Monday, May 24, 2010

Hillary Clinton in Beijing; response

Hillary Clinton visits Beijing;
Pro-Chinese democracy groups
run good cop/bad cop response

With open letters to Obama, Clinton, Huntsman, and Posner

By John Kusumi

The China Support Network has been known to email newsletter updates to its list. The updates also get published at its blog and website (www.chinasupport.net), and are public information that may be freely picked up by journalists, bloggers, aggregators, etc.


This time around, the format will vary. Our newsletter has news about U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, and Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner. I want to combine news writing with an open letter to them.


In the concerns of the China Support Network, Obama/Clinton/Huntsman/Posner ("OCHP") somewhat blur together. The common denominator is that they are the villains responsible for running present-day U.S. China policy, which is akin to its very own crime against humanity.


This used to be the China policy of George Herbert Walker Bush ("GHWB"), and then it was the Bill Clinton China policy, and then it was the George W. Bush China policy, and now it is the OCHP China policy. Bush, Clinton, and Bush set a very bad precedent, and now OCHP are carrying the same tune.


Context


The China Support Network is for push back at Chinese Communism. CSN formed 21 years ago upon witnessing the Tiananmen Square massacre, a man made disaster (made by China's PLA Army) and bloodbath (drawing blood from innocent Chinese civilians, in a pro-democracy uprising led by Beijing college students). CSN has been horrified to observe three more bloody Chinese crackdowns in recent years: against Falun Gong, Tibetans, and Uighurs.


The simple fact that we've observed three more bloody crackdowns should tell one and all that China has not gotten better on human rights. That was the sugar coating that Bill Clinton used to sell in his policy: "Trade will bring freedom," Clinton said. Far from it -- instead, China has gotten worse. The human rights disaster, now unfolding there, should be seen as a problem which calls into question the U.S. non-response -- which may also be called the "business-as-usual China policy."


Every year from April 15 to June 4, it is "Tiananmen season." Now it's the 21st anniversary of the seven-week uprising. 21 years ago right now, Beijing college students, not the government, held effective control at Tiananmen Square. Our big day of the year is always June 4, the anniversary of the massacre which cleared out Tiananmen Square. Many campaigners in our cause will deliver speeches on June 4.


In 2010, it seems like these seven weeks are a special time for the Obama administration to deliver insults and pathetic performances in the eyes of pro-Chinese-democracy supporters. We recently observed the farce of a Sino-U.S. human rights dialogue, conducted by Michael Posner behind closed doors, and kept under wraps at his tight-lipped press conference (and summarily buried by the U.S. news media).


News


There is something like a World's Fair occurring at the Shanghai World Expo. This weekend, Hillary Clinton visited there. It's been reported that the United States pavillion at the Expo is a drab, under-developed embarrassment. At the last minute, they threw together this pavillion with three movie theaters and a gift shop. Visitors will see three corporate sponsored movies and then be invited to "buy here." Products in the gift shop are Made In China. On second thought, maybe the pavillion is accurately reflecting America these days.


The best statesmanship of the 21st century occurred on May 20, 2010, when a TV guest said, "There's ash in the air, oil in the water, and blood in the streets." Mother nature, and the private sector, and the government all seem unable to keep their act clean. At a time like this, where do we find Hillary Clinton, and what do we find her doing? --She was giving teddy bears to children at the Shanghai World Expo!


A report by Reuters did not specify whether those particular teddy bears were Made In China. Reuters said, "After the film, Clinton handed out teddy bears to children in the audience....The U.S. exhibit ends with a gift shop where a great many products -- from teddy bears and stuffed bison to silver lapel pins and pink cowboy hats -- were all marked 'Made in China.'"


To these American leaders, the China Support Network can say, "Heckuva job with U.S. export promotion." In the 2010 Tiananmen season, your administration has displayed failure on human rights, and failure on U.S. export promotion. Also, House Resolution 605 (on 3/16/2010) called for you to escalate the matter of Falun Gong (FG) persecution and for your administration to meet with the FG freedom fighters. You have failed to do so.


