From @UGA.CC.UGA.EDU:owner-china-nt@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU Wed Jul 13 09:53:29 1994 Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 01:43:29 -0400 Reply-To: ccf-editor@ifcss.org Sender: China-Net From: ccf-editor@ifcss.org Subject: Chinese Community Forum (#9438) 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, July 13, 1994 (Issue No. 9438) +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= 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 ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== --*--IFCSS: Campaign and Its Future--*-- 1. To Be or Not To Be, It Should Not Be A Question.....Shuguang Hong 64 2. Reflections on IFCSS on Occasion of Its 5th Birthday.......Hu Sen 55 3. IFCSS's Political Ideals and the Politics Game, American Style..................Kangcong Zhang 130 4. Grow Up and Accept Our Differences.....................Dave Sheng 38 5. Should IFCSS Be Political or Non-political?..............D. Zhang 83 6. Will IFCSS Help the CSS in the CBS Fighting?..............X. Fang 50 7. Public Figures' Accountability.....................Xiaodong Huang 97 --*--Campaign Pages--*-- 8. Let's Enjoy the Negative Campaign.......................Yan Huang 82 9. What Kind of Philosophy?...........................Shen Shen Kong 43 10. More About Negative Campaign.......................Hanren Y. Wong 57 11. My Response to Mr. Wong....... ....................Qingsong Zhang 32 ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== -- From The Editor -- Have no idea how it started that we, the Chinese, have special preferences to certain numbers, especially fives and tens. By coincidence, this year is the FIFTH anniversary of the incident on Tian An Men Square. It also marks the FIFTH year of the founding of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars. As the sixth Congress of IFCSS is only weeks away, hardly is there anyone in the community can bypass such an important event in this FIFTH year. Could it be the number of 5 which actually matters here? Maybe so. But the importance must also have something to do with the controversies that have been surrounding the IFCSS, its function, its role, and sometimes, even the necessity of its very existence. We present several articles to our readers in this issue. These articles are from IFCSS veterans, current officials and ordinary CSS. They are trying to project their thinking on IFCSS' achievements, limitations, failure, and, most importantly, its future. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 1. To Be or Not To Be, It Should Not Be A Question......Shuguang Hong 64 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The opening of the 6th annual congress of IFCSS could not come at a better time. Since its founding, IFCSS has assumed role to represent the CSS community. Recently, there have been some serious doubts and challenges about such a role. It is not in one's personal opinion. The open debates conducted on the internet and by the Chinese Community Forum have shown an overwhelming criticism on IFCSS' current course. IFCSS is now at the cross road. It must make a choice between being a special interest group or being a representative of the CSS community. These are conflicting roles. To be a special interest group, IFCSS has the freedom to determine its own course and actions on the behalf of itself as an organization. As an independent organization, however, it must seek supports from the CSS community and play a leadership role for the community. But it can't claim to represent the community, because a representative must be appointed, not self-claimed. In representing the CSS community, the IFCSS can NOT act according to its own belief. Every major decision and action must be decided by the people it represents. The majority of the CSS community decides what we want, the organization acts on behalf of our wills, not the other way around. The organization may initiate new projects, but they must be approved by the majority of the CSS community. Based on the past performance of IFCSS, I believe that IFCSS is not the right organization for the representative role. First, it lacks human resources. IFCSS has no members. The number of people in its local chapters is unclear. Without an effective way to collect the opinion of the majority of the CSS community, representing us is just a joke. Second, its organization structure does not match this role. I am not aware of any open election for IFCSS delegates at the local level. If the majority of us never has been given a chance to vote for our representatives, how can the organization represent us? Claiming such a role has no credit. Third, the role does not match IFCSS' culture. The organization does not work towards such a direction. Take the MFN issue as an example. Ignoring the fact that a majority of the CSS community favors the renewal of the MFN trade status, IFCSS made testimonies and released official statements against the renewal of the MFN status. Had IFCSS been our representative, such actions would certainly have betrayed the wills of the majority of the CSS community. Judged by IFCSS' expertise and experiences, IFCSS has the potential to lead the CSS community. Claiming the representative role is like to holding a gun and shooting one's own toes. This imposes too many constraints and does not give what IFCSS wants: the guaranteed the support of the CSS community. Let's look at the politics in the U.S. IFCSS is not comparable to the two major political parties in terms of resources, organization structures, expertise and experiences. Yet, those parties do not claim to REPRESENT all Americans, they only claim to WORK for all Americans. Only the members in the houses can claim to be representatives. Ideologically, being a representative of the CSS community may be a glorious label. But it would be an organizational nightmare for IFCSS. Maybe this congress is the right time to resolve the issue once for all. Otherwise, the ghost will come back and haunt IFCSS house again, again, and again! I guarantee. [From: cisssh@gsusgi2.gsu.