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June 18, 2006 (Sunday) － Issue No. 54 |
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Withdrawals
from Chinese Communist Party Surpass 11 Million |
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The
Most Polluted City in the World |
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Exhibit
Brings Chinese Bibles and Spooky Communist Censorship to New York |
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Political Conflict Behind the Revaluation of Chinese Yuan An unknown fact is that the real issue was not about trade, but about human rights in China's industries, specifically labor rights and protection. On that issue, the Chinese communist regime said, "We absolutely can't give in regarding the issue of labor unions."....…Full Article |
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A Wind of Change on Foreign Policy to China? During his three-day visit to China in May 2006, Mr. McMillan-Scott made a special arrangement to meet with two Falun Gong practitioners who have been subjected to CCP's brutal persecution of the spiritual practice. McMillan-Scott is the very first western political leader to have met victims of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong on China's soil.....…Full Article |
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Dr. Gao Dawei, a representative of the Global Quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Service Center, spoke at a rally in Los Angeles on June 10 in support of 11 million withdrawals from the CCP and reported on the latest developments in the withdrawal movement in China. Following is a summary of his speech: The Communist regime in China is increasingly afraid of the "Nine Commentaries" and the movement of quitting the CCP that is surging across China and abroad. In recent weeks, the regime has gone all out to block the hotlines of the global Quit the CCP Service Center as well as the Web sites that help to facilitate the movement. The CCP continues to abduct, detain, and illegally sentence those who spread the "Nine Commentaries" and promote withdrawals from the Party, the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers. But the conscience of the public and military is rapidly awakening, and the regime is unable to suppress this movement. The following are some examples that occurred during the communist regime's recent blockade of our Web sites. ? Many members within the Communist Party and military officers are following the spread of the "Nine Commentaries" and the withdrawal movement. In recent weeks, they used various means to send messages informing us that our Web sites have been blocked, that our telephone calls and facsimiles could not get through. Some even called us to make suggestions. ? A high ranking navy officer [see note] called and insisted on withdrawing from the Communist Party with his real name. He expressed anger towards the regime's tyranny, including removing organs from living people and the information blockage. He encouraged the volunteers in the Service Center to persist with their cause. At the same time, more and more army officers and military appellants have joined the withdrawal movement and have expressed their aspiration for "military nationalization" and the "return of power to the people." ? A high level official in charge of the Communist Party's propaganda in a province in China called the Service Center's 24 hour hotline after receiving our facsimile. He tried earnestly to understand the "Nine Commentaries," the Party withdrawal, the removal of organs from living people, and the regime's blocking of the Web site. Besides agreeing to resign from Party membership, he made several constructive suggestions and revealed that many high level officials had their own personal "underground channels that enable them to understand the outside world, including Falun Gong and the tide of Party withdrawals." ? A secretary of a high-level central government officer was surprised to receive our facsimile on the Party withdrawal and called the Service Center's hotline to verify. The volunteers in the Service Center advised him to withdraw from the Party and hoped that he would pass the information on to his superior, a decision maker, and get him to withdraw from the Party as well, thus saving himself and the country. ? Quit the Party Service Center in Vancouver sends information on the "Nine Commentaries" and the withdrawal movement to government officials in a mainland district. It was discovered that the listening rate was over 50 percent higher than telephone calls made to the everyday person. Some recipients even press the key so they can listen to the information several times. Nearly 60 Percent Are CCP Members That is to say,
in the past one and half years, nearly one tenth of the Party members,
including many high level government and military officers, have withdrawn
from the CCP. This indicates that the regime is on the brink of disintegration.
We certainly hope that compatriots in China will seize the opportunity
to join the tide of withdrawals. Back A man rides a tricycle past a billboard promoting environmental protection in Beijing, China. The World Bank has just released a survey of the world's most polluted cities, and 16 of the 20 most polluted are in China. (China Photos/Getty Images) According to CNN, the World Bank recently examined 20 of the most severely polluted cities in the world. Sixteen of these cities are located in China, and Linfen City, in Shanxi Province, was cited as the world's most polluted city. Apple Daily reported that factories in Linfen continuously release waste gas and sewage. The whole city smells and is covered in smoke. The trees around the factories are all withered. The polluted water is like thick oil, and the polluted rivers have caused a higher incidence of cancer among citizens living in the area. One environmental expert said, "If you have a grudge against someone, let this guy become a permanent citizen of Linfen! Why? For punishment!" The problem of air pollution in China's cities remains serious. In 2005, 39.7 percent of the 522 cities surveyed were either moderately or seriously polluted. Last year, environmental disputes and large-scale protests increased 30 percent compared to the previous year. Over 50,000 incidents were documented. Among these cases, 50.6 percent were about water pollution, and nearly 40 percent were related to air pollution. Pan Yue, vice director of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China said, "Environmental problems have become a main factor affecting China's national security and social stability." Zhang Lijun, another
vice director of the Administration, said, "In some areas, corrupted
officials protect local polluting industries to gain personal profits.
