Pasadena’s China Road

Why on earth is Communist China part of the Rose Parade?

Pasadena Weekly: Editorial - July 12, 2007

Let's get one thing straight: Americans are no angels.

One look at The Count on page 6 of this week's paper tells us that the United States is willing to brutalize its own and other people with oppressive policies in order to carry out preemptive wars in faraway lands to fulfill undefined objectives that necessarily involve the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of people.

No. This country's leaders are in no position to chuck rocks at other countries, especially over human rights abuses.

But let's also remember that no right-thinking person in this or any other country wanted this war, with millions of people protesting in the streets of cities around the world at the start of the conflict four years ago. They believed that such brutal behavior should not be tolerated by this or any other country. And we agree.

It is in that spirit — that of world citizens — that we level criticism this week at the People's Republic of China, which was recently awarded hosting duties for the 2008 Olympics.

There seems to be nothing wrong, per se, with that honor, except for a number of internal problems that China does not share with the US, which leads us to another thing we need to get straight: The United States is not by any stretch of the imagination as bad as communist China.

At once one of the most oppressive regimes in modern times and a major global economic power, China is both sought after for trade and reviled for not only how it does business — dumping contaminated produce and other defective goods on the US and other countries, then executing the bureaucrat responsible — but also how it cracks down on everyday things that we take for granted, such as unfiltered Internet access, the right to take to the streets and religious freedom.

Unless they live in major cities with considerable Chinese-American influence, many people in this country might be unfamiliar with Falun Gong, a sort of exercise-driven secular Buddhism (think tai chi with an attitude) that is practiced by tens of millions of people in China, where it is illegal.

Chinese leaders have deemed Falun Gong a political entity, therefore an enemy of the state. People in China who practice Falun Gong are imprisoned and, say many of its followers, suffer torture in which their organs are harvested for sale while they are alive.

Even absent that grisly accusation, which has become the subject of some dispute, there is no question that Falun Gong members have been systematically terrorized by the Chinese government, which is not only being honored with the Olympics, but is helping to sponsor an Olympic-themed float in the upcoming Rose Parade.

This is not the first time that the Tournament of Roses has unwittingly opened a Pandora's Box of international controversy. Back in 1991, the Tournament selected a descendant of Christopher Columbus to lead the parade the following year, touching off months of protests by people who believed Columbus was more of a rapist and pillager than a mere explorer.

However, to their credit, Tournament officials faced the issue head on and selected a co-grand marshal, former Congressman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Native American.

Hindsight is always 20-20. Maybe the Tournament should have known better. But it didn't. Mistakes happen. But it did the next best thing, and that was to be as inclusive as possible of other people and ideas.

We believe the controversy swirling around this year's parade should be managed in much the same manner. We don't know exactly how these problems will be resolved, but we believe, as a Supreme Court justice once said, the best cure for bad speech is more speech, and we are confident they will be before New Year's Day.

China Still Big on Slave Labor, Pollution

NewsMax: Charles R. Smith
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Reprint Information

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Progress is often hailed in China as a shining example of how the West and the Chinese communists are cooperating.

However, progress in China has a brutal price in the forms of oppression, slave labor, and unchecked pollution.

The truth about the Chinese pollution problem reached the World Bank which decided to write a detailed report. However, in true form to covering up bad economic news, the World Bank decided to delete key portions of the report at the request of the Chinese communists.

According to the Financial Times of London, information about Chinese pollution has been removed from a World Bank report to avoid "social unrest." "Missing from this report are the research project's findings that high air-pollution levels in Chinese cities is leading to the premature deaths of 350,000-400,000 people each year. A further 300,000 people die prematurely each year from exposure to poor air indoors, according to advisers, but little discussion of this issue survived in the report because it was outside the ambit of the Chinese ministries which sponsored the research," states the Times.

So the price of sending jobs overseas and driving to the bottom to find cheap goods at major retail outlets costs nearly a million Chinese citizens their lives each year.

This little brutal detail, cut from the World Bank report, is just the beginning. The report details a nation in trouble because it is moving ever deeper into a soup of dangerous chemicals. In short, China is turning itself into a giant Love Canal of pollution.

According to the World Bank report, or at least the parts the communist government could not censor, China is now the largest source of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in the world. The winds may blow softly in Beijing but the wind carries itself around the globe.

The dangerous air pollution levels in China are shared globally with the rest of the world, including the United States.

The facts about Chinese pollution are compounded by the financial short-sighted nature of the one ruling party. China has access to massive amounts of U.S. cash, having exceeded a $200 billion dollars trade imbalance last year. China has nearly a trillion dollars of U.S. treasury bonds. However, instead of cleaning up their own back yards, the Chinese government has seen fit to spend billions on new military hardware, and a gigantic military space program.

Such simple things like fresh water are in short supply. In China, nearly 30 percent of the population lack basic sanitary facilities. One study cited by the World Bank report noted the lack of basic sanitation was beyond critical. "Nearly one-fifth of the surveyed population did not have access to safe sanitation and hence relied on defecation in the open," states the report.

The bottom line is pretty clear. While Beijing buys fancy jet-fighters from Russia and pumps billions into nuclear tipped missiles, 400 million Chinese citizens have no bathrooms short of going outside or dumping the classic chamber pot.

"Two-thirds of the rural population is without piped water, which contributes to diarrhea disease and cancers of the digestive system . . . In the period between 2001 and 2005, on average about 54 percent of the seven main rivers in China contained water deemed unsafe for human consumption . . . Some 300–500 million people in rural areas do not have access to piped water and are exposed to severe health risks related to polluted drinking water," noted the World Bank report.

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Even the Chinese government is aware of the growing problem with fresh water and poor sanitation. "According to the primary investigation, more than 300 million people in rural areas cannot get safe drinking water," states the annual report from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources.

Poor sanitation has a great affect on water quality but even worse is the cesspool of chemicals found in Chinese drinking water. According to World Health Organization report, 15 million people in China use drinking water from groundwater wells with deadly arsenic concentration levels.

"Water pollution has penetrated beyond infecting the surface water found in lakes, rivers, and streams, and over half of the cities now have polluted groundwater," states the report.

