Ehrlich: This Catch-22 re Zemin is a major putative gotcha as to whether Jiang Zemin is alive. From our point of view he is dead (Bush dancing) or is imprisoned or otherwise sits with Ariel Sharon. Jintao either has to announce Zemin's demise or in fact demur from any further public events of mourning and respect connective to the earthquake. If the shoe was on the other foot, meaning the Moabites wanted to pressure China re Zemin, they would be sending out news crews from major media in the USA and the EU seeking to speak to Jiang Zemin about the event.
http://news.rednet.cn/c/2008/05/20/1511547.htm
In grave grief, China mourns quake dead
Editor:Sharon Lee
Source:新华网
Updated: 2008-5-20 11:26:03
Air raid sirens, and car, train and ship horns wailed and people stood for three minutes in silence on Monday to mourn the tens of thousands who died in last week's earthquake.
The moment of grief was observed across the vast country of 1.3 billion people at 2:28 pm, exactly a week after the devastating magnitude-8 quake struck Sichuan.
The death toll is estimated to be above 50,000.
The silent tribute was the first of its kind for citizens killed in a natural disaster.
President Hu Jintao and other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, as well as other officials pay a three-minute silent tribute to victims of the quake in the central government compound of Zhongnanhai in Beijing yesterday. The Chinese characters on the banner read: Deep mourning for Wenchuan quake victims. [Xinhua]
Flags were flying at half-mast across the country and all public entertainment has been suspended as the three-day mourning period started.
Ehrlich: China will be hard pressed to explain the absence of Jiang Zemin from the media concerning such a historic response to a contemporary tragedy.
The Olympic torch relay is also suspended during the period.
From tent cities in Sichuan province to Beijing, cars, motorcycles and bicycles stopped on the road and sounded their horns. Pedestrians stood with their heads bowed.
In Tian'anmen Square the somber mood quickly turned into a vocal show of patriotism.
Thousands of flag-waving people chanted "Go China Go" and "Rebuild Sichuan", while singing the national anthem.
President Hu Jintao, who just returned from a three-day visit to the quake-hit areas, paid a three-minute silent tribute to victims of the quake in the central government compound of Zhongnanhai in Beijing.
Rescuers pay tribute to those who died in a massive earthquake, in front of a clock which stopped at the time the earthquake hit, in the township of Hanwang in Mianzhu city, north of Chengdu in Sichuan Province May 19, 2008. A nation-wide ceremony was held on 14:28 on Monday, exactly one week after a massive earthquake hit Sichuan. [Agencies]
At the ceremony that began at 2:28 pm, a sad and solemn Hu, in a dark suit with a white flower pinned to the chest, bowed under a national flag which was lowered to half-mast.
Hu was joined by colleagues in the country's top decision-making body, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, including top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Former president Jiang Zemin also stood in silence for the quake victims at a separate place in the city.
Ehrlich: Don't forget my pointing out the deliberately odd way the referenced Australian report in yesterday's email highlighted that the standing committee bowed WITH JIANG ZEMIN.
In Tiananmen Square, filled with people at the heart of Beijing, a siren sounded and the crowd stood still.
In Zhongnanhai, the government HQ just to the west, President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and the other seven members of the standing committee of the Politburo, China's most powerful body, stood together and bowed their heads with past leader Jiang Zemin.
Ehrlich: The second modified version of the Jiang Zemin story in yesterday's emails accordingly was:
Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin also stood in silence for the quake victims at a separate place at the same time.
Ehrlich: Now after questioning where exactly Zemin might be -- this updated news account puts forth that he was in Beijing but not with major Chinese figures photographed paying respect to the victims of the national tragedy. This is the reality allowed by Jintao who held Zemin's chair and put him front and center at the October Congress? At least I would think the Chinese would say he was out of town, but now they say he "was in a separate place in the city." Where? The stockade? The morgue? The hospital? I mean where when original reports were that he was seen together with the standing committee (meaning that we would see him in the photographs, which of course I thought not, and accurately so).
Vice-Premier Li Keqiang paid his tribute in Beichuan, Sichuan, one of the worst-hit regions. He was there overseeing rescue and relief work.