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Reflections on IFCSS on Occasion of Its 5th Birthday........Hu Sen 55 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is a little bit difficult for me to admit that five years has already passed by since IFCSS (Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars) was born. As an IFCSS veteran I would like to write a little note as my personal mark on this occasion. First I would like to recall some of the achievements of IFCSS though it is colored by my own view. The Chinese Student Protection Act offers a choice for many of us to stay or return. It stands out as a big achievement of IFCSS in serving CSS community. It shows the power of an organization. The newcomers might learn from this. Only a strong IFCSS can provide effective means in achieving a goal like this. Initiated by the second year officers and continued by the successive officers in promoting health insurance plan and others, IFCSS becomes financially independent. This would let IFCSS survive in its own way. And more. These are the good sides. And there are other sides. The greatest complaint I heard about is on MFN lobby. It seems to me that the action IFCSS has taken is almost against majority CSS' will. It's a good thing to see that both pro-conditional MFN and unconditional-MFN's position are respected. It is not good to see that the majority CSS's opinion not reflected in IFCSS' position for a long time. Thanks to Mr. Clinton that this issue is over. However IFCSS should try to change itself not to distort its members' position again. IFCSS was born to promote China's democracy, prosperity, .... Although the officers in these years have expressed interests in those goals, it has made no significant contributions in this regard. Some other organizations or services such as CAL, CND, ACP and many others have made much progress to promote academic exchange, information services etc. Why IFCSS cannot do much on this? If one thinks more one cannot help to think about its rigid position towards China's change. From every respect China is undergoing rapid changes. The old repressive order is collapsing, the new one is yet to be constructed. It would be a great loss if IFCSS could not play a good role in such a progress. It cannot be done without active engagement in many of the affairs. To summarize, IFCSS' practice these years has nearly lost its own bases. It often ignores majority CSS' opinion. As a result many CSS don't like to consider IFCSS as their own representative on those issues and IFCSS is losing its nature as a grass-root organization. At this critical moment, I am glad to see that Mr. Luo Ning, who has been dedicated in serving IFCSS for a long time and has made many contributions both inside and outside IFCSS, stands out and is willing to lead IFCSS to a new era. I wish him, together with Liu Chengyan, a great success. [From: shu@math.ias.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. IFCSS's Political Ideals and the Politics Game, American Style...................Kangcong Zhang 130 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Five years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre prompted the founding of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (U.S.A.), some of the very leaders who helped nurture the organization in its infancy would like us to believe that the infant baby born five years ago is now a fledgling youngster ready to stand on its own feet. What great news! We have been waiting for this day all these years, have we not? A big celebration is in order. Let's call 1-800-TO-PARTY for champagne delivery. And don't forget we could use some flowers, too. But wait, what if the news is untrue? It cannot be. Why would our leaders want to mislead us with falsifies, after all? No, they wouldn't. But they could be mistaken in their judgment about our infant baby's growth. Unfortunately, mistaken they are. They erred in concluding that the political overtones of the event that gave birth to the baby five years ago are now hurting the child's prospects, and for the child to survive and succeed, we must somehow do away with them. How? Their answer: by divorcing the child from the source of lifeblood. Shocked? Real cases of children divorcing parents fought in the court of law should have better prepared you. You are not to blame if you were shocked, though. How could we not be shocked by such egregiously faulty reasoning. They say that the political ideals IFCSS were chartered to embrace have outlived their use. Hold on a second. What political ideals are they talking about? I only know that IFCSS has been promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in China as its political ideals. They are