Video: Chinese dissident Li Wangyang found hanged in hospital

Chinese dissident Li Wangyang was found hanging from the bars of his of his hospital window. He was jailed on June 9th 1989 for “counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement,” after China’s 1989 democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. During his first prison term, Li was held in solitary confinement at times and beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized.

The courageous man’s family isn’t buying the ChiCom line.

Huffington Post- BEIJING — An ailing Chinese labor activist imprisoned for two decades died in a hospital Wednesday one year after being released from jail, and a relative raised doubt on the official explanation that he had hanged himself.

Li Wangyang had advocated for independent labor unions in central China’s Hunan province and was caught in the sweeping nationwide crackdown on all forms of dissent after the Tiananmen Square democracy protests were quashed in 1989.

Brother-in-law Zhao Baozhu said he was suspicious about Li’s death because the activist had never expressed a desire to kill himself despite spending 20 years in prison and being very sick. He said that Li had seemed normal over dinner the previous night.

“He was always very strong, there was no sign at all that he was thinking of killing himself,” Zhao told The Associated Press. “Even though he had so many illnesses and spent more than 20 years in jail, he never talked about suicide. So I don’t believe it.”

Li was already dead by the time Zhao got to the hospital in Shaoyang city on Wednesday morning after being notified of Li’s death by the facility. He was 62.

Li was on his feet next to his bed in a hospital, with a white strip of cloth tied tightly around his neck and connected to a window bar above, Zhao said.

His brother-in-law did not cite other reasons for his doubts Li committed suicide, but some activists, looking at photos on the Internet of Li’s hanging, said they thought it was unusual that his feet were touching the ground.

Phones rang unanswered at the Daxiang District People’s Hospital, where Li was being treated for illnesses including heart disease, diabetes, failing eyesight and hearing.

Li was arrested for his labor activism on June 9, 1989, five days after the bloody military crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananment Square. Sentenced for “counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement,” he spent much of his 11-year term at hard labor.

The subsequent, 10-year sentence for inciting subversion centered on his demands for government help for health problems caused by beatings and mistreatment in prison.

During his first prison term, Li was held in solitary confinement at times and beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized, according to Human Rights in China.

Obama-Clinton throw Chen Guangcheng under the ChiCom tank

The Obama-Hillary tag team of ineptitude and cowardice is on parade again. Liberals love to fantasize that they are the champions of the little people, of the voiceless, of the downtrodden. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The history of the modern Democrat party is appeasement and the selling out of allies and democratic freedom fighters everywhere.

If only Chen Guangcheng, who is fighting against China’s one-child policy, worked for Planned Parenthood or were a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, then things would be so much easier for Barack and Hillary and the Democrat media complex.

Mona Charen at Townhall – It’s hard to know which is worse: one’s grief over Chen Guangcheng’s fate or the fury over the Obama administration’s abandonment of him to that fate.

Chen Guangcheng

Chen was already an internationally known human rights activist when he remarkably showed up at the U.S. embassy in Beijing last week seeking refuge. A blind, self-taught lawyer from Shandong province, Chen had been held prisoner for 19 months for the crime of publicizing Chinese atrocities by those enforcing the “one child” policy. Chen had chosen a moonless night (his captors were not blind) to scale several high walls and stumble his way to a predetermined meeting place where Christian friends would help him make the harrowing 300-mile journey to Beijing. He told supporters that he fell 200 times that night — breaking a foot in the process.

At some point, it’s not clear exactly where or when, U.S. officials did help Chen get to the embassy — which is gratifying. What happened next was not.

Four days of negotiations with the Chinese government followed. The State Department was gearing up for the visit of Secretary Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and other top officials. Chen’s presence in the embassy would cast a pall over the diplomatic niceties. So while U.S. officials held discussions with the Chinese about Chen’s future, it’s clear that they did so with the usual disregard for the nature of the regime they were confronting.

When, for example, the Chinese rounded up Chen’s friends and accomplices in Shandong, U.S. officials asked China to “investigate” these “extralegal” activities by local authorities, as if they were dealing with a government that enforces the rule of law rather than a criminal state that flouts the law.

Throughout the tense days of talks, Chen’s spirits sometimes flagged, understandably. There are reports that the Chinese threatened his family. He asked, the Washington Post reported, about other human rights heroes — Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. “‘Does she ever feel low? Did she ever question her choices?’”

