%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  Editorial Board of CBS Incident Committee  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                      Sunday, November 6, 1994   (No. 21)

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Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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1. The Letter From Lin Huang, National Coordinator ........................ 17 
2. Report on Fund Raising ................................................. 74
3. Replying Letter to CBS ................................................. 89
4. Reader's Digest Has Responded To Our Concerns ......................... 218
5. A Friendly Reminder ................................................... 283
6. Washington Post Article on the CBS Incident ........................... 303
7. A Special Announcement on Fake Posts in News Groups ................... 350
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1. The Letter From Lin Huang, National Coordinator ........................ 17 
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Dear CSS and those who supported us in the past five months:

May 19, 1994 is probably another ordinary day in the history, so is October 21,
1994. However, the turbulent events that had happened between these two plain,
ordinary dates are hardly ordinary to us, the ordinary Chinese, a traditionally
silent, "model" minority. Even more interesting thing is that, most of us are
just newcomers who have come to this "new land" for less than two decades. 

Not too long ago, starting from May 6, 1882, an "ordinary" law was approved by
Forty-Seventh Congress, which prohibited our immigrant forefathers' coming and
staying lawfully in the United States. That was the notorious Chinese Exclusion
Act, and the first legislation to restrict immigration on the basis of race.
Only after 61 years, did the United States Congress repeal this Act on December
17, 1943, during the WWII when the America depended on China for cooperation to
fight Japan.

We can not take for granted (as many of our immigrant forefathers did) that
because we were "allowed" into this country, we must behave ourselves at all
times as a guest, that we must keep our hands to ourselves, our thoughts behind
closed doors, and sit there silently while our civil rights to be violated.

Yes, we are the minority in the minorities, mostly due to the notorious Chinese
Exclusion Act which cast an everlasting shadow on all of us.However, we are not
inferior to any other peoples.  The past five month has clearly shown the world
that we can, make a difference. 

A little more than five months ago,80 devoted individuals embarked a historical
march to fight for the injustice. There had been nothing to begin with. In this
long journey they learned, tried and succeded. But most importantly, their
persistence and devotion have lent them the momentum and knowledge. Their hard
work, as well as thousands supporters' world-wide finally paid off.  Which, led
to a unprecedented event in the history of Chinese-Americans. 

During the past five months, many people not only fought shoulder to shoulder
with us, but also supported us financially. The CBS-IC members are particularly
grateful to all of our supporters. However, due to the expensive nature of this
campaign, we simply can not reimburse much of the expenses incurred to our
members.Although CBS-IC has no paid office space, equipment and staff, the cost
of connecting to the outside world is still prohibitive.We wish everyone of you
can donate as much as you can, to compensate the operation costs and incoming
bills. All your donations are tax-deductible. Our purpose is to cover all the
communication cost, such as fax/phone calls,teleconferences,printings, postage,
and travel expenses to and from New York City, as well as research expenses. 

On top of covering large item expenses from our volunteers, we expect to raise
10 thousand to 20 thousand dollars for a Civil Rights Fund. In this way if 
there are any future civil rights incidents relating to Chinese community in 
the US, and it is sure that there will be more to come, we can then act more 
effectively and decisively, instead of restrained on individual volunteer's 
financial capabilities.

All our accountings will be published in our Newsreleases to the public 
network. There should be no personal gainings whatsoever to our CBS-IC 
members. The sole purpose of the donation is to defray the operational costs. 
Please indicate clearly if you wish to remain anonymous.

We must join our force to protect ourselves. United, we stand. United, we have
made two differences in five months. 

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2. Report on Fund Raising ................................................. 74
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     ===================================================================
       		            Donors	   Amounts of Donation
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       As of Aug 5, 1994:     29           675.00 USD + 20.00 CAD    
       Aug 6  - Aug 20:       36           650.00 USD + 30.00 CAD    
       Aug 21 - Aug 24:       17           360.00 USD               
       Aug 25 - Sep 22:       17           475.00 USD + 50.00 CAD    
       Sep 23 - Oct 24:        3            55.00 USD                
       Oct 25 - Nov 2 :        5           110.00 USD              
     -------------------------------------------------------------------
       TOTAL:                107          2325.00 USD + 100.00 CAD
     ===================================================================


Estimation of CBS-IC operational cost:

   The estimate is based on big items that can create financial burdens
to the CBS-IC members and therefore we would like to cover them with
the financial support from our contributions.  The actual cost from
our members on the CBS incident is far beyond our capability to cover
and we do not plan to.  Most financial costs and manpower are donated
by the CBS-IC volunteers and are beyond the estimation. 