talking about the same political ideals. Then, how come they have outlived their use? Isn't today's China still far from being free, practising democracy, and respecting human rights? They don't disagree on that. What they mean, they explain, by saying IFCSS's political ideals have outlived their use is that they are turning people away from IFCSS. Now that is some news to me. Five years ago, it was exactly those ideals that united tens of thousands of Chinese students and scholars across the country; yet five short years later, you are saying they want me to believe that the same ideals are alienating us so much that we must get rid of them to survive as a community? Is it just me, or is this really a time of changes? Indeed, this is a time of changes. But not of the revolutionary kind that would render IFCSS's once popular political ideals obsolete in a mere five years, as they would like us to believe. For evidence, one does not need go farther than Ann Arbor, Michigan, where as recently as a month ago, hundreds of our fellow Chinese students and scholars at the University of Michigan were outraged by their local organization leader's disparaging remarks made of the '89 democracy movement. By a landslide vote, they impeached their leader. The Michigan incident was no surprise. In the years past, we might have been somewhat engrossed in our academic and professional pursuits; but we were not lulled into indifference. Indifference is not in our blood. If we were once hushed to pretend indifference for self-preservation, we don't want to be indifferent for one more day once we are in a free land. And we sympathize with our compatriots who still have to pretend indifference for the same reason as we did years back. Sympathy ignites action, whenever action is called for. In this sense, we are the true silent majority. Not exactly out of total coincidence, they talk about silent majority, too. Only that their silent majority simply does not exist. They talk about a silent majority that shuns politics. Mind you, politics and political ideals are hardly the same things, despite the fact that in our culture, they are often helplessly mixed up. You probably have noticed, in this country, politics is everywhere. That is because almost everybody who is somebody plays the politics game, and plays well. Not that the politics game is not played elsewhere. It is. But this country is different. And the difference, for good or for evil, traces back to the nation's constitution, which is unique in that it guarantees its citizens freedoms and rights that are not always available to peoples of other nations. Intrigued with the politics game, American style, already? Good for you. If you are not, you really ought to. To the credit of IFCSS activists from all walks of life, we as a community have not played the politics game too badly. Besides IFCSS activists, what makes our venture successful, though? You guessed it. It is our political ideals. Over the years, it was our political ideals that endeared us to the American people, who in turn helped us win our battles. And they are telling us to forget about our political ideals? We forget a lot of things in our lives. But some things stick with us forever. Our political ideals should be made among them, for none other purposes than the good of our own community, and for the good of our native country. In ensuring our political ideals are alive and well, we are also ensuring that whatever stage of growth our infant baby born five years ago is in, it will have promising prospects. [From: KCZHANG@macc.wisc.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Grow Up and Accept Our Differences.......................Dave Sheng 38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I guess everyone of us, who came from China, know how inspirational and sacred political ideals are supposed to be. That's part of our standard political education in China. And it is again so eloquently and passionately presented to us by Mr. Kangcong Zhang. However, when one evaluates the realities, passionate is not equal to objective, at least not to the people sitting on the other side of the fence, me among them. I am surprised that the most divisive issue among CSS, MFN, is not explicitly mentioned in Kangcong's discussion. To me, and to many of my friends, it is the MFN that caused our indifference to IFCSS in recent years. I don't want to repeat all the lengthy arguments for or against conditional MFN to China. But, at least, couldn't we accept it as a fact that CSS as a community is deeply divided on this issue? The previous IFCSS leaderships did not accept this division, and repeatedly made statement in support to one side of the dispute in the name of the whole CSS community. Those actions only served to make the division bitter. But there are other issues that need the whole community act in accord, such as the recent CBS incident. So, if we can't agree on one particular issue, let's argue about it, and let's acknowledge the difference among us. In that way, we can still unite ourselves in other important cases, like fighting CBS, to protect the interests of this community, etc. So, stop acting like a baby, and insisting that IFCSS takes your side (either conditional or unconditional MFN, because it's cool, inspirational, or derived from a grand ideal). Let's grow up, and accept our difference, and dissociate IFCSS from taking a stance in this fight. In that sense, and for this particular point, being "non-political" is a mature way to handle such division. [From: zfliu@leea.cchem.berkeley.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Should IFCSS Be Political or Non-political?................D. Zhang 83 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The debate that IFCSS should be political or non-political is getting hotter. Since I am a member of CSS and hope there is a strong organization to protect the interests of the majority of CSS, I would like to voice my opinion on this matter. IFCSS was found after the 6/4 massacre in 1989. In the beginning it had a strong and clear political focus, which was to oppose CCP's dictatorship and to promote freedom and democracy in China. IFCSS was political by then and represented the majority of CSS. Five years have passed. Should IFCSS still be political? I think this should be the second question. The first question one should ask is: Does IFCSS still want to represent the majority of CSS? Personally I think IFCSS has to be non-political if it really wants to represent the majority of CSS. What I mean here is that IFCSS should be neither a political organization nor an organization with strong political inclination. I am not talking about politics in the broadest sense. In the sense of political science, politics is the process of making government policies. A political organization is an organization which is organized by some of the people who act together to achieve common goals. A political organization participates in political activities such as election, lobbying, boycott and maybe even running for public office. IFCSS has been, if not a political organization, an organization with very strong political colour because it was found under the premise to be against CCP's government and actively involved in political affairs. As I remember the chairman of IFCSS went back to China last year and one of his activities was to give a letter to The National People's Congress calling for seats given to CSS overseas. I believe that IFCSS should not be a political organization or an organization with strong political inclination if it really wants to represent the majority of CSS. My view is based on two considerations. One is that the majority of CSS do not pay much attention to politics. They concern surviving and improving the quality of life. The other is, for biological, psychological, economical, ideological and whatever reasons, people have diverse political interests, attitudes and behaviors. There are maybe more than 100k people belonging to CSS and their families in the States. Among them, some might be for the CCP, some might be not against CCP, some might be against CCP but not as much as IFCSS-HQ is and some might be deadly against CCP. If IFCSS is a political organization or an organization with strong political inclination, there is no possibility for it to represent the majority of CSS. Past years political experience of IFCSS has deviated people from it. I personally do not believe IFCSS represented the majority of CSS in the U.S. It is time for IFCSS to change. Any organization, not just IFCSS, should have a public image of mainly protecting the interests of CSS if it intends to represent the majority of this society. But this does not mean a non-political organization can not have political actions. Those political actions are only part of the agenda of this organization and are only conducted on the purpose to protect the interests of the society it represents. The above statement is based on the assumption that IFCSS intends to represent the majority of CSS in the U.S. If not, it is meaningless. Some other comments: IFCSS is going to select a new HQ , president and vice-president. I wish at this time, some more political mature and capable individuals will be picked for the office. I feel it is laughable, sorry, that some things the president and vice-president did before. For example, when two polls showed the majority of CSS supported MFN to China and Clinton administration had showed the gesture to give MFN to China, the president of IFCSS claimed to represent the majority of CSS and went on a hunger strike in front of the White House to ask Clinton to revoke China's MFN. The letter to CBS-VP from the vice-president of IFCSS was another example of the political immaturity of some people in IFCSS HQ. he letter was trying to gave people an impression that we are potential spies, only because "we are against our government and love the freedom and democracy of America". There are many stories like these. Good leaders are the key to a successful organization. [From: zhang@atlas.chemistry.uakron.