From @UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU:owner-china-nt@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU Wed May 25 02:26:32 1994 Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 02:25:50 -0400 Reply-To: YANG Chang-Qing Sender: China-Net From: YANG Chang-Qing Subject: Chinese Community Forum (#9406) Comments: To: china-nt@uga.cc.uga.edu To: Multiple recipients of list CHINA-NT ==+==+==+== C h i n e s e C o m m u n i t y F o r u m ==+==+==+=== Wednesday, May 25, 1994 (Issue No. 9426) +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Chinese Community Forum (CCF) is an e-journal published on China-Net. CCF is dedicated to the discussion on the issues related to the Chinese community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board of CCF. Contributions to the discussions and suggestions of new topics are very much appreciated. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= # of Table of Contents Author | Lines ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== -*- CBS News: Eye/I on/in America -*- 1. Editorial...................................................EBCCF 72 2. CBS Report: A Challenge to Our Community ...............Cheng Liu 71 3. "Spy-Chasing" Game Instigated by CBS .................Zhifeng Liu 72 4. Anti-Immigrant Sentiment...............................Feng Zhang 35 5. On Connie Chung's Report................................. Qing Lu 23 6. Connie Chung and CBS's Predicament....................Richard Lee 74 7. Chinese Spy in US and Michael Fay in Singapore............Gang Xu 30 8. A Reflection Before "6.4" on CBS' "Chinese Spy" Story....Ning Luo 56 9. Is Connie Chung in CBS Really Lying.................. Chenjian Li 134 10. Lu Xun, Connie Chung, Jobs and Others.....................Bo Peng 69 ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== -- From The Editor -- We dedicate this special edition to all those whose anguished clamorings and protests have alarmed the whole community to the consequences of what can be interpreted as CBS's irresponsible report about the surreptitious espionage activities engaged by people of Chinese nationality, and who have therefore aroused us to the urgency of action. Having found our voice, we can no longer wait for history to write us. At the same time we salute the "dissenting" voices, few as they are, that provided us with a few precious drops of cool water, a valuable alternative point of view and a timely reminder that the bright flame of our emotional response may be blinding and self-destructive. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 1. Editorial....................................................EBCCF ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To many of us, CBS's "Eye on America" about Chinese spies "at the bottom of the ocean" was extremely disturbing, and Connie Chung's conspiring with CBS was calculatingly offensive. The illusion of journalistic neutrality, objectivity, and one may well add, faintly anti-establishment attitude which tends to endears it to the general public is all shattered in one blow. The network is no longer impersonal, no longer faceless, or free of agency. To many to us, what CBS has instigated is no less malicious and terrifying than a physical act of terrorism, or rather, even more so, because the damage it causes cannot be contained, but would spread and spread, unless we take the situation in our own hands, and make a concerted effort to put a stop to the hostility and suspicion aimed at ourselves. The only way to fight back to speak up, to refuse to be the silent ghosts commemorated by history. What strange, completely irreverent conclusions one would like to draw from a small episode like this. It is tempting to speculate that CBS is either changing hands, or in knee-deep financial hazard, else (out of naive and natural curiosity) why would it resort to the desperate, and much despised practice of the tabloid, which hardly conforms with its well-established facade of serious respectability ? Is it worth it for CBS to risk losing its hard-earned publish trust and permanently tarnishing its good reputation? As hardened gamblers in the fiercely competitive world of mass media, what is CBS betting on this time? When we put Connie Chung's interview a few days earlier with Wang Dan side by side with this special report, what do we get? On one day, a Chinese pro-democracy student was given a few precious prime time seconds, then the next thing we knew, it was suggested that every regular Chinese living down the street or next door could turn out to be a deep-rooted, though reluctant, practitioner of the subversive craft of espionage, remitting intangible US "national security"-related information to China without leaving a trace. Is CBS being consistent or self-contradictory? It is in incidents like this that we feel most distinctly the existence of a community, a community that is outraged, shocked, violated, terrorized and irreparably injured, a community aghast, in agony, a community suddenly becoming alert to the forces endangering its