State Department officials claim that Chen repeatedly expressed a desire to remain in China and continue his human rights work. American officials supposedly worked out an agreement with the Chinese that Chen, his wife and children would be permitted to move to a small city near Beijing to continue his legal studies, free from persecution. Secretary of State Clinton issued a statement that Chen was leaving the embassy in accord with “his wishes and our values.”

The State Department released cheery pictures of Chen being wheeled into the hospital. Then the rosy facade crumbled. Chen was surrounded by plainclothes police, and the U.S. officials abandoned him. “No one from the U.S. embassy is here,” Chen told a British broadcaster. “I don’t understand. They promised to be here.”

As Melinda Liu of The Daily Beast reported, Chen felt pressured by the U.S. to take the deal. He spoke to Bob Fu of the China Aid Association from his hospital bed: “He was very heavy-hearted,” Fu said. “He was crying when we spoke. He said he was under enormous pressure to leave the embassy. Some people almost made him feel he was being a huge burden to the U.S.” According to Fu, Chen was told that “he would have no chance of reunification with his wife and children if he didn’t (leave). The choice presented to him was walk out — or stay inside and lose his wife and kids.”

Chen told Liu, through tears, that it was his “fervent hope” that he and his family would be permitted to leave China on Hillary Clinton’s plane.

It is sad when the most charitable possible interpretation of a diplomatic episode is that the Obama administration was rolled. Even supposing the administration to have been acting in good faith, Obama set the table for this sucker punch from the Chinese long ago. In 2009, Secretary Clinton signaled the administration’s weakness by saying that human rights concerns would not be permitted to interfere with cooperation “on the global economic crisis (and) the global climate change crisis.” Prior to his 2009 visit to China, Obama declined to meet with the Dalai Lama to avoid offending his hosts. And while in China, he permitted the regime to stage manage his appearances and effectively censor his remarks.

The Chinese appear to have taken Obama’s measure. They think they have nothing to fear from flagrantly reneging on a deal to offer humane treatment to a human rights hero — thus openly expressing their contempt for Obama and the United States. Obama has suffered a loss of face. Chen stands to lose everything.

Romney: ‘Day Of Shame For The Obama Administration’

“If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration,” Romney said. “We are a place of freedom, here and around the world and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack.”

Romney suggested U.S. officials were motivated by the politics of Chen’s case. He said U.S. officials “willingly or unwittingly communicated to Chen an implicit threat to his family” and accelerated negotiations for his safety because of scheduled talks in country with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and their Chinese counterparts.

Romney also said the embassy had “failed to put in place the kind of verifiable measures that would assure the safety” of Chen and his family.

Nuclear expert Gordon Chang: China has sold Iran long-range missiles that reach 4,300 miles

Terrific.

Obama is aware of it, too. Yet, it has no effect on his appeasement policies towards either country.

Gateway Pundit – Nuclear expert Gordon Chang, author of “Nuclear Showdown”, told FOX News today that CIA operatives and defectors have reported that China has sold Iran the DF-31 missile which has a range of 4,300 miles and can reach Alaska and Europe.

Finland finds undeclared Patriot missiles and explosives marked “fireworks” on China-bound ship

You would think 69 Patriot missiles and 160 tonnes of explosives marked “fireworks” on its way to China would interest U.S. journalists. But that presupposes that America still has journalists working in the mainstream media.

BBC – The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.

Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.

Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked “fireworks”.

The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked “fireworks”.

The managing director of the ship’s owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.

Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds.

Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.

‘Quite unusual’

The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa.

Patriot missile systems are supplied to US allies

It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined.

Routine checks by Finland’s traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed.

“Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives,” said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

Video: China’s women soldiers strut their stuff

A ChiCom invasion never looked so tantalizing.

via Moonbattery

Video: Obama the Maoist

Commie-in-Chief Obamao can’t stop talking about how great China is, and how badly America sucks. That he gets away with this absurd comparison is yet another example of America’s abysmal excuse for journalism.

Watch and be sickened. Then, do everything in your power to get this freak and his entire party of 5th column sociopaths voted out of Washington in 2012.

(Well done RobtKraft!)

Obama Administration nixes sale of 66 F-16 fighter jets to longtime ally Taiwan

This is what happens when you owe trillions of dollars to the ChiComs. Not only does it result in screwing our friends (again), but the loss of revenue will have to be made up by borrowing more money from Communist China. Production of the F-16S would have generated hundreds of jobs in Texas, where the jets are assembled, and in New Jersey. Both are governed by Republicans, and of course, Perry is from Texas. Coincidence?

nytimes  (h/t Hotairpundit) — The Obama administration has decided not to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan but instead to help it refurbish its existing fleet, prompting criticism in Congress that the United States is buckling to pressure from China.

The decision, which could be announced as early as this week and was shared with Congressional staff members on Friday, is a consolation prize for Taiwan, which wanted to buy 66 F-16’s to replace jets it bought in 1992 during the administration of the first President George Bush.

The administration’s calculation, people briefed on the decision said, is that upgrading the old jets would allow Taiwan to defend itself but would avoid opening a major rift with China, which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and opposes any arms sales to the country.

That reasoning does not satisfy Taiwan’s supporters in Congress. “If the reports are true,” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said in a written statement on Friday, “today’s capitulation to Communist China by the Obama administration marks a sad day in American foreign policy, and it represents a slap in the face to a strong ally and longtime friend.”

China sends price of compact fluorescent light bulbs soaring in U.S.

People will blame China, but all blame goes to the enviroradicals in the Obama Administration and at the EPA. Dimbulbed Americans having elected Liberals and Barack Obama to office deserve the lethal and expensive bulbs, and the punishment China doles out. Elections have consequences. America has given China the rope to hang us in too many ways to number. The same goes for the Arab oil countries.

Yahoo (h/t GWP) – In the name of fighting pollution, China has sent the price of compact fluorescent light bulbs soaring in the United States.

By closing or nationalizing dozens of the producers of rare earth metals — which are used in energy-efficient bulbs and many other green-energy products — China is temporarily shutting down most of the industry and crimping the global supply of the vital resources.

China produces nearly 95 percent of the world’s rare earth materials, and it is taking the steps to improve pollution controls in a notoriously toxic mining and processing industry. But the moves also have potential international trade implications and have started yet another round of price increases for rare earths, which are vital for green-energy products including giant wind turbines, hybrid gasoline-electric cars and compact fluorescent bulbs.

General Electric, facing complaints in the United States about rising prices for its compact fluorescent bulbs, recently noted in a statement that if the rate of inflation over the last 12 months on the rare earth element europium oxide had been applied to a $2 cup of coffee, that coffee would now cost $24.55.

An 11-watt G.E. compact fluorescent bulb — the lighting equivalent of a 40-watt incandescent bulb — was priced on Thursday at $15.88 on Wal-Mart’s Web site for pickup in a Nashville, Ark., store.

Wal-Mart, which has made a big push for compact fluorescent bulbs, acknowledged that it needed to raise prices on some brands lately. “Obviously we don’t want to pass along price increases to our customers, but occasionally market conditions require it,” Tara Raddohl, a spokeswoman, said. The Chinese actions on rare earths were a prime topic of conversation at a conference here on Thursday that was organized by Metal-Pages, an industry data firm based in London.

Soaring prices are rippling through a long list of industries.

“The high cost of rare earths is having a significant chilling effect on wind turbine and electric motor production in spite of offsetting government subsidies for green tech products,” said one of the conference attendees, Michael N. Silver, chairman and chief executive of American Elements, a chemical company based in Los Angeles. It supplies rare earths and other high-tech materials to a wide range of American and foreign businesses.

War between U.S. and China breaks out on basketball court

I blame Joe Biden. He’s in China right now. He drives everyone insane. No doubt Obama has already sent a letter of apology. Two letters. One for making China babysit Joe Biden, the other for the fight that China started.

Washington Post – BEIJING — What began as a goodwill trip to China for the Georgetown men’s basketball team turned violent Thursday night when its exhibition game against a Chinese professional club deteriorated into a benches-clearing melee in which players exchanged blows, chairs were thrown and spectators tossed full water bottles at Hoyas players and coaches as they headed to the locker room.

Georgetown Coach John Thompson III pulled his players off the Olympic Sports Center Stadium court with 9 minutes 32 seconds left in the game and the scored tied at 64 after a chaotic scene in which members of the Georgetown and Bayi Military Rockets teams began swinging wildly and tackling one another.