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Will IFCSS Help the CSS in the CBS Fighting?...............X. Fang 50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It has been said that recently people from the CBS Incident Committee have made several requests for helps to the IFCSS headquarter, yet the headquarter has not made any substantial gestures. I have to question the claim again: did this IFCSS really represent the majority of the Chinese students and scholars here? The majority of CSS here have been outraged by CBS's slanderous report on the Chinese spy issue and are demanding the justice from the public. Being an individual, Mr. Mi Mi has taken great courage to initiate this fighting committee and has been working very hard to deal with the heavy workload. Now they are experiencing for the shortage of resource, they need more volunteers, they need a strong organization to back them up, and they need all kinds of help that would benefit the fighting to seek justice. Please note to fight with CBS for justice is not only a matter of those volunteers in the CBS Incident Committee, it is the very matter of all the CSS in the United States. Being a national organization which is supposed to serve the CSS here, it is so sad to see that there is not enough concrete and helpful action from this IFCSS. Where is the IFCSS? Have IFCSS people ever heard of the cry for help from the CBS Incident Committee? Did they ever understand the great concerns of the ordinary Chinese students and scholars over the CBS issues? For an organization that repeatedly claims itself to be the representative of the majority of CSS here, this is really unimaginable. IFCSS, you are alienating yourself from your foundation among CSS. This IFCSS has been run like a quasi-CCP organization. It only cares about its political fortune. Over the years, we seldom see it cared about the interests of the CSS here. Instead, we have seen a lot of political showdown by this IFCSS: When Beijing went for Olympic Bid, they vigorously opposed it; When Jiang Zemin came to Seattle for the APEC meeting, they kept constantly asking the very same stupid question, trying to share a political meal in Beijing; We could see the IFCSS president went to Beijing to court the NPC; We also saw the very IFCSS president waged a self-humiliated hunger strike in Washington D.C. Except for these showy and empty actions which are for THEIR OWN political gains, what else has this IFCSS done?? As IFCSS 6th Congress is approaching, being an ordinary chinese student here, I would like to see some fundamental changes in this organization so that it will be much more attentive to the interests and the concerns of the majority of the CSS here, it will put the interests of the majority of CSS first, and it will engage in real work instead of lip-promise or political showoff. [From: andysz@rapid.cc.purdue.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Public Figures' Accountability......................Xiaodong Huang 97 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- We CSS live in a democratic country, yet, we have seldomly exercised democracy; People have been saying that it is very difficult to implement democracy in a Chinese community, yet we need to learn how to do it because democracy is the trend of the world. Having been here for a couple of years, I came to realize that in this country, democracy is like a soccer game, it has its rule to follow. Democracy is not mob-rule, in which the strong reasonable/unreasonable mob dominates, neither is democracy like liberalism, in which everyone acts upon its own will. Democracy has its own rule to govern its participants, trying to make things reasonable, right, justiciable and fair, from democracy's point of view. To my understanding, democracy can only be implemented when the participants have sufficient professional conscience and social morale. If not, the idea of democracy is easy to be abused. Having seen enough democracy-abused cases in the IFCSS organization, and recent development surrounding the IFCSS presidential campaign prompts me to think about what kind of public figure a democratic organization should be. In a democratic organization, public figures (people who hold official positions in that organization) should exercise their professional conscience and social morale. They shall never step out the borderline of democracy. Being in an official position means that his/her action not only represents himself/herself, but, most of the time, also has implication for the organization. As an individual, a public figure's action is of minor influence in the mass media. The reason that his/her action is actually of much more influence is due to his/her official position. That is to say, the public figure is likely, either self-consciously or self-unconsciously, to take advantage of his/her organizational affiliation. In this country, there is a check-balance system. The mass media scrutinizes to deter this kind of abuse. Yet it is still necessary for public figures to exercise their professional conscience and social morale to avoid abusing their affiliation privileges. For a so-called democratic organization like IFCSS, where no check-balance exists, this requirement is even more crucial. Unfortunately, we have seen enough abuses in the IFCSS here: people from IFCSS testified before the Congress about China's human rights issue; people from IFCSS asked for imposing conditional MFN/revoking MFN to China; and more recently people from IFCSS went on hunger strike to protest the renewal of MFN to China... All in all, they always claimed that they only represented themselves. To these kind of blatantly misleading claims, the general public can only come up with two explanations: either these public figures were/ are ignorant/idiots, which is highly impossible; or they were abusing their privilege from their official affiliation. Because, if they were not in the very position of IFCSS, would the Congress have asked them to testify there? would their/his hunger strike have drawn that kind of media attention? Since there are always the