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December 24, 2006 (Sunday) － Issue No. 81 |
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Chinese Military Expenditure Ranked
Second in the World |
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New U.N. Chief Faces 'Mission
Impossible' |
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An In Depth Look: The Wondrous Costumes
Used in the Broadway Spectacular |
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Is a Trade War Brewing? |
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Radio Station "French Info" Reports on the Human
Organ Trade in China |
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The CCP uses science as a stick to
attack its citizens. In fact, it has done too many things against science,
including persecuting many intellectuals and scientists. It is the corrupted
communist system that is hindering the healthy development of science and
technology in |
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Central
News Agency HONG
KONG—The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in The The Even
though Should The Epoch
Times As South
Korea's Ban Ki-moon was ushered in as the United
Nation's (U.N.) new chief last week, questions remain as to whether the world
body will live up to its fundamental goals of ensuring peace, protecting
human rights, and promoting development. Ban joins
the U.N. at a tough time, when the global watchdog has suffered crisis after
crisis. Even outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan has described the current atmosphere as "very very tense". This
tension is the legacy of Annan's decade of
leadership, which some observers have called "a monumental
failure." Besides
the failures, the U.N. has been embroiled in an internal corruption scandal,
involving the oil-for-food program in Ban's
Promise to Act Indeed,
Ban's mission may seem impossible, but his tough stance and determination to
revive the world body offer some hope. Despite
his joking mannerisms, the 62-year-old career diplomat wasted few words when
laying out his agenda at a press conference after his swearing-in ceremony on
Dec. 15. He called himself a "straight shooter" and reaffirmed his
plans to see "concerted action" to achieve U.N. development goals.
These include cutting extreme poverty by half and achieving universal
education by 2015. "You
could say that I'm a man on a mission, and my mission could be dubbed
Operation Restore Trust—trust in the organization and trust between member
states and the Secretariat," he said at the press conference, according
to the Associated Press. "I hope this mission is not mission
impossible." With the
determination to "inject new confidence" into the stale leadership
style at the U.N., Ban has pledged to replace the "passive and
fearful" approach with a "dynamic and bold" one. "By
strengthening the three pillars of our United Nations—security, development
and human rights—we can build a more peaceful, more prosperous and more just
world for succeeding generations," he said. "[Then] we can live up
to the hopes that so many people around the world place in this
institution." Back Epoch
Times Staff The NTDTV's Global Chinese New Year's Gala has entered its
fourth season. The Gala has drawn quite a lot of attention in recent years
for its theatrical costumes and themes revolving around ancient times;
inspiring and impressing audiences of all ages with its natural style and
bright presentation. Each character's appearance is vividly portrayed and
expressed through their costume. We had a
chance to interview Ms. Li Fanhong, the costume
designer for the Chinese New Year Spectacular (the Gala's name in previous
years), as it was performing on Broadway. Li introduced the whole process of
how the costumes are designed and made. Blueprints
for Each Costume Recreated From Historical Records Li Fanhong noted that the costumes were designed strictly
according to the records in ancient books and paintings to re-display the
Chinese traditional clothing and culture as accurately as possible to the
audience. One reference was "The History of Chinese Clothing." The
book was compiled from the research of archaeological findings by a group of
senior scholars of A more
direct source of clothing were the frescoes in the Dunhuang cave, a treasure house of Chinese culture. All
the way from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty,
paintings were added in each historical period and
much of the clothing found on the characters were representative of the
typical clothing in each time period. Besides Dunhuang,
the designs were also referenced from sculptures, jade carvings and household
utensils from ancient times. These
cultural relics allowed for the extrapolation of the style and even the
colors of the clothing in each time. The
costumes found in many currently seen movies and TV programs set in ancient
times were done with modern people's aesthetic viewpoints; and the people who
made the costumes did not reference such relics. The
so-called method of "using the past to serve the present" looks
very clever, but is unable to reproduce the original, ancient tastes; it can
only present the designer's individuality. The
designers for the Spectacular present the beauty of Chinese traditional
culture expressed within Chinese traditional clothing. Back Mediachannel.org If you
think it is the White House, or even the Congress, rule this country, think
again. There has been a power shift underway for years and, believe it our
not, our future and fortune rests in the hands of bureaucrats on the other
side of the world. Sorry folks, but our red, white, and blue economy is
afloat because of members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. Yes the
Red Menace that we spent so many years fearing as a military threat now
represents a far more serious economic threat. No less than six U.S. Cabinet
Ministers just visited the Middle Kingdom to beseech, beg, lobby, and try to
persuade the new mandarins not to sell off their vast reservoir of dollars. There's
an old saying that a person can be in trouble when he owes a bank $100 bucks.