Without clean officials, there will be no clean water."
Back Beijing will hold the 2008 summer Olympics, for which Beijing has come up with the slogan, the "green" Olympics. The "green" Olympics is China's attempt to achieve an environmentally friendly Olympics by trying to improve environmental protection and reduce its increasing pollution. Beijing's Xiao Kang magazine reported that coinciding with the opening of China's sixth Annual Environmental Protection Conference on April 17, 2006, was the most severe sandstorm in the history of communist China. In one night, 300,000 tons of sand dropped on Beijing and shocked even sandstorm-hardened Beijing residents. CCP number 2, Wen Jiabao, who joined the Environmental Protection Conference, expressed his concern at the severity of the sandstorm. He Ping, president of the International Fund for China's Environment (IFCE), said, "This is a signal that the environment is at breaking point after over 20 years of high speed economic development. The situation has steadily grown to this point and must now be managed." Overgrazing, Excessive Water Use, Bad Resource Management Add to Desertification Zheng Yi, author of Old Well and Scarlet Memorial, continually follows news of China's environmental protection problems. In regard to Beijing's sandstorms, Zheng Yi believes the increasing problem to be mostly caused by humankind. He said, "Actually, sandstorms in Northwest China are already a very serious issue. It is not only a regional thing, as their severity has increased in line with the destruction of China's grassland and forests. It is basically a type of human-made disaster, not a natural disaster. " Beijing's First Financial Daily said that experts at the Chinese Academy of Science recently said that destructive land use, over grazing and excess use of water all have increased desertification. In next 10 to 20 years, the frequency, intensity and dangers of sandstorms in most parts of China will likely increase. On the desertification issue, Zheng Yi believes that the main cause is inappropriate proprietorship of the land. He thinks the desertification of grasslands would be reduced if the grasslands had specific owners. Zheng Yi explains, "If the land had specific property rights, owners would normally not allow their own grassland to deteriorate to this point. For example, some areas are rented by others for opening up wasteland and planting. These areas have produced a harvest in the first two years, but malpractice results in the same land turning into a desert in few years. Those people using the land only want to reap a quick profit and then run away. This is destructive exploitation." Funds for Dams, Not Environmental Protection Zheng Yi concluded that the reason why there have been no positive outcomes to China's efforts at environmental protection, was that there is too little funding targeted at the environment. He said, "For example, building a dam can cost tens of billions of yuan. If the money were instead used to plant trees and forests, the benefits would be far greater than building a dam. Most people, however, are unwilling to do that." Yi continued,
"Simply speaking, it is easier to make illegal money from corruption
through a big capital project rather than a forest planting exercise,
so directing funds to useful environmental projects is very tough.
As everyone is looking for a fast buck, the environment will continue
to suffer. It all has to do with perceived benefits."
Back Last Thursday, working part time as a cameraman for the Chinese-language TV station New Tang Dynasty, I went to shoot some footage for a short news piece at an exhibit of Chinese Bibles being held at The Church of St. John the Divine near West 112th Street in Manhattan. The exhibit titled "The Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Church in China: A Lamp to My Feet, A Light to My Path," bills itself as an effort to bring "new understanding between Americans and Chinese" about the state of Christianity in China. It seemed straightforward enough and similar to other art exhibits that I had shot. Too bad I wasn't allowed in. As it turns out, the organizers disapproved of New Tang Dynasty. No surprise. Likely this has to do with the fact that the New York-based TV station is the only uncensored news being broadcast into China at the moment (against the Chinese Communist regime's wishes), and that the station reports on the human rights abuses there—the suppression and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, house Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, democracy advocates and so on. The Way It Went
Down When I showed up at the church I found out the number of their media liaison person and gave him a call to okay my filming in the space. He said it was no problem, and that I should go ahead and just run it by the folks from the China Christian Council to make sure they didn't mind. At the reception desk, I introduced myself to the two young Chinese ladies sitting there. They didn't speak English and motioned that they would call their supervisor. After about five minutes of waiting, a group of four official-looking Chinese men came walking toward me. In the lead was a portly, broad-faced gentleman in a pinstripe suit. The young supervisor asked me if I spoke Chinese and I replied that I did not. So he spoke with them in Chinese for a couple of minutes, and they talked among themselves. A different gentleman from the group, with salt and pepper hair and wearing a long dress shirt, kept saying, "I know your station. You guys are against everybody." And the portly man in pinstripes laughed and laughed. I couldn't figure out what was funny about the situation. I assured the group that I only wanted to shoot a little bit of footage for a short news piece. I showed them the NYPD press credentials hanging from my neck. I calmly informed them that they could not discriminate against my media outlet just because they don't like its programming—that doing so is illegal and, well, un-American. The pinstriped one just kept laughing and the other guy kept repeating that he didn't like our television station. After trying to
