Salon | Letters to the editor: An open letter to Jiang Zemin, president, People's Republic of China

_______________ AN OPEN LETTER TO JIANG ZEMIN, PRESIDENT, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Your excellency,
During your state visit to the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) respectfully urges you to read the papers and watch the evening news. Dig through the daily reporting in Philadelphia, where you will visit Independence Hall, for example, or in Boston, the cradle of the American Revolution, and you will get a clear picture of what it means to live in a democracy.
Most important, Mr. President, the journalists reporting on the events you will read about here will not be arrested, detained or imprisoned for doing their job. In China, at least 16 journalists are serving long prison sentences for alleged offenses having to do with their news or opinion reporting. We respectfully suggest that you order these journalists freed.
We do not mention the American press merely to hold it up as an example, but rather to make a point: In a stable, prosperous democracy, a free press is a source of strength. Nowhere, in our view, is this case made more strongly than in the "special administrative region" of Hong Kong, which has just been reunited with China.
In what is the freest, most prosperous Chinese city, the press has been free to do its job without fear of retribution. With 16 major daily newspapers, two commercial television stations and two radio stations, in addition to the seven English- and Chinese-language outlets of government-owned but independently operated Radio Television Hong Kong, the media have flourished in Hong Kong.
Contrast that situation with the conditions in the rest of your country, Mr. President. In China, dissidents and journalists are routinely imprisoned, foreign reporters can be expelled without cause, a free press is a distant dream, and financial markets rise and fall on the strength of rumor rather than information.
Already, we fear, the poison that has subdued the press in China is beginning to infect Hong Kong. Local journalists and public opinion polls report a disturbing increase in self-censorship and a marked unwillingness by some to freely criticize the Chinese government. Reporters note that Executive Secretary Tung Chee-hwa is less accessible to the press than his predecessor, British Gov. Chris Patten. Hong Kong reporters continue to face strictures when working in China.
While we take heart from the fact that no overt controls have been placed on the Hong Kong media by the Chinese government, we are concerned for the future. Your record, Mr. President, is not good. In addition to the journalists in jail in China, many of them held for years without charges, others are cowed into submission by fear of similar treatment. According to the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report, "all public dissent against the party and government was effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, the imposition of prison terms, administrative detention or house arrest."
We are genuinely impressed by the economic gains made by China in recent years, Mr. President, but we ask you not to equate repression with strength, or silence with consent. China is weaker for having muzzled the courageous voices of writers like Wei Jingsheng and Gao Yu. We urge you again to take this opportunity, while you are in the United States, to order the release from prison of Wei Jinsheng, Gao Yu and the 14 other imprisoned journalists listed below.
As an organization dedicated to press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists further asks you to affirm your government's commitment to non-interference in Hong Kong, especially with regard to the territory's free press. Take no steps, Mr. President, to enact harsh national security legislation aimed at curbing the liberty of the Hong Kong press.
We also ask that you lift the strict government controls on the media in China. Allow journalists to travel freely and report on what they see. Allow financial reporters to hold Chinese companies and markets accountable to public scrutiny and the rule of law. Allow the foreign and local press free access to "forbidden" territories like Tibet and Xinjiang, in order to lift the cloud of secrecy that has surrounded these and other parts of China.
In short, Mr. President, broaden the dramatic steps you have taken to liberalize and modernize the Chinese economy by wedding those policies to a real commitment to improve the lives of the Chinese people through participation in an open society based on the rule of law, with a free and unhindered press.
Sincerely,

-- The Committee to Protect Journalists

Sixteen Journalists Imprisoned in China:

Fan Jianping, Jin Naiyi. Imprisoned: 1989. Fan and other journalists with Beijing Ribao (Beijing Daily) were arrested sometime after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 4, 1989.
Ji Kunxing, Shang Jingzhong, Shi Qing, Yu Anmin. Imprisoned: September 1989. Tried in Kunming on charges of "fomenting a counterrevolutionary plot." The four had published an underground magazine called Pioneers, circulated anti-government leaflets and put up anti-government posters.
Li Jian. Imprisoned: July 1989. Li, a journalist with Wenyi Bao (Literature and Arts News), was arrested and detained.
Yang Hong. Imprisoned: June 13, 1989. Yang, a reporter for Zhongguo Qingnian Bao (China Youth News), was arrested in Kunming and charged with circulating "rumormongering leaflets" and protesting against corruption.
Yu Zhongmin. Imprisoned: 1989. Yu, a journalist with Fazhi Yuekan (Law Monthly) in Shanghai, was arrested sometime after the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He was later described in an article in Wenhui Daily as an "agitator" of the Shanghai student demonstrations.
Chen Yanbin. Imprisoned: Late 1990. Chen, a former Qinghua University student, was arrested in late 1990 and sentenced to 15 years in prison and four years without political rights after his release. Together with Zhang Yafei, he had produced an unofficial magazine called Tieliu (Iron Currents) about the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The government termed the publication "reactionary" and charged Chen with dissemination of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement. Zhang, a former student at Beifang Communications University, was sentenced In March 1991 to 11 years in prison and two years without political rights after his release.
Wu Shishen. Imprisoned: October or November 1992. Arrested in 1992, Wu, a Xinhua news agency reporter, received a life sentence in August 1993 for providing a Hong Kong journalist with a "state classified" advance copy of President Jiang Zemin's 14th Party Congress address.
Ma Tao. Imprisoned: August 1993. The editor of China Health Education News received a six-year prison term for allegedly helping Wu, who is believed to be Ma's husband.
Gao Yu. Imprisoned: Oct. 2, 1993. Gao was detained two days before she was to depart for the United States to start a one-year research fellowship at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. On Nov. 10, 1994, she was tried without counsel and sentenced to six years in prison for "leaking state secrets" about China's structural reforms in articles she wrote for the pro-Beijing Hong Kong magazine Mirror Monthly. Gao Yu had previously been jailed for 14 months following the June 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and released in August 1990 after showing symptoms of a heart condition. On May 3, 1997, Gao was awarded the World Press Freedom Prize by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Wei Jingsheng. Imprisoned: April 1, 1994. Police detained Wei, one of the most prominent dissidents in China and former co-editor of the pro-democracy journal Tansuo (Explorations), shortly after he met with John Shattuck, the U.S. assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. On Dec. 13, 1995, a Beijing court convicted him of "conspiring to subvert the government" and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. Previously, Wei served 14 years of a 15-year sentence for "counter-revolutionary" activities that included writing essays criticizing the government and promoting democratic rule. In June 1997, Wei, suffering from chronic illness, was severely beaten by six criminals assigned to guard him in prison.
Wang Dan. Imprisoned: May 21, 1995. Wang, a former student leader, pro-democracy activist and frequent contributor to foreign publications, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to subvert the government. He had been detained at an undisclosed location since May 1995. Wang's offenses included publishing articles that were deemed objectionable by Beijing and receiving donations from foreign human rights groups. Wang previously had been jailed for nearly four years after he led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
For more information, contact:
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001 USA
Phone: (212) 465-1004 Fax: (212) 465-9568
Web: http://www.cpj.org E-Mail: info@cpj.org
SALON | Oct. 30, 1997

R E C E N T L Y+| BAD GIRL By Nell Bernstein

If you'd like to submit a letter to the editor for publication,
please e-mail us at salon@salonmagazine.com.
Letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness.
If you do not wish the letter to be published, please say so.

