21June2000

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CHINA E-LOBBY UPDATE

TAIWAN PRESIDENT CHEN CALLS FOR PRC-ROC SUMMIT, COMMUNIST CHINA SAYS NO
Chen Shui-bian, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), invited Communist Chinese President Jiang Zemin for a summit. Chen, in a press conference on Tuesday, called the summit a chance to �rewrite history and create history.�   He also used the summit between the two Korean leaders as an example for a possible d�tente between the ROC and the People�s Republic of China. Chen even said the two sides might be able to find an acceptable interpretation of �One China,� but repeated it should not be a pre-condition for talks. Later that day, Communist China rejected the invitation, insisting that �One China� be accepted by the ROC before talks can begin. The PRC has been wedded to �One China� � effectively considering Taiwan a breakaway province � for decades. Both sides have mentioned as a guide a 1992 agreement on �One China, several interpretations� but now the PRC is insisting they only agreed to shelve the interpretation issue, not acknowledge that Taiwan could have a different definition of what �One China� means. The two sides have never held a summit. Reports on other events in Taiwan can be found in the Taiwan news section.

COMMUNIST CHINA SAYS POPE MAY VISIT, BUT ONLY IF VATICAN RECOGNIZES PRC
On Tuesday, Communist China acknowledged talks with the Vatican about a visit from Pope John Paul II. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji told Ansa, Italy�s news agency, that Communist China would host Pope John Paul II, but only if the Vatican broke off all ties to Taiwan and pledge not to interfere with the Communist China�s �internal affairs.� The phrase mainly refers to the appointing of bishops by the Communist-controlled �Patriotic Catholic Church.� Zhu said the Vatican City and Beijing �are discussing these principles� and should an agreement be reached, �the Pope will come.� Communist China claims over four million followers in the �Patriotic� faith, while Vatican-loyal Catholics number anywhere from eight million (according to the BBC) to 10 million (according to Agence France Presse). The Vatican is hoping for a say in the selection of bishops in return for recognition of Beijing�s appointments, which Communist China wants. A similar arrangement governs the choices of bishops in Vietnam.

LEADING HONG KONG DEMOCRAT QUITS LEGISLATURE, SLAMS BEIJJING
Ronald Arculli, Vice Chairman of the pro-democracy, pro-business Liberal Party, announced today that he would not seek re-election this fall. Arculli said he is deeply disappointed with the lack of progress in expanding democracy in the former British colony. He is the third leading pro-democracy legislator to retire in disgust at the political system�s unwillingness to give more power to voters. Only half the legislature in Hong Kong is elected, and the city�s leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, is a Beijing appointee. Many in Hong Kong feel Lee and other Communist-appointed officials have allowed, or even encouraged, the PRC to encroach upon Hong Kong�s autonomy guaranteed under the �one country, two systems� model, which before undergoing such criticism was once seen as a way to entice Taiwan into reunification.

SENATOR DASCHLE SAYS LOTT�S DELAY ON PNTR COULD LEAD TO ITS DEFEAT
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (Democrat-South Dakota) claimed Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (Republican-Mississippi) was delaying the vote to hurt Democrats, and that passage of PNTR could be threatened. In the first sign from the Senate that PNTR might not pass, Daschle said the delay could lead to the bill be amendment, forcing a second vote in Congress much closer to Election Day. Daschle was particularly worried that the PRC could affect the vote with its behavior, or as he put it, �international developments . . . may or may not legitimately have any effect on the consequences of this legislation.� Daschle would not say why the Senate should pass PNTR despite the high probability of those �international developments� occurring. Lott has repeatedly insisted government appropriations bills should take priority over PNTR. He also wants to reach an agreement with Senators Fred Thompson (R-Tennessee) and Robert Toricelli (D-New Jersey), who have a proposed amendment/bill to tie PNTR to Communist China�s halting of weapons proliferation to �rogue states� such as North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. His refusal to hold a vote before mid-July, at the earliest, has incensed senators of both parties, but is supported by others.

OTHER PNTR NEWS
U.S. President Bill Clinton asked for help from big business to get Senator Lott to schedule a vote on Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Communist China. Clinton called in business�s help after the Administration�s point man on PNTR, Commerce Secretary William Daley, resigned to take over as head of the presidential campaign of Vice President Al Gore. The efforts don�t seem to be bearing fruit, however. John Czwartacki, Lott�s spokesman, threw more cold watr on the a quick vote, saying Lott needed to �clear the underbrush� of amendments to ensure clean passage. Czwartacki also publicly questioned the importance of the measure to President Clinton after he let his Commerce Secretary, to whom most give the lion�s share of the credit for passing PNTR in the House, jump ship. Czwartacki said it showed �that Al Gore's political problems are more important than China PNTR's passage� in the eyes of the Administration.