One study cited by the World Bank report considered risk factors of liver cancer around the Nansi Lake in Shandong Province. They showed that people who drank lake water, touched lake water, or ate fish were more likely to get liver cancer than people who drank large quantities of alcohol. "Liver cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in rural China," noted the report.

Some of the pollution does not stay in China but is exported as products to the rest of the world. For example, the FDA has stalled the import of five types of seafood from China following concerns about the uncontrolled use of antibiotics in high-intensity fish farming.

The FDA has also raised concerns about heavy-metal contamination of agricultural products.

China is now the world's leading supplier of seafood, shipping $1.9 billion worth of fish and shellfish to the United States last year, making it the third biggest foreign supplier in the U.S. market.

Clearly, polluted China is a very sensitive issue to the ruling Communist Party. They pressed and obtained the cooperation of the World Bank in covering up a growing ecological disaster. The Communist rulers know that pollution has the potential to bring political change and destroy the carefully crafted economy. It could also sweep them from power since they have control over every aspect of Chinese life. The Communist Party fears that the people of China will learn the truth about why they are dying.

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China/Taiwan

New Video Exposes Abuses at UN Human Rights Council

Glorifying the bad guys and bashing democracies -- am I missing something? Isn't is supposed to be the other way around!

UN Watch - Geneva, July 11, 2007 — UN Watch today released a new video revealing how the UN’s highest human rights body is “routinely turned on its head by the worst abusers, to attack democracies, destroy mechanisms of human rights protection, and assault the very idea of human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based non-governmental organization.

Despite attempts to break from a discredited past, the UN Human Rights Council concluded its June 2007 reform session by voting to drop the authoritarian regimes of Belarus and Cuba from its blacklist, while imposing new restrictions on the independent experts who report on torture, violence against women, or violations by countries like Sudan. The ability to introduce resolutions that name abusers was curbed. However, Israel was singled out for permanent indictment under the council's sole agenda item targeting a specific country.

The new video is already making the rounds on popular blogs. Previous UN Watch videos have been seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers through the popular YouTube.com website, and were the subject of editorials around the globe.

“Tragically, instead of protecting victims, the council is run by notorious violators who worry only about protecting themselves,” said Neuer. “Dominated by members like Cuba and China—and by observer states like Sudan, which heads the council’s influential Arab group—it’s a classic case of the inmates running the asylum.” (more)

Click For Video

Open source runs alongside Windows in Olympics

Microsoft did it again!

ZDNet Asia By Lynn Tan, Tuesday, July 10 2007 06:25 PM

The IT systems used to support next year's Olympic Games in Beijing, China, will incorporate open source software, but the dominant platform will be Microsoft Windows, according to IT services vendor Atos Origin.

"Many of the systems are using Microsoft Windows," said Jeremy Hore, chief integrator for the 2008 Beijing Olympics at Atos Origin, in an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia.

A key supplier for the Beijing Olympic Games, Microsoft is working closely with Atos Origin and BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad) for the systems implementation and testing.

Hore said the computer systems for the Games will also utilize other platforms such as "Sun Solaris and some open source components". However, the usage of open source "is relatively small compared to other platforms which we are using", he added.

"The main [use of] open source has been for application servers where reliable open source platforms are widely used," Hore said, adding that some open source support tools in areas such as portals and document management have also been implemented.

Olympic proportions
According to Atos Origin, efforts have been made to ensure that the IT systems for the 2008 Olympics are secure and reliable.

Hore said: "Firstly, the architecture is designed to ensure redundancy and backup of the critical systems, networks and hardware."

The security architecture is also designed to isolate key systems and put in place controls to prevent unauthorized access. All activities of the networks and systems are also monitored closely "to ensure that there are no surprises", he added.

Atos Origin is the appointed partner to design, build and operate the IT infrastructure for the Olympic Games in China. In January this year, the IT services vendor launched a new integration test lab dedicated to testing the IT infrastructure, IT security systems and key software applications for the sporting event.

Last week, Atos Origin announced the on-schedule completion of the IT system architecture for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which must meet the requirement of delivering real-time competition results.

Consisting of more than 900 servers, 7,000 PCs, as well as 1,000 network and security devices, the technology infrastructure will link together more than 60 competition and non-competition venues across China.

Some 400 people of the 4,000-strong technology team will be on the ground to manage the IT systems in the seven cities, said Hore. "We already have people in all seven cities who are working on the preparation of the IT systems at the venues."

China Expels Over 100 Foreign Missionaries In "Secret Campaign"

BosNewLife: Tuesday, 10 July 2007

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife

Christian teachers from US-bsed English Language Institute/China (ELIC), were among those expelled from Tibet. Via ELIC BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)-- China has secretly expelled more than 100 foreign missionaries in largest expulsion campaign of Christian workers over half a century, a Christian rights activists and other sources confirmed Tuesday, July 10.

ghts group China Aid Association (CAA) told BosNewsLife the government-backed operation, codenamed 'Typhoon No. 5', was aimed at preventing foreign Christians from "engaging in mission activities" ahead of the Beijing Olympics next year. CAA said that since February this year Chinese security forces have been targeting citizens from six countries including the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia and Israel, who were mainly active in Beijing, the region of Xinjiang and Tibet. Chinese officials have not commented on the allegations, but the government has previously said there is religious freedom in China. XINJIANG EXPULSIONS CAA quoted one American who had been working in Xinjiang for 10 years as saying that over 60 foreign religious workers were expelled from Xinjiang alone. The American, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said some workers "had been serving" locals for up to 18 years before they were forced to leave. "At least 15 Christian couples from the United States and other countries were expelled from Beijing in the month of May," alone, added CAA. They included two American English teachers sent by the English Language Institute/China (ELIC), who were expelled from Tibet, the group said. ELIC (www.elic.org), a California based Christian organization, claims to be the largest English teacher-sending organization to China and has trained thousands of Chinese college and high school students since the 1990s. JEWISH CHRISTIAN DEPORTED In addition, on May 31, one Israeli Jewish Christian and an American were arrested and expelled from Linyi City, in Shandong province, when they worshiped together with 70 House Church leaders, CAA said earlier. This month, July 1, three American Christians from Indiana were detained in Beijing and then forced to leave China after "their US passports were taken away for 3 to 5 days by Chinese security agents," CAA claimed. CAA said it has established that at least some expelled Americans were first held in custody by the Public Security Bureau, one of China's main law-enforcement agencies, for up to a week without access to US Embassy personnel. "Some will not be allowed to return to China for five years. This is the largest expulsion of foreign missionaries since 1954 when the Chinese Communist government expelled all foreign religious workers after taking power in 1949," CAA said. CHINA REFUSES RECOGNITION The Chinese government reportedly refuses to recognize foreign missionaries status in China, and many choose to work as teachers, doctors or in business sectors in the country. "Given the significant contribution to the Chinese people made by those expelled foreigners, this campaign is certainly misguided and counter-productive," said Bob Fu, a former Chinese house church pastor who now works as the president of CAA. "We call upon the Chinese government to correct this wrong by allowing these selfless good-hearted people of faith back into China," he told BosNewsLife in a statement. (With BosNewsLife News Center).