Across the country, people honored the quake dead in various ways: Some flew black kites, children stood with lit white candles, and villagers in the northwest burnt incense sticks and fake money in rituals to see off the dead.
Gong Zhen, a student who survived when the earthquake hit Beichuan county, cries as she attends a ceremony with around 500 students before resuming classes at a factory training centre in Mianyang, Sichuan province, May 19, 2008. [Agencies]
In front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, residents prostrated while saying prayers for the dead.
Rescuers, including those from Japan, Russia, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, took off their helmets and briefly halted their work in quake-hit areas.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and the futures exchanges in Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Dalian suspended trading for three minutes from 2:28 pm.
Some of the stock traders said people volunteered to buy stocks of Sichuan-based companies to show their support, Xinhua reported.
China Central Television blacked out its screen for the three minutes.
Chinese diplomatic missions abroad also observed the mourning, some holding the silent tribute simultaneously despite the time difference.
Condolence books were opened in the Foreign Ministry and Chinese embassies and consulates around the world; and China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations held a solemn ceremony, which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended.
In a demonstration of the international community's support, scores of foreign envoys and representatives of international organizations in Beijing visited the Foreign Ministry to convey messages of condolences.
Ehrlich: Under the domain of the event and the mourning described above there MUST be a photograph of Jiang Zemin available for media publication. Also imagine 9-11 without any comment from a prior president of the USA regarding the tragedy, without top political figures offering public comment regarding same. Look, this a major opportunity of the Moabites to show that Jiang Zemin is alive and that nothing sinister took place in connection with Jintao emerging from the shadows to take China on a new course with Japan and the historic enemies of the Chinese people.
I pray that this issue we raise has made it into Chinese on China's Internet.
Conclusion: Consistent with having our neck on the block with major assessments -- here that Zemin was taken out by Jintao and his death kept secret -- because his death could have undermined Jintao's treachery for the Moabites against his own nation, we saw this tragedy in China as the ideal venue to prove our point -- that Zemin was neutered per our assessment that only that reality would have allowed Bush to dance as he did. We did say that Bush's father would take him on his knee to spank him and now you see from this window the reason Bush 43 made a dire mistake in dancing as he did. This was another reason why Zemin's death had to be kept under wraps when Jintao went out to sell out his country!
Thus what we put forth is a critical opportunity for history to recognize that Zemin was taken out so that Jintao could hand over China to Japan and the Moabites. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS PRODUCE TODAY AN INTERVIEW WITH ZEMIN ABOUT THIS NATIONAL TRAGEDY. BUT THEY DID NOT AND WILL NOT BUT ON THE OTHER HAND PUT FORTH LEGEDERMAIN IN ORIGINAL REPORTS (IN LINE WITH PRINCESS DIANA'S ARMOR PLATED MERCEDES) THAT HE WAS THERE WITH THE REST OF THE LEADERSHIP BOWING IN RESPECT TO THE VICTIMS OF THE TRAGEDY. THIS WAS A MAJOR FLUKE AND WE PICKED IT UP FORCING THEM INTO THE MANEUVERS WE FOLLOW.
We are not looking at this as a game of Gotcha but at the opportunity to allow history to recognize what just took place in China for Jintao to do to China what Putin did to Russia and Bush to the USA -- hand over future control of their nations to those we thought defeated in WWII.
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Will a global market set back mask further attention on the Chinese earthquake and the whereabouts of Jiang Zemin?
Ehrlich: SenderBerl agrees with the thrust of the following article. How flippant the market has been regarding $4 a gallon gasoline. The impact on the economy is major and the market has not reflected that consequence alone the consequence of even high gasoline energy prices.
Jean Claude Trichet warns of 'very significant market correction'
Miles Costello
Fears of a sustained downturn in world economies was back on the agenda today after Jean Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, gave warning that the worst of the credit crunch has not passed and the economy was still heading for a "very significant market correction".
Mr Trichet, who has fiercely resisted following other policymakers by making interest rate cuts, insisted in an interview today that acting to restrain rampant inflationary growth was the best way to ensure stability and job security.
Mr Trichet told the BBC:
