%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Editorial Board of CBS Incident Committee %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Friday, July 8, 1994 (No. 9) ============================================================================= *** Special Issue: An Urgent Call for Signatures Against CBS *** ============================================================================= *** Please send your signatures to huangy@sluvca.slu.edu including the signature line in form: SIGNED NAME UNIVERSITY/COMPANY E-MAIL-ADDRESS e.g. SIGNED XXXXX XX St. Louis University xxxx@xxxx.xxx.edu Please collect signatures as more as possible. You may use your e-mail-address for sending other people's signatures. *** The deadline for sending protest letters to media is set to July 16, 1994. All the signatures received before that date will be included in the original letter. All the signatures after that, will be sent separately in another package. *** Let us join our hands and stand up together for our community interest and image. We can and must make a difference! We will! ============================================================================= Table of Contents # of Lines ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. We need your signatures! We need your support for fight CBS! A cover letter to Our Supporters Nation-wide ......... 40 2. Details about how to send signatures by e-mails ....................... 88 3. The Letter From the National Coordinator of the CBS Incident Committee 128 4. Excerpt from Transcript of CBS Evening News (May 19, 1994, 6:30pm) ... 439 5. Mr. Shi's Original Protest Letter .................................... 562 6. The response from CBS Vice President ................................ 648 ============================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. We need your signatures! We need your support for fight CBS! A cover letter to Our Supporters Nation-wide ........ 40 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ladies and Gentleman: May 19, 1994, CBS Evening News, "Eye on America". A group of Chinese faces, men, women and children, flooded out from an airport terminal. "Only U.S. citizens continue straight ahead", an airport official said, directing these Chinese faces turn to the immigration gate. Now the reporter Connie's face, showing grave concern for America, "Everyday, planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive legally in the United States, ordinary people", she started to explain that among these ordinary Chinese faces, men, women and children, "some of them may be future spies, who, a few years down the road, will be activated to steal American's military and technological secrets"! That is one plane. There are "planeloads", "everyday", spies! This program enraged the entire Chinese community. No matter what their background is, one thing is clear, this subjective, distorted and unprofessionally produced program has threatened everybody who looks like a Chinese. They could be spies! They don't have to be caught or convicted to be spies! They are "future" spies! Thousands of protest letters have been received by the CBS, but CBS vice president, a Mr. Lane Venardos, shows no regret or sympathy. In his identical replies to many protesters, particularly a letter to Mr. Shi Heping, the Vice President of IFCSS, a Chinese student and scholars association, Mr. Venardos lectured: "Our job is to bring all stories to the attention of the public, even those that may make some viewers uncomfortable, That is the very definition of a free press"! Some story! Obviously, to Mr. Venardos, the flat faced Chinese as shown in the program do not understand what freedom of press is! He contends that he can make any slanderous remarks, and that is the "very definition of a free press"! Attached please find a reply from the national coordinator of the CBS Incident Committee, which contains more detailed information about this racist and slanderous CBS report. Also attached are the transcript of the original CBS Evening News program, Mr. Shi's original protest letter and Mr. Venardos' letter. We need your signatures to co-sign our letter. We need your support for fight CBS! Mr. Huang Lin National Coordinator CBS Incident Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Details about how to send signatures .................................. 88 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, everyone: Thank you very much for sticking to the following format! Please remember that I am collecting the signature by myself. If you don't stick to this format, it will cost me a lot of time to retrieve your signature. If you cooperate, I can retrieve your signature very rapidly using powerful Computer MACRO language. We are working very hard to fight against a baised news report by CBS. Please help us by giving us your endorsement of this justified fight against discriminating news report about us, honest and obedient people from the mainland of China. Please help ourselves by giving me your signature. Here is the signature format. The signature line for one person should be in one line except being wrapped up. SIGNED NAME UNIVERSITY/COMPANY E-MAIL-ADDRESS 1. SIGNED must be put there and before others. Please Check spelling!! Without this word correctly spelt, your signature may not be retrieved. 2. The NAME format is Given + Surname. 3. UNIVERSITY/COMPANY should be concise such as St. Louis University, or blank if you choose to. 4. E-MAIL-ADDRESS should be complete. e.g. SIGNED Yinrong Huang St. Louis University huangy@sluvca.slu.edu Best regards Yinrong Huang E-mail: Huangy@sluvca.slu.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The Letter From the National Coordinator of the CBS Incident Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Lin Huang National Coordinator CBS Incident Committee 3044 Albany Crescent 1G Bronx, NY 10463 (718)-548-9114 hua7291@med2s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu Lane Venardos Vice President Hard News and Special Events CBS Inc. 524 West 57 Street New York, NY 10019 (212)-975-6979 Dear Vice President Lane Venardos: Your recent letter to the Vice President of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, Mr. Shi, has been brought to my attention, in my capacity as the National Coordinator of the CBS Incident Committee, a nationwide assembly of Chinese students and scholars who have joined to protest the CBS Evening News' May 19th broadcast regarding a presumed threat of ordinary Chinese nationals spying for China in the United States. Our committee consists of 60 core members, regional and local coordinators, and a pool of over a thousand volunteers nationwide, coordinating activities provoked by this unfortunate incident. We appreciate your thoughtful and immediate response to Mr. Shi and other complainants. Yet, we find that the reply is far from satisfactory, fallacies were abound, questions were unanswered. We would like to take this opportunity to express our grave concerns in more detail. We expect your kind response point by point. A. In the CBS broadcast and in the subsequent transcript which we received, it was mentioned that the major interviewee in the report, Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades, was an employee of the Defense Information Agency. Your reply to Mr. Shi also states that your information came from "the United States Defense Information Agency in Washington". There is no "Defense Information Agency" anywhere in the United States. Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades is employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency. While this is a very small and subtle error, if CBS "special investigators" had read Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades' book, or had communicated with the Defense Intelligence Agency, they would have realized the mistake. This oversight not only characterizes the unprofessional nature of this program, but also highlights the fact that mistakes were definitely made in this broadcast. Now, the real questions are, how many more mistakes were made, and to what extent harm has been done to innocent people in this country! B. The May 19th broadcasting opened with the statement that, "Every day, planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive legally in the United States, ordinary people. But to the Chinese government, some of them may be future spies, who, a few years down the road, will be activated to steal America's military and technological secrets... ". Three aspects of this statement need to be addressed: 1) In reference to the "planeloads of Chinese citizens" who are allegedly recruited as agents, your report stated the following: "A Chinese student or scientist or businessperson applies for a visa to go to the US. Then the Ministry of State Security (MSS) starts asking questions: What can you learn in the States? Will you be working with computers? Will you be loyal to China? And most importantly, can you be patient?" This is apparently meant to illustrate the standard and routine process for recruiting an agent. In reality, according to your interviewee himself, Mr. Eftimiades, MSS is very picky and cautious in recruiting. On page 64 of Mr. Eftimiades' book, he details how a certain individual was recruited: "MSS made use of its resources in identifying this individual and assessing his ability to conduct espionage. The recruitment process took place over six months. The time invested, as well as the ministry's foreknowledge of the source's personality and apparent prospects for academic achievement, indicates a well-planned and carefully regulated process of development and recruitment." In your broadcast, all those procedures and precautions disappeared. Each and every ordinary Chinese is simply approached with a blatant request to be recruited as agent, according to your reporter. I can summon thousands, if not tens of thousands, of "ordinary" Chinese to testify before any grand jury that your spy recruiting story is simply fake. It is not too hard to find the discrepancies between your report and the book. Your report generalized and distorted the facts obtained from the U.S. intelligence, putting words into the interviewee's mouth and pointing fingers at us, the "ordinary people", as we are referred to in your report. 