Analysis


After the Cold War, it very much feels like somebody kidnapped America itself, and replaced it with America's evil twin. We used to know that liberals and conservatives alike were in favor of human rights (and for that matter, the U.S. Constitution). Now, after a concerted effort with blue smoke and mirrors, liberals and conservatives have seemingly been supplanted by neo-liberals and neo-conservatives. It may be too generous to call Obama, Clinton, Huntsman, and Posner "American leaders." More accurately, they are neo-American neo-leaders.


I, for one, am getting sick and tired of American government that is anti-American and that works against the best interests of this nation. U.S. China policy is a prime example of a policy that principally benefits the communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs of Communist China. In addition there may be about 25 CEOs in America who benefit from an inexpensive supply chain which China enables through its laogai gulag, its exploitation of labor, and its repression of worker rights and benefits -- and also through disasterous environmental policies and the manipulative currency peg to the dollar.


Those 25 CEOs are extracting profit from China trade, but more accurately, one should say "blood soaked profits." It was the choice of Bill Clinton to value and favor those 25 CEOs over and above the 1.3 billion populace of China and the 300 million populace of America. That was a dangerous, craven choice when Bill Clinton announced it in 1999, and it has been a ruinous, craven policy ever since. It has enriched communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs, and it has financed a military buildup which threatens Taiwan and the allies who would rise to Taiwan's defense; even while it has deindustrialized America and expanded U.S. unemployment and labor woes.


In 2009, it was a pratt fall for this administration's human rights policy when Hillary Clinton travelled to Beijing and minimized the human rights issue -- openly revealing contempt for the issue in her remarks to reporters. That attitude is a marker of "neo-American neo-leaders," as I call them. In response, I issued the CSN response -- perhaps the angriest post ever, to scorch her "dismal and disgusting debut." I accused her of having a tin ear, obliviousness, and an easy countenance for evil. The post was titled "Hillary Clinton Visits Her Communist Masters In Beijing," and referred to the Clintons as "the pro-Maoist first couple."


Now, she is back in Beijing for the ostensible "U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue." The human rights issue is not a part of that dialogue, because the off-line meeting with Michael Posner got that "out of the way," to enable Hillary to talk about what really interests her. (I think she has predictable talking points: Please buy our bonds. Please float your currency. Please help us with Iran. Please help us with North Korea. She might work in some export promotion, but no human rights concerns.) Basically, I can restate the headline from my earlier post: Hillary Clinton visits her Communist masters in Beijing.


My analysis really hasn't changed since last February, when I wrote:


"Hillary Clinton played her cards by basically folding. She may have inadvertently signaled to Beijing that they have a green light to invade Taiwan. This trip was a loss of face for the United States, and a blazing display of weakness. The only winners from this trip were communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs – they got the signal that they can continue doing business as usual.


"Bill and Hillary Clinton are forever in a hasty rush to Maoism. Barack Obama ought to fire Hillary Clinton."


Message


Recall that this newsletter doubles as an open letter to Obama, Clinton, Huntsman, and Posner -- and that earlier, I described U.S. China policy as "akin to its very own crime against humanity." It is also a crime against the American worker. The China policy that you are running serves to bless the U.S. trade deficit with China, and to bless the related drain of jobs from America's former industrial base. In the news, we keep hearing (maybe after health care; maybe after FINREG?) that Obama will "pivot and focus on the jobs issue."


If and when it finally comes about that your administration pivots and focuses on the jobs issue (Where have you been?), you will find it necessary to stop the flirtatious love affair with the Chinese Communist Party.


My message to you is, "Stop the flirtatious love affair with the Chinese Communist Party."


A large caucus of members in Congress recently wrote to back up Taiwan's request for F-16s. I urge you to approve and conclude that sale.


A large caucus of members in Congress (it was nearly unanimous in the House) passed H.R.605, calling for the end of Falun Gong persecution in China -- and specifically urging the administration to meet with freedom fighters and Chinese dissidents related to this cause. I urge you to heed that resolution, and therefore to meet with people such as Professor Sen Nieh, Doctors Li Dayong, Wenyi Wang and Charles Lee, etc.


For a side note, I've recently had dinner with the freedom fighters mentioned above, and they may ask to bring me in to such a meeting.


I am ambivalent when I think of meeting with you. It is an edgy call, because you might best represent sheer evil and American brain damage. At least I'm on the record with word that I am absolutely not down with the games that you play. If the name of the game was nationhood, America would respect its economic boundaries and close the trade deficit so that you stimulate the American economy rather than the Chinese economy. Under the "neo-American" China policy, nationhood is not the name of the game. More accurately, the game is private sector looting of public goods that should be protected by the public sector -- and, failing to protect American interests, I repeat that you might best represent sheer evil and American brain damage.


You simply must stop the flirtatious love affair with the Chinese Communist Party. Exactly who is well-served by this pattern of behavior on your part? Not America. Not the Chinese democracy movement. Not human rights, world-wide. Not the workers in America. Not the workers in China. The only people who are well served by this policy are the 25 CEOs who are best positioned to profit by this policy.


As you "pivot and focus on jobs" (we've been hearing that for awhile now...) you ought to be able to rebalance priorities and decide that trade deficits are a bad thing. To close the trade deficit, it is time to consider such things as a tyranny tariff, a currency manipulation/corrective tariff, a labor conditions tariff, an environmental conditions tariff, and a consumer protections tariff -- and, perhaps, a tariff that's based on respect for intellectual property. If you cannot stand up for America, its interests, and its values as above --then you ought to step aside, for leadership that can rebalance priorities and redress these grievances.


For the pro-democracy movement, we can run a good cop / bad cop routine. You have just heard from the China Support Network, in its role as the bad cop. There is also a good cop today -- known as the China Interim Government.


More news


A dissident group called the China Interim Government has been busy. They have been on the receiving end of cyber attacks from Beijing, but they have also replied with some of their own -- successfully hacking into websites of the Communist Party and planting their flag.


They have been very appreciative of the righteous move by Google, to abandon the Chinese market and to stand for internet freedom. They appreciated the speech by Hillary Clinton, escalating the priority of internet freedom as an issue.


The Washington Post recently reported, "State Department officials recently called the group, the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, offering it $1.5 million...A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the offer."


The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) is a group of Chinese freedom campaigners, and GIFC develops software to overcome the barriers of blockage and censorship that are presented by the Chinese government with its Golden Shield, or "Great Firewall of China."


Basically, the U.S. State Department is providing $1.5 million to an activist group that works in alignment with pro-Chinese democracy and Falun Gong campaigners.


The China Interim Government, where the President is the prominent Chinese dissident Wu Fan, has written to say "thank you" to the U.S. administration. I received their letter in Chinese, and I worked to improve the English from a machine translation. Here, I will insert the letter, allowing this group to speak for itself:



Dear US Government:


Regarding your recent decision to allocate funds of $1.5 million US dollars to fund the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, in pursuit of its goal to develop software that helps users worldwide to bypass the internet filtering of mainland China, we would like to indicate our support and gratitude, and applaud where it indicates your stepped up contribution for America's global promotion of internet freedom and free world values.


We believe that your promotion of internet freedom and free world values enhances the world's peace and prosperity, while also enhancing U.S. national security.


We believe that the overwhelming majority of the world's people, regardless of which country they live in, hope for themselves and their families to live in security, freedom, and a harmonious environment which encourages their hopes for honest and friendly dealings and cooperation with mutual confidence. --It is a natural instinct for humanity to hope so.


However, we have also seen the harsh realities of many forms of crime, terrorism, war, and conflict. Humanity has been through many centuries of suffering such wars and conflict. With modern technology's introduction of Weapons of Mass Destruction, humanity is faced with an impossibly heavy burden.


How to fundamentally eliminate each kind of crime and terrorism, then eliminate the war and the conflict which this produces, is already of immediate concern, and there is no time to avoid this topic!


China Interim Government takes these concerns seriously -- as seriously as we know that U.S. President Barack Obama takes his Nobel Peace Prize.


China's traditional culture believes that human nature is natively friendly -- that each person is born with instincts and tendencies to be good.


The reason we have all sorts of crimes and the terrorism, is because the will of the people has been polluted and human nature has been distorted. Regardless of whether one speaks of communism, fascism, or terrorism, the gravest injury to the world has been the pollution to the will of the people and the distortion to human nature. With violent thoughts and willful instigation, careerists of communism, fascism, and terrorism instill hatred and provoke conflict and war.


Therefore, to fundamentally eliminate such crime and terrorism, and resulting wars and conflicts, one cannot rely on hard military power exclusively. Indeed, it should be more important to purify the will of the people and cure the distortions of human nature as mentioned to solve the basic problem.


