See Also: Links for March 14th
[Update: Apparently, some of you want to see someone put the hurt on Lim Won Hyuk, although I have neither the time to do it nor the inspiration to re-argue things I’ve already said here a thousand times. Sperwer may come through, and I look forward to those efforts and promise to link them. Meanwhile, Prof. Sung Yoon-Lee e-mails obligingly with this link to his PBS News Hour debate with Lim. Just between the headline and the top of the text, on the right side, is a streaming video link. Enjoy, and thanks to Prof. Lee for his contribution to this humble site.]
* It’s a cruel world after all: GI Korea discusses Disney’s alleged use of slave labor in North Korea. Salary payment arrangements turn out to have something in common with Kaesong, and with European industries that rent North Korean labor:
Kim said he didn’t pay the North Korean artists in person for their work. Rather, he wired US$170,000 to North Korea directly for their 2006 assignments.
* So, you could say the mass grave is half empty: China says that most of its organ transplants are not from executed prisoners. “If criminals want to donate their organs, then their wishes should be respected ‘in the interest of mankind’, Xinhua added.”
* Demonstration season starts in China: There has been unrest in central China over a rise in bus fares. “A government official had told Reuters earlier in the week that some 20,000 people clashed with about 1,000 police armed with guns and electric cattle prods. The official said that nine police cars had been burned.”
* How to Kiss South Korea’s Ass: Lim Dong Won’s son, who has taken televised rhetorical beatings from Prof. Sung Yoon-Lee and Marcus Noland, explains how to those of you who can’t live without knowing:
South Koreans’ perception of the ambiguous U.S. role in the checkered history of South Korean democratization. Whenever young South Koreans see the United States, particularly the current Bush administration, carrying the torch of democracy promotion around the globe, they cannot help but recall the contradictory U.S. role in South Korea and be suspicious of Washington’s motives. They question the traditional patron-client relationship that has been the status quo since the 1950s.
This was actually so tedious, cliche, and hackneyed that I couldn’t get through it. I’m pretty tired of explaining that without this “patron-client relationship,” Lim would be boiling bark to the soft sounds of mass games and accordion music on that one channel on his radio. There isn’t much that’s more ambiguous to me than just what our massive unilateral subsidy of South Korea does for America these days. My own preference would be to withdraw some of that ambiguity in a very big hurry. I can’t imagine that Lim’s whiney victimology wins Korea any friends, although it may win sympathy from the sort of people who might just express it by pulling our troops out. In other words, Lim may manage to unite conservates and liberals on something.
* The China that could have been: It’s another great from the Asia Sentinel: Chinese reformer Zhao Ziyang, who was purged by butchers like Li Peng for refusing to sanction the machine-gunning of students at Tienanmen Square, wrote a manifesto before his death, based on conversations with a fellow prisoner.
Speaking from the grave, a remarkable Chinese political figure is calling for drastic changes in the Communist Party, including the elimination of the post of party chief, the abolition of party branches in ministries and companies, the introduction of independent trade unions and direct popular election of officials up to the city level.
….
He proposed splitting the government from the party by abolishing party offices in government ministries and companies, and making public the drawing up of the budget, the operations of government.
“The party has far too many branches, interfering in the government and civic organizations,” he tells Zong on July 30, 1994. “The party even interferes in all aspects of an individual’s life, even his private life.
He also proposes independent trade unions and farmers’ organizations, freedom of speech, direct elections for village, county and city leaders and more democracy within the party.
He says that China cannot adopt the U.S. system of three branches of power nor a western-style parliamentary system, because the Communist Party must retain its leading role. If it fell, there would be a power vacuum and chaos. But under that condition, “we must diversify our economic, political and social life and allow the expression of all kinds of different opinions. Having a single opinion is no longer possible.
So far, it’s only being published in Hong Kong, but I can’t see how the Chinese authorities can keep it out for long.
* Heavy Entertainment: The funniest thing I’ve seen all month.