'Bloody Olympics' Human Rights Torch Relay

Cross-posted at CIP Falun Gong Newsletters (CIPFG)

Alternative Torch Relay Exposes 'Bloody Olympics'

By John Smithies; Epoch Times UK Staff

Jul 08, 2007

Baroness Caroline Cox announces the Global Human Rights Torch Relay to Expose the 2008 "Bloody Olympics" at a press conference in London (Epoch Times)

An alternative Olympic torch is to make its way around the world to expose human rights abuses in China in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing next year.

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay to Expose the 2008 "Bloody Olympics" will start on August 9th in Athens and take in more than 10 countries in Europe, before finishing in Asia.

Mr John Dee, one of the organisers of the Relay, said: "If China is allowed to host the next Olympics without first ending its morally corrupt human rights abuses, especially the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, it will be a sad indictment on the moral standards of the world as a whole."

The Relay, which is supported by a number of past Olympic winners, aims to force the International Olympic Committee to take a serious look at its own charter, and to cancel the Games under the present circumstances.

"The Olympic Games have always been a symbol of high moral standards founded on the natural striving for the harmony of physical strength and spiritual force of human beings," said Mārtiņš Rubenis, Latvian Winter Olympics Bronze medal winner.

"As an athlete I could not feel the deep fulfilment and satisfaction of a job well done while standing on the podium, built over the lives of thousands and thousands of people," he said.

The Relay joins other initiatives being taken to draw attention to the CCP's continued human rights abuses.

In March, actress Mia Farrow announced a campaign to halt China's support of the Sudanese regime, which has so far killed more than 400,000 people in Darfur. Ms Farrow said that Beijing is uniquely positioned to put an end to the slaughter, but had so far refused to do so.

Whither Human Rights in China?

Cross-posted at CIP Falun Gong Newsletter (CIPFG)

The preceding text is the transcript of the speech given by David Kilgour (co-author of Bloody Harvest) at the China Rights Network: Rights Now Forum held at the Ontario Institute for Studies on Education at the University of Toronto on June 2, 2007. Kilgour is a former M.P. and the former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific region. He, along with human rights lawyer David Matas, co-authored the Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China.

Look here for the entire speech.

Conclusions Confirmed

Epoch Times Excerpt: By announcing on April 6th this year that as of May 1st there will be no more trade in human organs, the government of China unintentionally confirmed the grisly truth of the conclusion by many, including our report. Matas and I, of course, hope that this latest edict will stop the killing of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience both before and after the Beijing Olympic Games. Given the vast sums of money involved, the indications that the military operate outside the health system and the obvious linkage of this announcement to concern about the now indelibly termed "Genocide Olympics", we remain sceptical that much will change in a crime against humanity that has gone on across China now for about six years.

The government of China has a history in this area of announcing policies and laws which sound fine in principle to the international community but are then not enforced. This announcement will mean nothing if the practice of organ harvesting from non-consenting 'donors' for huge sums of money continues.

The Chinese Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu, speaking in Guangzhou in mid-November 2006, denounced the selling of organs of executed prisoners, saying, "Under-the-table business must be banned." Yet the practice had already been banned in law on July I, 2006 and by policy long before that, so his speech was an official acknowledgement that the previous bans were ineffective. We worry that this announcement of a change in the law is nothing more than a political cosmetic, a piece of propaganda with its eye fixed firmly on cleansing the party's terrible human rights reputation before the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the minds of prospective foreign visitors.

...

Olympic Games

Mann (James Mann, author of The China Fantasy) thinks the media hype surrounding the 2008 Olympic Games will dwarf all earlier ones. China's government has already adapted a cute-and-cuddly image for them with its 'Five Friendlies'—doll-like characters, including a panda, designed to appeal to children, marketers and tourists. He asks pointedly if the "world's car manufacturers and beer companies (will) want to sponsor television coverage of the Olympics that dwells on the unpleasant side of China-the sweatshops, the poverty, the political prisoners, the corruption and the environmental disasters? Not likely." He queries if the Beijing games will follow the terrible precedent of the Berlin Olympics of 1936.

The Chinese media will stress patriotism at home throughout 2008 and probably before. Their coverage of the October, 1999 fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China, which featured a parade intended to demonstrate the military power and the achievements of the CCP, is a likely template. John Pomfret of the Washington Post wrote chillingly about that day in Beijing: "No random spectators were allowed to view the scores of gaily coloured floats that coursed for two hours down to the Boulevard of Eternal Peace.

No overweight children were among the goose-stepping young students, women participants were picked for their beauty; soldiers were carefully selected for height, polish and marching skill. And all were chosen on the basis of their 'love of the motherland', Chinese officials said." The presence of a huge international media corps in Beijing could help to spur political demonstrations by democracy activists, religious groups, including Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uighurs, aggrieved workers and farmers, but only if they can penetrate the security designed to keep them away from the television cameras.

Mann: "Would-be protesters will be kept out of Beijing (or if they live in the city, they may be thrown out of Beijing). Crowds will not be allowed to gather; if they do, they will dispersed before they can make it to any public space. The police will be especially rough on groups seeking access to Tiananmen Square, which has been off limits to protests since 1989." The real test will come after the foreigners have left Beijing, says Dunn.