very survival and livelihood, a community that could certainly do with any further harassment caused by anti-Chinese immigration sentiment, a community whose anguish is ready to burst out in avalanch, no matter how mild, modest, respectful, well-behaved we have been ordinarily. It is in crisis like this that we discover our strength as well as our vulnerability. As a community whose image, nay whose very human rights have been seriously jeopardized by such unsubstantiated report, we cannot but denounce such unprovoked insinuation and hostility in the strongest, non-diplomatic, terms possible. Few would doubt that we are doing the right, that we have enough self-respect not to swallow the racist insults and bullies in silent resignation, as the first generation of English-illiterate Chinese "coolies" were forced to do. However, it does not take much thinking not to heap all the blame on the amiable, extraordinarily photogenic Connie Chung. When we accuse others of artificially inducing paranoia, we tend to forget that we too might be over-reacting or have allowed ourselves to be affected by or even succumb to the paranoia we despise. Both Chenjian Li and Bo Peng sounded such sobering notes in their articles. Chenjian Li contends that the fact that her report is disturbing and potentially damaging does not necessarily mean that she or CBS was intentionally lying or muddling the truth. On the other hand, Bo Peng seems to suggest that when we take Connie Chung's ingenious move too seriously, we are giving her too much credit than her due, allowing the threat we suspect to intimidate us, and spoil our pursuit for happiness and for a better future. When everyone around you is angry it is awfully hard to stay calm. It takes fortitude, it takes a keen sense of humor. However we may view this incident, we may count ourselves fortunate for having been forewarned. For this let's drink to the health of CBS for many years to come, shall we? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. CBS Report: A Challenge to Our Community.................Cheng Liu 71 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CBS report posed a challenge to this new community and new organization. There had been a long history of discrimination and exclusion against Chinese immigrants in this country. I agree with most who expressed opinions in the net, that IFCSS have a major responsibility to deal with this incident because new immigrants from mainland China are used as examples of espionage. This is also a clear indication that community development is a pressing issue this organization is now facing. As the members of this community stay in this country longer and get more integrated into its society, we can expect similar incidences will happen again in the future. In situations like this, there is a outcry for leadership of a national organization such as IFCSS in the community. Now, the challenge is in front of us, it is upon us to demonstrate that IFCSS can shoulder the responsibility to represent the community. And we should be extremely cautious in doing so. I also agree with some of the tactics that laid out by several IFCSS officers and activists. First, we should properly voice the outrage and anger of the community towards this incidence through phone calls and letters to CBS and other agencies. However, as a organization, we should appear as being reasonable, cooperative and understanding. This is extremely important for building the image of the community and our organization. We should do our best try to work with the TV stations and the reporters to undo the harm. I think, at this stage, we can draft a letter to CBS to inquire the nature of that particular news report, and to see what CBS intent to do to solve this. The formal actions should wait until we have consulted lawyers and studied thoroughly the video tape of that program. We have to understand that the purpose here is not to wage a war against a particular TV station or news reporter. It is the old stereotype of and discrimination against Chinese immigrants that we are up against. If we feel certain degree of weakness of ourselves in protesting incidences like this and preventing it from happen again, our weakness is even more conspicuous in building up a positive image of our community in the society. We need to understand American media and the subtlety in this issue. What they want are stories. What we want is the change of image. Media and press are exactly the vehicles that we need to reach our goals. CBS did lot of good work in covering human rights conditions and economic developments in China before. We should work with them covering the new ground of community development --- the new trend in Chinese students and scholars community. Undo the tangle by providing positive stories, emphasizing the contribution of this community towards American society. For instance, the high percentage of papers authored by people from mainland China that have appeared in scientific journals in recent years and its potential significance in science and technology, the