Google Web search engine ‘partially blocked’ in China

AFP, June 30, 2010 -

WASHINGTON — Google’s Web search engine in China was “partially blocked” on Wednesday, the deadline for Beijing to renew the Internet giant’s Chinese business license.

A Web page maintained by Google on the accessibility to its services in mainland China, google.com/prc/report.html, listed its Web search service as “partially blocked” as of Wednesday.

The service had previously been listed as “fully or mostly accessible.”

Other Google services such as Gmail, News and Images were “fully or mostly accessible.”

Google said Tuesday it would stop automatically redirecting Chinese users to an unfiltered search site in Hong Kong, a process it began in March in response to state censorship and cyberattacks it claims came from China.

Google said all mainland users would now be directed to a new landing page on google.cn, which links to the uncensored Hong Kong site.

Google’s change in tack in the world’s biggest online market was aimed at addressing Chinese government complaints about the censorship issue and came just before its Internet Content Provider license was up for renewal Wednesday.

“It’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable — and that if we continue redirecting users, our Internet Content Provider licence will not be renewed,” Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said on the company’s official blog.

“Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like google.cn — so Google would effectively go dark in China,” he said.

Marsha Wang, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Google, said the company was still waiting for a response from the central government on the license issue.

“We will keep communicating with (the government) to see what information it will give us,” she told AFP.

China is the world’s biggest Internet market, with an online population of more than 400 million, according to official data.

- AFP

Former Policeman Faces Trial for Defending his Falun Gong Family members in East China

Press Release, the Falun Dafa Information Center, June 28, 2010 -

Pang Jin with her mother, Cao Junping, and father, Pang Xiaoqian

In 2007, 23-year-old Pang Jin left her home and family in Weifang, China, to pursue her MBA at the University of Missouri.  In the three years since, Jin has watched from thousands of miles away as her mother and aunt were abducted, tortured, and sentenced to 10 years in prison for their peaceful belief in Falun Gong. Now her father, not a Falun Gong practitioner, is facing trial for attempting to defend his wife.

Jin’s mother, Cao Junping, and her aunt, Cao Junfeng, are practitioners of Falun Gong, a traditional spiritual discipline that is Buddhist in nature. They began practicing Falun Gong’s meditative exercises and following its teachings of ‘truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance’ in 1995, and like millions of other Chinese citizens, found in it improved health and peace of mind. After witnessing the changes to her mother’s demeanor, Jin herself eventually took up the practice.

After the Communist Party initiated a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in July, 1999, Jin’s mother was twice imprisoned extra-judicially and tortured for her belief. In the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, on July 29, 2008, she was again abducted by security forces while staying at a friend’s home. Jin’s aunt was similarly abducted from her home on July 9th, 2008.

Both women were held in detention for 15 months.  On October 18, 2009, they were brought before a sham trial. Lawyers and family members were not allowed to witness the trial, and no evidence was presented against them. Under orders from the Communist Party, however, they were sentenced to 10 and 9 years in prison, respectively, simply for practicing Falun Gong.

Jin’s father, Pang Xiaoqian, is an engineer and former employee of the Weifang police department. Although not a Falun Gong practitioner, he was aware of an impending crackdown on Falun Gong in the summer of 2008, and attempted to help his wife go into hiding to avoid arrest. Once she was found and abducted, he came to the defense, attempting to intervene with authorities on her behalf. For that, he was locked up for one month and forced to perform hard labor.

Upon his release, he lost his job with the police department, was denied a travel visa, and faced regular harassment.

Two years later, after imprisoning his wife and sister-in-law, authorities are seeking revenge against Mr. Pang. They have reportedly set a trial date for July 14, 2010, and will try Mr. Pang for “harboring a criminal.” If the trial goes forward, he will face the possibility of several years in prison.

“I never thought this could happen,” says Pang Jin, now 26 and residing in the Washington DC area. “My dad just tried to protect my mom from being hurt and arrested.”

Although her family can no longer afford a lawyer, Jin hopes that intervention from the U.S. government and human rights organizations can stop the trial.

“I feel so guilty that I could not save my mom from being sentenced to 10 years in prison. This time, I can’t just wait to hear the verdict against my dad. I have to do something to change it. I’ve already lost the ability to see and talk to my mom. I can’t lose my dad too.”

Pang Jin can be reached for interviews at (202) 450-8692.

- the Falun Dafa Information Center

EU Should Demand Concrete Progress on Human Rights in Dialogue With China

Human Rights Watch, June 28, 2010 -

(New York) - The European Union should set benchmarks for human rights improvements with the Chinese government during this week’s EU-China human rights dialogue, Human Rights Watch said today.

The EU should use the June 29 round of talks in Madrid as an occasion to press the Chinese government to repeal dangerously ambiguous “state secrets” and “subversion” laws, release dissidents, and set a timetable for China’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in order to address serious and ongoing violations of human rights in China.

“For too long, the EU-China human rights dialogue has been a toothless talk shop which has failed to meaningfully address the Chinese government’s poor record on human rights,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The EU should use the upcoming Madrid meeting to express serious concern about the Chinese government’s violations of human rights, and to establish verifiable steps which will put an end to those abuses and provide redress for the victims.”

