Opinion
The Epoch Times
February 25 – March 3, 2010
The
The Chinese shell game
Epoch
By Peter Hannaford
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PROTEST: Environmental activists dressed up as CO2 molecules stage a protest in front of Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate on Dec. 12,
2009, to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. DAVID GANNON/AFP/Getty Images
The man at the centre of the
Climategate scandal confesses
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Editors: Jason Loftus, Matthew Little, Joan
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QUITTING
THE CCP
The tone and texture of the science of climate change is shifting. From there being a consensus and declarations that “the
science is settled,” scientists from all sides are now raising
questions, offering different or challenging interpretations
and competing theories.
In a confessional interview with the BBC, published by The
Daily Express in Britain, the man at the centre of the Climategate
scandal, Prof. Phil Jones, formerly head of the University of East
Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), admitted that there has
been no warming since 1995. His admission goes to the heart
of the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC): he was a lead author and largely responsible for the claim
that warming represented a major threat to the planet.
He also admitted during the interview that, while he was
a good scientist, he was not at all good at keeping records,
which is why he resisted requests to hand over his raw data
for scrutiny under the Freedom of Information legislation in
the U.K. The Climategate e-mails themselves confirm just
how chaotic these records were. In fact, it now appears that
crucial data, including that relating to the famous “hockey
stick graph” that showed dramatic warming over the last 50
years, has gone missing.
During his “confession” Prof. Jones also admitted that he
now accepts that the Medieval Warm Period, which affected
large tracts of Europe, Greenland, and North America, was
warmer than the current temperature in these same regions.
But how then do we explain the apparent rise in temperatures, reported by CRU and used by climate scientists as part
of their computer models? The explanation lies in the location
of land stations used to measure the earth’s temperature. Many
were located incorrectly, with the data seriously compromised
by factors such as urbanization, changes in land use, and in
many cases, being moved from time to time. Some are next to
as of February 24, at 9:02 p.m.
69,013,175
Chinese people have announced
their intentions to quit the Chinese
Communist Party and its affiliated
organizations on a special Web site
established by The Epoch Times.
Many others, unable to break
through the Chinese Internet
blockade, have posted their
withdrawal statements on
poles or buildings. Others
have written them on Chinese
currency. Read recent statements
of Chinese quitting the Party,
the latest news on the “Nine
Commentaries,” and more at
http://www.NineCommentaries.com
This piece was originally published in The American
Spectator Online.
Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party
On the unscrupulous
nature of the Chinese
Communist Party
Inspired by the
This article is courtesy of Troy Media Corporation
The ‘Nine Commentaries’ is the book that is disintegrating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and changing China.
This award-winning Epoch Times editorial series discloses the true history and nature of the CCP. Now it is serialized here.
Commentary
Nine (cont.)
‘Nine Commentaries,’
air-conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of
the most infamous land stations is next to a waste incinerator.
A review of every station that produces data used by climate scientists—and not all of the data produced by land stations is used—suggests that their location presents a warming bias in the data. When
their location is taken into account, the data suggests that there has
been no statistically significant warming for 15 years.
In fact, Prof. Terry Mills, professor of applied statistics and
econometrics at Loughborough University in England, looked
at the same data as the IPCC and found that the warming
trend it reported over the past 30 years or so was just as likely
due to random fluctuations as to the impacts of greenhouse
gases. Mill’s findings are to be published in Climatic Change,
a peer-reviewed environmental journal.
While these developments—the Jones “confession” and the
work by a variety of scientists examining the temperature
records—cast doubt on the cornerstone of the theory of manmade global warming, scientists at the heart of this theory are
defending their ground.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts has recently issued a new set of global temperature readings covering the past 30 years, with thermometer readings
augmented by satellite data. Dr. Vicky Pope, head of climate
change advice at the U.K.’s Met Office (Meteorological Office),
said, “This new set of data confirms the trend towards rising
global temperatures and suggest that, if anything, the world
is warming even more quickly than we had thought,” The
Times of London reports.
Climate science is a young science, with many competing views
of the dynamics of climate and the ways in which climate can be
best understood. What appears to be happening since the collapse
of the Copenhagen climate change negotiations is that scientists
have become more concerned with pursuing noble causes and the
credibility and veracity of their science. This is a welcome development. Science is about systematic work, theory, and skepticism.
It’s good to see that all three are back in vogue.
Many Chinese manufacturers of consumer products
are so obsessed with shovelling products out the door
that they cut dangerous corners in order to keep their
selling prices down. First it was lead in children’s toys.
Then faulty materials in wallboard that made several
hundred U.S. homes uninhabitable because of mould
and noxious odours. More recently it has been deadly
cadmium in children’s jewellery. Why do Chinese
manufacturers use toxic materials in their products?
It’s cheaper.
After outcries in the United States, China’s biggest
market, its government usually punishes one or two
offending manufacturers and vows it will make more
and better inspections in the future.