How many of the changes in China's political system hinted at on the eve of the Games will be implemented? Will the democratic world-now all but about 45 dictatorships across the planet-successfully integrate China to our norms? Or will the business community in Canada and elsewhere have to continue to explain why they are kowtowing to a regime that rather recently ordered tanks to fire on unarmed citizens and which since 2000 has been killing Falun Gong prisoners of conscience without trial and selling their organs for cash to organ tourists? Is this corporate social responsibility to some CEOs?

Mann stresses that the real problem with the business community is "Who's integrating whom?" How many Canadians have lost their livelihoods as a result of this integration, including, for example, 800 Goodyear Tire employees near Montreal who saw their tire plant close a few months ago because someone thinks they can manufacture tires more cheaply in China?

Recommended Initiatives

Among the initiatives that each of us might take to pressure the government of China on a host of human rights issues over the next year or so are these five:

...

4 -Leave no stone unturned on these vital causes. Be tireless. Speak, write, listen and strategize.

5-If it becomes necessary to call for a boycott together or separately of the 2008 Olympic Games, let us all be fully understanding of all the training and sustained effort put into their sport by Olympians everywhere. The International Olympics Committee should, given that human rights have deteriorated across China since it was awarded the Games, never have given the games to Beijing. If the IOC will not push harder on the host government to improve human rights in China than it has done to date, the IOC will be partly responsible for the calls for boycott. We did not know about the Holocaust before the Berlin Olympics in 1936, but the international community does know what the government of China is doing now both internally and internationally. Human dignity is ultimately indivisible today just as it was in the 1930s.

Repression continues in China, one year before Olympic Games

It's good to see that Reporters without borders are back on board.
	Repression continues in China, one year before Olympic Games The Reporters Without Borders list of nine things the Chinese authorities must do before the Beijing Olympic Games: Reporters Without Borders also supports the eight demands of the Collectif Chine JO 2008 (China 2008 Olympics Collective), an alliance of nine human rights organisations based in France:

The world at stake

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Not only a boycott of the Olympics is desperately needed but a boycott of the 'made-in-China' shoddy products is a must if we're serious about encouraging China to do better. Human lives are at risk.

How China handles doubts about its manufacturing integrity will decide if it has a world to win, or lose.

The Star: July 8, 2007 - There was a time when Hong Kong was notorious as a source of shoddy merchandise. Under the British, the label “Made in Hong Kong” became so unsaleable it was often replaced with “(British) Empire Made,” leveraging on the cachet of the mother country.

China today is changing fast, perhaps too fast for industry regulators and law enforcers. Anything less than effective regulation of industry could scupper future success, as unbridled free enterprise becomes China’s own worst enemy.

Gone are the days when fake Rolexes and DVDs from backyard operations riled only bona fide manufacturers. What was once a cottage industry is now a shadow economy, with fake teapots, tea leaves, hens’ eggs, whole road-going Ferraris (330P4s) and even a fake NEC Corporation comprising almost a parallel universe.

In March, wheat gluten and rice protein in pet foods containing melamine as fake protein from China sickened and killed pets internationally.

For people, fake albumin (blood protein) is reportedly sold widely to hospitals and pharmacies, threatening the lives of patients.

A host of other problem items, from fake infant formula milk powder and lead-infused toys to fake medicines and Viagra, continue to plague China’s export market and economic future. In its fledgling automobile industry, Chinese cars sent to Germany for testing recently scored only one out of five possible stars for crash safety.

The least that Chinese authorities can do is admit to the problems and clean up their act, swiftly and comprehensively. While some efforts are in that direction, there are complaints that reports of sub-standard goods have exaggerated things.

Part of the problem lies in the complacency of earlier leaders, including Deng Xiaoping’s indiscriminate celebration of riches as “glorious”, without adequate strictures or safeguards on how wealth should be created. Forget integrity, sully a reputation, and competitiveness is compromised.

Today’s leaders have begun to understand the problem, such as in recognising the need for adequate protection of patents and copyright to safeguard China’s own inventiveness at least.

But legal institutions and practices still have to catch up with an industrial culture tempted to see a fast buck as the overriding priority.

The answer lies in tough and coordinated action against errant manufacturers nationwide, possibly the best attribute of central planning today. China cannot afford the luxury of leaving it to market forces or social institutions to develop consumer aversion to unscrupulous traders and thereby check their criminal profiteering, since the global brand is “China” rather than unidentified back-street operators.

The February-March 2007 survey of foreign investors by Ernst & Young still places China as top investment destination, but the views were formed before the latest wave of manufacturing malpractices could begin to sap confidence. Meanwhile, the low labour cost incentive of China is being diluted by rising wages and other low-cost “emerging economies” in Indochina and the former Eastern Europe.

It is said that while a more promising China develops manufacturing capacity, an emerging Russia is only exploiting depletable resources like oil and gas. But neither Russia nor India needs to do much to close the gap if China compromises its manufacturing reputation by alienating world markets.

Events like next year’s Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo should spur China to raise standards all-round, or else suffer greater infamy from the heightened international exposure. The watershed nature of such events makes for the delicate crossroads at which China now faces global realities and responsibilities.

Hong Kong has shaken off much of its past negative image as a Third World sweatshop to emerge as a leading global port and world-class financial centre. Can the rest of China emulate something of this, and in time, to confound its growing circle of sceptics?

Once again, sheer necessity is driving China to meet historic challenges of monumental significance. The stakes are astronomical and the choice is stark: adapt and improve, or wither and die. China today is vast and getting stronger, but the global market it has entered is even bigger and more powerful.

Beijing pollution becomes hard to swallow

Athletes and coaches will find air quality hard to ignore next summer

The Province: Published: Sunday, July 08, 2007 - Ah, fresh air. Something we all too often take for granted. After fighting for every breath during a recent game with the national team in China, I've learned to value the joy of taking a deep breath of clean, crisp, pollution-free Canadian air.

Many high-level athletes can claim they've seen it all. Beijing, home to the 2008 Summer Olympics, will present a challenge most of them have never faced before.

Beijing has a pollution index that can reach a 270 rating. That makes a stroll down the sidewalk something that makes you wheeze. Imagine playing a 90-minute soccer game, or running the 1,500-metre race in those conditions.

Pollution levels in Vancouver vary between 20 and 24. On a bad day it hits 35, at which point a warning is issued. Luckily for us, that rarely happens.