Research:           $200
Travel:             $500
Phone:             $1000
Teleconference:     $600
Fax:                $200
Printing:           $100
Mailing:            $400
=========================
Total:             $3000


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3. Replying Letter to CBS ................................................. 89
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Mr. Lin Huang
National Coordinator
CBS Incident Committee
3044 Albany Crescent 1G
Bronx, NY 10463
(718)-548-9114

Mr. Eric Ober
President, CBS News
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

Dear Mr. Ober:

Most of us in the Chinese community watched, with great anticipation, the CBS
clarification aired on October 21 regarding the Chinese spy segment on May 19,
which branded all Chinese people in the US as either spies or potential spies.
After a few days of discussion across the country, we do feel that CBS has
taken a sincere step in the right direction, a step we hope can indeed lead to
a long-term constructive relationship between CBS News and the Chinese
community in this country.

While we acknowledge and appreciate this positive move by the CBS management,
we must, however, point out that the clarification falls far short of undoing
all the damages that have already been done to us. This clarification lasted
only several seconds, compared to the four minutes and fifteen seconds you
used for the sensational story on May 19. While the story was heavily promoted
before its airing, the clarification came and went without any promotion.
Besides, we cannot help but note the difference between the script in closed
caption and what the reporter actually read. While the captions read "we
apologize," the anchorwoman read "we regret it." This apparently deliberate
difference shows insincerity by some in your staff but also sincerity at least
by those who drafted the script.

As I write, there are still a lot hurt feelings and a lot of hurt people out
there. A danger lingers on that members of our community will suffer in one
way or another because of the libelous story five months ago. We wish balanced
and professionally produced programs could be aired to undo the harm. We, and
the staff at the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, will
do our best to cooperate and help.

I hope that our good will shall be reciprocated and that no similar incidents
occur ever again. I am pleased to inform you that the ad hoc CBS Incident
Committee is now being reorganized into a permanent body to help and monitor
in future Chinese-related news coverage and other civil rights issues in the
US. We are determined not to tolerate more than our fair share of racial
stereotyping and discrimination.

May this unfortunate incident mark a turning point for the better in the
relationship between the Chinese community and the CBS News. We appreciate
much your very sincere letter to Ms. Ginny Gong, which has shown your personal
integrity and principles. But there are much to be done to communicate with
some people in your organization and few others such as Mr. Eftimiades, the
person who lied to your people about his expertise.

Yours Truly,


Lin Huang
National Coordinator
CBS-IC

CC:

Vice President Lane Venardos
Producer Tom Anderson
Anchor Connie Chung
Anchor Dan Rather
Foreign Editor Allen Alter

P.S.
You may call the following number to check Mr. Eftimiades and DIA's position,

Mr. Donal R. Lenker, Chief, Public Liaison Staff, DIA, at (703)-695-0071

And also U.S. Commerce Department to verify the following data:

	US Commerce Department (1986 -1993, Including Civil Cases)		
	Hong Kong Cases	       PRC Cases		All the Cases
	(Including East Bloc)  (Including via HK)       Around World
1986		0			0			21
1987		1			1			24
1988		3			4			38
1989		11			2			46
1990		3			0			41
1991		2			1			44
1992		2			2			49
1993		5			4			37

Total		27			14			300
		9.00%			4.67%			100.00%

Please note that, in Mr. Eftimiades's book and Mr. Lane Venardos' letter to
IFCSS, you both mentioned "13.4% " or "one in eight" cases involving PRC. It
is impossible unless you add all the East Bloc's and Hong Kong's cases to PRC.
Otherwise, it is "5%" or "one in twenty". Furthermore, civil cases are not all
espionage cases. When we look at Justice Department's record:

Significant Export Control Cases, January 1981 to October 1, 1993 
Justice Department

Iran          21% 
Russia         8% 
South Africa   6%
Libya          6%
England        4% 
P.R. China     3%  (2.9%, or 9 cases out of 309)
HongKong       3%  (Hong Kong 2.6% and Taiwan 0.3%, 8+1 cases)
Switzerland    3%
Iraq           3%
West Germany   2%
Cuba           2%
Japan          2%
Chile          2%

It is only 3%, or one in thirty. The convicted are not all Chinese.

Another list, looking at the time span, the cases involving China are:

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
 0  0  1  2  1  1  2  0  0  1  0  1  0

We have investigated each and every line in your program as well as 
in the book. There are numerous errors in both. They are hardly 
professional.

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4. Reader's Digest Has Responded To Our Concerns ......................... 218
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Special report from CBS-IC
Reader's Digest has responded to our concerns.

Dear CSS netters nation-wide: Recently several netters alerted us that the
Reader's Digest's December issue is going to report on an "army of Chinese 
spies in U.S.A." Based on this timely message, CBS-IC instantly reached out to
the Editorial Board of that magazine. Many concerned netters and other Chinese
American organizations also joined force to sensitize them. Today, Reader's
Digest has responded positively to our concerns. 