There were an estimated half-dozen individual altercations on the court, and eventually some Chinese onlookers joined the fracas, including one wielding a stanchion. As the brawl spilled beyond the baseline, an unidentified Bayi player pushed Georgetown’s Aaron Bowen through a partition to the ground before repeatedly punching the sophomore guard while sitting on his chest.

Georgetown senior center Henry Sims had a chair tossed at him by an unidentified person, and freshman forward Moses Ayegba, who was wearing a brace on his right leg, limped onto the court with a chair in his right hand. According to Georgetown officials, Ayegba had been struck, prompting him to grab a chair in self-defense.

The brawl occurred one night after Vice President Biden, who is in Beijing on a four-day visit to discuss U.S.-Chinese economic relations, attended a Georgetown game against another Chinese club at the Olympic Sports Center. That game, which was won by Georgetown, passed without incident.

The turbulent ending to Thursday night’s contest marred what had been billed as the second game of a two-day “China-U.S. Basketball Friendship Match” in Beijing. Georgetown intended for the team’s 10-day trip to China to be an athletic, cultural and educational exchange designed to promote the school internationally.

It was unclear whether the brawl would affect similar ventures in the future. The Georgetown delegation, which included university President John DeGioia, other school officials and prominent alumni and boosters, was scheduled to fly to Shanghai on Friday. Thompson said the team would continue with the remainder of its itinerary.

A State Department official and a Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington both called the melee “unfortunate.”

 

Chinese credit agency: world to discard dollar

When Communist China feels it necessary to lecture America on the economy, you know we’re in trouble.

The United States “should get a clear understanding that the continuous decline of the debt service capability will inevitably result in the outbreak of a sovereign debt crisis.”

Guan Jianzhong
Chairman, Dagong Global Credit Rating

CNBC – The man who leads one of China’s top rating agencies says the greenback’s status as the world’s reserve currency is set to wane as the world’s most powerful policy makers convene to examine the implication of S&P’s decision to strip the United States of its triple “A” rating.

In comments emailed to CNBC, Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, said the currency is “gradually discarded by the world,” and the “process will be irreversible.”

Dagong made headlines last week when it became the first rating agency to cut its U.S. credit rating from “A+” to “A” after policymakers in Washington failed to act in a timely manner to lift its debt celing.

However, the announcement failed to register in the markets as investors have yet to decide whether to take the Beijing-based company seriously.

“It has been around for quite a while, but I do not know of anyone assigning risk assessment to thir portfolio according to Dagong,” said Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank. “However, clearly the rating industry could do with some competition and deviance from firm beliefs.”

But Guan’s observation—made just before S&P slashed its ratings on the world’s biggest economy—now seems strangely prescient.

“I think the most pressing issue facing the U.S. at the moment is to reflect on the crisis which happened in relation with the debt ceiling,” Guan said. “They should get a clear understanding that the continuous decline of the debt service capability will inevitably result in the outbreak of a sovereign debt crisis.”

His sentiment is also reflected in a strongly worded editorial published by China’s official Xinhua news agency on Saturday that is widely seen as a thinly-veiled criticism of U.S. fiscal and economic policies from Beijing.

The editorial called for “international supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars” and the introduction of “a new, stable and secured global reserve currency.”

It also noted that as its largest creditor, Beijing has every right “to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets.”

China to US: Any attack on Pakistan is an attack on China

The Obama Administration and mainstream media aren’t going to be mentioning this to the American people.

With a single utterance, China just won over more Muslims to their evil cause than the tens of billions of dollars and thousands of meaningless words Barack Hussein Obama has wasted trying to cajole them into liking us.

PTI (h/t Weasel Zippers) — In the wake of the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, China has “warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China”, a media report claimed today.

The warning was formally conveyed by the Chinese foreign minister at last week’s China-US strategic dialogue and economic talks in Washington, The News daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying. China also advised the USa to “respect Pakistan’s sovereignty and solidarity”, the report said.

Chinese Premier Mr Wen Jiabao informed his Pakistani counterpart Mr Yousuf Raza Gilani about the matters taken up with the US during their formal talks at the Great Hall of the People yesterday. The report said China “warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China”. The two premiers held a 45-minute one-on-one meeting before beginning talks with their delegations.