fact that lot of members of this community had fought in the far front in defending democracy and human rights, and so on. We need to cooperate with other civil rights groups of Chinese Americans and other minorities, and learn from them. "Firm, but reasonable" should be our bottom-line. Considering the fact that this community is still predominantly of foreign students and scholars and very small in size, it will not be wise if we show too much aggressiveness. Of this body of students and scholars, there are two major alternatives lay before us, to integrate into American society or return to China. As a organization that represent such a group, it is very important we can walk the fine line. At this stage, To win people's understanding and sympathy should be the main strategy in defending our rights. Controversies, often time provide a critical opportunity, if you handle it properly, it will turn into communication and understanding, if you handle it wrong, then it will lead to more controversies or even hostility. This is my two cents about this issue. As the council member of New York region (where the CBS HQ is), I will be glad to work with fellow students, IFCSS HQ and other members of council in solving this problem. From: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. "Spy-Chasing" Game Instigated by CBS ..................Zhifeng Liu 72 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am an ordinary student from China. We Chinese students, as a group, were recently identified by a news story on CBS (CBS Evening News, May 19, 1994) as potential spies. It is such a shock to see this kind of "spy-chasing" story propagated by a news organization as respectable as CBS. What CBS did is so incompatible to the America I came to know during my six-year stay in this continent. Two years ago, there was another "spy-chasing" story, and the way American public and news media handled it was so different from what CBS did today. It was during the 1992 Presidential Election, when a few Republican Congressmen tried to gain political millage by playing the "spy-chasing" game against Bill Clinton, based on Bill Clinton's visit to Soviet Union when he was a student at Oxford University. The American public was outraged, not at Bill Clinton, but at those Republicans who wanted to play such a dirty game. My American friends told me it's just a natural reaction of the public. But to me, it was a special event that makes me admire America and her people from the bottom of my heart. The reason is that I know what happened in China during the Culture Revolution, when such "spy-chasing" games were staged by the Red Guards. I was too young to witness the horror at the height of Culture Revolution, but I did see its long shadow, even in children's playground. At that time (early 70's) I was a boy at a primary school. A classmate of mine wanted to trade stamps with me, because he heard that my family had relatives living in Singapore. I brought a few Singaporean stamps along the next day, only to find him not interested anymore. He said to me in all seriousness: "My dad told me I shouldn't collect foreign stamps. There were people get labeled as 'foreign spies' for doing it." And with that explanation he turned his back on me and left. The Red Guards' reasoning was: "You have relatives oversea (or you studied abroad, or you speak English, or you collect foreign stamps), so you are a suspect of foreign spy!", a reasoning chillingly parallel to the one used in the CBS story. The innocence of childhood was the least victim in that "spy-chasing" game. So many Chinese went into prison, even lost their lives, under that cloud of panorama. It is so sad to see that even today a major news organization like CBS could play such a game in its pursuit of sensationalism and tabloid journalism, based on nothing but panorama and ignorance. Yes, we as students in China, were the targets of intensive political education (brain-washing) by the Chinese government, aimed at turning us into "loyal followers of the Party". We were forced to attend the political studying sessions in which the Party officials would try to sell us the Party propaganda which even the officials themselves didn't believe. We were forced to take classes in communist theories, with the teachers always spending the first 15 minutes of the class to make sure that no student was absent. The spectacular failure of such forced education was best illustrated by the 1989 Student Movement, which Dan Rather himself witnessed in Tian An Man Square. For the students who managed to come to the West, the application of a Chinese passport is actually quite a process that would have made a good feature story. Of course, we were always told :"Behave yourself. Don't do things harmful to our motherland." That's how much trust those party officials have in these students. Fearful of a brain-drain, which was largely due to the mismanagement of education and scientific research in China, the government invented all kinds of regulations to block students from going abroad. The