The EU-China human rights dialogues are usually held twice a year, with one session in Europe and one in Beijing. The dialogues began in 1995, but in part because they are not linked at the political or policy level to other key issues in the EU-China bilateral relationship such as trade, investment, and the environment, they have consistently failed to deliver any substantive improvements on specific human rights abuses in China.

The Madrid meeting will occur in the wake of a series of unusually blunt and high-profile official European criticisms of China’s human rights environment, which has worsened since the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

* On June 11, 2010, the Office of the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Catherine Ashton criticized a Chengdu court’s decision to uphold a five-year prison sentence for civil society activist Tan Zuoren on charges of “subversion of state power.” Tan was arrested while attempting to compile a list of names of child victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Ashton’s statement described the court’s move as “entirely incompatible with [Tan's] right to freedom of expression and does not meet international standards of fairness.” …… (more details from Human Rights Watch)

We need to get real about spies– China’s interference in Canada

By L.N. (Len) Giles, Vancouver Sun, Canada, June 26, 2010 -

The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Richard Fadden, should be given top marks for calling a spade a spade, albeit in a gentle and diplomatic manner. He was painting a realistic picture for a naive audience that has little or no understanding of the world of political and economic espionage or foreign interference.

It is interesting to note that those who cry foul the loudest are usually those in business or public office who see themselves in the limelight and on the “cutting edge” of international relations and understanding. At least that is how they like themselves to be seen, and they are mortified when someone suggests that their activities may not be in Canada’s best interests. There are cases in which those kinds of relationships, when closely examined, are shown to be instances of Canadians being manipulated and groomed by foreigners to support long-term political or economic initiatives, which in the end “give away the farm.”

A number of local politicians in Metro Vancouver accepted an all-expense paid junket to China in the spring of 2007 without, it seems, giving any consideration to the appropriateness of their actions. This is a classic example of the kind of influence Fadden was talking about.

CSIS is an agency of the Government of Canada with a mandate to protect the interests of all Canadians. It is not a sinister organization aiming to harass Canadians in their legitimate day-to-day activities. People do unwittingly or willingly come under the influence of a foreign power. It is a fact of life and Canadians need to be attuned to that reality.

Surrey

Giles spent 27 years in the RCMP and CSIS.

- Vancouver Sun

At least 230 people died in China’s torrential rains, major city threatened by surged river water

AFP, June 25, 2010 -

BEIJING — Chinese rescue teams scrambled to shore up flood defences Friday as a swollen river threatened a major city, after heavy rains across the nation’s south and centre left more than 230 people dead.

Workers and soldiers were patching up dykes in Hunan province after water in the Xiang river, which passes through Changsha city, where over six million people live, surged to its highest level in a decade.

The surge rose 2.5 metres (over eight feet) above the river’s danger marks, the third highest reading since 1953 when records of water levels began, the civil affairs ministry said.

“Water levels on the lower reaches of the Xiang river are rising and will not go down, and will surpass flood warning levels again,” the flood headquarters of the ministry warned.

Television footage showed small towns and rural areas upriver from Changsha deluged with water as residents evacuated low lying areas and scrambled to higher ground carting food and other supplies.

Authorities ordered reservoirs in the upper reaches of the Xiang river to store up more water in an effort to reduce the surging flood crests, the ministry said.

Although heavy downpours were not expected around Changsha on Friday, more than 180 millimetres (over seven inches) of rain fell in parts of Hunan on Wednesday and Thursday, ensuring that rivers would remain swollen, it added.

Overall, downpours in south and central China were receding Friday, it said, but heavy rain continued to fall in parts of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces and the Guangxi region, where major flooding has already taken place.

At least 235 people have died and 109 were missing since torrential rains triggered flooding and landslides in south and central China from June 13 to June 24, the government said.

The torrential rains have caused 53 billion yuan (7.8 billion dollars) in economic losses, with over three million people forced to evacuate, it said…….(AFP)

When will China end the coverup of the fact of Korean War

Editorials, Joongang Daily, South Korea, June 26, 2010 -

An article in a Chinese state publication defined the Korean War as an invasion by North Korea. It is an incredible statement for a state news publication to have made.

In its feature on the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War, the International Herald Leader, a newsweekly of the Xinhua News Agency, said the North Korean army launched the war by crossing the 38th parallel and seizing South Korean capital Seoul in three days.

The article immediately drew attention, with some placing significance on China’s first admission of military aggression by North Korea at the start of the war.

However, the article was soon removed from the weekly’s Web site as well as the sites of Xinhua and other portals. It is suspected that the Beijing government had a hand in removing the pieces, fearing the repercussions from North Korea. But the fiasco leaves us feeling bitter, as our two states could form a constructive and mature partnership based on an accurate acknowledgement of historical events.

The Korean War is a sensitive issue for China. It played a major role in a war that still has the two Koreas locked in conflict. But the fact that the North invaded the South is an established fact based on solid evidence.