The Chinese leadership was “extremely forthcoming in assuring its unprecedented support to Pakistan for its national cause and security” and discussed all subjects of mutual interest with Mr Gilani, the report said. Mr Gilani described Pakistan-China relations and friendship as “unique”.  Keep reading…

China holds even more American debt than reported

China’s leverage on America is even greater than expected, which is why Obama bows to the ChiCom President and will never criticize his country’s awful human rights record or international belligerence.

China holds $1.16 trillion in US bonds, 26.1 percent of the total of $4.44 trillion held by foreigners. Japan is the second largest holder of US government debt, with $882 billion, and Britain a distant third at $272.1 billion

It’s sad, despicable, and criminal that America owes so much money to foreign countries, but especially to a country like China who views America as an enemy and constantly seeks to undermine her. Worse yet, all the money was squandered on propping up the welfare state.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – China’s holdings of US bonds reached $1.16 trillion at the end of December, almost $270 billion more than previously estimated, new data showed Monday.

Beijing, which has converted much of a huge trade surplus with the United States over the past two decades into buying up US treasuries and other securities, held 26.1 percent of the total of $4.44 trillion held by foreigners, the Treasury said.

The figures came as the US government recalculated its data on foreign holdings of US securities from June 2010.

Chinese-held Treasuries have fallen since hitting a high of $1.18 trillion in October, under the revised figures. Japan remained by far the second largest holder of US government debt, with $882 billion in December, around $1.3 billion less than original estimates.

Britain was third at $272.1 billion.

Cables show China used debt holdings to squeeze US

Obama Bows To Chinese President Hu Jintao

Anyone with half a brain knows that America’s massive debt is a national security issue, especially when it is the ChiComs who own the greatest share.

Half a brain, which means half of congress, all Liberals, and the weirdest man to ever be President, Barack Obama. Obama either doesn’t think so, could care less, or hates his country.

Breitbart reported: Leaked diplomatic cables vividly show China’s willingness to translate its massive holdings of US debt into political influence on issues ranging from Taiwan’s sovereignty to Washington’s financial policy.

China’s clout — gleaned from its nearly $900 billion stack of US debt — has been widely commented on in the United States, but sensitive cables show just how much influence Beijing has and how keen Washington is to address its rival’s concerns.

An October 2008 cable, released by WikiLeaks, showed a senior Chinese official linking questions about much-needed Chinese investment to sensitive military sales to Taiwan…. (whole pathetic thing >)

Remember this banned commercial?

h/t GWP for video

Chinese bought as much gold in January as in six months of 2010

What do the Chinese know that Americans don’t?

Or perhaps a better question is: What reality are the Chinese facing up to that American politicians and media willfully ignore?

In a word: Inflation.

China already has the world’s sixth largest gold reserve valued at $50.19 billion. The country is the world’s largest gold producer, yet it imported 209 tons of gold last year.

Business Insider – Demand for physical and non-physical gold in China is soaring. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) reportedly sold nearly 7 tons of physical gold in January alone, almost half of what they sold in all of 2010, according to Reuters.

The bank expects to sell 5 billion yuan worth of gold linked deposits this year, after having sold 1 billion yuan worth of the deposits in 2010, according to Zhou Ming, the deputy head of the ICBC’s precious metals department.

With Chinese CPI at 4.9% it comes as no surprise consumer are rushing to buy the precious metal to hedge against inflation. Gold prices in Asia steadied in overnight trading while gold futures rose on the Comex in New York. The metal has been trading lower on the market today.

The ICBC teamed with the World Gold Council to launch China’s first gold gift investment bar on Tuesday. The Only Gold Gift Bar comes in 10, 20, 50, 100 and 1000 gram denominations and the word “fu” (joy) engraved on the bar. Ming said in a statement on Tuesday:

“We are working closely with the World Gold Council to provide a variety of physical or physical backed gold solutions for our customers. Last year we sold more than 15 tonnes of bars and coins and we have a strong start in January with almost 5 tonnes of sales.”

With 1,161.9 tons, China has the world’s sixth largest gold reserve valued at $50.19 billion. The country is the world’s largest gold producer, yet it imported 209 tons of gold last year.

Europe’s going out of business sale, is America far behind?

Europe has been hocking their prized lands and holdings to pay off their enormous debts. England is selling Robin Hoods ‘hood’, and France and Italy have put up numerous historic properties to cover their debts, as well. Isn’t socialism grand?

Which begs the question, what about America, whose debt makes those countries look like broken piggy banks compared to our tens upon tens of trillions of debt.

Load and lock, Alaska.