passport application could take months, unless you can find some connections or you bribe the officials. Many of us were forced to take a passport with "for public affairs" stapled on it and a "J-1" visa so that it will make it much more difficult for these students to stay in America after their graduation. Many of us suffered painful separation from our spouses and family, because the Chinese government has regulations in place to block the family reunion, which was again designed to force these students to go back. If such harassments and humiliations can make these students future spies for the Chinese government, it probably can be listed as the biggest miracle in history. And to us ordinary Chinese students in America, who suffered through these harassments and humiliations, the CBS report is such an insult. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Anti-Immigrant Sentiment................................Feng Zhang 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For me, what's most troubling is the undisguisable anti-immigrant sentiment behind Connie Chung's segment. She used "planeload", "every day" in the opening sentence. Since they are coming in "legally", what else can you do to tell them they are unwelcomed here? Smear them, accuse them as potential spies, everyone of them. Scare the American business away from hiring them. This is exactly what Connie Chung and her segment did. If this is not racism, what else could it be? If this is not witch-hunt, what else could it be? Even the ultraconservatives like Pat Buchanan would not make this kind of wild accusation publicly. You only here this kind of racist remark from New-Nazi skinhead. CBS may argue they are reporting the truth, thus what they did is not deformation. However, what they said is not true. One statement in that segment is "they may be activated a few years later, whether they want or not." This is not true at all. The chinese government can not force someone to spy for them. One of my college classmate was contacted by agents of "GUO JIA AN QUAN JU" a few years ago before his scheduled departure to Canada. They did ask him to "work for your motherland". He refused, saying he is too busy to take care of his course work. Afterward, no one ever bother him again. We have even joked that he is a big shot now because of this episode. Those spies who got caught may want find some excuse for their action, I don't believe anybody can force them to be a spy. I wonder how those neo-nazi anti-immigrant sentiments find an outlet in a reputable mainframe news organization such as CBS. I wonder who is responsible for that segment, who wrote those words, such as "plane-load", "fish deep in the sea". I knew that CBS News had fallen to the third place among three big networks. Their motivation for doing that segment could be just rating war. However, I can't believe they can make such a story if deep down inside, they don't have those anti-immigrant feeling. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. On Connie Chung's Report ................................. Qing Lu 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have seen Connie Chung's report also. I also believe that CBS news did not report the other side of the story, that is although there is Chinese spies in the U.S., they are only a very very small fraction of Chinese in the U.S. They implied in their report that every Chinese can be a potential spy and greatly over-exaggerated the spy problems. It definitely will have some effect on the employment opportunity of Chinese people, especially, as we are not born here, we are just educated here and green card will not grantee our equal opportunity. I urge all Chinese student and scholar and ordinary Chinese community mobilize and send letters to CBS news and make it public and ask a correction of CBS news or seeking apology from CBS news. If it is not a racism, it is at least an inaccurate news report. Although Connie Chung has a Chinese face, she is not a Chinese. She does not understand the possible difficulty our ordinary new immigrant has to face everyday. Since she has never helped, we are right to attack her and teach her lesson. At least, in the future, she will have a second thought on attacking ordinary Chinese immigrants. It is time to show our force and seek justice either in media or in court. It is our right. No one can deny us. The key is organize and send a lot lot letters and collect a lot of signatures and make a lot of noise. I hope every Chinese organization will act on this rare but blatant violation of our rights. The law says we have equal opportunity to work here as any native born American, and anyone is presume innocent until proved guilty in the court of law. Let us act now. Fellow Chinese. from ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Connie Chung and CBS's Predicament.....................Richard Lee 74 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not surprise that Connie Chung would make such second grade reports. Actually, the industry is in some sort of transition