Communist China seems to noticing the Senate delay. The Information Center on Human Rights and Democracy in China, commenting on the release of Zhang Jinsheng by Communist authorities last week, said the release could be tied to the U.S. Senate�s discussion on PNTR. In the House, the Appropriations Committee blocked funding to monitor the PRC�s compliance with the trade pact that included PNTR, and was necessary for the country�s expected entry into the World Trade Organization. The committee rejected pleas from the Administration to include the funding. The Chairman and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee have sent a letter to the General Accounting Office (GAO) asking that the office monitor Communist China�s compliance with the trade agreement of which PNTR is a part. This might preclude the need for the disputed funding. The two Senators, William Roth (R-Delaware) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York), support PNTR, so this might be an attempt to provide cover to other PNTR supporters.

COMMUNIST CHINA TO EXPAND CRACKDOWN ON FREE PRESS, INTERNET, AND BOOKS
Communist China announced last week they would tighten their control of the press throughout the country. An unnamed spokesman quoted in all PRC-run newspapers �backward and decadent ideological views� that were printed by �mistaken papers.� His rant specified �articles on heinous crimes and violence� and �unofficial information and rumors,� i.e. what the Communists don�t want the people to know. The spokesman said that the government would for the press to promote �the leading position of Marxist-Leninism, Mao Zedong thought and the theories of Deng Xiaoping.�

To that end, the government would create an �alarm system on violations of discipline and regulations in the press,� including politicization of the editorial board, and holding the editors directly responsible for what is published that counters the party line. At present, papers are overseen for a government board that sponsors � and reaps all profits from � published newspapers. The Communists have been cracking down hard on �bourgeois news values,� firing a business publisher who ran two newspapers, one of which he started with his own money. Since January Communist Chinese President Jiang Zemin has promoted a new focus on Marxism, until then rarely heard in the PRC since Mao�s death.

Communist Chinese President Jiang Zemin said this week that the Internet, helpful as it is to ensure �easier access to a whole wealth of information throughout the world,� should still be regulated because �facts should not be distorted.� Jiang commented that new rules by Communist China, its third attempt at Internet regulation, would prevent a situation where �people will wonder how to tell truth from distortion on the Internet.� Communist China has been wary of the Internet ever since its creation. Twice in the past year they have tried to control the information flow, only to shelve the plans due to outcries from foreign investors. They recently arrested a web site owner for posting anticommunist articles.
Literature is also bearing the brunt of the Communists� orthodoxy. The novel Waiting by Ha Jin, which recently won a National Book Award, was dropped by a publisher after a Beijing University academic castigated Ha for writing about Communist restrictions on individual liberty. The professor charged Ha used American stereotypes about Communist China to �get into the mainstream of American life.� Other literary works challenging Communist ideology have been banned recently, with their publishing houses closed.

FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER DIES IN COMMUNIST CHINESE MENTAL HOSPITAL
Falun Gong follower Su Gang, a computer engineer at the state-owned Qilu Petrochemical died last week after being forced to take drugs in a mental hospital. Su was committed to the hospital on May 22, by local police, who had arrested him earlier in the year, and by his employer. Su Dang said his son was injected with something twice a day at the hospital. After his release, Su Gang was unable to speak; in ten days he was dead. The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which reported Su Gang�s death, marks this as the 22nd acknowledged death of Falun Gong members in state custody; they suspect many more have died anonymously. Su Dang has written the company demanding to know why is son was committed.