On a normal day in Beijing the pollution level is around 190 -- and that's considered a good day. In 2001 Beijing won the 2008 games with a commitment to clean up the environment and host a "green" Olympics.

In the past six years, they've spent billions planting trees and building parks. They've also tried to rein in the coal-burning power plants and major industries that churn out pollution.

Until this spring I had never been to China, so I don't know what it was like before the clean-up began. But, after spending just over a week in what is still considered one of the world's most polluted cities, it was hard to believe they'd made much progress.

On our trip to China, our team brought along exercise physiologist Dr. Greg Anderson to measure the impact pollution would have on our bodies and performance. We took respiratory tests and did fitness testing and compared the results to those we'd recorded in Vancouver. On average team members saw a 10 per cent drop in aerobic capacity and many felt sharp chest pains after intense activity.

According to Dr. Anderson "high ozone levels in China, combined with exercise and high air flow" caused a burning sensation in the lungs. After a few days there you feel a constant lump in the back of your throat.

We were told that "lump" was pollution debris, called "particulate matter." The use of an inhaler became regular practice to many who had never been diagnosed with asthma before.

By day seven most of us had developed an unattractive spitting habit, constantly trying to clear our throats. I finally understood why my great aunt Agnes -- a chain smoker for over 50 years -- had such a terrible cough. I felt like I had been smoking a pack-a-day my entire life.

It's hard to tell in which way the pollution will affect the 2008 Olympics. Will athletes struggle equally? Probably not. Those countries with the ability to relocate and prepare for the games in Beijing may be at an advantage.

It may be the country with the best team of scientists that comes out on top. Or it may just be that viewers all over the world will determine these games to be the least entertaining in history, as the athletes hack and cough their way through events.

It's far from futile, but Beijing has a long way to go. Rather than improving, recent findings show the situation is actually getting worse. An outspoken vice minister at the State Environmental Protection Agency said this week the pollution problem was magnifying as China's primary focus continued to be on economic growth.

Under-reporting and doctored numbers also make it hard for the rest of the world to really gauge the problem. This week London's Financial Times newspaper reported that the World Bank had been pressured by the Chinese government to delete data from a report showing that each year 750,000 premature deaths are caused by pollution in China.

Athletes, coaches and Olympic committees all over the world will have to consider that aside from the usual challenges, like questionable judging, poor refereeing, false starts, bad weather, steroids and injuries, the complete lack of fresh air is going to be a major factor in the 2008 summer games.

Kara Lang will be playing for Canada in China at the Women's World Cup of soccer in September, and hopes to play there during the Olympics in 2008.

Communism Isn't Finished Yet

An excellent speech by John Kusumi.

The Conservative Voice: July 05, 2007 01:24 PM EST

The following is a rally speech as delivered at the Victims of Communism Memorial, Washington DC, on July 2, 2007--

Let me say hello to all of the friends of Chinese freedom and to onlookers in the general public. Today’s speech is actually intended for George Bush, the U.S. President; for Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee President; and for the U.S. news media, where they have a man called Mr. Managing Editor. They are my intended audience, but you too are welcome to follow along and to see where my speech is going.

In light of what is happening in China these days, I could simply call for the resignation of all three such gentlemen. Very clearly, there is a situation: the Chinese freedom and democracy movement has strengthened and gained sympathy for an Olympic boycott due to Communist misbehavior in Beijing. It is especially sympathetic in light of the Falun Gong crackdown, the Internet crackdown, the pre-Olympic crackdown, the organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, torture -- and other atrocities. These matters shock the conscience and affront our more civilized sensibilities.

The movement has well made the case against the continuation of China's Communist ways. The CCP regime (as they have there) represents an ongoing killing spree that is flatly unacceptable. And furthermore, this is a life-and-death matter for those people who are being killed by Communist China today.

What if the United States had a President who was less derelict, or should I say more responsible? As I said in a recent speech, he would challenge China's welcome to continue its human rights abuses. If all of these protestors can say, "Stop the killing," then why can't the U.S. President say the same?

It seems that a summary of U.S. China policy suggests, "sacrifice everything for the longevity of Chairman Mao's regime."

What if a U.S. President was less friendly towards Maoism, or should I say more friendly towards America? --If so, then that policy would not be tenable. It would be seen for the orgy of selling out, and opportunistic bottom feeding that it is. It is unbecoming of America to look the other way about genocide, mass murder, and the systemic abuse of civilians.

What if the IOC had a President who was less derelict, or should I say more responsible? Not only would he challenge China's welcome to continue abusing human rights; he would also serve notice upon the CCP that their continued killing spree -- and support for another killing spree in Darfur -- is a show stopper for the Olympics. If the rest of us can say, "Stop the killing," then why should the IOC have no shame and no conscience? Mr. Rogge, your Beijing Olympics are already untenable politically. China holds the world’s record in mass murder, and to host the Olympics is an undeserved reward for crimes against humanity.

It shocks the conscience all over again to contemplate this move by the International Olympic Committee. The stench of these Olympics is worse than excrement. They are not only comparable to the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Nazi Germany; they are in fact worse than 1936. In ’36, Hitler’s killing spree was ahead of him; there was no World War II body count; those events were ahead of, not behind, the world.

The Communist Chinese make Hitler look like an amateur troublemaker, because they are holding the world’s record for more killings inside China than occurred in World War II around the globe! The body count behind us is already 80 million, and the IOC could have contemplated this in advance of its site decision (a decision which I suspect was bought-and-paid for).

What if America had a news media that was recognizable as such -- an institution of news, rather than one of gamesmanship as the corrupt flack for the corrupt? Well, then the American people would be welcome to learn about the human rights abuses, slave labor, religious persecution, wanton killing, mass murder, genocide, and organ harvesting of Communist China. After they got wind of that, the pressure would be on the U.S. President and the IOC President to take their feet off the desk about a killing spree in progress -- history’s worst humanitarian disaster -- and they themselves would want to stop the 2008 Olympics, a pending public relations disaster.

Someone should say to China that before you smile for the camera, you should remove the spinach that is between your teeth. The CCP is the spinach that is caught in the teeth of China. Discontinue Communism first, before you go for Olympic amounts of world attention. In fact, I have a saying for China: Freedom first, and Olympics second! This summer, there will be a new Freedom First, Olympics Second coalition. China will have a loss of face unless it becomes a free country before hosting the Olympics.