2) The report also alleged that those "ordinary" Chinese are sent by the Chinese intelligence as "sleeper spies", "fish in the bottom of the ocean" waiting to be surfaced in the "future". However, as the report stated, the development of "sleeper" agents usually require a long preparation period, yet that is not possible with most Chinese nationals entering the United States. According to American Government documents, the majority of students and scholars who have arrived in the U.S. since 1978 (when diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China were normalized) have been exchange visitors on J-1 visas. A J-1 visa holder must return to his or her home country after completing research and study programs. This is generally three or four years for a scholar and the reasonable length for a student to complete an advanced degree. It was not until after the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement that President Bush waived this requirement for some of the Chinese exchange visitors who were in the U.S. at the time. Thus, there was no way for these alleged "fish", as they are ridiculed in your report, even to think about surfacing 20-30 years in the future as your report suggested. There is no evidence at all to support the "future" spy allegations in your report, which are the most disturbing and outrageous part. Those claims establish that even if a Chinese does not get caught spying, he or she is still a spy suspect! He or she is a spy suspect for life! CBS, as a news organization, cannot blame the US intelligence agencies for this irresponsible claim. The US intelligence agencies can suspect and investigate any Chinese or non-Chinese in the US, however "ordinary", if there is sufficient evidence to do so, but they do not make a public announcement that any "ordinary" Chinese is suspected of being a "future" spy. What CBS has done is clearly slanderous! 3) In reference to your "concrete example" of an "ordinary" Chinese who was chosen to become a "sleeper" agent, Mr. Kao is hardly ordinary. Mr. Kao arrived in the United States in 1971, seven years before formal Sino-U.S. diplomatic relations were established. In 1971, there was no way for any ordinary Chinese to get visa to the U.S., no transportation from China to the U.S. and certainly there were no "planeloads" of "ordinary" Chinese as shown in the opening of the report. Mr. Kao is not one of the alleged "ordinary" "Chinese student, scientist or businessman" whose dramatic spying journey "all starts here in Beijing..."! C. In the May 19 broadcast, an interview was staged to dramatize the issue. The interview went as follows: "Unidentified Man #1: Never forget, you belong to our organization. "CHUNG: Never forget,' they told him, 'you belong to our rganization. "Man #1: You were sent by our organization. "CHUNG: You were sent by our organization, and this organization belongs to the Communist Party. "Man #1: ...Communist Party. If we were actually to believe that this was a conversation between a "sleeper" spy and an MSS case officer, we would like to pose the following questions: 1) Wouldn't this conversation be in Chinese, rather than in English? 2) Who is this unidentified man, what is this unidentified man and what Chinese or American agency does he work for? 3) Doesn't this sound like a Hollywood interpretation of how a spy ring would be enforced? We regret to inform you, but China is not Hollywood, and business (be it espionage or car manufacturing) is not conducted in the same terse and straight-forward manner as it is here. D. At the end of the report, the reporter announced that "The FBI is trying to help American corporations protect themselves from espionage. The Bureau has a program now to brief executives about how their companies could become targets." By stating "The Bureau has a program now ..", it implies that the FBI has recently created a new program against Chinese nationals to deal with the presumed threat of Chinese espionage. This is another fabrication alleging the U.S. government launching racist programs against the Chinese community! The fact is that the FBI has had programs in place for many years to protect America's interests from espionage originating from all countries, friendly or hostile. The implications arising from this misleading statement is overwhelming, possibly leading to a national "witch hunt" for Chinese in high-power jobs. E. In your reply to Mr. Shi's letter, you mentioned (as further proof that this broadcast was legitimate) that between 1986 and 1993 "one in eight of all illegal export enforcement cases closed by U.S. Commerce Department involved the People's Republic of China...". First of all, trade violations and espionage are different concepts. Second, we would like to know, what percentage of these "illegal export" crimes are committed by businesses that tried to get around trade regulations to make money, and which were genuine "spy network" cases? According to our investigation, there is only one in thirty of all illegal export cases that could be related to espionage involving China. And this percentage is comparable to that of cases involving the U.S. allies such as the United Kingdom, West Germany and Japan. Besides, you cannot use illegal export cases to China to support this particular news report, which was targeting "planeloads" of "ordinary" Chinese, and which made no mention whatsoever about Americans of non Chinese origin. You must know that most of these illegal export cases to China involve Americans of non-Chinese origin and you would not like to suggest that the Chinese Americans who were involved in these cases are Chinese spies and those non-Chinese Americans who were involved are patriotic citizens who just made unfortunate mistakes, would you? F. Your reply also states that CBS "in no way intended to suggest that the recruits represented anything other than a minority of the Chinese population in this country and we do not believe that we in any way suggested otherwise", although there is no mention or implication of such statement in the original broadcast. In fact, CBS' choice of words in the report portrayed exactly the opposite intention, as shown in the following four examples: 1) CBS implicated the entire Chinese community by using the word "ordinary" and by providing no distinction between being an intelligence recruit and being an ordinary member of the Chinese population. 