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Statistics Suggest Millions of Falun Gong Practitioners Remain Active in China

According to the statistics released by Minghui or Clearwisdom, an overseas website recording daily updates about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, there are about 200,000 active underground material production sites throughout mainland China. Their daily operation is to download materials from Minghui using software to get around censorship, then print and assemble those into booklets which will then reach a minimum of 40 million practitioners in China through an internal network.

Additional data released by Minghui include the number of experience sharing articles received by Minghui Annual Mainland Online Experience Sharing Conference increases from 2200 to 2600 articles between 2004 and 2007 to 11,000 articles in 2008. Since July 20, 1999, Minghui received, confirmed, and published 254,000 torture cases of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

According to Minghui, Minghui website was created and is maintained by Falun Dafa practitioners.  It is designed to serve both fellow practitioners and the general public with daily articles that provide insights into Falun Dafa cultivation practice, expose the harsh persecution in China, and report the news of Falun Dafa activities around the world.

Source: Minhui, April 19, 2009
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/19/199284.html

Jia Qinglin: Exercise the Party’s Direction and Explore New Opportunities on Religion Work

On April 17, Jia Qinglin, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, spoke at a forum on the Party’s religion work attended by provincial level party leaders.

Jia emphasized that all levels of party committees and government bodies should understand the overall and strategic importance of religion work under the current environment. They should further strengthen and exercise the Party’s leadership in religion work; strengthen research and investigation of the current status of various religions; pay attention to religion work at the ground level; strengthen the support of patriotic religious organizations; fully encourage and utilize personnel within those organizations to play active roles to bridge the connections between the government body and religious believers to ensure stability among religions.

Jia also instructed that it is required that they should actively engage in building friendly relations with religions from overseas and be on guard against foreign forces using religion for espionage. 

Source: Xinhua, April 17, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-04/17/content_11200560_1.htm

International Herald: How Effective is Obama’s “Smile Strategy?”

"After Obama’s smile (during his G20 trip and Europe/Asia tour), if no concrete action follows up, maybe comic cartoons is the only place for his ‘signature smile’." Stated a commentary by the International Herald Leader on April 14.

The article said that Obama’s signature smile was successful but failed to solve problems. "The smiles cover up the embarrassment of the US and its unwillingness to take additional responsibilities," the article commented on the change of the body language of the current president,"… we will expect to see the US to be more modest and self-restrained as well as being flexible and smart… How long can his smiles last under the current domestic situation?" The article asks, "In the eyes of those conservative forces in the US, US interest takes superiority over others. It will not allow its hegemony to be challenged … The attack from the conservatives against Obama’s bow to the King of Saudi Arabia at G20 shows that it is not easy for the US to set down its haughty airs and smile with sincerity to the world."

Source: Xinhua, April 14, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-04/14/content_11183659.htm

Public Calling for Resignation of Party Officials Over Abuse of Power

Netizens in China voiced strong support for victims of abuse of power, calling for the resignations of top Chinese leaders over incidents of police brutality, reported Trend, a Hong Kong magazine. On March 8, 2009, a 19 year-old student died during police interrogation in Shanxi Province. Within three days of the incident, online postings calling for the resignations of Zhou Yongkang and Meng Jianzhu reached 70,000 at websites, including official websites such as Xinhuanet.com and people.com.cn.

Zhou currently serves as the 9th ranked member of the Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee and is the the head of the Party’s Central Political and Legislative Committee, an organ directing central government legal policy and the legislative agenda. Meng Jianzhu is the Minister of the Public Security.

Source: Trend, April 2009 Issue
http://www.chengmingmag.com/t284/select/284sel01.html

China’s Steel Industry Set For Tough Times

Xinhua reported that China’s steel exports were a mere 1.91 million metric tons in January, a drop of 54.6% from a year earlier. Exports in February went down further to 1.56 million metric tons. China Iron and Steel Association warns that China may soon import more steel than export. Slack domestic demand, reduced international orders, trade barriers in the West and competition from other countries are said to have contributed to the downturn.

On April 8, 2009, seven US steel companies and trade unions filed an anti-dumping petition against Chinese steel products with the US government. On the same day, the European Commission announced its decision to impose anti-dumping duties ranging from 15.6% to 24.2% on Chinese seamless steel pipe.

Source: Xinhua, April 14, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-04/14/content_11183107.htm

China’s Navy Is Undergoing a Major Transformation

Xinhua published a lengthy interview with the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, Wu Shengli. Wu mentioned that the Navy is undergoing a major transformation. The transformation includes modernization from a mechanized system to an information technology based system and extension of target combating area from near sea to distant sea.

Wu stated that the Central Party Committee requested the Navy emphasize the preparation of military combat over the sea as the national security strategy and military strategy, and gradually develop a defense system over the sea to safeguard the country’s ocean security and development interests.

Source: Xinhua, April 15, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_1.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_2.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_3.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_4.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_5.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_6.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_7.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/15/content_11185909_8.htm

China Flexes Military Muscles

In recent years, as China has strengthened its military, China has compared its armed forces with the world’s most technologically advanced militaries. Compared to the U.S. and other developed countries, China still lags in terms of weapons of information technology. Nevertheless, China has advanced armed vehicles and tank capabilities, as well as conventional weaponry.

Since the beginning of the open door policy, the Chinese government has invested a huge amount of resources to modernize its armed forces. China’s military spending in 2009 will rise 14.9% to 480.7 billion yuan.

Source: BBC Chinese.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7990000/newsid_7996300/7996336.stm

China Kicks off Nationwide Patriotic Education Program

The People’s Daily published an opinion piece titled "Let the Glory of the New Era Shine in our Patriotism." It states that "to celebrate the new China’s 60th anniversary, (China) will carry out public patriotic education in depth throughout the entire nation. The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had a teleconference to motivate its staff and assign tasks, marking the kickoff of the program."

Source: People’s Daily, April 15, 2009
http://opinion.people.com.cn/GB/40604/9131420.html