Confidential documents from the Soviet Union provide vivid accounts of Kim Il Sung’s ambitious plans for unification through military aggression. Some Chinese historians support the invasion theory, as highlighted by the two-day interview featured in the International Herald Leader article.

However uncomfortable they may be, historical facts must be recorded truthfully and should not be covered up or distorted by political or ideological interests……. (more details from Joongang Daily)

China no longer to claim Korean War began when the U.S. invaded North Korea ?

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai, The Telegraph, UK, June 25, 2010 -

Until now, the Chinese have staunchly supported their North Korean allies, along whose side they fought in the war.

China previously insisted that the war was waged out of American aggression. The official title of the conflict on the mainland is “The War to Resist America and Aid Korea”.

Chinese history textbooks state that the Korean War began when “the United States assembled a United Nations army of 15 countries and defiantly marched across the border and invaded North Korea, spreading the flames of war to our Yalu river.”

The official Chinese media stated for the first time that it was North Korea that dealt the first blow. In a special report, Xinhua’s International Affairs journal said: “On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army marched over 38th Parallel and started the attack. Three days later, Seoul fell.”

China and North Korea were “as close as lips and teeth,” said Mao Tse-tung.

The Korean War, which has never formally ended, has been largely forgotten in the West, despite the deaths of between two and three million people in the fighting.

In Asia, however, the memory of the war is still felt strongly and has sustained a continuing alliance and emotional bond between Beijing and Pyongyang.

While many Chinese historians privately subscribe to the view that North Korea was the aggressor in the war, driven by Kim Il-sung’s desire to unite the Korean peninsula under a Communist banner, the matter remains highly sensitive.

“It is not convenient for me to comment on the matter,” said Zhang Liangui, a leading professor of Korean studies at the Communist Central Party School in Beijing. “I was not aware of this timeline [in the Xinhua article]. As far as I am aware there has been no change to the official view on the war.”

Meanwhile, the Global Times, a government-run newspaper, said it was “high time to renew and strengthen efforts by Chinese scholars to discover the truth about the Korean War.”

In Seoul, South Korea held an official ceremony to remember the war and Lee Myung-bak, the president, paid tribute to the dead. “Sixty years ago, North Korea’s communists opened fire on a weekend’s dawn when all people were sleeping peacefully,” he said.

Meanwhile, across the border, North Korea put across its own view of the conflict. Under the headline: “US, Provoker of Korean War,” the country’s state news agency accused Washington of starting the war with a surprise attack.

“All the historical facts show that it is the US imperialists who unleashed the war in Korea and that the United States can never escape from the responsibility,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

- The Telegraph

Rights Defenders, Hu Supporters Flood Canada Parliament Hill for Chinese Leader’s Visit

By Arnaud Camu, Epoch Times Staff, June 25, 2010 -

OTTAWA— Some came to contest, some called for the end of persecution. Some were rowdy, and some came peacefully. This was the scene at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday as hundreds flooded the Canadian capital for the visit of Chinese leader Hu Jintao.

While rights defenders like Falun Gong practitioners as well as Taiwanese and Tibetan activists stood together, hordes of Hu supporters gathered together—the two were separated by fences on both sides of the Hill.

Despite heavy rain, many Falun Gong practitioners performed Falun Gong’s exercises in silence as a way to protest the Chinese regime’s persecution of the group in China.

“We are against the persecution, the human rights violations. We come here to give voice to people in China who have absolutely no voice. Millions of them. They are suffering in the labour camps, the jails, and from the tortures,” said Falun Gong spokesperson Grace Wollensak.

On the other side of the Hill, busloads of Chinese demonstrators celebrated Hu’s arrival by waving flags and playing Chinese communist patriotic music.

The Epoch Times reported that a Chinese Embassy official in Ottawa on June 18th ordered 40 to 50 Chinese students on state scholarships in Canadian schools to travel to Ottawa—all expenses paid—on what he called a “political struggle” against Falun Gong, Tibetan, and other rights activists.

Witnesses told New Tang Dynasty Television that at least twelve buses left Montreal’s Chinatown, less than two hours from Ottawa, at dawn. A Chinese individual who didn’t want his name revealed said they were told not to speak to Westerners in detail about the purpose or planning of their trip to the capital.

But the students’ hope of seeing the Chinese leader eventually proved to be in vain. Hu Jintao’s motorcade entered Parliament Hill from a side entrance and Hu entered a government building from a back door, leaving his supporters in the rain.

But the inclement weather did not deter the human rights defenders. Tens of them continued meditating peacefully on the grass.

“It’s really nothing compared to what people in China suffer,” said Wollensak. “We still have the freedom—that’s precious. To be in the rain is really nothing in my opinion.”

Albert Lin, a pro-Taiwanese independence supporter and Ryerson University Physics Professor said, “[The rain] is a good challenge, and yet we can see why Hu Jintao would not dare even to come out and say hello to people, to show how people feel about his administration. That is a head of state? What kind of head of state is that?”

Lin also voiced disappointment in the Canadian government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party.