COMMUNIST CHINA VOWS TO RATIFY UN HUMAN RIGHTS AGREEMENT AHEAD OF U.S.
In a dramatic yet hollow declaration, Zhou Chengkui, deputy general secretary of the standing committee for Communist China�s parliament vowed to reporters that the People�s Republic of China would pass two UN human rights� treaties before the U.S. does. Zhou did not, however, give a date for passage, or even introduction, of the two treaties that Communist China signed in 1998. He even said one of the two pacts, guaranteeing economic, social, and cultural rights, contradicted Communist Chinese law, which normally would make passage difficult. The other treaty, assuring political and civil rights, provided the legal basis for dissidents to found the China Democracy Party. The party was banned, and the dissidents sent to prison.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SLAMS COMMUNIST CHINA�S REPRESSION OF FREEDOM
In a withering statement, Amnesty International lambasted Communist China for a record in 1999 that marked, in the report�s words, �saw the most serious and wide-ranging crackdown on peaceful dissent in China for a decade.� The human rights� group singled the PRC out for its behavior and took firm issue with Communist China�s �sincerity in signing key human rights conventions in the previous two years,� i.e. the treaties Zhou pledged to ratify (see above). The report noted that �(t)housands of people were arbitrarily detained by police and some were sentenced to long prison terms after unfair trials or sent to forced labor camps,� and the continuance of �(s)ystemic torture and ill-treatment.� AI said that the victims were anyone who dared oppose Communist control of major aspects of mainland China, including political dissidents, human rights campaigners, independent labor organizers, anti-corruption activists, and of course, followers of non-approved religious and spiritual groups. The report also blasted �gross human rights violations� in Tibet and the Muslim populated Uighur region, from which news rarely reaches the outside world, and maneuvers by Communist China to undermine the �one country, two systems� agreements in Hong Kong and Macau.

58 REFUGEES FROM COMMUNIST CHINA PERISH IN ENGLISH CHANNEL
In a tragic story, United Kingdom officials reported 58 refugees died in an enclosed truck shipped across the English Channel this week. Reports from BBC, Agence France Presse, and others say the refugees were escapees from Communist China, which claimed to be �shocked� by the deaths.. Dutch authorities arrested the masterminds of the channel crossing on Tuesday. It is the most dramatic example of the flood of refugees, dubbed �migrants� by most officials and commentators, who are desperate to escape Communist China. In Beijing, according to the Information Center on Human Rights and Democracy, police sentenced an airport inspector to 18 months in prison for accepting bribes from Chinese citizens to allow them to escape Communist rule. The PRC claimed they had prevent 9,000 from escaping last year.

Frank Lu, director of the Information Center, said a PRC internal document estimated over 500,000 tried to escape Communist China last year alone. Attempts are so prevalent that racketeers, who can produce the emigration documents needed, can charge the refugees up to $32,000 for them, to be paid in cash or worked off under horrendous conditions that often involve prostitution for female escapees. Most head to the U.S., Britain, Japan, and France. Many do not survive the trip. Those who do, and remain victimized by the �snakeheads,� are left with the choice of accepting their plight, or reporting the situation to local authorities. The latter, however, almost always means they will be sent right back the Communist dictatorship they left. Canadian authorities, as reported in previous updates, have sent hundreds of exiles back to Communist China. Among these was one former PRC official who faced the death penalty for embezzling less than $250,000, for which Amnesty International heavily criticized Canada. Communist China�s media almost never reports on the issue; according to AFP only repatriations are covered, usually by local authorities.

FIVE UIGHUR MUSLIMS EXECUTED BY COMMUNIST CHINA, FOUR MORE MAY BE SHOT SOON
Communist China executed five members of the Uighur ethnic group in Urumqi on Thursday for allegedly fighting for independence against Communist rule. Two others were sentenced to life in prison. The Communist news agency Xinhua reported the executions on Friday. Communist authorities had also charged the seven for arms trafficking and murder. BBC reported the Uighurs were presumed to be involved in a major uprising against Communist rule in Yining, a border city in Xinjiang province. During that 1997 uprising, and the battle the PRC fought to crush it, nine people died and over 200 were injured. The Muslim Uighurs, who make up the majority in Xinjiang, have been victims of Communist oppression for many years, but unlike Tibet, news from the remote province is sparse. The Communist atrocities have fueled a movement for an independent Uighur nation, which would be called East Turkmenistan, to end the Communist repression. Amnesty International is concerned that four other Muslim freedom fighters, �if they�re still alive,� may be next, and demanded the PRC provide a full description of charges against them. The Communists have marked any Uighur who would oppose them, in whatever form, as �terrorists.�

COMMUNIST NEWS AGENCY BUYS BUILDING OVERLOOKING PENTAGON
Xinhua, the Chinese Communist news agency, has purchased a seven-story building over looking the Pentagon. The Washington Times reported today that Xinhua plans to use the building, which many analysts say is a perfect site for spying on the military headquarters, for its Washington bureau office. The news agency informed all tenants in the building that month-to-month leases would be terminated, and longer leases would be bought out. Xinhua has long been Communist China�s news agency; their reports are routinely mentioned in these updates to show what the PRC deems worthy to reveal to the Chinese people. Intelligence analysts have also cited Xinhua as a partner in espionage operations, particularly with the Ministry for State Security, throughout the world.