But I digress. What if American news was less corrupt, or should I say more responsible? Instead of playing the game in Washington, an upright news media might expose the game in Washington. Let me be specific about which game I would have exposed. About 25% of humanity remains under Communism; but the game in Washington is to declare victory and to put ones feet on the desk about Communism.

I am standing at this new Victims of Communism Memorial, about two weeks after George Bush was here to dedicate the Memorial. Thanks for dedicating the Memorial, but the George Bush speech of that day followed along with the above game to a tee. By declaring victory over Communism, with all of its depredations “in the past tense,” that means that it is no longer seen as a problem so that, on this issue, the George Bush feet can return to the George Bush desk. I see right through that game, Mr. President!

And so Mr. U.S. President, and Mr. IOC President, and Mr. Managing Editor, I see that games are not just for stadiums. Yours are games with a life-and-death issue; and, your games are delaying the rescue -- of people whose lives can be spared.

How did China get to have a "welcome to continue abusing human rights"? To retrace the free pass could take another speech, implicating the elder President Bush and Bill Clinton. A shorter statement is that it’s your puppy now. China's welcome is something that you extend to it.

Stop being tacit enablers of the killing. You are not accessories before the fact, and you are not accessories after the fact. But, as tacit enablers, punching the ticket of Communist China, it is arguably true that you are “accessories during the fact.” Would Eastern civilization have a better shot at freedom if Western civilization weren’t run by the aforementioned tacit accessories to genocide, or should I say “if it were run by more responsible people?”

Your morals, scruples, values and ethics are on display and will be recorded by history. Your house of cards is about to collapse. Somebody here is going to blink, and it's not going to be the Chinese democracy movement. Thank you for taking in my speech.

Olympics Highlight Human Rights in China

UK Guardian:Thursday July 5, 2007 7:31 PM by JUSTIN PRITCHARD Associated Press Writer

Child labor. Forced abortions. Religious persecution. Jailed dissidents. Cultural cleansing in Tibet and ethnic cleansing in Africa.

For China, the run-up to next summer's Olympics in Beijing is looking like a marathon through a human-rights minefield.

It's been decades since the games focused on which athletes were faster or stronger. But the Olympics have not been this politicized since the U.S.-Soviet boycotts of the 1980s.

China sees a chance to wow the world as it hosts its first event watched by billions of people. The increasingly image-conscious country will measure success both with medals and whether the 2008 Olympics burnish its rising star. That gives activists, governments and celebrities with a cause an opportunity to influence policies they've long assailed.

The games raise a difficult question for a government famously dismissive of outside pressure: What accommodations might be made without losing face?

Even China's sharpest critics don't anticipate major shifts before the games begin Aug. 8, 2008. Cosmetic changes are possible on issues such as free speech and labor conditions. Concessions on Tibetan autonomy or the Falun Gong spiritual movement are off the table.

``Everyone I've talked to about China policy is focused on the Olympics,'' said Michael Green, a former Bush administration Asia specialist now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``Beijing knows this and I think they are trying to take minimal steps now to not have to fundamentally change their policies in 2008.''

China insists its approach to free speech and other rights held sacred in the West fits its own culture. Falun Gong is a cult, Beijing says, and Tibet has long been under Chinese sway.

One issue China has budged on is Darfur, the region in Sudan where militias allegedly backed by the government have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians. China is the African nation's diplomatic patron and its biggest trading partner.

After resisting calls for intervention, China dispatched a special envoy and lobbied Sudan to accept a United Nations peacekeeping force.

Observers disagree whether those moves were motivated by external pressure or self-interest, pointing out that China continues to shield the regime from U.N. economic sanctions.

In the campaign to save Darfur, Hollywood is leading the charge.

Opening ceremonies consultant Steven Spielberg urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to change Sudan policy after the director was publicly branded a collaborator by Mia Farrow. The actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador has labeled these the ``genocide Olympics'' and last month announced an Olympic-style torch relay through countries with histories of mass atrocities.

``Whatever their motivation is, they can, I think, be channeled to being a much more constructive actor going forward,'' Darfur activist John Prendergast said of the Chinese.

Prendergast, who co-authored the book ``Not on Our Watch'' with actor Don Cheadle, cautioned that the opportunity is limited and China would never acknowledge that it's reacting to pressure.

There are other signs that China is attuned to international opinion the same way a host worries whether guests at a housewarming get the right impression.

The past month brought two gestures. For the first time, the activist mother of a man who was killed during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators was allowed to publicly mark the anniversary. And Olympic organizers launched a child-labor investigation after the advocacy group PlayFair 2008 reported that four official souvenir makers were using workers as young as 12.

Exposing conditions is just one tactic. Some groups have planned protests surrounding Aug. 8, the one-year mark before the opening ceremonies.

Amnesty International is considering a demonstration at the Chinese embassy in Washington. The International Campaign for Tibet plans actions at Major League Baseball Games and will formally launch a Web site focusing on the Olympics.

Chinese officials promised reforms before winning the right to host the games. The current secretary general of the Beijing organizing committee said then that he thought a Chinese Olympics could ``promote'' human rights. In a May interview with The Associated Press, Wang Wei said human rights were improving and dismissed the issue as ``an old topic.''

Other efforts to enlist the Olympics have drawn rebukes, as have calls to boycott because of Darfur. Several celebrities as well as presidential candidates in the U.S. and France have suggested withholding athletes, a drastic move that made headlines when the United States dropped out of the Moscow Olympics of 1980 and the Soviets shunned the 1984 games in Los Angeles.

``There are a handful of people who are trying to politicize the Olympic Games,'' Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said this spring. ``This is against the spirit of the games.''

It's more than a handful - it's just about everyone with a gripe against China. Most have modest goals.

Perhaps the government might abolish its system of ``re-education'' through labor, said T. Kumar, a Washington lobbyist for Amnesty International.

Maybe Beijing would let the Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibet's Buddhists, make a pilgrimage to holy sites in China, said Mary Beth Markey of the International Campaign for Tibet.

Several labor advocates said not to expect fundamental reforms in a country where galloping economic expansion is a priority and growth depends on a cheap, pliable work force.

