growth, figures released last week show.

By August next year, it is expected there will be 3.5 million cars in Beijing.

Wang says all factories can be temporarily shut during the Games if need be. And there will be a concerted push for people to leave their cars at home. Beijing residents are being educated via television, billboards and slogans about "Olympic etiquette".

"When not to give a big shout, when to keep quiet, to cheer both sides, to be nice hosts," says Wang.

Ticket prices were kept low (from 30 yuan to 1000 yuan for competitions; 200 to 5000 yuan for the ceremonies) to encourage local participation. Unlike the West, which uses sport to tackle obesity, the Chinese want to use the Olympics to help people relax. The Games will also be about exhibiting China's athletic prowess and the Chinese Olympic Committee dearly wants to knock off the United States from the top of the medal tally, especially in front of the 80 heads of state who have indicated they will be there.

But that triumph must come without any taint of drugs following the loss of face at the 1998 World Swimming Championships in Perth where several athletes were caught with the hormone-boosting EPO (erythropoietin). Late last year one of the provincial sports schools was raided and a large cache of performance-enhancing drugs seized, but for the first time, the authorities revealed that the raid took place.

The International Olympic Committee has stressed that China must be transparent and allow journalists to do their work without interference.

The Communist Party responded and has relaxed restrictions on journalists until after the Games so that they can report more freely and move about the provinces more easily. No longer will journalists have to seek permission from the state to interview an athlete. Wang says the organisers do not fear the human rights questions either, because human rights at the moment is "the best in the history of China" . He is confident that with less than 550 days until the opening ceremony Beijing and China will be ready for the world's inspection.

"Journalists will see the reality of China, they can ask about how happy they [the people] feel about now and the future and for the most part it will be positive [response]. Every country has its pros and cons and we want to do our best for the people to know more about China and the reality of China," he says.

"We want to showcase Beijing and showcase China and we understand the international community doesn't know Beijing or China as it really is and this is our opportunity for the world to focus on us. We understand the bar is high, our own expectations are high, but we want a distinct Olympic Games with Chinese features."

The writer travelled as a guest of BOCOG.

THE SPENDING

Budget for the Beijing Games organising committee: $US2 billion ($2.5 billion)

Ticket revenue: $US140 million

Product licensing 4000 items: $US50 million

IOC sponsors: $US1 billion

Volunteers: 220,000 registered for 70,000 positions

2006 SPENDING

$US1 billion in public facilities,

transport and infrastructure around Olympic venues

$US1 billion to improve urban environment

$US1 billion on underground subway

$US133 million to improve air quality

$US38.5 million to modernise industry

Source: Beijing Finance Bureau, BOCOG

Chinese army harvesting parts from Falun Gong inmates

China is indulging in human rights violations again. When will the butchery stop? If this insanity keeps up, it will be surprising if anyone will even bother to show up at the 2008 Olympics. Why support an evil dictatorship? Read the Matas/Kilgour report here.

OTTAWA (AFP) - China's military is reportedly harvesting organs from prison inmates, mostly Falungong practitioners, for large scale transplants including for foreign recipients, a study said.

Canada's former Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas released a report Wednesday into such transplants after interviewing organ recipients in 30 countries.

They also interviewed Canadian hospital staff who subsequently cared for hundreds of patients after they underwent dubious transplant surgeries in China.

"The involvement of the People's Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread," Kilgour told a press conference.

Like many civilian hospitals in rural China, military hospitals turned to selling organs to make up for government funding cuts in the 1980s, the report states.

But military personnel could operate with much more secrecy, it added.

"Recipients often tell us that even when they receive transplants at civilian hospitals, those conducting the operation are military personnel," the report states.

It is the second report to be released by the pair, who in July published the results of a two-month investigation in which they implicated dozens of hospitals and jails throughout China in the transplant scandal.

Those allegations were vigorously denied by Chinese officials.

Hospitals in Canada's biggest cities, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto meanwhile confirmed "a substantial number" of Canadians had traveled to China for suspicious organ transplants, Kilgour said.

"We're in the three digits, up over 100 (from Canada each year) and the trend is accelerating," Matas said.

To curb what they called a "disgusting form of evil," the pair publicly asked pharmaceutical firms to stop selling organ anti-rejection drugs to China.

They also urged countries to post travel advisories warning that organs from China may have been harvested from unwilling donors; asked states to cease offering follow-up care to patients who had shady organ transplants in China; and called on foreign doctors to cut ties with their Chinese counterparts suspected of such practices.

States should also enact legislation to ban their citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants from forced donors, although the study's authors admitted such prosecutions would be difficult to prove.

The US-based lobby group "The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falungong in China" had asked Kilgour and Matas to investigate claims by several of their members.

China banned the spiritual group in 1999 and has vehemently denied the allegations of organ harvesting, accusing the Falungong of spreading rumors in a bid to undermine the country's international relations and "social stability."

Kilgour and Matas admitted that many of the claims were second-hand, but said there was enough evidence to "paint a picture."

They described one man traveling to Shanghai in 2003 for a kidney transplant at the civilian No. 1 People's Hospital and his convalescence at No. 85 hospital of the People's Liberation Army.

Eight kidneys were tested, to find a match. Only the last "from an executed prisoner" was compatible, his military surgeon told him, according to the report.

Wang Xiaohua, a Falungong practitioner who now lives in Montreal, told reporters he "suffered inhumane persecution" at a Chinese labor camp where jailed Falungong practitioners, and not other prisoners, were systematically subjected to blood tests to match their organs with recipients.

In their previous report, Matas and Kilgour interviewed several Falungong members and the former wife of a surgeon who told her he had removed the corneas from some 2,000 anaesthetized Falungong prisoners in northeast China in the two years prior to October 2003.

They said they listened, with the help of certified interpreters, to more than 30 veiled calls made from Canada and the United States to Chinese officials who admitted to the surgeries.

Dozens more Chinese hospitals and jails were implicated in transcripts of new telephone calls, including one to an air force hospital in Chengdu City, in which an official said it would be "no problem" to get organs from young and healthy Falungong practitioners for a transplant.