COMMUNIST CHINA RAILS AGAINST U.S. DEFENSE SYSTEM
Communist Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao repeated the PRC�s unmitigating opposition to U.S. plans for a limited missile defense against rising powers such as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Zhu told reporters that Communist China believes the missile defense �will disrupt regional and world stability,� and that American justification for the defense �do(es) not hold.�   The nations most worrisome to the U.S., once called �rogue states,� are nearly all either direct or indirect clients of Communist China. The most dangerous state in U.S. eyes � North Korea � has been a PRC ally for over five decades

COMMUNIST CHINA, U.S. SIGNS ANTI-DRUG ACCORD
The United States and Communist China have signed an agreement to fight the illegal drug trade this week. General Barry McCaffrey, U.S. �anti-drug czar,� said the agreement would help the countries �exchange better information between law enforcement agencies.� Reports say the deal also includes cooperation in sharing intelligence and fighting international criminal groups, whether that includes the groups who help Chinese refugees get out of the PRC was unclear. Communist China is a leading conduit of heroin to the U.S., usually originating from Myanmar (Burma), a PRC ally since the late 1980s. North Korea, Communist China�s ally for over 50 years, has many overseas officials involved in the drug trade to supplement the rapidly falling payments made by the government due to the continuing economic crisis there.

TAIWAN NEWS
Communist China has demanded the Democratic Progressive Party, on whose ticket President Chen was elected, to drop the Taiwanese independence clause from its platform and accept Beijing�s �One China� policy. The PRC-run Xinhua news agency said the future of the independence plank, which will be debated by the DPP this month, �will be a test of whether the DPP is sincere in its protestations that it wishes to improve the relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.� Chen pledged never to follow through on the independence referendum called for in the plank unless Communist China attacks Taiwan. His running mate, Vice President Annette Lu, was an outspoken advocate for Taiwanese independence before the election, and has pushed for a higher international profile for the ROC since the March 18 vote.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers are calling for Lu�s dismissal, claiming her outspoken criticism of Communist China has endangered Taiwan�s security. The bill�s sponsor, Nationalist Mu Ming-chu, said she has enough signatures in the legislature to raise the motion. The measure would need two-thirds of the members� support. Mu said any members from all opposition parties backed the bill. The DPP, naturally, opposes the measure. If it were to pass, a nationwide recall referendum would be held; a majority vote would be required for dismissal. Many have criticized Lu for her statements, including the Communists, the Taiwanese opposition, and even some Chen loyalists. However, a source close to Lu and Chen told Asiaweek that Lu�s statements on relations with the PRC is not a source of friction between the two. In fact, by keeping DPP members happy, Lu�s statements, according to the source, actually help Chen

Legislators from the People First Party, the other major opposition, are calling on Communist China to drop its �one-China� demand and restart talks with the ROC government. Chou Hsi-wei said the recent Korea summit was an excellent precedent for cross-strait talks. The PFP is pro-reunification, although not with the Communist government that runs the mainland, so Chou�s statement was revealing of how the political winds are blowing in Taiwan.   BBC reported that Liu Wen-hsuing, another PFP legislator, urged the Communists to accept delegations from all political parties, including the governing DPP. He said if they did so a PFP-sponsored trip to the mainland, shelved for fear of being dubbed �Beijing�s mouthpiece� would be revived.

Taiwan�s Defense Ministry announced that Communist China began a three-day live-fire test in Fujian province last Thursday. The test follows earlier artillery tests in the province. The Defense Ministry said in a statement the drills, which were called routine, ran from Thursday to Saturday, 7 AM to 8PM Beijing time. The Ministry urged against overreaction. However, in addressing graduates from the ROC�s military academies this week, President Chen said a new arms build-up was necessary to counteract Communist China�s �never . . . renouncing the use of force against Taiwan and . . . increasing their military budget.�

TIBET NEWS
The Dalai Lama, Tibet�s spiritual leader, arrived in Washington on Monday to begin a 15-day visit to the United States. In his meeting with President Bill Clinton yesterday, he pushed for greater U.S. support for his efforts to preserve Tibetan culture and win autonomy for the region from Communist China. While he he said �if we look from a wider perspective then things are very hopeful,� in Communist China, he also feared �time is running out� for preservation of Tibet�s culture and environment against Communist oppression. He asked Clinton to aid his efforts, even after the President leaves office in January, and also repeated his support for Communist China�s entry into the WTO, but made no statement on PNTR. The Dalai Lama will be in the U.S. until the Smithsonian�s Folklife Festival on July 2, which will feature Tibetan culture.

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