2) Onch again, the CBS broadcast opened by a crowd of Chinese visitors coming out of a plane, saying "planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive [daily]... some of them may be future spies." The statement makes it seem as if spies arrive in every plane, and leading to the inescapable conclusion that, since there are numerous planes arrive each day, America must be inundated with Chinese spies! 3) The broadcast stated that ordinary Chinese "will be activated to steal America's military and technological secrets, whether they want to or not." This statement further implicates the entire Chinese community by virtually demanding that the least spy-like person must also be watched, because they can be forced to spy against their will. It is outrageous to suggest that a freedom-loving, law-abiding Chinese, whose very presence here shows an appreciation and understanding of the American dream, could be forced to commit crimes against his or her own will and against this great nation, the United States of America! 4) In the broadcast, the reporter announced that China has a "biggest spy network" in America, without any concrete evidence or statistical data. She simply asked the interviewee: "Are there any other countries that you know of that have this kind of spy network operating here in the United States?" To which the eye-rolling interviewee mumbled, "No, not-certainly not to this -- to this degree." This broad generalization and paranoid imagination creates an overwhelming image that there is a China spy network that has infiltrated every home and office in America, putting these "ordinary" Chinese under its control! It is impossible to prove a negative. Mr. Vice President Venardos, if you have a neighbor who happens to be an ethnic Chinese, what could he or she possibly do to prove to you, or CBS Evening News for that matter, that he or she is not a spy for China, since you have expressed so firmly a belief in your reply that portraying ordinary Chinese as spies is "important" and that the Chinese spy "problem may be even greater"?! A primary mission of U.S. intelligence agencies is to investigate spy threats in the U.S., whether posed by "ordinary" citizens or by government agents, and we wholeheartedly support their efforts to ferret out the multinational spies infiltrating American business. The job of a news organization, such as CBS, is to report and to investigate real life events, not to fabricate, distort, and manipulate facts to create a fairy tale in an attempt to boost ratings. It is understandable that there are paranoia about the presumed Chinese "spy" threat among some individuals. But as a major network, CBS should report it professionally, that is, while reporting the paranoia, you should also report those innumerable facts and views that prove the opposite. On the contrary, the open generalizations and implications of your report invite American public to "keep an eye on" and be suspicious of their Chinese employees, job applicants, business partners, and even neighbors! The eye-catching proclamations in the report were unsupported by facts, but a collection of irrelevant stories patched together with some vivid imaginations, outright fabrications and unsubstantiated allegations. Just because a person is from a certain country of origin, it does not make him or her believe in the politics of that nation and would sell his or her soul and American secrets for fame or for money! Your May 19th, 1994 report by Ms. Connie Chung, produced by Mr. Thomas Anderson and Mr. Eric Sorensen, is an unprofessional, irresponsible, subjective, bigoted, and tabloid style show piece. It defamed all the law-abiding ordinary Chinese in this country. Rarely have we seen such blatant discrimination against an ethnic group on national television. We have fought so hard for the principles of freedom and democracy. We will not tolerate being accused of subverting democracy in this country! We demand that CBS issue a formal public apology on "Eye on America" and devote equal air-time to an objective discussion of this issue. We also ask that you respond in writing to the specific points we have addressed in this letter. You cannot defame an entire ethnic community by using anonymity, getting away with "sources say", "unidentified man", "CBS special investigators find" and the rest of those elusory clauses. Sincerely, Lin Huang, National Coordinator CBS Incident Committee CC: CBS President Howard Stringer CBS Vice President Eric Ober Producer Thomas Anderson Producer Eric Sorensen News Anchor Connie Chung News Anchor Dan Rather Major national newspapers (See attachment A) Local CBS stations (See attachment B) CBS advertisers (See attachment C) Co-Signed By: signatures from prominent Chinese individuals, organizations signatures from ordinary Chinese signatures from other American friends ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Excerpt from Transcript of CBS Evening News (May 19, 1994, 6:30pm) .... 439 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Connie Chung: And later, Eye on America, Tonight, how a foreign power may be planting the seeds in your backyard. ........ Chung: Comming up next, Eye on America. Tonight, the biggest spy network in America. We'll tell you who's running it and how. Connie Chung, co-anchor: The recent Ames spy case served as a reminder that the espionage bussiness in this country is still thriving; that you don't always find spies in trench coats and that you could find them in the house next door. In a special investigation, CBS News found out how China is grooming agents to keep an Eye on America. Unidentified Woman: Only US citizens continue straight ahead. Chung: Every day, planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive legally in the United States, ordinary people. But to the Chinese government, some of them may be future spies, who a few year down the road, will be activated to steal America's military and technological secrets, whether they want to or not. Are there any other contries that you know of that have this kind of spy network operating here in the United States? Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades (Defence Information Agency): No. Not-certainly not to this--to this degree. Chung: Nicholas Eftimiades, who works for an American spy agency, the Defence Information Agency. His new book on Chinese intelligence raise questions for American government and business. Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades: I don't think we can say at this point any Western government is prepared to deal with this type of espionage threat, because it's different from anything that we've known to date. Chung: It all start here in Beijin. A Chinese student or scientist or businessperson applies for a visa to go to the US. Then the Ministry of State Security asking questions: What cab you learn in the State> Will you be working with computer? Will you be loyal to China? And most importantly, can you be patient? Eftimiades says the prospective spiues are trained, paid and warned to stay in touch, 'Remember.' they are told. 'we'll be watching your family members in China.' 'Lay low until you're contacted.' they are told. It could be years. Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades: Let me put it to you in the terms that the Chinese Intelligence Service describes it: Chen di yu, which is a Ministry of State Security slang term for fish on the bottom of the ocean. This has been defined in Western espionage as sleeper agents. Chung: So they just sit there like fish at the bottom of the ocean and do nothing? Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades: They wait. Chung: Until they have to surface. Mr. Nicholas Eftimiades: Exactly. Chung: This man is one of those Chinese fish at the bottom of the American ocean. Call him a reluctunt spy. he's afraid he'll be contacted soon to hand over state-of-the-art computer programs. Unidentified Man#1: Never forget, you belong to our organization. Chung: ' Never forget," they told him, ' you belong to our organization.' Man#1: You were sent by our organization. Chung: ' You were sent by our organization, and this organization belongs to the Communist Party.' Man#1:...Communist Party. Chung; Twenty-three years ago this man, Kao Yen Men, came to the US. In recent years, he lived a quiet life in this house in Cherlotte, North Carolina, and he even bought a restaurrant in downtown Cherlotte. His neighbors never knew what he was up to. Unidentified Man #2: I really didn't know what to think. I mean, you know, we came down to this nice little Southern city, and the next thing you know I'm down the street from a spy. I thought this was, like, a little friction movie or something, but... Chung: Some movie. After a six-year FBI investigation, Kao was arrested and charged with trying to steal the advanced Mar 48 torpedo, engine for the FA-18 Homet jet fighter and radar for the F-16 Falcon jet. Kao was caught, but security expert 'Pat pattakos says most American companies are too naive about the Chinese spy thret. Mr. Arion "Pat" Pattakos (Beta Analysis): Right now a lot of people don't really think of the protecting themselves. Chung: Especially when the target is information and computer data... Mr. Pattakos: They'll look at all this information here that they can access. Unidentified man #3: Yes. Chung: ...all part of the more and more accesible information superhighway. Mr. Pattakos: I mean, it's very easy to know when a truck is missing in front of your place. I mean, it's gone. It's physical object. But think about information. Information is more intangible, and people may not know--realize that it's lost. Chung: pattakos says a new national strategy between business and government can trap the spies. Eftimiades is much less optimistic. Mr. Eftimiades: Once these spies get into American society, once they're deeply rooted into our structure, our society's structure, we're not going to be able to detect them. There is no way to stop them at this point. Chung: The FBI is trying to help American corporation protect themselves from espionage. The bureau has a program now to brief executives about how their companies could become targets. Dan. ...... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Mr. Shi's Original Protest Letter .................................... 