Other groups don't voice specific hopes, but still see opportunity.

The Olympic rings logo and Beijing mascot offer a chance to underscore the importance of copyright protection in a country where DVD piracy is rampant, said Dan Glickman, head of the Motion Picture Association of America. The government wants to protect the logos from counterfeiters, he said, so why can't it bring that focus to movies?

``It's an opportunity,'' Glickman said, ``for them to show how they can become legitimate members of the community of nations.''

HRW: Beijing's Rule of Law Retreat

Human Rights Watch: Published in The Wall Street Journal

By Nicholas Bequelin

Related Material More of Human Rights Watch's work on China Country Page World Report 2007 Chapter on China World Report Chapter, January 11, 2007 Free Email Newsletter

The recent discovery of hundreds of slave laborers working in feudal conditions in brick kilns prompted a national outcry in China -- and an unusually forceful reaction from the central government. The Communist Party immediately dispatched tens of thousands of police to break up the ring, arrested hundreds, and inspired strongly worded editorials in such state organs as the People's Daily denouncing local officials' lapses. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao also weighed in, giving highly publicized orders to launch a "nationwide campaign" to eradicate slave labor.

But this campaign mostly misses the point. Chinese officials and editorial writers may rail about local corruption and the evils of forced labor, but the root of the problem is something they are unlikely to do anything about: a woefully inadequate legal system that lacks true independence from the government, cannot address citizen concerns and exacerbates rather than alleviates local corruption.

Over the past two decades, China's Communist Party has progressively embraced the rule of law as its principal method to rule the country. Importing entire chunks of Western-style legal institutions, the party established a modern court system, enacted thousands of laws and regulations, and formed hundreds of law schools to train legal professionals. It publicized through constant propaganda campaigns the idea that common citizens have basic rights, and elevated the concept of the "rule of law" to constitutional prominence in the mid-1990s.

In a one-party system hostile to carrying out the slightest political reforms -- and in the absence of other checks on power such as a free press or an independent civil society -- this formidable legal effort was meant to provide some stability and predictability to a rapidly modernizing society, as well as to impart legitimacy to the ruling order.

Yet huge numbers of Chinese citizens are still unable to use the system to seek justice. Predatory officials rob farmers of their land, forcibly evict residents from their homes, and cover up extravagant abuses of power -- typically embezzlement, but also rape and murder. These officials close their eyes to labor exploitation and condone or profit from criminal rackets, human trafficking and illegal mining. There is even a term in Chinese for local officials' collusion with criminal gangs: "black umbrellas," which refers to officials who give protection to illegal activities in exchange for bribes.

With no avenues to seek redress, China's citizens are abused and exploited on a shocking scale. The problems are not confined to small towns or rural areas: Recent prominent corruption cases include the police chief of Shenyang in Liaoning province, the party secretary of Shanghai and the head of the national food and drug administration.

The critical obstacle to reform remains the judicial system's enslavement by the party. At every level, China's key legal institutions -- the police and the courts -- are under the authority of the party's political and legal committees. Through these institutions, local power holders can easily instruct the police to abandon investigations, foreclose legal challenges, dictate the outcome of particular cases to judges, or frame protesters and activists on vague charges of threatening state security and social stability. Granted, when the party's interests and justice align, China's courts function reasonably well. But the overwhelming powers of party officials over the judiciary are an open invitation to abuse them.

The growing "mafia-ization" of local governments and spiraling social unrest attest to the urgent need for a functioning legal system. Reports of riots and other episodes of disorder are increasingly frequent. Last month, no less than eight riots and large-scale demonstrations were reported in different parts of the country, arising from issues as diverse as Guangxi's family planning policies, the construction of a Xiamen chemical factory, the beating of a Chongqing street hawker, impunity for a police-connected murderer in Sichuan, and even a protest by retired Guangzhou soldiers for their pensions. The government's recent claim that social unrest was on the decline now has to be called into question.

Unfortunately, there are no signs that Beijing intends to empower the legal system to operate in an effective and independent manner. In fact under President Hu, the party has abandoned its rule-of-law rhetoric to talk more about a "socialist" rule of law -- implying that the party, not the law itself, remains supreme.

Top law officials like Luo Gan, head of the Political and Legal Committee of the Central Committee, have recently issued an order to purge the legal system of "negative Western legal concepts," including fundamentals such as judicial independence. But nowhere is the authorities' attitude towards an autonomous legal system clearer than in the wave of repression it has unleashed since last year on China's nascent civil-rights movement, sentencing for subversion the country's top human-rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, jailing countless rights activists, using house arrest to silence many critics, and tightening control over the legal profession.

The brick kiln case is emblematic of these wider problems. Legal reforms take time, and it would be unreasonable to expect China's courts to solve every social ill faced by such a large, developing country. But it is a mistake to think that the Chinese legal system can heal itself while the party refuses to relinquish any power.

It's an even greater mistake to think that China can remain stable if it denies access to justice to its citizens, and continues to hide from the cleansing sunlight of a free press. Until it does, social unrest, slave labor and the shadow of black umbrellas will continue to grow.

---

Mr. Bequelin is a researcher at the Asia division of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.

China, Vatican: Diplomatic Ties and the Benefits of Religion

The Pope should call for a boycott -- why not?

Stratfor: Summary - July 02, 2007 17 33 GMT

Pope Benedict XVI wrote the bishops, priests and members of China's Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Chinese government, in a letter published June 29. The Vatican wants to unite the Vatican-approved and Beijing-approved churches in China, normalize ties with Beijing and kick-start a new expansion of Catholicism throughout Asia. This could provide Beijing a useful tool for filling an ideological void to maintain social stability and for countering international criticism of its human and religious rights practices. The move also illustrates how the drive for talks from both sides is stepping up.

Analysis

Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter May 27 to the bishops, priests and members of the Roman Catholic Church in China, as well as to the Chinese government. The text of the letter was made public June 29 by the Vatican, with the delay needed to avoid "diplomatic issues," sources said.

The letter talks primarily to the Vatican-approved Roman Catholic Church in China, the members of which continue to recognize the pope as the central authority of the church, and the authority of the structure of the church -- from bishops to priests to laypersons -- as laid out by the Vatican. The letter's key messages to these groups are to persevere in the face of hardships, forgive and welcome faithful Catholics who are not part of the Vatican-recognized Catholic community in China. It also calls for expanded social services and following family values in order both to preserve the Catholic faithful and set a framework for cooperation with the Chinese civil authorities.