to a pseudo-tabloid news broadcasting age. Just looked at the kind of news that got the most prime times for months--Babbit's penis, Tonya Harding, the Menendez brothers, Dr. Kavorkian (sp?) etc. Were these worthy news, sure they were, at the same time they are not supposed to be soap operas to be repeatedly broadcasted on prime times over and over just to generate rating either. But that's what they are doing. Connie Chung is certainly not alone. NBC's Dateline, Jane Pauley used video materials that were recorded by a unions rank and file members who went to China to record factories that were supposedly run by the PLA. Some of the stories probably true, but from watching the pictures, it was clear that the narrations didn't match with the pictures. For example, the unionists used words such as "slaves", "forced labors", "the PLA bad guys", etc. but the picture showed only the workers worked rather orderly in their own work areas and no military uniform personnel anywhere in sight to "forced" or whipped them as "slaves" workers. As for the biasness, well it is understandable that the unionist reporter was just doing his job, that is trying to save American jobs by trying to produced whatever evidence to pressure Congress to erect protectionism laws. But journalistically, this kind of reporting is plain 5th grader journalism. But then this is the same program that made up the GM truck gas tank explosion story with an explosion device. For Connie Chung, she was desperate. For example, CBS Evening News was dead last in 3rd place ever since she co-anchored with Dan Rather. Her magazine program Eye-to-Eye has the worst rating among its class with "ABC Prime Time Live" and even "Dateline". So they began some bolt formate that focus on sensational "news" to boost their rating. It must have been working since the Evening News is now 2nd place behind ABC World News. With this kind of success, Connie Chung is naturally encouraged to get bolder and bolder. The Chinese-as-spies allegation is a classic tabloid format. It also fit well with her consultant's recommendation that she must show the American public that she is not biased toward China. This allegation is perfect -- it's a sensationally bold accusation and it directly attacked China. It's a calculated move because it does contain a little truth -- China does have spies operating in this country and some of these spies are Chinese, thus certainly would catch the public attention (or so they hope). But these are not news because every major country does have spies operations in each other territories. Even the U.S. closest allies, England, France, and Israel do spy on the U.S. and the U.S. has the largest spy networks on earth. Few countries, if any, can escape the eyes and ears of C.I.A. and the Defence Intelligent Agency (DIA) literally. And yes, many C.I.A. agents/informants operating in China are Chinese working for their Caucasian bosses in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, for us, Chinese Americans, her report represents a potential threat to our livelihood, because it couldn't come at the worse time than this. Anti-Chinese sentiment is on the rise spurred by numerous reports on the human right issues, prison labors, North Korea, and of course the damn (excuse me) Fay case in Singapore (and the tiger killing in Taiwan), coupled with the fact that Americans are increasingly worried about their jobs losses. We might be the easy targets for their frustrations. Nevertheless, please don't be over sensitive, just do something to protect yourself just in case. May be now is the time when we should unite together as group to speak with a single voice on issues that are most important to us. I propose that either we use the existing Chinese organization or we should form one if we don't already have one so that we can make an organized protest on such an unjust treatments of our people. Do any of you have any better ideas? Lastly, if any of us are victimized by any racial violence, don't be afraid to speak out and sue the criminals and CBS in broad day light. Show them that we are not afraid of them, period! From Fwded by Li Xiaolin from SCC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Chinese Spy in US and Michael Fay in Singapore.............Gang Xu 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- About CBS's report on Chinese spies in US, I would like to raise the following question: I wonder how ordinary Americans would think if a Connie Chung of Singapore TV should make a report like the following: Many American kids are so spoilt and less disciplined that they find no good entertainments other than trash-painting cars, even when they are on foreign land like this boy named Michael Fay. Any American kid in Singapore MAY be committing a crime of vandalism against public or private properties and become a menace of the good social orders in Singapore. Also the western culture is so corruptive that any tourist to Singapore MAY be a carrier of HIV and therefore spread AIDS to the innocent Singapore people. Also the drug problem