cases when public figures can not exercise their professional conscience and social morale, it is imperative that their actions should always be under the constant scrutiny of its constituents (the general public) and subject to frequent finger-pointing from its constituents. This is to deter any possible wrongdoing by the public figures. If a public figure cannot tolerate this, it is better for him/her to choose a life away from the public spot light -- this is what democracy is supposed to be. If Clinton can not sustain the accusation from this and that,it is his own responsibility, for it was his choice to run for presidency two years ago. At the same time, it is the general public responsibility to help the public figures away from wrongdoing by constantly reminding them of the existence of the eyes of the mass and pointing out any possible wrongdoing if suspected. One thing has to be mentioned when talking about the relationship between the public figures and their constituents. While the general public holds the responsibility to finger-point the public figures of any possible wrongdoing, it is the public figures' responsibility to clear themselves of any accusation/dark or black side. Since the accusation from the general public is constructive for the democracy in the large, the public figures should not be afraid of this kind of accusation, as long as they are innocent. See how Clinton handles attacks against him? No matter in "Whitewater Gate" or earlier Jennifer Flower affair or the most recently sexual harassment accusation, did Clinton counter-attack the opponents or the accusers personally or he just gave out the evidence to clear himself up? Let's try to learn how this democratic country resolves this kind of problem. This is what democracy dictates, one would better keep away from the public spot light if he/she can not tolerate public supervision and scrutiny. Talking about the accountability of public figures, I have to admit that in our surroundings, the Chinese circle (IFCSS) is barely qualified as a democratic organization. Aside from the hot stuff in the IFCSS presidential campaign, I just give a single example here. Recently, I read a message from a current public figure of IFCSS, saying, and I quote, "I have learnt that some people are very actively collecting 'dark side', include in Cornell and U. Maryland. I feel very disgusting about those exaggeration and distortion of so-called `facts'." These languages coming out of a current IFCSS officer can only tell the public what kind of democratization this IFCSS is currently now. Not only shouldn't he/she accuse/claim those "facts" as exaggeration and distortion as they have not been cleared of, but he/she should not feel disgusting toward the public's scrutiny. I have to wonder what happen in Cornell and U. Maryland? Being in a public official position, it is not appropriate to cover things up, instead, it is the public figure's responsibility to clear themselves of any suspicion so that the general public can trust them, if they are trustful. [From: xhuang@eos.ncsu.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Let's Enjoy the Negative Campaign........................Yan Huang 82 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summer is hot, World Cup is even hotter. World Cup is hot, the crossfire and debate in the two opponent presidency campaign for the sixth term IFCSS led by Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe and Luo Ning/Liu Chenyan is at least as hot, if not any hotter. Being a Chinese student here in the United States, it is really a fortune to enjoy at the same time the hot summer, hot World Cup, and hot "negative" campaign. I have to say, from a CSS point of view, the last one, is so delicious, so juicy and so spicy, and the best for you to spend your boring summer time. The hot debate began with the open letter by Mr. Zhang Qingsong, a campaign member (OR MANAGER???) in Xing Zheng's presidential campaign group. Let's recall something, in one of his open letter sent to most of the Chinese public networks in this continents, Zhang accused that Mr. Liu Chengyan, a self-claiming ordinary chinese student who happens to be a vice presidential candidate in the other campaign group (Luo Ning's campaign group), made a surprise attack on himself by asking the IFCSS SVC to investigate the possible wrongdoing by Zhang to use IFCSS 6th Congress Registration information to aid Xing Zheng's presidential campaign. Since this open letter, the counter-attacks launched by Xing Zheng's campaign members have been growing in full scale. In just several days, there have been at least 5 articles from this group to cook this accusation. There are some questions needed to be addressed here: Does Mr. Liu's request on making investigation of possible wrongdoing have some sort of ground? Why has Zhang and Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe team launched several counter attacks against this single issue? I mean, if Liu's accusation is totally unfounded, then by simply giving/listing the facts, Zhang can clear himself out and give Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe team a total trophy, and leave Luo Ning/Liu Chenyan team a ??? as we CSS here have our own judgement. Despite of the potential misleading, I just wonder if it is necessary for a campaign team to engineer itself away from what it ought to be done, to a hot paper