“They are pursuing democracy and human rights and yet they don’t side with the people who are pursuing democracy and human rights [...] They do not support it universally—the democracy movement, such as the Tibetans, the Uyghurs and the Taiwanese people.”

“I definitely see a trend of them completely going against what they’ve done before when they first came into power,” said Rignam Wangkhang, a student at Queen’s University who came to show support for the Tibetan cause.

“It’s pretty shocking the complete 180 that they’ve done in terms of human rights in general and Tibet as well.”

Upon assuming power in January 2006, the Harper government had made the promotion of human rights and democracy a priority in its dealings with China. Most notably, Harper stated publicly at the November 2006 APEC meeting in Singapore that the Canadian government would not trade human rights “for the almighty dollar.”

But with eight Conservative cabinet members visiting China in the last year, each saying little or nothing about the state of China’s oppressed, some worry Harper’s stance has softened.

However, during a conference call with reporters on Monday, Harper’s communications director, Dimitri Soudas, said the PM will raise the topic of human rights with Hu “in a frank and respectful way.”

- The Epochtimes

Video: Red Shadow over the Free World – Part 1

by NTD TV -

Chi Mak’s espionage case attracted quite a bit of media coverage. But his is not the only case. In the past few years, the FBI has arrested approximately 30 Chinese-born Americans who have been involved in stealing information about secret U.S. technology. Fox News Channel reported that there are more than 400 similar cases currently being investigated by the FBI. Spies are not just the technologically savvy—they include illegal immigrants, students studying abroad and employees of western governments. These are the most likely to be approached by Chinese authorities to act as ad hoc spies.

In this episode of Zooming In, we will take a look at some of the ways Chinese authorities manipulate Chinese people living abroad to serve its totalitarian regime.

- Source: NTD TV

Photos: Canada hotel erects a eight-foot high wall in main entrance for Hu Jintao– to block vision of protesters

See how a dictator is isolating himself from the people, and you will know what’s difference between free world and dictatorship.

“The Westin Hotel in Ottawa has erected a roughly eight-foot high cream-coloured, wooden wall in front of its main entrance on Colonel By Drive for the “safety and quiet enjoyment” of visiting Chinese leader Hu Jintao and his delegation, says the hotel’s General Manager John Jarvis.” (The Epochtimes)

The Great Wall has been moved from China to Canada !

The Westin Hotel in Ottawa, prior to the arrival of Chinese leader Hu Jintao (above). The same hotel shown in Google street view without the wall placed in front (below). The hotel manager says the wall was erected for the "safety and quiet enjoyment" of Hu and his delegation. (Top -Lin Yue/The Epoch Times & Street View/Goolge maps)

Detail story from the Epochtimes

Chinese rights activist banned from Canada Parliament Hill after protesting communist party head’s visit

By Louisa Taylor , The Ottawa Citizen, Canada,  June 24, 2010 -

OTTAWA — A Chinese human rights activist has been banned from Parliament Hill for a year after she tried to demonstrate against the visit to Ottawa by Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday.

Wenzhuo Hou, who goes by the first name Maggie, said Thursday she went to the Hill to wave several signs critical of the Chinese Communist Party. When she arrived on the lawn around 10 a.m., there were already hundreds of people gathered, almost all of them supportive of the president’s visit, Huo says. Protestors representing the Falun Gong, a religious group highly critical of the Chinese government, were on the west side of the lawn, but Huo decided she wanted to get closer to the crowd of supporters. She had three signs on which she had printed several slogan in Chinese, including ‘Do not be fooled by the Communist Party,’ and ‘The Chinese communist regime kills children, forces evictions, and tortures.’

“I wanted these people to realize they are brainwashed by the Chinese government,” said Huo, a human rights activist from China and a member of the China Democracy Party. “But some people in the crowds were very upset with my presence. They insisted I leave. Some of them pushed me, and one man swore at me.”

RCMP officers asked Huo to move to the west side, where the Falun Gong protestors were standing. Huo says she is not a member of the Falun Gong.

“The police were upset with me and said ‘We cannot protect your security, so you have to leave,’” Huo said.

“I challenged them. This is public space, I have the right to be here. I didn’t want to upset the police so I left.”

Huo says she moved to just inside the east gate on Wellington Street and held her signs aloft there. The RCMP again asked her to leave and she did, but she returned, at which point an RCMP officer told her she was under arrest. He handcuffed Huo and put her in a police cruiser.

“Then they told me there would be no criminal charges, but they gave me a piece of paper that says I am prohibited from going to Parliament Hill for a year, and failure to comply could lead to a fine of $2,000.”

A spokesman for the RCMP confirmed that officers gave Huo a “No Trespass” order.

“She was arrested for her own safety — she was about to be in trouble with the other people,” said Sgt. Stéphane Turgeon. “She did not comply with orders to leave to keep the peace, so we issued her with that notice and she was escorted from the premises.”

“I think that is very unfair,” said Huo. “All I did was try to convey some messages to fellow Chinese people. I didn’t attack them, I didn’t provoke them, I was just there in a public space saying I believe something different from them.”