in US is very severe and anyone coming to Singapore with a US passport MAY be a drug trafficker. Will Connie Chung and Dan Rather in CBS think the above as a fair picture of Americans to be presented to the people in Singapore or any other people in the world??? It is too often that such mistreatment of a minority group by mass media in a society go unnoticed by the majority. When I was in China, I did not understand why some ethnic minorities in China felt so strongly about some practices by some of the ethnic majority. Now I am a minority in this country, and I do have more understanding about their feelings. From ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. A Reflection Before "6.4" on CBS' "Chinese Spy" Story.....Ning Luo 56 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did not watch the CBS Evening News last Thursday which had evoked strong protests from Chinese community. I heard it first from an American friend of mine that night when we were discussing arrangements about a local "6.4" memorial service. He was no less upset than I. While reading the transcript of the program, it prompted my memories about the public hunting of "special agents of imperialism" on all those who had returned from their studies abroad during China's "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976). It might have also reminded him of the era of McCarthyism in early 1950's. The pictures shown in the program might have produced an ominous impression about how pervasive the invisible presence of the Chinese government may be. The extent that the Chinese government has attempted on recruiting spies among Chinese going abroad is not yet clearly know outside the government. However, to imply that a wide spread spy network exists among "ordinary" Chinese people here living in the US would not only be an insult to the Chinese people as a group, but also belittle the value of the whole human race. Were the free spirit of a human being so easily crushed, the future of this world would be hopelessly darker than Orwell's "1984". It is ironic that in this series Connie Chung has produced several fine pieces of report on China on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the "6.4". Hundreds of thousands of students and citizens in Beijing joined the protest in that unforgettable spring. Many of them had suffered much more persecution than that depicted in the CBS program, and they didn't have a foreign country to which they could escape. However, they didn't yield to the intimidation of the government, and they showed their courage with their peaceful public demonstrations. The movement was crushed with bloodshed. However, the spirit did not die. It has been carried on. The Beijing Spring of 1989 preluded the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the East Bloc. It is not a victory of "the West over the East". It is a victory of human noble spirit over the dark side of human nature. I have watched many times the video tape of the concert in Berlin conducted by Leonard Bernstein in celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. I could hardly hold my joyful tears as the music reaching the climax and the chorus singing "Ode to Joy (Ode an die Freude)" by Friedrich von Schiller in the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven: O friends, no more these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, more full of joy! ... All who can call at least one soul theirs, Join in our song of praise; But any who cannot must creep tearfully Away from our circle. From ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Is Connie Chung in CBS Really Lying .................. Chenjian Li 134 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary: The impact of Connie Chung's CBS evening news report on the Chinese spies in US is no doubt adverse to many of us who will work in this society, especially to those in the high tech and sensitive tech fields. However, the fact that the impact is bad does NOT NECESSARY mean the report itself is false, fabricated and truth twisting. If we (individuals, local CSS, and IFCSS) want to do something, we should emphasize on the impact, but not on the issue of "twisting of truth." I. Separate two things: the report and its impact Once a friends of mine was asked by a school authority why so many Chinese students with startling high GRE and TOEFL score actually came here with not so impressive, sometimes even inadequate language ability. My friends told the truth: 1. most of us studied for the exam itself so hard and so thoroughly, that it enhanced our scores drastically. 