A Call for Unity

The message also reaches out to Chinese Catholics of the Beijing-approved Catholic Church, wherein bishops are not appointed by the pope. In his appeal, Pope Benedict XVI calls for faithful Chinese Catholics to seek out the Vatican-sanctioned church, to enter into its fold and proclaim their faith. The core of his message to Chinese Catholics of both sorts is unity, for bridging the gap between the Vatican-approved and the Beijing-approved churches and uniting into a single body. The unwritten message is that if there were unity, the Vatican's normalization negotiations with Beijing would carry more authority.

In the letter, the pope cites his predecessor, John Paul II, several times, noting early on that though the Roman Catholic Church focused on Europe in its first millennium and in the Americas and Africa in the second millennium, Asia will be the focus of the third millennium. This is part of the pope's goal of spurring a new expansion of Catholicism throughout Asia, tapping new resources and expanding Vatican reach to all corners of the globe. But as he notes several times either directly or indirectly, relations between the Vatican and Beijing have not been exactly smooth.

Beijing's biggest concern about establishing diplomatic ties with the Holy See regards papal authority. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has long struggled to ensure that it is the sole authority in China. In fact, one of the core drivers of the CPC in its current decision-making is the preservation of the centrality of CPC rule. The appointment of bishops by the pope in the Vatican thousands of miles from Beijing and the bishops' allegiance to the pope undermines the centrality of CPC rule. For Beijing, the Vatican is just another in a long string of entities potentially usurping CPC power -- from independent labor unions to alternative political parties, from Falun Gong to Amway.

The Benefits of Vatican Ties

Beijing also recognizes the potential international benefits of reconciliation with the Vatican. China faces an annual barrage of international condemnation for its human and religious rights practices, and normalizing ties with the Holy See could go a long way toward quelling such criticism and its occasional attendant economic consequences. Requiring that the Vatican accept the one-China policy -- meaning of course the Vatican's dropping recognition of Taiwan after establishing ties with China -- constitutes another potential perk for Beijing of Vatican ties. This would bolster Beijing's claims to Taiwan, at least theoretically, and would likely cause Taipei to lose most of its remaining allies in Latin America (which largely are historically Roman Catholic states). Though the Vatican might not yet have made up its mind about accepting the one-China policy, it is seriously considering adopting it -- and has hinted in the past that it could take care of Taiwan's faithful via a fully established church in mainland China.

But there is a growing domestic component to Beijing's considerations and flirtations with establishing Vatican ties. China is facing a looming, if not already present, social crisis. The social security system is in shambles, pensions and the old "iron rice bowl" are shattered, universal medical care is more a myth than a reality, and the one-child policy has left the younger generation either straining to support their elders, or simply leaving their elders to fend for themselves. The pope's letter skillfully addresses these very concerns, reminding China's Catholics -- and the Chinese government -- that the church can play a significant role in preserving family values (including caring for the parents and other Confucian values) and in providing social services, such as caring for the poor or infirm.

Seeking Fulfillment

Meanwhile, Chinese society is seeking fulfillment. In the 20th century, Confucian values were replaced by Communist principles. When Deng Xiaoping decided it was glorious to get rich, the Communist principles that provided social cohesion were trashed, and the search for material wealth drove society. By the mid-1990s, this drive clearly had reached its zenith as a source of nationwide social cohesion. The wealth gap was already showing, and there was no sign it was going to narrow -- in fact, it widened. The rich were getting richer, and the poor getting poorer. At this point, traditional Chinese Qi Gong exercises ballooned all over China (albeit with modern variations). Ostensibly these were physical fitness organizations, but they also offered a sort of spiritual fulfillment. They spread rapidly, giving rise to Falun Gong, among others.

Then-President Jiang Zemin, fearing a repeat of history written by the White Lotus and the Boxers, among others, quickly launched a campaign to nip the Falun Gong in the bud -- in the process clamping down on religions and pseudoreligions in China. Over the past few years, these restrictions have been loosened, with even a tacit sense of support for religion emerging -- particularly with regard to more traditional Chinese religions such as Daoism, and in some respects Buddhism. These fit with both Chinese attempts to create a stronger sense of Chinese nationalism (as Daoism in particular is considered native) and to provide a moral code that includes peacefulness and a satisfaction with life as it is -- in other words, cultivating a state of not being too upset and missing the economic growth train.

Harnessing Faith

The acceptance and even advocacy of religious belief is a potential new tool Beijing is now exploring for purposes of social control. For if religion is the opium of the people, at least people on opium do not riot. While Daoism and even Buddhism fit fairly well with this plan, China already has numerous Christians, and the various branches of Christianity have a reputation for rapid proselytizing. Rather than restrict them, if Beijing could simply keep them within certain bounds, it could encourage a more peaceful and satisfied society. It also could harness faith-based initiatives that address social ills and the impact of the unequal and unconstrained economic growth China has faced for several decades.

The pope's letter seems to recognize this internal Chinese musing over the benefits of organized religion, and makes a point of addressing these positive social aspects while reiterating that the Roman Catholic Church has no interest or role in politics so long as politics do not interfere with church sovereignty. The pope has laid out his bottom line: allow the full and open recognition of the Vatican's sole right to appoint bishops and other clergy among Chinese Catholics, and the Vatican will play a primarily social role in China, allowing local clergy to meet the needs of their local communities. Beijing's initial response via the Foreign Ministry was that any normalization of relations would require the Vatican to cut ties with Taiwan and not interfere in internal Chinese political issues in the name of religion.

These points are not new in themselves, but the letter's issuance suggests the drive for talks is picking up steam, particularly given Beijing's loosening of restrictions on religion. Neither side trusts the other to keep its word, of course, so any decision is still a ways off. But regardless of whether Beijing accedes to the Vatican's offer, it appears the pope has set his sights firmly on China as the next frontier. That can mean confrontation, like his predecessor's focus on Eastern Europe and Russia, or the potential for reconciliation and a possible diplomatic coup for Beijing. The question is whether the CPC has the confidence in its own authority and control to take the next step.