Communism, fascism, and terrorism have it in common that they control people's thoughts through brainwashing. Just as darkness fears light, their evil thoughts are frightened of real information and correct ideas. No matter whether we look back to Hitler and Stalin, or presently to Beijing, Pyongyang, or Tehran, these regimes spare no effort to block, censor, and hide the truth, real information, and correct ideas, because they base their political power on ignorance and superstition.


To break the information blockage, there is no better method than promoting and providing the impetus for internet freedom and overthrowing the on-line Berlin Wall. To fight crime and terrorism thoroughly, the best method is to enable and promote the good instincts of human nature and free world values.


Because they believe in good, yet were met by brutal persecution in China, some Falun Gong practitioners set up the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, with the goal to develop software that enables the populace of China's police state to surmount the on-line Berlin Wall. An understanding of information from the free world is a sharp weapon in their battle with evil.


Other Falun Gong practitioners set up the Shen Yun performing arts troupe, to reinvigorate traditional Chinese arts. They have toured the world to high acclaim, winning hearts and minds as they restore the human spirit. Because they fear the power of such revivals and spiritual awakenings, the CCP/mainland government arranged to block, cancel, and obstruct their performances in Hong Kong, which were scheduled earlier this year.


From the internet blockade and from the banning of the Shen Yun performing arts shows, we can clearly read from this how very fearful the CCP/mainland government is. Influence from the free world and from Falun Gong can eradicate the violent thoughts, the brainwashing, the distortion of human nature, the pollution of the people's will, and can thereby challenge the crime, the terrorism, the conflict, and the war.


In this sense, we find it significant that the US Government has allocated funds to the Global Internet Freedom Consortium. This gives a boost to Falun Gong practitioners who would rise above the mundane; it sets them up to succeed; and it signals that the US Government is doing fundamental ground work to combat many kinds of crime and terrorism.


We think this is a great beginning. To the US Government, this is only a half step, but in regard to the many layers of crises in human culture; in regard to solving world conflicts and wars; this is a stride in the right direction.


China Interim Government now admires the acuity of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. These matters give us more hope and anticipation that in the near future, by working together with sincere cooperation, that we and the US Government can build a legacy of peace for the universe, and a prosperous and happy world.


# # #

Monday, May 10, 2010

For U.S.-China rights dialogue this week

CSN ‘cautiously pessimistic’ about
U.S.-China rights dialogue

This week, the U.S. and China will meet in Washington
to discuss human rights. CSN issues demands for
the Communists, the Americans, and the media.

A public statement for immediate release, May 10, 2010
By John Kusumi, President, the China Support Network


The China Support Network began in 1989 when Tiananmen Square's bloody massacre – armed government troops slaughtering unarmed citizens and college students – was brazenly committed on world television. The occasion demanded push back against the Communist Party, which continues to be China’s government today. I described the atrocity and crackdown as "huge, epic, monumental, egregious, and not to be forgotten by history."

I was a fresh-faced 22-year-old undergraduate of Arizona State University. At that time, I was not versed in the full history of the CCP -- the Chinese Communist Party. They had seized power by barrels of guns, winning a civil war in 1949, and had then ruled China with an iron fist for 40 years.

At Tiananmen Square, they had called out the army against their own people, led by the college students of Beijing, who had taken over Tiananmen Square for seven weeks. It is good to recall that before it was a massacre, Tiananmen Square was an uprising that demanded freedom, democracy, and human rights for the populace of mainland China.

Chinese dissidents vowed to continue the Chinese democracy movement by other means, and the China Support Network vowed to help the cause. I’ve now had 21 years of running the China Support Network in the service of China's democracy movement. The rule of Communism in that land is now 61 years long, and I have been fighting it for half of my lifetime.

Or perhaps, in 1989 I was not so very fresh-faced. I first appeared in America’s national news as the "18-year-old" candidate for U.S. President in 1984, talking up the politics of practical idealism. Having begun at age 17, I gave new meaning to the term "minor candidate." Seemingly, I began by wagging my finger at America about its politics, and more recently I’ve been scolding China about its politics and human rights abuses, which include killing – lots of killing.

