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

                Thursday, June 21, 1994 (Special Edition)

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1. United, we made a difference!
    --a brief report of the CNN incident and CBSIC's actions...............84

(A more complete report and the following content is available in
ftp version of this edition)
2. A New York Times article (09/02/93) on illegal immigrants
3. Letters from netters
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United, we made a difference!
    --a brief report of the CNN incident and CBSIC's actions...............84
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    Earlier this week, a MONEYLINE program ad at CNN alerted many Chinese. In 
the ad, it claimed that "thousands of Chinese illeagal immigrants entering
U.S.... no one cares about it... it costs U.S. 20 billion dollars a year". 
Many netters immediately pointed out the obvious exaggeration of the ad: how
can thousands of Chinese illegal immigrants cost U.S. 20 BILLION dollars?!
Furthermore, Chinese illegal immigrants only count a few percent of the total
illegal immigrant population, why focus only on them?

    Since the program was scheduled in Tuesday evening, CBSIC and many other
concerned Chinese mobilized immediately to sent letters, fax to and called CNN,
urging them to re-examine the program and correct any false information. In his
fax to CNN, Mr. Huang Lin, National Coordinator of CBSIC wrote:
   
    We are very concerned because an inaccurate or imbalanced report on 
    a minority will create a big problem for everyone in the community. We all 
    know from history what misinformation or disinformation could do to the 
    destiny of an ethnic group.  The unfair treatment of Japanese Americans
    during World War II are still fresh in our minds.  We are concerned,
    therefore, with the ramifications of your program as advertised to be
    aired on July 19th, 1994 on the normal life of tens of thousands of
    Chinese Americans, Chinese legal immigrants and other Chinese who 
    are here legally.

    Thanks to the effort of Dong Xiao, we quickly located Mr. Wian who
reported the program. He agreed that the ad gave a wrong impression.
According to his sources, he said, 15-20 billion dollars were the cost
U.S. spend on all illegal immigrants per year. He also promised to do something
about the mistake, but the program couldn't be cancelled. In the meantime,
we also addressed the questionable motive of addressing only a few percent
of the illegal immigrant problem.

   Tuesday's MONEYLINE showed that we made a difference, but far from enough.
In the program, they mentioned that the total cost of all (millions of)
illegal immigrants is 15 billion dollars per year (down from 20 bil. in their
ad). But they didn't say how much Chinese illegal immigrants costed the U.S,
only mentioning that they were less than 10% of the total illegal population.
They also said there were 10,000 illegal Chinese coming to U.S. per MONTH,
which we think is still too high.

    On Wednesday, James Huang digged out a New York Time 09/02/93 article
with INS sources. The article said

   The number of illegal Chinese immigrants is small and reprents a small
   fraction of the illegal population in New York City. But, strikingly,
   New York is home to more than half the illegal Chinese in the country...
   (The total number of illegal Chinese in NYC is) 12,700...

    This means that the total illegal Chinese population in U.S. was only about
25,000 and counted less than 1% given the total 3.2 million illegal immigrant
population (as of 09/02/93). 10,000/month claimed by MONEYLINE is way too high!
And it's not just "less than 10%", it is less than 1%.

    At the meantime, Dong Xiao called the interviewee of Tuesday's MONEYLINE,
Mr. Myers, who came up with the 10,000/month number. Mr. Myers said he was
also annoyed by Tuesday's MONEYLINE and issued the following statement:

      Other than direct cost of enforcing the law, the Chinese who has
      entered the United State by irregular means, does not cost a penny
      from the US government and the US taxpayers.

    He said CNN has made distorsions on his data.  Those Chinese who
entered the US illegally do not cost anything from the US on welfare,
unlike some other ethnic groups.  Just the opposite, they make possitive
contributions to the US economy by joining the Chinese sector, such as
working in Chinese restaurants, etc.  He said he already informed Mr. Wian
before the program. He estimate, however, there are 600,000 illegal Chinese
in the US.

    Dong Xiao then called MONEYLINE and talked to the producer Mr. Gonon
about what Mr. Myers had said. Mr. Gonon was apparently surprised about 
the fact illegal Chinese didn't cost a dime on welfare and said he would
talk to Mr. Wian about that.
  
    Wednesday's MONEYLINE didn't mention the 15 billion figure at all. 
And it cited Mexican illegal immigrants. The reporters also said that
they were flooded by protesting calls and faxes from Chinese-American
community. Wian looked embarassed and said he was a little surprised
by the big protest. But the program also claimed there are 60,000 chinese
in Moscow waiting to enter US illegally.

    Clearly, thanks to efforts of the whole Chinese community, we worked
together and made the difference. Although MONEYLINE made some corrections
and concessions, its report was far from impartial and objective. It is just
the beginning of a long way to go. We sincerely hope that from these CBS, CNN
incidents, we Chinese can unite and go through the long journey together.

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