reason with them for another five minutes—during which time Mr. pinstripes
never ceased laughing—I realized that it was useless. And I also knew
that I had run afoul of Chinese communism. In China, where the Chinese
Communist regime rules every aspect of society, it is routine to behave
like these fellows were behaving—arbitrarily deciding that they didn't
like some particular person or group, and treating them poorly. Back It may seem strange that China and the United States are quarreling over the issue of the exchange rate, for people think this is an economic issue. But actually, it is a political issue. The essential reason for the large trade surplus and high foreign exchange reserves has been the export of Chinese goods at low prices. The low-priced products cause American manufacturing companies to collapse, and threaten the American government as well as American people's interests. The issue of the China-U.S. exchange rate is actually the issue of China's low-priced products, which are closely tied to China's political system. First, land in China is owned by the state. However, if you have power, you can operate a mine without purchasing the land. This accounts for one of the cost differences between products made in China and those made in the United States Second, laborers in China have no independent unions. Laborers' wages and welfare are unprotected; there is no collective bargaining. Lower wages and lack of welfare are key features of China's enterprises. Thus, the labor cost is far below that in other countries. Third, there are many environmental protection laws in China, but none are enforced. The companies currently investing in China do not need to pay for the cost of environmental protection. Although the large companies are the ones that cause serious pollution, they basically have no facilities to clean out pollutants. Thus their product cost is significantly decreased. Fourth, China and the United States have quarreled over the issue of intellectual property rights and the cost of technological development. In the United States, the expense for product development in every company takes up more than five percent of the product cost. This is the investment expense required at the initial stage and the continued expense needed for every company to keep up development and raise its competitiveness. It is because of these four competitive advantages that China's low-priced products sell well all over the world with little competition. These competitive advantages result from China's political system and its lack of legal institutions. Chinese people call this system of manufacturing "selling blood," especially because of its squeezing laborers and polluting the environment. The real problem is that if the autocratic and political system of the Chinese communist regime doesn't change, it might use the economic profits from selling its low-priced products to expand its military. Compared with the cost of national security, it might cost the United States a lot more to face China, a powerful militarized nation, in the future. In order to avoid that situation, it is better to speed up China's democratic process, and thus minimize the cost of U.S. national security. In the future, China-U.S. relations can only become more difficult because it is impossible to resolve this seemingly economic issue without resolving the issue of China's political system. The United States will place more and more pressure on the issue of China's exchange rate, and it will be impossible for China and the United States to establish a so-called "strategic partnership." The China-U.S. economic issue is essentially a political issue. Back A
Wind of Change on Foreign Policy with China? Back According to Mr. Jiao Guobiao, a former assistant-professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Beijing University, For over a decade, western countries had stuck to the custom of speaking only of China's economy and avoiding the subject of China's human rights violations, but they are now apparently taking a new diplomatic tack. U.S., German and EU Leaders' Meetings with Chinese Dissidents Reveals a Refreshing Attitude towards China On May 11, 2006, the United States President George Bush met with members of the home church from China and several Chinese dissidents, including Mr. Yu Jie, Mr. Wang Yi and Mr. Li Boguang. During the meeting, Bush expressed his concern for freedom of religion in China. During her visit to China in May 2006, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "human rights are indivisible" whereas other European political leaders had consistently avoided talking about China's human rights violations. Merkel also met with Mr. Chen Guili, the author of the forbidden book A Censorship of Chinese Farmers in China, as well as other dissidents in China. She also spoke with Catholic Bishop Mr. Jin Luxian, who was imprisoned for 27 years in Shanghai. The First Western
Political Leader to Meet Falun Gong Practitioners in China Afterwards, Mr. McMillan-Scott shared with the public what he had learned from his trip to Beijing, "My conclusions are that the Chinese regime remains brutal, arbitrary and paranoid". He then made speeches at international forums held in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He praised highly the movement to withdraw from the CCP and stressed the importance of pushing for democracy in China. McMillan-Scott congratulated the 10 million people who have withdrawn from the CCP. He believes that this movement will continue to grow. He urged each and every member of the CCP to withdraw from the party. On January 25, 2006, the EU's 46 member countries passed a resolution by 99 votes to 42 to condemn the Communist regime's crimes of tyranny. A Choice between
Two Chinas "All the latest signs show that political leaders of many countries are taking determined and promising strides towards disintegrating the Chinese Communist Party," Mr. Zhang said. Back |
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