All of that killing in Communist China remains the point of the China Support Network and the wider international human rights community, of which CSN is a part. The CSN is known as a human rights group and NGO, meaning a non-governmental organization within civil society. We are also part of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

This week, on May 13-14, America and China have slated meetings in Washington for a human rights dialogue, being resumed for the first time since 2008. Ostensibly, this is about the concerns of the China Support Network.

The meeting this week comes during "Tiananmen season." Every year from April 17-June 4, it is the anniversary of events in Tiananmen Square -- the uprising before the crackdown. 21 years ago right now, the Square was occupied territory, controlled by college students such as Zhou Yongjun, who recently got a third prison term as a political prisoner, sentenced to spend the next 9 years incarcerated.

Likewise, Tiananmen figure Liu Xiaobo recently got a third prison term as a political prisoner, sentenced to 11 years’ incarceration. The two prison sentences are a signal that Beijing fully intends on having a third decade of ongoing persecution in the Tiananmen crackdown. Beijing should cancel the third decade of this evil crackdown, and Washington should place extremely high priority on pressing Beijing for this purpose.

The China Support Network demands the release of Zhou and Liu and also Wang Bingzhang and Gao Zhisheng. Zhou and Wang gained U.S. permanent residency and each fathered children who are U.S. citizens. The China Support Network demands that their families be reunited.

Indeed, we will agitate in Congress for U.S. citizenship bestowed by an act of Congress. This is because the U.S. State Department, in our view, cannot be trusted to handle these cases appropriately in the absence of Congressional pressure.

And we certainly don’t trust the oddly-named “news media” to keep the spotlight on these cases or on other Chinese abuses. Indeed, any and all abuses from Communist China have been swept under the rug in recent years by the news media. Any global citizens who are anti-communist can share in our disgust at the U.S. news media.

Perhaps the complaints of the two preceding paragraphs should be rephrased into demands. The China Support Network demands that the U.S. State Department escalate the cases of Zhou, Liu, Wang, and Gao into top priorities in U.S.-China relations. And, the China Support Network demands that American news outlets -- such as the AP, CNN, and news divisions of ABC, CBS, and NBC – return to prominence the human rights conditions of Communist China.

Those abuses were prominent in the first decade after Tiananmen Square, and U.S. media did a lousy job in the second decade after Tiananmen Square. These media have become a rogues gallery of dubious departments. They have spent a decade avoiding candor about human rights in China, so this seems to be a challenging week for their copy writers. Will they let on that they know about these other abuses? : –

–The China Support Network demands the immediate end of the system of Laogai slave labor camps, and the immediate end of the system of Laojiao that is administrative detention in China.

–The China Support Network demands the immediate end of the crackdown on Falun Gong, and the immediate end of the practice of killing prisoners (including prisoners of conscience) for the sale of their organs in transplant surgery.

–The China Support Network demands the immediate end of the crackdown against Tibetans, and the immediate end of the crackdown against Uighur Muslims.

The ending of these crackdowns must include the release of the prisoners of conscience: innocent people who have been swept up in these dragnets employed by a Communist police state.

Of the news media, the China Support Network demands immediate exposure of our high-profile prisoner cases and abuses in these cases; we demand immediate exposure of Laogai camps and the Laojiao system; we demand immediate coverage of the crackdown against Falun Gong, and the practice of killing prisoners for the sale of their organs. We demand that the media follow up on the crackdowns against Tibetans and Uighurs. And, we demand to see the prisoners of conscience who are the subject of our concern above.

Will this week’s human rights dialogue be a stunning success – because they will stop the killing? Or, will it be an abject failure that highlights Sino-U.S. fecklessness and government inability to change its evil ways? That answer remains to be seen.

This is definitely an opportunity for U.S. policymakers and media to do the right thing. The importance of these talks cannot be overstated. The stakes are life and death.

However, the U.S. policymakers and media have two track records of doing the wrong things on these issues. The U.S. executive branch established its act in 1989. The blood at Tiananmen was barely dry when the U.S. executive pushed to renew Most Favored Nation status. They have never varied their act since then – U.S. China policy has been a tune with one note.

As a result, the China Support Network is “cautiously pessimistic” as it anticipates the outcome of this week’s talks. Communists should stop the killing. U.S. policymakers should stop the MFN. Media should report the killing. The killing only continues because all three groups have done the wrong thing. Shame on them!