CBS-IC wants to convey the message to our constituents across the nation and 
all of the concerned media that we are not a protesting group. We are against 
wrongly stereotyping Chinese Americans in any unfair way. We hope that our 
successful movement prompted by the unfortunate CBS incident will promote our 
self-awareness, self-respect and self-confidence, as a decent, law-abiding 
minority group in the eye of American public.

In the past a few days, it was our netters across the country who made our 
voice be heard. We sincerely thank all of you who have supported us and stood 
with us in the past five months.

However, at this point we still can not obtain a preprint to evaluate the 
article. Therefore, we urge all of you to pay close attention to any new 
development and what is actually done in the December issue of Reader's Digest. 

Sincerely Yours,

CBS Incident Committee
November 1, 1994

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Reader's Digest
Pleasantville, New York 10570
Howard Dickman
Senior Staff Editor
(914)-241-5442
October 31, 1994

Mr. Lin Huang
Chair, Civil Rights Committee/IFCSS
CBS Incident Committee
3044 Albany Crescent 1G
Bronx, NY 10463

Dear Mr. Lin Huang 

On behalf of Christopher Willcox, Executive Editor of Reader's Digest, I am
responding to the letter you faxed today to the office of the Editor-in-Chief.
I am confident that you will find our upcoming report on Chinese espionage in
the United States to be factually accurate and balanced. It does not state or
imply that the vast majority of Chinese Americans, legal residents or visitors
have any involvement in espionage activity, or indeed are anything other than
law-abiding.

Thanking you for your letter and expression of concern, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Howard Dickman (signed)

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5. A Friendly Reminder ................................................... 283
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Mi Mi Sr. says sorry to our friends outside the U.S. Here is a friendly 
reminder. To this day, we CBS-IC is actually a multi-national committee. Two 
of our most active CBS-IC members are actually within Canada, and many others 
are across the globe. As we stresses to CBS at the luncheon, this is a 
multi-national, multi-racial coalition. I sincere thanks to everyone who 
joined our force.

    ========================================================================
      Mi Mi, pls remember that there are netters who are equally concerned
      about the CBS issue and the Readers' Digest article north of the
      border in Canada.  We from this side of the border have been
      supporting the call from the CBS-IC by faxing and e-mailing to CBS
      and Reader's Digest editorial board.  So, when you thanked all
      the netters across the US, did you also want to acknowledge the 
      support from the guys north of the border?
        Just a friendly reminder.  Cheers.  M. Yao
    =========================================================================
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6. Washington Post Article on the CBS Incident ........................... 303
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There's a blurb on October 25th of Washington Post (in D6 The TV Column).
by John Carmody, Washington Post Staff Writer.

Bowing to Pressure from Angry Asian American Groups and an Expression of
(the above is in bold letters) concern from the US Commission on Civil Rights,
CBS News Friday night broadcast a "clarification" of a May 19 broadcast about
Chinese spies in the United States.

"It was not our intention,"  Connie Chung said on "CBS Evening News," "to leave
the impression that there were more than a small number of such individuals
among the many tens of thousands of legitimate Chinese students, visitors and
immigrants who come to the United States every year.  If we left an incorrect
impression, we regret it"...

In the May report Chung had said, "Everyday, planeloads of Chinese citizens
arrive legally in the United States, 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"...

Several powerful organizations-including the Committee of 100, the Organization
of Chinese Americans and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association--joined
protests by many of the 350,000 recent Chinese immigrants, including scholars
and students, who claimed the report may have stirred anti-Chinese feelings...

But for four months, CBS News official refused to meet with representatives of
the groups.In July, Lane Venardos,a CBS News executive, wrote in response to a
request for an apology from the head of the Organization of Chinese Americans
that  "we do not believe there is an apology to be issued because we believe, 
frankly, that we have done nothing to require it."

On Oct.12, the federal commisssion sent a letter to CBS expressing its concern,
and a week ago today officials of the News division and members of the Chinese
community met in New York...

Following the meeting, CBS News president Eric Ober, in a letter to Ginny Gong,
national president of the Organization of Chinese Americans Inc. wrote that "we
are fully aware that the vast majority of Chinese, Chinese Americans and other
Asian Americans are exactly what they seem to be:legitimate,law-abiding 
students, visitors, immigrants, and citizens, both long and short-term. If 
our story did not convey that awareness, we fully apologize" ... (the 
punctuations are quoted exactly as they appear in the paper).

Forwarded by Ray Wang

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7. A Special Announcement on Fake Posts in News Groups ................... 350
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Dear CSS netters,
	
     Recently there was someone faking CBS-IC's name and NR in public domains
from anon accounts. Please be advised that, those postings have nothing to do
with official CBS-IC committee. 

	We are informed by the anon server management that they have blocked
Mr. an143223 access to anon.penet.fi, after sending him warnings and giving
him opportunity to defend himself for his abuse of anon server by faking our
publications and messages.  

	If you find anything strange, please contact CBS-IC to confirm.

CBS Incident Committee
November 6, 1994

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