Huo returned to Parliament Hill Thursday afternoon, but said she would stand and stood on the street, but moved onto the lawn again after another RCMP officer told her she couldn’t stand on the street.

“He told me to go up on the lawn, so I did.” said Huo, adding that if she is fined, she will point out that she was follwing instructions from the RCMP.

Huo had similar encounters outside the Westin Hotel Thursday, when pro-China supporters became upset at her signs there.

Huo, who has taught courses at the University of Ottawa on human rights in China, says she has been in numerous demonstrations in front of the Chinese embassy and on Parliament Hill before without incident.

- The Ottawa Citizen

Tape record: Chinese embassy describes welcome Hu Jintao event as “political struggle” against human rights advocates, will pay for all cost of 3,000 passionate supporters’ hotels, food and traveling

Listen to an excerpt from the speech (in Chinese) given by Liu Shaohua, the first secretary of the education section at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, Canada, to Chinese students in Ottawa on Friday June 18, 2010.  Click Here.

Cabinet ministers in two Canada provinces are under the control of foreign governments including China, CSIS says

CBC News, June 23, 2010 -

Canada’s spy agency suspects that cabinet ministers in two provinces are under the control of foreign governments, CBC News has learned.

Several members of B.C. municipal governments are also under suspicion, Richard Fadden, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told CBC News in an exclusive interview.

“We’re in fact a bit worried in a couple of provinces that we have an indication that there’s some political figures who have developed quite an attachment to foreign countries,” Fadden said.

“The individual becomes in a position to make decisions that affect the country or the province or a municipality. All of a sudden, decisions aren’t taken on the basis of the public good but on the basis of another country’s preoccupations.”

He said the politicians and public servants see it as a long-standing relationship and have no idea they are being used.

“There are several municipal politicians in British Columbia and in at least two provinces there are ministers of the Crown who we think are under at least the general influence of a foreign government.”

Fadden said the agency is in the process of discussing with the Privy Council Office the best way to inform those provinces there may be a problem.

“We’ll do the same with the public servants. I’m making this comment because I think it’s a real danger that people be totally oblivious to this kind of issue.”

Fadden warned that foreign regimes — through universities and social clubs — will develop a relationship with people who have a connection to the homeland.

“You invite somebody back to the homeland. You pay [for] their trips and all of a sudden you discover that when an event is occurring that is of particular interest to country “X,” you call up and you ask the person to take a particular view,” Fadden said.

At least five countries are surreptitiously recruiting future political prospects in universities, he said. Middle East countries are also involved.

But China is the most aggressive, funding university clubs that are managed by people operating out of the embassy or consulates, Fadden said in a recent speech to Canadian police chiefs and security experts in Toronto.

Chinese authorities also organize demonstrations against the Canadian government in respect to some of Canada’s policies concerning China, Fadden said.

“A number of countries take the view that if they can develop influence with people relatively early in their careers, they’ll follow them through,” Fadden said. “Before you know it, a country is providing them with money, there’s some sort of covert guidance.”

Fadden said he is concerned that too much of the agency’s resources are focused on fighting terrorism and not counter-espionage. That concentration leaves more chances to steal Canada’s sensitive technology and trade secrets, worth billions of dollars a year.

“The difficulty I have, as does everybody, is you have to balance where you allocate resources, but it most definitely is as serious problem, and if I had to guess, I’d say it was going to get worse,” Fadden said.

- CBC News: Some politicians under foreign sway: CSIS

Tape record: About 3,000 people’s cost, including hotels, food and travel, will be paid by Chinese embassy to welcome Hu Jintao as “political struggle”

By Jason Loftus, Epoch Times Staff, June 23, 2010 -

Listen to an excerpt from the speech (in Chinese) given by Liu Shaohua, the first secretary of the education section at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, to students at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa on Friday, June 18, 2010, on The Epochtimes webpage at http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/37885/

Beginning today, expect to see throngs of flag-waving Chinese on Parliament Hill and lining the streets of Ottawa where Chinese leader Hu Jintao will visit the next three days. According to an official at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, staff there have been working late into the night and spending lots of money to ensure Mr. Hu is met with a crowd of passionate supporters, not those protesting human rights abuses.

The Epoch Times has obtained a recording of a speech given Friday by Mr. Liu Shaohua, the first secretary of the education section at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, to a crowd of between 40 and 50 students receiving Chinese state-scholarships to study there. Those students, Liu says, must attend the welcome events for Hu.

In the recording, Mr. Liu says the embassy is covering hotels, food, travel, and clothing for what he estimates will be 3,000 people who will welcome Mr. Hu Wednesday through Friday, coming from as far away as Waterloo, Ont.

The expenses easily total in the hundreds of thousands, based on Liu’s comments. But Mr. Liu describes it as “little money,” in light of the “political struggle” the Chinese regime is waging, the goal being to overshadow human-rights advocates who plan to protest during Hu’s visit.

“Originally, we did not expect the situation to be so complex,” Liu said. “Falun Gong, Tibetan separatists, Uyghur separatists, democracy people have already moved onto Parliament Hill [...] This is a battle that relates to defending the reputation of our motherland. The embassy and authorities inside China have a very high requirement.”

“These last few days, everyday, we have been busy until 11 p.m. or midnight,” Liu explained.

All Expenses Paid

Liu began his more than 15 minute address with a name-by-name roll call, to which each student replied, “Yes.”

“This time, for you, all the expenses will all be paid by us,” Liu said. “You do not talk about it outside. Do not talk about it to anyone, except to people in this circle.”

Liu said students who were not on state-sponsored scholarships also had their expenses for the trip covered.

“For our country this is such little money. In my view this is a struggle, a political struggle.”

The “political struggle” Liu refers to appears to be the presence of groups protesting human rights abuses in China. Liu makes reference to Tibetan, Uyghur, and democracy activists, but focuses mainly on Falun Gong, a spiritual group persecuted by the communist regime in China.

“We will take the east part of Parliament Hill,” Liu says. “Falun Gong will take the west of the square. We should have 3,000 people. In terms of quantity, we should be able to surpass them.”

iu says when Hu visited in 2005 and was met with protesters, officials in China were furious. He complained that during that visit, Canadian authorities did not co-operate with Chinese demands regarding the protesters, but this time he says there were some limited guarantees.

“Some parts cannot be guaranteed because this country is particular about so-called freedom. It does not care. It says, ‘we are a free country.’ So we are still negotiating. Falun Gong has already occupied three locations.”

According to several sources, including Chinese students themselves as well as online notices on bulletin boards, all Chinese students will be provided with transportation, meals, and free T-shirts. Some have said there have been promises of $50 per day compensation as well.

Mr. Liu criticized those who talked about cash rewards.

“Some people said something on the Internet like, ‘go to the Chinese embassy to get money’ . . . That’s not good at all. Some people are inexperienced and didn’t realize this.” (to be cont’d)

Listen to an excerpt from the speech (in Chinese) given by Liu Shaohua, the first secretary of the education section at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, to students at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa on Friday, June 18, 2010, on The Epochtimes webpage at http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/37885/

Canada PM must talk human rights with China: coalition

CBC News, Canada, June 22, 2010 -

A coalition of Canadian human rights groups is urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to use the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao as an opportunity to urge China to improve its human rights record.

“Increased prosperity [in China] must not be mistaken for increased human protection,” the group argues in a letter to Harper. The letter details human rights violations against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, democracy activists and human rights lawyers.

President Hu Jintao arrives in Canada Wednesday for an official visit and will stay for the G20 meetings on the weekend…….(More detals from CBC News)

China’s stimulus spending created infrastructure projects– that may not be needed

By Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 18, 2010 -

BEIJING — In late 2008, with the financial crisis rippling through the global economy, China’s leaders embarked on a two-year, $586 billion spending program to try to stave off a recession and keep the Chinese economy growing.

Unlike in the United States — where President Obama’s large stimulus plan became the subject of protracted congressional wrangling and was shaped to include tax cuts and aid to states — Chinese leaders followed a simple mandate: Spend and build.

Forget the tax cuts; in China, it was infrastructure, infrastructure and more infrastructure.

China was already awash in big-ticket construction projects. The stimulus allowed China to speed up some projects, begin digging on others and extend the building boom to less-developed areas in the country’s west and north. The result, 18 months after the stimulus was introduced, is an astonishing frenzy of building — highways, subways, airports, bridges, high-speed rail lines and even new cities constructed, literally, in the middle of nowhere.

China is building tens of thousands of miles of expressways at a pace unseen since the U.S. interstate boom in the 1950s, and it is on track to pass the United States in total highways in the next decade. Among other infrastructure projects — which now amount to 15 percent of China’s gross domestic product — are nearly 100 new airports, some serving isolated cities few outsiders have heard of, and dozens of subways.

“They basically got started about three months earlier than we did, and it was bigger,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an expert on the Chinese economy with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Now a year and a half into the spending spree, and with the stimulus set to end in just six months, many economists and others here are asking pointed questions: Does China really need all this infrastructure? And what’s going to happen when the bills come due?

“In China, we have an old saying: ‘If it’s medicine, it will have some poison inside,’ ” said Guo Tianyong, director of research for the Central University of Finance and Economics. “So the stimulus must have some bad effects.”

“You see little counties building airports — how many people will fly there?” Guo said. “Small cities — why do they need a subway? Maybe there’s no market for all this infrastructure.”

Several economists said it was difficult to determine the worth of all the spending because there is no official, centralized list of projects — making it difficult to untangle whether projects are funded from stimulus loans, from local governments floating bonds or from some combination of the two.

“It’s a black box financed by black laws,” said Xu Xiaonian, an economics professor with the China Europe International Business School. “There’s not enough information to make any sensible judgment.”

But enough is known for economists to point to a crucial difference between the Chinese and American stimulus plans.

