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April 1, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 95 |
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'Undemocratic
Election' Win Takes Place in Hong Kong |
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Unique
Martial Arts Demonstrations |
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China's
AIDS Heroine |
| 'Handwriting
on the Wall': Twenty Million Withdraw from Chinese Communist Party The end of communist rule in China is inevitable and is now in sight, according to the rally. The participants shared instances which indicate that the authority the CCP once held over the Chinese people is crumbling fast....…Full Article |
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China's New Regulation Exposes Organ Removal from Live Minors Experts outside of China speculate that the Chinese Communist Party had no choice but to respond to the organ harvesting crimes which have shocked the world in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Analysts have pointed out this regulation shows that live organ removal is common in China and it happens to minors who are not supposed to be on death row......…Full Article |
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HONG KONG—On March 25, ballots from the 3rd elections for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) was announced with current Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen winning the small group election as expected. Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations held an unofficial yet democratic election, which gave an opposite outcome of 60 percent of the winning ballots going to Alan Leong and only 32 percent going to Mr. Tsang, who was appointed by the Chinese Communist authorities. During the official election, many civil groups protested inside and outside the official voting site. They protested that the small group selected election (800 electors) was manipulated by the communist regime, and requested a general democratic election. Just before the election, about a dozen members from The Frontier — a non-governmental political group — drove 20 cars, station wagons and trucks with banners stating "Support General Elections," and "Donald, Shame on You!" to protest outside the voting site at the Asia World-Expo. Dozens of members of the League of Social Democrats (LSD), including current legislator Leung Kwok Hung, tried to break through the restriction line and ended up clashing with the police. Just four days before the election, Mr. Tsang had ridiculed that the democratic election Ms. Lau, an abstaining elector, wanted could only happen in heaven. Ms. Lau responded back to him to be more aware of his governing position in being responsible to the people of Hong Kong. "I hope that he can really take actions to represent the voices of Hong Kong citizens to the Chinese Communist Party and that every Hong Kong citizen wants to have the right to vote. We want to have a real election in 2012," she said. On the same day, the Democratic Party held an unofficial Chief Executive election for every citizen. Fifty-four voting sites were set up all around Hong Kong for all citizens to cast their vote. After the election, the ballots were announced at Hong Kong University. According to the organizers, more than 8,200 people voted. The result was Alan Leong with 5,129 ballots (64 percent), Donald Tsang Yam-kuen got 2,553 (32 percent), 3 percent were blank ballots and 1 percent invalid ballots. In addition, 7,271 ballots (92 percent) supported a general democratic election in 2012, and 448 (5.7 percent) were against it. The Catholic Diocese
of Hong Kong, Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-Kiun, SDB, went to the democratic
voting site. He expressed his support for a democratic general election
in 2012. Many pro-democratic party members also went to the voting
site in Mong Kok to vote. Back Martial arts in Bayu, in Southeastern China, date far back and are deeply rooted among the people. Many residents can perform unique martial art techniques. On March 14, martial art masters impressed an audience with their special techniques at the Bayu Martial Art Masters' Gathering in Chongqing City. Cutting Ceramic Bowls With One Finger Mr. Mao Xiheng was the second performer to come on stage. Although he was in his 60s, he looked only 40 and was still going strong. Mao was born into a martial arts family and started practicing martial arts when he was 12. Many years of practice had made him a master of "hard qigong." This was Ma's first time attending the martial art gathering. He demonstrated the technique "cutting ceramic bowls with one finger." The staff placed three ceramic bowls next to him. He picked up a bowl, chopped it with his right index finger, and quickly moved onto the next bowl. Three bowls were chopped into halves and fell to the ground. Everything happened so fast that the reporters did not have time to take pictures. Later Mao demonstrated the "two fingers going through a wooden rod" technique. His two thumbs were wrapped together with a copper wire, and he ran his two hands through a wooden rod. The audience was stunned. Afterwards, Mao's son explained to the audience that it was a martial art technique called "bone-shrinking." Splitting Stones With Bare Hands The last performer was 43-year-old Mr. Jian Shoubin, Mr. Tang's disciple. Jian was short but very muscular. Three fist-sized stones were placed on a bench. Jian moved his qi and with a loud shout, he split the three stones into halves effortlessly and quickly. He won loud applause. Later, Jian demonstrated
a technique called "floating." On stage were two bricks,
each with two eggs on them. Jian slowly stepped on the eggs and got
into a squatting position. He did not break a single egg. While standing
on the eggs, Jian picked up two buckets of water and held them horizontally.
He still did not break the eggs. Back On March 24, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) official media announced that Xi Jinping, the former secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, had been appointed as secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, replacing the acting Secretary Han Zheng, who was also the Mayor of Shanghai. The new announcement did not say whether Han could continue as mayor. In another decision by the CCP, the Vice Secretary of Shanghai Wang Anshun has become vice secretary of Beijing Municipal Party Committee. Analysts think these new appointments indicate that the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party has stepped into a new phase of selecting and appointing personnel. On Sept. 25, 2006 the central committee of the CCP announced the dismissal of former Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu, and since then, the new appointment of the Shanghai party secretary has drawn extensive attention. According to the CCP’s political structure, the Shanghai party secretary is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CCP. The prevalent opinion is that these personnel changes were made in preparation for the 17th National Congress. The 17th National Congress will be held in the second half of this year. In late 2006, the personnel changes had taken place in 14 provincial party committees in China. This new appointment of the Shanghai party secretary is regarded as the beginning of the personnel changes in 17 provincial party committees slated for this year. Important appointments are also expected to take place in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, Guangdong Province and other regions. Xi Jinping’s appointment has broken a 20-year record that the post of Shanghai party secretary had been directly promoted from Shanghai municipal leaders, such as Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, Wu Bangguo, Huang Ju, and Chen Liangyu were all appointed as this position from being mayor or vice secretary. Han Zheng, despite not being involved in Shanghai’s social security fund scandal [1], is known to have strong ties with the Shanghai Gang [2]. The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English newspaper, said that the appointment of Xi Jinping is a signal that the central committee of the CCP intended to address the case of the social security fund scandal. Han Zheng’s dispatch demonstrated that the Beijing authorities had taken the opportunity to dismantle the hierarchy of the long-standing local partisan forces for the Shanghai party secretary candidates. Reuters quoted
insiders saying that Hu Jintao’s close ally, Anhui Provincial Party
Secretary Guo Jinlong, is expected to become Shanghai’s mayor, while
Han Zheng’s future position is still unknown. Back Dr. Gao Yaojie is known as the "number one person fighting AIDS in China." She was the first to make the case that blood transfusion was the main source of AIDS infection in China, contrary to the regime's official position. Just before the Chinese New Year, Dr. Gao was allowed to leave China to accept the 2006 Female Global Leadership Award from Vital Voices Global Partnership in Washington, D.C. The retired 80-year-old female doctor learned of the news from the Henan Province Vice Party Chief after being placed under house arrest for six months. AIDS Becomes a National Crisis Fate brought Dr. Gao to AIDS on April 7, 1996. She was invited to see an AIDS patient who had a tumor removed from her uterus and determined that the patient had transmitted AIDS through a blood transfusion from a blood bank. She immediately realized the danger of the situation and took up AIDS research as her main medical cause. On April 5, 2006, Xinghua University invited Dr. Gao to give a talk on her new book "Researching AIDS in China." During her speech, she shed tears several times. "Two days marks the tenth year I will have been working on AIDS prevention," she said. In her 2006 speech, she outlined three major problems contributing to the AIDS crisis in China. The first is the spread of HIV through infected blood in blood banks, with little government supervision. "It's not only occurring in Hunan Province, where I first diagnosed it, but nationwide. That is why officials in Hunan dislike me so much, and I can understand that," Gao said in her speech. The second problem, according to Gao, is that Chinese people hold serious misconceptions about AIDS patients, making public prevention efforts difficult. Official government opinion is that HIV is spread mainly though sexual contact and drug abuse, rather than blood transfusions. The third problem is corruption. "Government officials, research foundations, NGOs, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, unlicensed doctors … so many people have deceived the public in order to hide this disease and profit," said Gao. In August 2006,
at the sixteenth International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Li Dan,