How long before we are selling or leasing Hawaiian islands to Japan who owns a trillion or more of our debt? How long before China demands oil and mineral rich Alaska? Hell, they can argue, you morons aren’t using it anyway!

Another Obama term, and they just might do that, as they know they can roll and smoke him like a cheap cigar.

‘Course, if China wants Alaska, they’ll have to go through Sarah Palin first, and they will find her a lot more intimidating than girly-man Obama. “From my dead, cold hands, ChiComs!”

Daily Caller

Ever dreamed of frolicking around Sherwood Forest like Robin Hood and his Merry Men? Well, pack your sword and green tights, because you can now own a portion of folklore’s most iconic landscape. The British government is selling areas of the woods to cover their massive national debt, reports The Los Angeles Times.  Locals are furious at the thought of developers or corporations invading their beloved forest, but the offer remains amidst their objection. As several European nations struggle to balance the books, other iconic, government-owned properties are also facing the auction block.

France and Italy join Britain in selling historic properties to cover debt. The French landmark, Hotel de Seignelay, the former headquarters of the French Navy, is among the properties up for sale. Similarly, the Italian government has put 12,000 properties on the market, ranging from luxurious villas to historic monasteries. The combined value of the government’s real estate is roughly $3 billion dollars.

Each nation plans to use a significant portion of the profits towards easing their massive debts. The governments now face the daunting task of finding buyers willing to purchase such extravagant properties in these tight economic times. Sure, you can live in legendary Sherwood Forest, where Robin Hood faced off with the sheriff of Nottingham, but it will cost you a pretty penny.

U.S. continues foreign aid to #2 economy China

At your service.

Investors Business Daily asks, Why Does The U.S. Still Give China Aid?

Damn good question. And why isn’t anyone in congress asking the same thing?

As China swaggers around the world boasting of its economic might and how it will soon overtake the U.S. for the #1 spot, why does America continue to hand them $65 million a year in aid? Especially when you consider these facts:

• Beijing spends at least $100 billion a year building up its military and training the world’s largest army.
• It spends billions more on a space program.
• It spent tens of billions on the 2008 Olympics.
• It holds some $2.5 trillion in foreign reserves.
• It boasts the world’s most billionaires after the U.S.

IBD also notes that Germany, Britain, and Japan are phasing out humanitarian aid to China. So what are we waiting for?

China is not an ally, and neither are countless other countries that receive U.S. aid. Every tax dollar sent to an unfriendly nation is a dollar of lost savings and productivity in America.

China’s Hu Jintao is in Washington to make dog meat out of Dim Sum-in-Chief Obama

Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting Washington D.C. this week to meet with our feckless foreign policy disaster of a President, Barack Hussein Obama. They are to discuss trade deficits, the yuan, North Korea, and whether the U.S. wants to go down in a whimper or a bang.

Our ally, Taiwan, has a hilarious take on how they view Hu Jintao’s visit.

China Syndrome – abortion numbers grow; Planned Parenthood jealous

It seems China’s one child policy needs little encouragement from the new generation of young. Perhaps Planned Parenthood is on the first flight over to get advice. This is surely one area where American Liberals don’t think we should play second fiddle to China!

The Washington Post writes, “According to a government tally, 9.2 million abortions were performed in 2008, up from 7.6 million in 2007. But the count only includes hospitals, and state media report the total could be as high as 13 million. If accurate, that would give China among the highest abortion rates in the world.

Okay, someone has to ask it. With 30 years of one-child policy under their belt, and the well-known fact that in Chinese culture a male child is preferred – what are all these randy young Chinese men going to do for wives? There are a lot more young men than women now in China, so who are they going to turn to? One must wonder if the wife-importing business is booming there. In any case, there is surely a huge demographic problem on China’s horizon. The economy may be booming, but soon, so will the government’s geriatric and gender problems.

______________________________

Washington Post

China’s abortion numbers grow – Washington Times

XI’AN, China | The leaf-strewn median on Eternal Peace Road hides a grim secret: Numerous tiny fetuses lie in unmarked graves dug by women from the abortion clinic across the street.

The staff at the small clinic in the heart of this ancient city don’t bury most of the fetuses – only those that have reached three or four months, when they clearly resemble miniature babies.

“This big,” says anesthesiologist Liu Jianmin, using her thumb and index finger to measure out the length of a lipstick tube. The burials are a gesture of respect for lives cut short, she adds, and the patients aren’t told.