debate/counter accusation like this. So I have to ask: who is Zhang Qingsong? To my knowledge, he is the acting editor-in-chief of the IFCSS Newsletter, and one of the campaign members of Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe team, and he may also volunteer his time to prepare for the IFCSS 6th congress. Naturally he has full access to all kinds of inside information. And historically in any contest, there are some insiders trying to manipulate the public. And it is for the justice and democracy, here in the U.S. they have media serving as "???". And I guess in such a semi-westernized style IFCSS presidential campaign, every CSS has the right to question any possible wrongdoing if the insider doesn't exercise his/her professional moral. Being a public figure who is serving in an organization such as IFCSS , it is imperative that his/her actions should be scrutinized by the ordinary people as well as other not-that-ordinary people, such as Mr. Liu Chengyan to avoid any possible wrongdoing. It is highly unhealthy to launch counter-attacks against any accusation and try to scare away any other outsiders, if they also tend to question this and that. If the public figure such as Zhang Qingsong in IFCSS is suspected of any wrongdoing, any individual in the public such as Zhang Chengyan or Li Chengyan in the IFCSS has the right to ask for clarification. This should be well understood and strictly followed. How could Xing Zheng's campaign group make it such a big fuss? The reason lies in the miraculous effect of a negative campaign strategy, which is to use any kind of means to slander the opponents, to defame the opponents and to beat the opponents. Since in the political arena there are no such words as justice/right/correct/wrong, it is really warrant for them to use any kind of positive/negative campaign to obtain ones' political goal/personal gain, or simply shut up the other party. This maybe unhealthy for IFCSS, but ...... do people who are using these unhealthy campaign strategies really care about the health of the IFCSS? Yet I am very fond of watching the crossfire here. I like to see how people use treacherous tricks to slander the other party, to defame the other party and to reap the profit therein. It is kind of street fighting. Yet it is much more interesting than street fighting as this kind of fighting is implemented by such elite Chinese intellectuals. Unfortunately, I have not seen any counter-response from the other campaign group, which makes this scene rather boring. Hopefully, we will have the chance to see both groups wage their negative campaigns in the near future. Let's enjoy the current negative campaign by Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe's campaign members and wait to see any possible negative campaign from Luo Ning/Liu Chenyan's campaign group in the future. It will be the most colorful show by CSS in this summer. [From: yan88@grace.wharton.upenn.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. What Kind of Philosophy?............................Shen Shen Kong 43 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The writer of the article "Let's Enjoy the Negative Campaign" (the writer) enjoyed seeing Liu CY, a campaign candidate to attack Zhang QS, but not enjoyed seeing the accused Zhang QS to defend himself. He has a unique philosophy which is not unfamiliar to anyone lived in China for his adult life. The accused has to give enough evidence to clear himself, to satisfy the CSS like the writer to have a chance to prove his/her ability for judgment. By the writer's view, it would be healthier if the accused would not ask the accuser to give evidence but try to prove he/she is innocent and take the burden to clear any doubt in public. People living in the US know one important rule: everyone is innocent until proved guilty, no matter whether he is ordinary Joe or famous OJ Simpson. It is not like in China that one is at high risk when being accused for something he may not be able to imagine and is not given a single chance to defend himself. There is a saying that an 8 cent stamp (meaning sending a letter) can make you worry a lot. It is unusual to see someone jumps out to accuse others without giving evidence here. The writer emphasized that any individual in the public has the right to ask for clarification if the public figure such as Zhang QS (not Liu CY) is SUSPECTED of any wrongdoing. The point to be avoided here is that the individual does not have to prove his/her suspicion is reasonable or not. This really remind me what happened in the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". What a nightmare! It is the common sense for reasonable people that the accuser has the legal responsibility to prove the raised accusation. This reminder is not for "try to scare away any other outsiders", but to emphasize that everyone has the same right to protect himself/herself's honor from groundless attacks. I do not have the knowledge if Liu CY can prove his accusation or not, but I do think it is him who face the legal responsibility now. Finally, the writer openly admitted his excitement to see negative campaign although "this maybe unhealthy for IFCSS". I quote the very meaningful question in this article here: "Do people who are using these unhealthy campaign strategies really care about the health of the IFCSS?". How about the people who enjoy seeing the Negative