2. At many exam places, cheating was very common; some either collaborated during the 10 minutes break, or even asked somebody to take the exam for them. (That was why some of the places have been closed down). My friends didn't tell a lie, and he was very objective about the fact that many of us did earn our scores honestly and show superb language ability after we came here. However, his truthful explanation, created in many professors and school officials a sense of distrust---how to evaluate a candidate, if his/her scores are very possibly false? As a result, some professors and departments became very reluctant to recruit DIRECTLY from mainland China candidate for their program. In this case, the impact of my friend's comment was clearly bad to Chinese students; but he is very honest and objective, and he spoke with no bad intention at all. I guess most people will agree that my friend is not to be blamed. Is it possible that Connie Chung's report is similar to the above case? I think so. I watched the news that evening and almost at once, I said to myself, " OH, no! That is gonna add more difficulty to our life, which is already too hard as it is, by simply shedding a smog of distrust ... and we chinese here will hit one more glass ceiling!" But, I can't say she was deceiving the audience, or twisting the truth, or being a racist, I thought what she presented was actually, though sadly, true, her report's impact is bad, but she didn't lie. II. Was it true?--witch hunting vs. spy hunting Many people are familiar with the witch hunting in history. That was really bad and irrational, and it was used as a way to persecute people. But the spy hunting is a little better, often it is not that far-fetched, and it often has some basis, although it did sometimes get out of proportion like the act against Japanese Americans during the World War II. The recent CBS news, however, isn't even a spy hunting movement yet---though it may impact the mentality of some people. The facts Connie Chung reported were largely true, and the two book writer she interviewed also presented many publicly known cases. They were not fabricating. III. A true story of a friend of mine--Mr. X This is a true story that happened several years ago. It showed that the Chinese Government is trying to organize as strong as possible an intelligent net work in US, including many levels of "workers ". One might argue, "so what? Everybody is spying other countries, including US!" But that is not the point. I just want to say that it is true that there is a fairly organized attempt on the part of the Chinese government to organize spies in US. Mr. X was about to come to the US for a Ph.D program in material sciences. He was summoned to the National Security Bureau(NSB), in Chinese we say Guo2 An1 Bu4. Officers of NSB invited Mr. X to "do some work" for them. When Mr.X explained, in fright, that he was in no sense suitable for intelligence work, that he was just a "dumb student", NSB officers told him that the work wouldn't be like what people saw in the movies, nor would they want Mr.X to work in the near future. They put it in a very light way, "just maybe one day, you come across some interesting thing, and you just contact us, you don't even need to steal them...." Mr. X was scared, so he came to me. He didn't dare and wasn't interested in such kind of things, but he was very worried if he could get his passport if he said no. Finally, he told me that he would try to reject the NSB first, and if they got mad and would not give him the passport, he would just say yes and report to FBI after he came to the US. Fortunately, the NSB was quite polite to him and didn't press him hard. Mr. X still remembers the situation. If this is true (and I have no reason to suspect he told me a lie back at that time!), then it seems the attempt for organizing spy network is true; right or wrong, it is a fact. And as for the news media, revealing facts is not a crime, but their job. III.Did Connie Chung have a bad attitude? Was CBS specifically aiming at Chinese? Did they aim more at the Chinese Government, or at the people here? I don't think Connie had racism, or biased attitude. She reported several cases, interviewed two writers, but she never included all the Chinese people in the US in her report. In fact, she presented two different views of the two writers, one thinks the spy problem is huge, and the other thinks that it is well under control and not much of a big deal. CBS doesn't aim at Chinese only. I watch CBS and ABC almost everyday. >From my recollection, within the last year or so, they reported Russian spy cases, Japanese spies (industrial spies, specifically), Israel spies in US, and also, they reported and debated on the issue of US spy activity in central America. The recent Connie Chung report was just one of them. As a Chinese myself, I am more sensitive to such a report. However, if CBS can report other countries' and its own spy stories, why can't it report Chinese spies? What makes us immune to the new scrutiny? Connie Chung's comment, wasn't directed toward the people, at least that was not her intention. In the report, she presented the actual spies as being forced to do something they don't want---victims rather than criminals. (Remember the sentences of the guy with his face shaded?) The whole was directed toward the Chinese Government intelligence bureau, rather than Chinese like you and me in US. Unfortunately, we as Chinese have to bear the impact even if we are not spies, but that is not the