The Chinese Communist Party banned Falun Gong in 1999 and thought wide-scale abductions and a deluge of propaganda would be sufficient to wipe it out. It wasn't. Several months later, the ban turned lethal as accounts of widespread death from torture surfaced. Falun Gong still remained.

13 years later the persecution of Falun Gong, while still rampant in some areas of China, has decidedly failed and signs indicate an imminent repeal of the ban and a collapse of the state organs that have carried it out.

The illegal abduction of a Taiwanese man from a Chinese airport in June has raised the ire of leaders worldwide. But the latest to raise his voice, a Hong Kong council member, was especially noteworthy, because HK officials are subjects of Beijing. "The more the CCP does the angrier people are," Councilman Albert Chan Wai Yip said.  

Doubling the amount promised in 2009, China's President Hu Jintao last week pledged USD 20 billion in loans to Africa over the next three years.  

China seeks to strengthen ties and obtain oil, metals and other commodities. The loans are for infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing. China-Africa trade reached USD 166 billion in 2011.  

Hard to believe. But it happened on July 12th in Beijing.