It turns out that Chinese corner-cutting isn’t restricted to consumer products. Some Chinese industrial manufacturers and trading companies, owned by
the government, have devised an elaborate shell game
to bypass U.S. sanctions. These sanctions, in place for
more than three years, prohibit U.S. companies from
importing products from foreign firms that sell missile
technology to Iran. One of them, China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp. (CPMIEC), has managed
to skirt the sanctions with approximately 300 sales into
the U.S. since the ban went into effect in 2006.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, according
to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a
non-profit watchdog group which uncovered the shipments -- from toys, oil drainage tanks, and anchors to
auto parts—CPMIEC is one of several Chinese firms
skirting the U.S. sanctions. The caseload requiring enforcement of 20 U.S. sanctions has becomes so heavy
that it threatens to swamp the Treasury Department’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is in charge
of the process.
The Wisconsin Project, in its report, notes that CPMIEC and others create shell subsidiaries to act as export brokers and shippers. U.S. companies receiving
the goods usually don’t realize a sanctioned company
is behind the sale. For example, the American Forge
& Foundry Co. received some oil drainage tanks from
China JMM Import & Export Shanghai Pudong Corp.,
which at the time was not on any sanction list. It was
only recently discovered that this firm has the same
address as a CPMIEC subsidiary. It was, in effect, a
sort of corporate doppelganger.
Although many U.S. companies make use of software intended to detect names of exporters subject
to sanctions, JMM China didn’t show up when a U.S.
manufacturer purchased some lawn-mower parts from
a firm that used JMM China as export broker. Chinese
companies that want to skirt the U.S. sanctions are
adept at creating new subsidiaries and altering names
of some on the taboo list.
The Chinese government, predictably, objects to trade
sanctions by the U.S., using meaningless comments
such as this one from a Ministry of Foreign Affairs
spokeswoman, according to the Wall Street Journal,
“This kind of mistaken practice ... damages the atmosphere for Sino-American cooperation on nonproliferation and is not beneficial to promoting international
nonproliferation efforts.” How so?
China plays dog in the manger over United Nations
sanctions on Iran by threatening a veto in the Security Council. Why does it do this when the danger of
Iran developing nuclear weapons—with the threat they
pose—comes closer by the day? It’s simple. Iran is a
major customer of China. And, for the Chinese government, in its frenetic effort to keep economic growth at
a high pace, trade trumps long-range security. Meanwhile, Treasury’s OFAC is one regulatory agency that
could use more money and more agents.
Peter Hannaford was closely associated with the late
President Ronald Reagan for a number of years and is
the author of Recollections of Reagan. After many years
in Washington, D.C. he has returned to his native California. His e-mail address is: pdh3292@aol.com.
No Moral Restraints
A government should always be
monitored. In democratic countries, the separation of powers plus
the freedoms of speech and press
are good mechanisms for oversight. Religious beliefs provide
additional moral self-restraint.
The CCP promotes atheism;
hence there is no divine nature
to restrain its behavior according
to morality. The CCP is a dictatorship; hence there is no law to
restrain it politically. As a result,
the CCP is totally reckless and unrestrained when it acts out of its
tyrannical and villainous nature.
According to the CCP, who
monitors it? “The CCP monitors
itself!” This is the slogan the CCP
has used to deceive the people for
decades. In earlier times it was
called “self-criticism,” then “selfsurveillance” and “self-perfecting
the Party’s leadership,” and recently “self-enhancing the Party’s
governing capacity.”
The CCP emphasizes the extraordinary ability it has for so-called
“self-improvement.” The CCP does
not just say it, but actually takes
action, such as establishing “The
Central Disciplinary Inspection
Committee” and “The Office for
Appeals” and the like. These organizations are merely pretty yet
useless “flower vases” that confuse
and mislead the people.
Without moral and legal restraint, the CCP’s “self-improvement” amounts to the traditional
Chinese saying of “demons emerging from one’s own heart.” “Selfimprovement” is only the excuse
the CCP uses to avoid external surveillance and to refuse to lift the
ban on a free press and free political parties. Political scoundrels use
this trick to fool the people and to
protect the CCP’s power and the
Letters to the Editor
The CCP intentionally avoided
battles in the war against Japan.
interests of the ruling group.
The CCP is expert at political
scheming. “The People’s Democratic Dictatorship,” “Democratic
Centralism,” “Political Consultation” and so on are all fraudulent
schemes. Except for the dictatorship part, they are lies.
Playing Tricks
The CCP has always claimed to
have led the Chinese people in
defeating the Japanese invaders.
However, abundant historical
archives show that the CCP intentionally avoided battles in the
war against Japan. The CCP reduced its effort against Japan so
as to take the opportunity of the
KMT’s [Kuomintang—the nationalist party that vied with the CCP
for rule in China] involvement in
the war to increase the CCP’s own
power.
The only major battles the CCP
fought were the Pingxing Pass
battle and the Hundred Regiment
battle. In the Pingxing Pass battle,
the CCP was not at all the leader
or predominant force that participated and commanded this battle.
Instead, the CCP troops merely
ambushed the Japanese supply
units.
As for the Hundred Regiment battle, it is believed inside the CCP that
participating in this battle violated
the strategic policies of the Central Party. After these two battles,
Mao and his CCP armies did not
engage in any serious battles, nor
did they produce any heroes of the
war against Japan like Dong Cunrui
during the 1948 war with the KMT
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and Huang Jiguang during the Korean War. Only a small number of
high-level military commanders of
the CCP died on the battlegrounds
of the war against Japan. Until
today, the CCP still cannot even
publish a figure for its casualties
during the war against Japan, nor
can one find many monuments in
China’s vast land for CCP heroes
in the war against Japan.