Day: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Before the ALP jumps into bed with China
They might want to consider the following – China remains an authoritative regime opposed to the democratic values of Australia:
Since the December launch of Charter 08, more than 8,500 Chinese citizens have joined the call for multiparty democracy. That takes courage, given that at least 100 signatories have been harassed or interrogated, according to human rights groups. One of the Charter’s co-authors, Liu Xiaobo, has been under detention in an unknown location since December 8. Law professor He Weifang, a signatory known for outspoken critiques of China’s legal system, was transferred this month from prestigious Peking University to a remote college in western China.
Rudd ridicule
I can’t understand what’s happened to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. They have become one-way apologists for Rudd. In an article covering the less than kind coverage Rudd has been receiving in the British press, we find this comment from the paper:
Ignoring the success of his visit to the US and talks with President Barack Obama, they instead chose to dredge up everything from his New York strip club fiasco in 2003 to petty sniping about his clothes.
Success? He was given the minimum amount of time by Obama, while his lunch appointment with Obama was cancelled. Instead, Clinton was roped in to fill in – who incidentally Rudd endorsed for President. If Obama had cancelled his lunch appointment with say Howard?
…it is hard to imagine any US president cancelling a lunch with John Howard and this not being reported as a serious snub.
The war continues
Bolt has a good summation of the intrigue between the Defence Minister and his good Chinese friend Helen Liu. The fact that Joel Fitzgibbon misled the public about his associations with Liu seems besides the point for Rudd and Gillard. Why would Fitzgibbon lie? What’s there to hide?The latest is that Liu has close connections not only with the Communist Party, but also the PLA and has been active in promoting Communist Party propaganda in non-Han Chinese parts of China.
Liu claims she is no spy, and given the amount of public information that is available about her questionable connections it seems she is either not a very good one, or simply seeking greater influence over ALP politicians to have them push China’s national interest. Bob Carr has rushed to her defence, but the issue is not really about Liu. It is what was the Defence Minister secretly doing with a women with such close ties to the Chinese Army and Communist Party, and why would he try to cover up his association, both now and in the past? No one believes it was an honest mistake. One does not just forget to list on public disclosure documents free trips to another country, yet list trivial gifts and the sort as Fitzgibbon did. There was a reason for leaving the trips off the list.
Gillard claims that it is absurd to claim there is a conspiracy, but why the secrecy from the ALP then? Henderson in the SMH:
The evidence indicates that even the Rudd Government believes that there is something different about China. This is why it failed to disclose the official visits of Li (propoganda chief) and Zhou (security chief)…It is difficult to imagine that the Rudd Government would not disclose full details of the visits to Australia by senior members of the Japanese Government.