Campaign"? Let's take good care of IFCSS. At least that's what CSS can and should do. [From: skong@newssun.med.miami.edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. More About Negative Campaign.......................Hanren Y. Wong 57 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since Liu Chengyan openly filed his complaints to IFCSS supervisory committee, he has been blamed for doing negative campaign. As a plain student (which means I don't know inside story of IFCSS HQ), I really admire Liu Chengyan's courage to open IFCSS politics to our CSS. The only time I feel the existence of IFCSS is when its HQ collects donations. But I never learned how the donation has been spent. Enough is enough, dear IFCSS Gao Gan, I, as a common student, has got enough your "black box" operation. >From computer network, I learned that Mr. Liu Chengyan will run for the vice president of IFCSS. Personally, I don't know either tickets of P/VP candidates. However, I will vote for Mr. Liu Chengyan (Luo Ning and Liu Chengyan) since he turns IFCSS back to common Chinese Students and Scholars on US campuses. As far as my best understanding of IFCSS bylaw, any member of IFCSS can file a complaint to supervisory committee. That's the basic right to be a member of IFCSS and that's the purpose to setup a supervisory committee. If anyone blames Mr. Liu Chengyan made it public, I guess those might enjoy too much CCP/CG's "black box" operation and CCP/CG's making story to cheat people. I am not in the position to evaluate IFCSS HQ's operation during past. But I am sure that every Chinese student or scholar in this country may have an opinion on that. One question can be asked is: how much does IFCSS represent CSS in the USA now? If I remember correctly, Mr. Zhang Qingsong was the executive officer of IFCSS HQ in the last term. I am sure that he knows and understands IFCSS bylaw much better than me. Based on my understanding, if a complain is filed to supervisory committee, the committee should make it clear to public or to the related persons how the committee will do about the complaining. It is un-professional for Mr. Liu Chengyan to continue his public posting or explanation after he filed complaints. It is the equally un-professional for Mr. Zhang Qingsong to make public pursuing instead of approaching to IFCSS supervisory committee. It is purely supervisory committee's decision how to handle this complaint. The committee could conduct public investigation since the complaint was filed publicly, or the committee could keep it as secret as usual and so on. Just like the O.J. Simpson case, it is the judge's decision to make public hearing or not and how quickly it will be made. Since the prosecutors have made the case public (or by media), so the judge made the pre-hearing publicly though she could keep it unavailable to the general public. Mr. Zhang Qingsong's un-professional action on this event is irrelevant with if he is the campaign manager of candidate Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe or not. If Mr. Zhang Qingsong is really the campaign manager for Xing Zheng, it is just too sad for Xing. Because all delegates of IFCSS 6da will look what kind of manager Xing Zheng is hiring and who is supporting Xing Zheng. I sincerely suggest Xing Zheng to change his campaign manager if Zhang Qingsong is on that position now. There are many qualified persons can be Xing's campaign manager, who may have similar political standing point of view as Zhang Qingsong. For example, present IFCSS president Lin Changsheng could be Xing's best support and excellent campaign manger. I would like to make my best wishes to all candidates. [From: cd224@cleveland.Freenet.Edu] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. My Response to Mr. Wong............................Qingsong Zhang 32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is common sense in the United States that a person is innocent until proven guilty. When someone places charges against another person, the accuser is obliged to produce evidence. Since Liu Chengyan charged me "illegally used Registration Record to campaign for Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe," it is his obligation to show his evidence. Because he made the charges not only to IFCSS SVC, but also in public networks, it is only fair to ask him to release his evidence to the public. Liu Chengyan may refuse my request, but I have the right to make such requests and may resort to other means for justice. Mr. Hanren Wong claimed that I am the campaign manager of Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe camp. I have to say that he got a piece of wrong information from his informants. I am not and have never been a campaign manager. Mr. Wong is right that my qualification is not good enough to make me a campaign manager for Xing Zheng/Liu Yuhe. Whether I will support Xing Zheng or Luo Ning is a matter of personal choice and is a totally different issue. I am only concerned with Liu Chengyan's charges against me and I am demanding explanation and justice. If Liu Chengyan continues to ignore my request, I will take other necessary measures including the possibility of a lawsuit to restore my reputation. I will not comment on Hanren Wong's attacks on my personal character. I do not think he knows what he is doing. Let us respect the common sense. 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