In the United States, the $787 billion stimulus was financed by the federal government running large deficits. In China — where the size of the stimulus as a percentage of the economy is several times that of the U.S. package — most of the spending came from the country’s state-run banks making loans to local government entities. The provincial and municipal governments are largely restricted from borrowing money, so most set up quasi-independent “investment companies” that took out huge loans to build subways, airports and office towers…….(more details from The Washington Post)

‘I just think it’s absolutely spellbinding’, Says New Jersey Artist After Shen Yun Show

NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey— Putting on the first of two shows at the State Theatre today, June 20, Shen Yun Performing Arts continues to enlighten audiences with its wonderful display of China’s ancient culture. Sarita Cook is an artist from England originally, and has just written and illustrated her first children’s story.

Ms. Cook exclaimed, “I thought the show was absolutely, just magnificent”. She added, ” I was prepared for the beauty and the talent, and the way of dancing, but it was just stunning.”

The New York-based performers showcase China’s 5,000-year-old culture through the artistic media of classical Chinese dance and music. Beautifully costumed energetic and graceful dances are accompanied by the Shen Yun Orchestra in a unique union of Chinese and Western instruments, with solo performances by virtuosos in opera singing and the erhu.

Ms. Cook knows a lot about China, and collects Chinese art and old manuscripts. She is also a Buddhist, and has been influenced by traditional Chinese art ever since she took a course in London. “The culture fascinates me, the country fascinates me,” she said.

The artist was touched by the show for many reasons, commenting, “Artistically, it spoke to me; visually, it spoke to me.”

Two of the dances in the performance depict the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China by the communist regime. Falun Gong is a peaceful meditation practice based upon a set of exercises and living by the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance.

Ms. Cook thinks there needs to be more publicity about what is currently happening in communist China and feels that people can learn a lot from Shen Yun. She explained, “I just think it’s absolutely spellbinding and people should go and see it. And I think we really need to spread what is happening in China-it’s not a free country.”

For Ms. Cook, the most memorable aspect of the show was about human rights and moral values. She had been unaware of the persecution of Falun Gong and was moved by the courage of the Shen Yun performers. She feels their work is essential and America can learn a lot from these upright values.

“I think the show should travel to as many [places] and have as much advertising as it possibly can so people can be awakened because that’s really what the American culture needs,” she concluded.

- The Epochtimes

Jailed Tibetan environmentalist tortured by China police during detention since January

The Guardian, UK, June 22, 2010 -

A jailed Tibetan environmentalist used the opening of his trial today to accuse Chinese captors of beatings, sleep deprivation and other maltreatment, his wife told reporters.

Karma Samdrup – a prominent businessman and award-winning conservationist – issued a statement in court detailing the brutal interrogation methods, including drugs that made his ears bleed, used on him since his detention on 3 January.

“If not for his voice, I would not have recognised him,” his wife Zhenga Cuomao told the Associated Press.

She said Samdrup appeared gaunt when he appeared at the Yangqi county courthouse in Xinjiang, the mountainous province neighbouring Tibet.

Prosecutor Kuang Ying denied violence had been used against Samdrup, who founded the Three Rivers Environmental Protection group and pushed for conservation of the source region for the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers.

The wealthy Tibetan art collector is an unlikely political prisoner. His group has won several awards for its work, including the Earth Prize, which is jointly administered by Friends of the Earth Hong Kong and the Ford motor company.

In 2006, he was named philanthropist of the year by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for “creating harmony between men and nature”.

He was arrested earlier this year and accused of robbing graves and stealing cultural artefacts. Supporters say these were old, trumped-up charges that were dismissed by police 12 years ago. If convicted, the maximum penalty is death or life in prison, though his lawyer says a more lenient sentence is likely.

His trial has been delayed for several weeks amid claims that he is being unfairly punished for lobbying the authorities for the release of his two brothers.

His siblings, Rinchen Samdrup and Jigme Namgyal, were arrested last August after their separate environmental protection group – Voluntary Environmental Protection Association of Kham Anchung Senggenamzong – sought to expose officials who hunted endangered animals. Namgyal is serving a 21-month re-education-through-labour sentence for “harming national security.”…… (The Guardian)

China auto parts plant halts production due to strike from Monday

June 22 (Reuters) – Japan’s Denso Corp (6902.T), a car parts maker affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), said on Tuesday its joint venture plant in Guangzhou, China has halted production since Monday morning due to a labour strike.

The plant, Denso (Guangzhou Nansha) Co Ltd, has also halted supply of its fuel injection equipment and other products to Toyota, Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and other carmaker clients since Monday, Denso spokeswoman Yoko Suga said.

The management and workers of the joint venture are currently negotiating on the workers’ demand for higher wages and better benefits, she said. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani)

- Reuters

David Matas: Lessons From the Holocaust, Organ Harvesting in China

By Fany Qiu & Michelle Yu, Epoch Times Staff, June 20, 2010 -

Men of conscience often face tremendous challenges in life. Driven by their hearts, when exposed to injustice and evil, they cannot turn away; despite the risks, they choose to do what they believe is right.