562 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05/23/94 Mr. Eric Ober President, CBS News 524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019 Dear Mr. Ober: As president of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars(IFCSS), I am writing you to express my deep concern over the CBS Evening News report on Chinese espionage, which was aired on May 19, 1994. The report, with Connie Chung as the anchorwoman, apparently aimed at warning American businesses of Chinese information espionage. However, it was structured in such a manner as might very well introduce a bias into American people's perception of ordinary Chinese citizens. The report began with these words: "Every day, planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive legally in the United States, ordinary people. But to the Chinese government, some of them may be future spies, who a few years down the road, will be activated to steal America's military and technological secrets, whether they want to or not." There are several inappropriate points in this paragraph alone. First, the number of people who might work as spies was greatly exaggerated. China may or may not has the biggest spy network in the United States in comparison with other countries, but the absolute number of spies vis-a-vis the whole Chinese population in the U.S. is very limited. By using words like "planeloads", the report greatly exaggerated the proportion of spies. Secondly, spies are not "ordinary people." The Chinese agency in charge of espionage would not choose ordinary people as spies; on the contrary, it relies on those who are most loyal to the Communist Party. Ordinary Chinese coming to the United States, just like ordinary Americans going to China, have impeccable business or personal purposes and are very friendly with the country they visit. Thirdly, Chinese people are not cowards, as was well demonstrated in the 1989 Democracy Movement, therefore they could not be forced to work as spies. Chung's statement "whether they want or not" is at best a distortion of the integrity of the Chinese people. It is well-known that despite repeated intimidation from the Chinese government, Chinese students in the U.S. are still carrying on the fight for democracy and freedom. On the same day of this report on Chinese espionage, five Chinese nationals embarked on a 360-hour hunger strike in front of the White House demanding improvement in China's human rights situation, which once again demonstrated the kind of courage witnessed by people all over the world in 1989. For ordinary Chinese students, America represents the land of freedom. It was the American dream of liberty and democracy which inspired thousands of young Chinese to lay down their lives on Beijing's streets five years ago. Because of China's human rights situation, many Chinese students are choosing to live in the United States for the time being. Instead of spying for the Chinese government, they are making great contributions to the American society with their knowledge of advanced science and technology and fostering a profound friendship between the two peoples. In the past three days, my organization has received hundreds of messages and phone calls from Chinese student nation-wide expressing their concern over the report. They are worried that the unrealistic picture painted by the CBS Evening News report could negatively affect their life in the U.S.. It is my sincere hope that CBS will take appropriate measures to mend the damages done and present a balanced, realistic view of Chinese nationals to the American public. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, Shi Heping Vice President, Independent Federation of Chinese Students & Scholars ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. The response from CBS Vice President ................................ 648 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBS News A Division of CBS Inc. 524 West 57 Street New York, NY 10019 Vice President Hard News and Special Events June 1, 1994 Dear Mr. Shi: Your letter to Eric Ober, regarding Connie Chung's report about the threat of Chinese government spying on U.S. concerns, has come to my desk for a response since I am Vice President of Hard News and Special Events. On May 19th, we reported the Chinese Ministry of State Security has recruited hundreds of ordinary Chinese citizens to steal U.S. military, technological, trade and computer secrets. This, according to the United States Defense Information Agency in Washington. Within our report, we also presented concrete examples of this having occurred (including the arrest of a Chinese restaurant owner in North Carolina, charged with trying to buy parts for two jet fighter planes.) Between 1986 and 1993, one in eight of all illegal export enforcement cases closed by U.S. Commerce Department involved the People's Republic of China. Security experts have told CBS News that many of the spy cases uncovered are then hushed up and the suspects deported, so the problem may be even greater than we reported. Our report was responsible and important. We stand by it. In doing this story, we in no way intended to suggest that the recruits represent anything other than a minority of the Chinese population in this country and we do not believe that we, in any way suggested otherwise. Furthermore, we have led network coverage of those brave, freedom-loving Chinese who have fought government repression. We have risked censorship, and worse, to bring those stories to the American public. However, our job is to bring ALL stories to the attention of the public, even those that may make some viewers uncomfortable, That is the very definition of a free press. If damage IS done because of our reporting on the Chinese government's effort to spy on American institutions and American business, it is the fault of bigoted viewers who draw subjective conclusion from objective reporting. We wish we could control that, but we can't. Sincerely, Signed %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % Editor of CBS Incident Committee: Miao Ye % % Sign on/off at listserv@ifcss.org, with mailbody as: % % sub fcbs-l Firstname Lastname, or signoff fcbs-l % % Post at fcbs-l@ifcss.org % % Anonymous ftp at ifcss.org:/ifcss/Legal/cbs % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%