But if he owes $100 million, the bank could be in trouble. We owe The New
York Times reports on this big trip, "As Treasury Secretary Henry M.
Paulson Jr. prepares for his passage to China with six Cabinet members and
the chairman of the Federal Reserve, "Pressure is mounting on him to
produce results or face a wave of protectionist measures in the new Congress
next year. …Mr. Paulson conferred this week with business leaders urging him
to bring about changes in Forget
the So if you
didn't trust this Administration on the war, why should you trust them on
economics? That's why its time to pay attention to the dropping dollar, the News
Dissector Danny Schechter edits Mediachannel.org
and is the author of Falun Gong's Challenge to A
reporter from the renowned radio station "French Info," a division
of Radio The two
outstanding Canadian lawyers who authored the report, David Matas and David Kilgour, said
their investigations came to a shocking conclusion. They believe there is an
enormous trade of organs taken both from executed prisoners and from Falun Gong practitioners in Using
Chinese to pose as potential organ transplant clients, the two Canadian
lawyers collected many testimonies. They revealed how many Falun Gong practitioners' organs have been harvested, as
well as some executed prisoners, and the illicit organs are transplanted in
some wealthy Chinese or Western patients. Mr. David Matas,
said, "Every year, there are about ten or eleven thousand organ
transplant operations. A proportion of two thirds or more clients among them
are westerners who go to The
Chinese often promise organs within one week. According to the report’s
authors, such a short time means - as people can imagine - that those
prisoners with a death penalty and Falun Gong
practitioners who are detained in the labor camps, are murdered "to
order." One of the authors, Mr. David Kilgour,
said, "I felt that it was very strange, if for the purpose of matching
the required kidney, they would kill a person every three or four days. It
then means thousands of people have died, which is a crime against humanity.
A government kills its own citizens and then sells their organs - it is
absolutely appalling." The Chinese authorities
deny these reports. At the same time, they were rushing to reform its
relevant law before the publication of this investigation report. But for
these two investigators, it proves the existence of genocide. Under these
circumstances, the death penalty is not a punishment anymore. He analyzed, it
has become an income resource for the Chinese government. Because they have
this kind of organ trading, the more people they kill, the more money they
can earn. Back
Wu: Due
to the nature of my job, I have many opportunities to attend academic
conferences and give lectures. In 2007, I am planning to go to Reporter:
When did you start to practice Falun Gong? What has
the practice brought to you? Wu: I
started to practice Falun Gong in the summer of
1998. The practice places heavy emphasis on raising practitioners' virtue and
requests them to let go of attachments to fame and gain and to think of
others first before oneself. As a scientist, I had some attachments to fame.
Since I started to practice Falun Gong, however, I
gradually learned to take it ever so lightly. In the past, I wouldn't be
happy if my paper was denied for publication. Now, this issue is so trivial that
I can concentrate solely on my research with a very calm mind. Falun Gong has
some exercises including a meditation, which helps me relax and stay healthy. Reporter:
The Chinese Communist Party often attacks Falun
Gong in the name of science. As a scientist, what is your position on this? Wu: The
Chinese Communist Party uses "Uphold Science" as a political slogan
and basis to attack Falun Gong. It uses science as
a stick to attack citizens. In fact, it has done too many things against
science, including persecuting many intellectuals and scientists. It is the
corrupted communist system that is hindering healthy development of science
and technology in One of the core values of
science is free thinking and free exchange. As an overseas Falun Gong practitioner, I can freely obtain any
information and express my opinion. However, the Chinese Communist Party uses
taxpayers' money to build an Internet firewall in order to block Chinese
people from accessing information from the free world. Chinese people in |
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