_______________ AN OPEN LETTER TO JIANG ZEMIN, PRESIDENT, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
	Your excellency, During your state visit to the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) respectfully urges you to read the papers and watch the evening news. Dig through the daily reporting in Philadelphia, where you will visit Independence Hall, for example, or in Boston, the cradle of the American Revolution, and you will get a clear picture of what it means to live in a democracy. Most important, Mr. President, the journalists reporting on the events you will read about here will not be arrested, detained or imprisoned for doing their job. In China, at least 16 journalists are serving long prison sentences for alleged offenses having to do with their news or opinion reporting. We respectfully suggest that you order these journalists freed. We do not mention the American press merely to hold it up as an example, but rather to make a point: In a stable, prosperous democracy, a free press is a source of strength. Nowhere, in our view, is this case made more strongly than in the "special administrative region" of Hong Kong, which has just been reunited with China. In what is the freest, most prosperous Chinese city, the press has been free to do its job without fear of retribution. With 16 major daily newspapers, two commercial television stations and two radio stations, in addition to the seven English- and Chinese-language outlets of government-owned but independently operated Radio Television Hong Kong, the media have flourished in Hong Kong. Contrast that situation with the conditions in the rest of your country, Mr. President. In China, dissidents and journalists are routinely imprisoned, foreign reporters can be expelled without cause, a free press is a distant dream, and financial markets rise and fall on the strength of rumor rather than information. Already, we fear, the poison that has subdued the press in China is beginning to infect Hong Kong. Local journalists and public opinion polls report a disturbing increase in self-censorship and a marked unwillingness by some to freely criticize the Chinese government. Reporters note that Executive Secretary Tung Chee-hwa is less accessible to the press than his predecessor, British Gov. Chris Patten. Hong Kong reporters continue to face strictures when working in China. While we take heart from the fact that no overt controls have been placed on the Hong Kong media by the Chinese government, we are concerned for the future. Your record, Mr. President, is not good. In addition to the journalists in jail in China, many of them held for years without charges, others are cowed into submission by fear of similar treatment. According to the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report, "all public dissent against the party and government was effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, the imposition of prison terms, administrative detention or house arrest." We are genuinely impressed by the economic gains made by China in recent years, Mr. President, but we ask you not to equate repression with strength, or silence with consent. China is weaker for having muzzled the courageous voices of writers like Wei Jingsheng and Gao Yu. We urge you again to take this opportunity, while you are in the United States, to order the release from prison of Wei Jinsheng, Gao Yu and the 14 other imprisoned journalists listed below. As an organization dedicated to press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists further asks you to affirm your government's commitment to non-interference in Hong Kong, especially with regard to the territory's free press. Take no steps, Mr. President, to enact harsh national security legislation aimed at curbing the liberty of the Hong Kong press. We also ask that you lift the strict government controls on the media in China. Allow journalists to travel freely and report on what they see. Allow financial reporters to hold Chinese companies and markets accountable to public scrutiny and the rule of law. Allow the foreign and local press free access to "forbidden" territories like Tibet and Xinjiang, in order to lift the cloud of secrecy that has surrounded these and other parts of China. In short, Mr. President, broaden the dramatic steps you have taken to liberalize and modernize the Chinese economy by wedding those policies to a real commitment to improve the lives of the Chinese people through participation in an open society based on the rule of law, with a free and unhindered press. Sincerely, -- The Committee to Protect Journalists Sixteen Journalists Imprisoned in China: Fan Jianping, Jin Naiyi. Imprisoned: 1989. Fan and other journalists with Beijing Ribao (Beijing Daily) were arrested sometime after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 4, 1989. Ji Kunxing, Shang Jingzhong, Shi Qing, Yu Anmin. Imprisoned: September 1989. Tried in Kunming on charges of "fomenting a counterrevolutionary plot." The four had published an underground magazine called Pioneers, circulated anti-government leaflets and put up anti-government posters. Li Jian. Imprisoned: July 1989. Li, a journalist with Wenyi Bao (Literature and Arts News), was arrested and detained. Yang Hong. Imprisoned: June 13, 1989. Yang, a reporter for Zhongguo Qingnian Bao (China Youth News), was arrested in Kunming and charged with circulating "rumormongering leaflets" and protesting against corruption. Yu Zhongmin. Imprisoned: 1989. Yu, a journalist with Fazhi Yuekan (Law Monthly) in Shanghai, was arrested sometime after the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He was later described in an article in Wenhui Daily as an "agitator" of the Shanghai student demonstrations. Chen Yanbin. Imprisoned: Late 1990. Chen, a former Qinghua University student, was arrested in late 1990 and sentenced to 15 years in prison and four years without political rights after his release. Together with Zhang Yafei, he had produced an unofficial magazine called Tieliu (Iron Currents) about the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The government termed the publication "reactionary" and charged Chen with dissemination of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement. Zhang, a former student at Beifang Communications University, was sentenced In March 1991 to 11 years in prison and two years without political rights after his release. Wu Shishen. Imprisoned: October or November 1992. Arrested in 1992, Wu, a Xinhua news agency reporter, received a life sentence in August 1993 for providing a Hong Kong journalist with a "state classified" advance copy of President Jiang Zemin's 14th Party Congress address. Ma Tao. Imprisoned: August 1993. The editor of China Health Education News received a six-year prison term for allegedly helping Wu, who is believed to be Ma's husband. Gao Yu. Imprisoned: Oct. 2, 1993. Gao was detained two days before she was to depart for the United States to start a one-year research fellowship at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. On Nov. 10, 1994, she was tried without counsel and sentenced to six years in prison for "leaking state secrets" about China's structural reforms in articles she wrote for the pro-Beijing Hong Kong magazine Mirror Monthly. Gao Yu had previously been jailed for 14 months following the June 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and released in August 1990 after showing symptoms of a heart condition. On May 3, 1997, Gao was awarded the World Press Freedom Prize by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Wei Jingsheng. Imprisoned: April 1, 1994. Police detained Wei, one of the most prominent dissidents in China and former co-editor of the pro-democracy journal Tansuo (Explorations), shortly after he met with John Shattuck, the U.S. assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. On Dec. 13, 1995, a Beijing court convicted him of "conspiring to subvert the government" and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. Previously, Wei served 14 years of a 15-year sentence for "counter-revolutionary" activities that included writing essays criticizing the government and promoting democratic rule. In June 1997, Wei, suffering from chronic illness, was severely beaten by six criminals assigned to guard him in prison. Wang Dan. Imprisoned: May 21, 1995. Wang, a former student leader, pro-democracy activist and frequent contributor to foreign publications, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to subvert the government. He had been detained at an undisclosed location since May 1995. Wang's offenses included publishing articles that were deemed objectionable by Beijing and receiving donations from foreign human rights groups. Wang previously had been jailed for nearly four years after he led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. For more information, contact: Committee to Protect Journalists 330 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 10001 USA Phone: (212) 465-1004 Fax: (212) 465-9568 Web: http://www.cpj.org E-Mail: info@cpj.org SALON \| Oct. 30, 1997