"running dogg" wrote in message
...

Actually, most of the anger against the Commies is in the countryside
from what I've heard, not in the cities where the demonstrations have
been happening. The cityfolk are doing relatively well under capitalism,
and people who aren't hungry and broke are less likely to rebel. Face
reality, Li-the CCP isn't going anywhere, and as long as they keep their
populace fed they won't. People across the world will tolerate
outrageous abuses of power as long as they personally are well fed and
comfy. The Republicans know this, for example.


Veterans protest against the Communist Party in Beijing

Beijing (AsiaNews/Reuters) - About 2,000 retired People's Liberation
Army (PLA) servicemen protested in Beijing, demanding pension
increases.

On Monday and Tuesday, 1,500 retired PLA officers from 20 provinces
wearing their old uniforms staged silent sit-down protests in front of
the General Political Department, a branch of the PLA which oversees
personnel, propaganda dissemination, song and dance troupes and
athletes.

On Wednesday, more than 400 retired rank-and-file soldiers staged a
similar, albeit brief protest.

Police and officials dispersed the protest by forcibly putting the
petitioners on rented buses and sending them back to their hometowns.

The back-to-back demonstrations from Monday to Wednesday (April 11-13)
were the biggest by veterans in China since the 1949 revolution.

"The government was caught unprepared . . . It is worried veterans
will continue to link up and bring chaos to society," an anonymous
source said.

The Chinese government allocated US$ 60 billion to its military budget
in 2004, but pensions for retired servicemen average 300 yuan (US$
30).

The authorities are concerned about the dissent among armed forces
veterans because the Communist Party has always relied on the PLA to
maintain its five-decade-old monopoly on power

The demonstrations were all the more unnerving for Beijing which sent
PLA troops backed by tanks to crush student-led pro-democracy
demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

The PLA also played a crucial role in ending the Cultural Revolution
and removing the Gang of Four from power in 1976.

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3043
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China: Sixty thousand people protest against pollution

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3036

China riot village draws tourists

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4448131.stm
__________________________________________________ __

Chinese history books silent on Tiananmen

Shanghai (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Much of the history of the Twentieth
Century has gone missing from Chinese textbooks; nothing is said about
the 1989 pro-democracy movement, zero about the millions who died as a
result of the famine caused by the Communist Party's agricultural
policies during the Great Leap Forward, and even less is mentioned
about the attacks by the People's Liberation Army against India and
Vietnam.

Since Chinese textbooks must be approved by central school
authorities, only those that bear their mark of approval can be
printed and distributed to classrooms.

According to Yu Maochun, Associate Professor of History at the US
Naval Academy in Annapolis (Maryland), "the rising nationalist tide
has made rewriting history the national pastime of the Chinese" and
Japan is the preferred whipping boy.

In the textbooks, all those who died in the Sino-Japanese war of
1937-1945 are celebrated as heroes who "gloriously died" for China.

In a textbook for eight graders used in Shanghai schools, the Japanese
are described as "bandits who killed and wounded at least 35 million
people".

The paragraph that ends the chapter on the war says that "wherever the
Japanese army passed through its soldiers burnt, murdered and
pillaged. There is no crime that they did not commit".

Recent violent, anti-Japanese demonstrations have also been fed by
Chinese criticism of Japanese textbooks which tend to whitewash the
crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army in China.

Sin-ming Shaw, a Chinese student attending Oxford University, said
that the "historical distortions contained in Japanese textbooks seem
to stem from Tokyo's reluctance and shame to admit its past, whilst
those in Chinese textbooks are designed to preserve the role of the
Communist party. Hiding the truth is in both cases politically
motivated".

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3035
__________________________________________________ _

Cardinal Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, Archbishop emeritus of Tokyo

The Japanese prelate has apologised for the crimes of the Japanese
Church during the war and has always sought a dialogue "with all the
Catholics of China".
....
In 1989, he organised a visit by a group of priests, sisters and lay
people to the Catholic Church of China in order to meet Chinese
Catholics from both the official and the underground Church.

He sought to meet Communist Party officials to seek forgiveness for
all the sins committed by the Japanese Imperial Army against the
Chinese people and the Catholic Church in China.
....
In 2000, after violent protests in Beijing against the canonisation of
120 Chinese martyrs, he said during a special solemn mass: "It is for
us a great pain to see this event, which should be received with great
joy for the Church in China, cause such a negative reaction. It is
equally painful to see the canonised martyrs treated 'as conspirators
of an aggressive imperialism'.
....
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3048
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U.S. Warns Citizens of New Protests in China

BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States warned its citizens in
China Friday of possible new anti-Japan demonstrations, saying they
could turn against foreigners in general, as Beijing stressed that
illegal protests would be punished.
....
The U.S. Embassy called on its citizens to be on guard, saying there
were unconfirmed calls to stage protests this weekend in Beijing,
nearby Tianjin, Shanghai, northeastern Shenyang, southern Guangzhou
and Dongguan and southwestern Chengdu.
....
"Because of the fluid nature of such events, American citizens
traveling in China should be alert for demonstrations and or marches
occurring at other times and locations without prior warning," a U.S.
embassy e-mail said.

"The demonstrations are purportedly against Japanese interests, but
could involve foreigners in general."

Chinese activists have called for more protests in Beijing and
Shanghai this weekend by sending SMS and posting messages on on-line
bulletin boards.

Japanese Foreign Minister warned the protests could start to affect tourism.

"You cannot stop tourists from avoiding (China) and deciding to go to
another place after watching TV news," Kyodo news agency quoted him as
saying.
....
http://reuters.myway.com/article/200...1_PEK241135_RT
RIDST_0_NEWS-NORTHASIA-DC.html
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