Oskar Schindler, the heroic figure portrayed in the 1993 Spielberg film “Schindler’s List,” is a historic example of a person who risked everything to save nearly 1,200 Jewish workers from certain death during Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution” genocide targeting European Jews—the Holocaust. The brave Schindler risked life and limb to stand against tyranny and follow his conscience.

Canadian David Matas is also a man of conscience. Although he does not find himself living and surviving daily while surrounded by oppressors, he has seen evidence of great tyranny. His determination to expose unspeakable evil may potentially save hundreds of thousands from the clutches of one of the most oppressive regimes in human history.

Matas, along with former Canadian government official David Kilgour, published “BLOODY HARVEST—Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China.” In the report, they summarize their shocking investigation into a modern-day mass genocide:

“We have concluded that the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centers and ‘people’s courts,’ since 1999 have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including kidneys, livers, corneas and hearts, were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.”

This conclusion was reached after months of documented, investigative research, and the eventual report released in July 2006. A subsequent 2007 revision of the report, and recently published book “Bloody Harvest,” include new evidence collected by the two authors in ongoing efforts to expose the mass killings.

How does one investigate crimes committed by a communist regime that controls the very flow of information and stifles transparency? “The allegations, by their very nature, are difficult either to prove or disprove,” Matas and Kilgour stated in the “Difficulty of Proof” section in their 2007 report.

Mr. Matas elaborated on this assertion in a recent interview with The Epoch Times. “What was difficult was to figure out a method to approach the issue when there are no corpses [according to the allegation, the victims’ bodies were cremated], no crime scene, no records, no independent media, no human rights NGOs working within the country.”…… (more details from The Epochtimes)

‘Mental Torture’ happens in the labor camps in China everywhere, says U.N. rapporteur

Radio Free Asia, 2010-06-21 -

WASHINGTON— China’s prison system commonly subjects detainees to mental torment rather than physical abuse, according to a United Nations special rapporteur, although reforms are under way.

Manfred Nowak, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, told an Open Society Institute gathering here that authorities in China set out to “break the will” of convicts and detainees to make them believe that they have committed a crime.

“It’s much more mental torture—what they call ‘reeducation.’ That is on the one hand reeducation-through-labor camps. If you go in there it is just unbelievable what kind of brainwashing those people have to go through,” he said.

Most inmates at reeducation-through-labor camps, Nowak said, are members of the outlawed Falun Gong religious movement, sex workers, and others who have exhibited “unsocial behavior” that can be held for up to three or four years without being convicted at trial.

“But this policy of reeducation is not just in the specific camps—it’s everywhere. Of course, if you are convicted … without having confessed, they still want you to confess afterwards,” he said.

“They want to reeducate you so that you finally see that you have done something wrong. And that means trying to break the will of the people. If it didn’t work during trial, during police custody with torture or whatever, then they try to break your will afterwards.”

Nowak said he has met inmates who said they had eventually confessed to crimes they had not committed or acknowledged guilt in order to alleviate pressure from authorities.

“I have met quite a number … of people who told me, ‘I just finally gave up, because if I finally say ‘Yes, I did something wrong,’ then I get certain privileges. I can be earlier released.’”

Others, Novak said, are kept in jail without basic rights, sometimes indefinitely.

“You have no privileges—that means also [no] contact with family. All that will be reduced or it will be improved if you finally say, ‘I did something wrong,’” he said…….(Radio Free Asia)

Hydropower Plant May Have Triggered Deadly Landslide in Southwest China, says Expert

NTD TV –

On Tuesday at around 1:30 in the morning, part of a mountain collapsed in Kangding County in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. It killed 23 workers at a hydroelectric project construction site.

State media Xinhua reports that recent heavy rains triggered the landslide. But local geological expert Fan Xiao believes there may be another cause.

[Fan Xiao, Sichuan Geological and Mineral Bureau]:
“It’s mainly because of large scale work in recent years to construct the hydroelectric plant. Along the Dadu River there are over 20 hydropower stations which are all undergoing large-scale work… this has damaged the stability of the mountainsides, leading to mudslides when it rains. And digging also damages the stability of the mountain body, so eventually this creates a large scale mountain collapse.”

The part of the mountain that collapsed on Tuesday reached nearly 1.5 million cubic feet. It crushed a shed where construction workers slept, and temporarily blocked the water flow at a tributary of the Dadu River.

Fan Xiao, who is the chief engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, says hydropower construction in the region also poses other risks.

[Fan Xiao, Sichuan Geological and Mineral Bureau]:
“Many hydropower plants along the Dadu River are very large in scale. They have very tall dams that store a large amount of water. Coincidentally, the river is along an earthquake belt, and chances of these dams triggering an earthquake are very high too.”

In recent years, the Chinese regime has undertaken numerous hydropower projects to supply growing demands for electricity.

After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake Fan, and other experts, urged the suspension of new hydropower plants and a reassessment of geological risks posed by large-scale dams in the area.

- NTD TV

What Google Services (Sites) Have Been Blocked in China

Google service availability in China, June 13-19, 2010

(Published by Google)

You can access the latest summary of accessibility  from within mainland China to Google services at following Google page:

http://www.google.com/prc/report.html