LA Times

choi

(1) Barbara Demick, Tiananmen Square Activist Loses Latest Bid to Return to China; Wuer Kaixi has been trying to go home for more than 20 years. On Friday he tried ringing the bell at the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2012.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nati ... a-activist-20120519,0,6343328.story

Quote:

(a) "The following year [2010], he tried to fly to Beijing from Tokyo. After failing to get on the plane, he attempted to crash the Chinese Embassy through a gate in the driveway. He was arrested for trespassing.

(b) "His latest effort to return to mainland China was inspired by the blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who last month took asylum at the US Embassy in Beijing.

"'I thought I could do the same thing but in reverse: head for the Chinese Embassy in Washington,' Wuer said.

"Many Chinese dissidents who've left China find themselves unable to return. But Wuer is unusual in that his parents have been denied permission to leave China.

My comment: The last paragraph quotes WAND Dan as saying, "This policy of banning us from going back to China is a further punishment for what we did in 1989. They cannot lock us up in prison anymore so this is what they do."

Statute of limitations?

At any rate, it did not apply to LI Xianbin. See
List of Cold War pilot defections
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cold_War_pilot_defections
(Under the section China, two consecutuve paragraphs are devoted to him)

(2) Barbara Demick, China's Bo Xilai Scandal Revs Up News Media Run by Exiles; The scandal involving fallen politician Bo Xilai and his wife gives news outlets run by Chinese exiles a lot of ammunition against the Communist Party. Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2012 (Column One)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nati ... ina-exiles-20120518,0,4818722.story

Quote:

"The exile news sites, often stridently anti-communist, once had all the credibility of supermarket tabloids trumpeting tales of UFOs. But like some non-mainstream media in the United States — the National Enquirer broke the story of John Edwards' affair, and the TMZ celebrity news site was first with reports ofMichael Jackson's death — these operations have had their genuine scoops.

"The news media in Taiwan and Hong Kong also cover mainland politics closely, but not as voraciously as they once did. 'They are not as anti-communist as they used to be,' Jin [Zhong, editor of the respected Hong Kong-based Open Magazine] said.

"Among the biggest beneficiaries of the scandal are the print and broadcast operations run out of New York by Falun Gong * * * Viewership has increased at least fivefold in recent months, with at least 500,000 watching on the mainland, [Samuel] Zhou[, a vice president of New Tang Dynasty] said. Revenge is particularly sweet in the current political shake-up because Bo was a key figure in the persecution of Falun Gong members in China.

"More objective, though not always more accurate, is Boxun.

"Another site, Mingjing News, based in New York, is run by a professional journalist, Ho Pin * * * The exile news sites have gotten so many scoops this year that some suspect that high-ranking officials in Beijing are leaking tidbits to smear Bo and his allies.

"Even more staid journalists inside China acknowledge that the exile media are now essential reading, if often taken with a grain of salt. Wu Si, the editor of a prominent Beijing magazine, Yanhuang Chunqiu, said his staff compiles a summary for each morning's news meeting of what is on the outside news sites.

"Since the investigation of the Englishman's death became public, Boxun, in particular, has become a darling of the British tabloids, which have re-reported the scandals with the same gusto with which they reveal the foibles of the royal family. 'Killed by cyanide over China love affair,' announced the Daily Mirror, attributing its story on the Heywood case to 'respected Mandarin-language websites.'


(3) Barbara Demick, In China, British Expatriate's Death Prompts Calls for Open Trial; Friends and foes say Gu Kailai, the high-profile suspect in Neil Heywood's death in Chongqing, deserves an open trial that follows the rule of law. Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/news/nati ... ina-murder-20120517,0,2585901.story
("Trials are supposed to be open in China, although the public is frequently excluded when prosecutors cite national security or privacy. * * * Gu's friend said her family suspected that the murder case had been concocted by Wang Lijun")