a private AIDS rescue worker, estimated that there were 5 to 10 million
people in China infected with AIDS. This number, he claims, is increasing
30 to 40 percent each year. Even though this far exceeds China's official
statistics, the U.N. has warned China that at its current reported
rate it will double the number of AIDS infections in South Africa
by 2010. South Africa is currently the world's leading country in
AIDS cases. Back WASHINGTON, D.C.—Near the reflection pool on the National Mall, a crowd gathered to rally in support of 20 million people quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. The event on March 24 was organized by the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party. "The end of communist rule in China is inevitable and is now in sight, according to the rally. The participants shared instances which indicate that the authority the CCP once held over the Chinese people is crumbling fast. "A tree with its roots out is going to fall or die at any minute—that's the current situation of the CCP," said Dr. Li. He said an increasing number of Chinese soldiers are joining the wave of quitting the CCP. He urged more soldiers in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to join suit. A Warning to China's
State-Run Media Attorney Marsh warned CCTV that the criminal sanctions that follow the commission of these crimes were always life imprisonment or death by hanging, as occurred in the Nazi War Tribunal proceedings and the International Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia. After communism in China collapses, Dr. Marsh said that a defense "I was only following orders" or a filing affidavits, saying they were of "good character and were loving parents and devoted workers," is not going to fly. In the past three months, the number of people quitting CCP organizations has accelerated. Since last December, the number of people quitting the CCP organizations has reached over a million each month. The daily number of quittings has increased from 20,000 to 30,000 and then from 30,000 to 40,000. Hong Kong democracy activist Sun Bin said: "I have been to provinces in Mainland China. There is a wave of quitting the CCP organizations. Many friends asked for my help. They simply wanted the 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.' The CCP fears 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party' very much." Back China's
New Regulation Exposes Organ Removal From Live Minors Back CHINA—On March 21, 2007, the State Council Executive Meeting passed in principle a draft of the "Human Organ Transplant Ordinance." The ordinance particularly specified a strict ban of taking organs from citizens under 18 years for transplant. Experts outside of China speculate that the Chinese Communist Party had no choice but to respond to the organ harvesting crimes which have shocked the world in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Analysts have pointed out this regulation shows that live organ removal is common in China and it happens to minors who are not supposed to be on death row. Organ Removal From Minors On March 22, 2007, many online news websites posted a draft of the "Human Organ Transplant Ordinance" from China Radio (www.cnr.cn). One of the regulations prohibits the use of organs for transplant from citizens under 18 years of age. Wang Yifeng, an Epoch Times columnist, said the making of such a regulation indicates the management, supervision, procedures, and legal responsibility of live organ removal are very chaotic in China. The new regulation also points out that organ removal from minors obviously happens frequently, otherwise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would not have strictly prohibited it. China's Constitution states that the death penalty can not be used on minors under 18. Last year, Huang Jiefu, Deputy Director of the China Ministry of Health, openly admitted that the major source of organ transplants in China came from death row prisoners, and not by donation as claimed previously by the regime. If there are no death row prisoners under 18, then where do the minors' organs come from? Wang believes the State Council indirectly exposed this dark secret. This prohibition has occurred while many international groups are still seeking to enter China to investigate live organ removal from Falun Gong practitioners. This ordinance is also seen as the communist regime's response to the intense international exposure of live organ harvesting in China and several condemnations from the international community. Putting On a Show for the Olympics? Twu Shiing-Jer, a former Director of the Department of Health in Taiwan and a member of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), said that the CCP made this ordinance to brush up its image for the 2008 Olympics. Twu said the Chinese government should not only employ the ordinance but also allow the CIPFG to enter China and conduct investigations to stop the live organ harvesting. Back |
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