fault of CBS and Connie Chung. IV. Why are we angry? Whom to blame? We are angry because of two things---pride and the actual adverse influence the report may bring. For the first one, I don't see why we should be ashamed of some one else's doing. This is a country of individualism. People don't regard Middle-eastern immigrants as Sadam Hussein's followers or the Chinese people as government supporters. As for the negative impact, if there is any, the blame should not be put on the fact teller. V. Protest? Sue CBS? I am not happy either with the report and its impact. But what can we protest? And what can we sue CBS for? If a company uses spy hunting as a reason for suppressing a Chinese employee, we can prepare a case; but that is against the company, not CBS. CBS didn't include all Chinese people in US in their report, didn't use racism slurs, didn't attack Chinese specifically; they reported an existing problem. Let's think of this question: If our country finds out that some other country is active in spying on us, if we are working for Beijing Evening Newspaper, will we, or won't we report it? In summary, I think our pride and fear of bad influence have made our dismay at CBS Connie Chung's report out of proportion. CBS doesn't aim only at us. From ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Lu Xun, Connie Chung, Jobs and Others.....................Bo Peng 69 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends, Lu3, Xun4 (the famous writer and critic of everything) once said "when a beautiful peacock turns around, there shows the asshole." He apparently felt pretty good about himself for his unique perspective and courage for "looking at the cruel life straight in the eyes." Maybe even the boyish joy of ruining an enjoyable moment of others. But, of course, every peacock has an asshole. Why should that diminish its beauty in any way? So does each and everyone of us. If the mere thought of such an existence bothers anyone, it's only because s/he's been fooling him/herself for too long. Chung, Connie (the famous symbol of an ASIAN, FEMALE achieving great success in this land of opportunity) suddenly thought:"Holy Cow! The CCP is most certainly trying to send spies to America and Chinese are arriving in planeloads every day. Gosh!" She thought she's really smart, and it'd make an eye-catching story, too. Not much bad news these days anyway. Eye-catching it is indeed. Consequently, she got more credit than she deserves. Just like Lu3, Xun4 for his remark about peacocks. Of course every Chinese is a POTENTIAL spy. In general, every human being is a POTENTIAL spy. The guy driving behind you is a POTENTIAL murderer. Your mom is a POTENTIAL alien agent. POTENTIALLY speaking, there could be a monster under your bed. Yup, childishness, nonsense, stupidity, downright BS. Fortunately, "innocent until proven guilty" is still one of the fundamental values of this society, though the increasing tide of cynicism and hyper- sensitivity has shaken it somewhat. Maybe it's just that we remember too well how things were in China. Some would say: "Put down your books nerd. This ain't no theory. This is about JOBS!" That's what I found a little funny. Judging from the byteloads of outcries regarding this thing, the bottom line seems to be the concern over the job perspectives. It would be more agreeable if the concern is based on the POTENTIAL discriminative effect for singling out China/Chinese, especially in the face of increasing anti-immigration sentiment. Somehow, we Chinese have always been the first target whenever this ugly beast erects its head. Now here's an idea, Connie! Getting down to the bottom of this phenomenon and you'd have an interesting story. Would a POTENTIAL employer hire a POTENTIAL spy? I'd say yes if you're talking about in America, if the word "POTENTIAL" is used in a sense as speculative as Connie Chung apparently meant. If some POTENTIAL employer refused hiring me because of this suspicion, I'd graciously thank him/her for doing so. What a royal pain in the...analog-to- the-peacock thing it would be working under someone with such an hyper- suspicious mind and so paranoid! May God/Buddha/Allah have mercy on him/her, for his/her life must have been quite a suffer all along. Back to writing resume and sending out the 101st application to my POTENTIAL employers... POTENTIALLY yours, Bo Peng From: +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++ + Executive Editor: Yingyin Xu Executive Moderator: Changqing Yang + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + For subscription: mail "SUB CHINA-NT Your-First-Name Your-Last-Name" + + to LISTSERV@UGA (bitnet) or listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu (internet) + + For unsubscription: mail "UNSUB CHINA-NT" to the above e-address + + For back issues of CCF: + + anonymous ftp to: cnd.org[132.249.229.100]: pub/community/CCF + + gopher to cnd.org: 2. English Menu --> 13. Community --> 1. ccf + + For contribution and inquiry: mail to ccf-editor@ifcss.org + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++