It is a secret hiding in plain sight, much like the rising rate of abortions among young, unmarried women in China.

While comprehensive data are hard to come by, official figures show abortions are increasing, and Chinese media and experts say many, if not most, of the abortion-seekers are young, single women.

That’s a change from the past, when abortion was used mainly to enforce the government’s one child per couple limit. Today, students are clearly a client base: The Beijing Modern Women’s Hospital offers a government-subsidized “Safe & Easy A+” discount abortion package at 880 yuan ($130). Others advertise in college handbooks.

According to a government tally, 9.2 million abortions were performed in 2008, up from 7.6 million in 2007. But the count only includes hospitals, and state media report the total could be as high as 13 million. If accurate, that would give China among the highest abortion rates in the world.

Many blame the trend on newly liberal attitudes toward premarital sex, and lagging sex education. Bureaucratic red tape and social stigma also deter single women from having a child on their own, and laws bar women from marriage until they are 20, making teen pregnancy virtually unheard of.

[...] From fewer than 5 million abortions a year prior to 1979, the numbers jumped to 8.7 million in 1981, a year after the one-child policy was launched. It peaked in 1983 at 14.4 million before coming down as China relaxed the policy to allow rural couples a second child if their first was a girl.

An aggressive, and often coercive, prevention campaign also reduced abortions. In 1983 alone, China sterilized 21 million people and fitted 17.8 million women with intrauterine devices. The next year abortions declined sharply, to 8.9 million. Abortion remains widely available, but what’s different is the clientele.

 

the whole fetus here >>>

Yuanderful!

More troubling news for the once mighty U.S. dollar.

According to Jerome Corsi at his Red Alert, “The World Bank issued its first bonds denominated in China’s currency, the yuan, in a further indication last week that the dollar is slipping in status among international bankers.”

Bernanke, Geithner...bananas...

Corsi also reminds us that back in November, Russia and China announced that they were abandoning the dollar in bilateral trade dealings, resolving instead to use their own currencies.

What other surprises await the dolorous dollar in 2011? Can Obamanomic Superheroes Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner rescue the dilapidating dollar? Can a monkey fly out your butt?

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from Red Alert

World Bank issues 1st bond in yuan

Move signals increased concern about U.S. currency devaluation

The World Bank issued its first bonds denominated in China’s currency, the yuan, in a further indication last week that the dollar is slipping in status among international bankers.

Buyers of the 500 million ($76 million) two-year bonds were mainly Hong Kong-based financial institutions, corporations and wealthy individuals, the Associated Press reported.

China is about to become the third most important voting power in the World Bank, after the United States and Japan, as a result of a reorganization last year that was designed to give developing nations more say in the management of the World Bank.

Even though China still prevents the yuan from being freely traded in world currency exchanges, the decision by the World Bank to issue Chinese yuan-denominated bonds marks a growing interest in the World Bank to support the development of a yuan market internationally.

The move also provides yet another indication that international bankers are concerned that mounting U.S. debt and the move of the Federal Reserve to continuing to buy Treasury debt signal an unannounced devaluation of the dollar that the Fed may be engineering behind closed doors.

China and Russia drop dollar

In November, Russia and China announced a decision to abandon the dollar in bilateral trade dealings, resolving instead to use their own currencies.

The decision resulted from a bilateral meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The move marks a continued departure from utilizing the dollar as the standard of international trade, a position the dollar has held since the end of World War II.

“This latest move – a continuation in a series of efforts by both countries to move away from U.S. dollar usage in international trade – further threatens the dollar’s reserve currency status,” Hao Li wrote in the International Business Times. “China and Russia are gradually revolting against the U.S. dollar.”

At the same time, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed having the yuan enter the pool of currencies in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights, as a step to wean the international monetary system off its reliance on the dollar, Reuters reported.

“The smart thing for the IMF to do would be to put the yuan in the SDR basket today,” Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told Reuters. “Then the SDR would have some obvious appeal to the private sector: This could quite rapidly open the door to less dependence on the dollar.”

According to Reuters, the SDR currently accounts for only 4 percent of global reserves, or $308 billion. The four currencies that make up the SDR – the euro, the Japanese yen, the pound sterling and the U.S. dollar – account for only 46 percent of world trade.

the whole Peking duck here >>>