White House phone call to Christina FuWhite House White House phone call to Christina Fu (Fu Xiang, wife of Yang Jianli) Amid reaction to the Yang Jianli sentencing, "U.S. rights policy with China is invisible but for a phone call" May 14, 2004 (CSN) -- Responses have continued to the Thursday news of China's harsh sentence -- 5 years' incarceration -- for U.S. based Chinese dissident Yang Jianli. U.S. lawmakers were sharply critical. Chris Cox, a House Republican from California, reflected that Sino-U.S. relations are strained to the breaking point by saying that China's sentence for Yang "makes it extraordinarily difficult to treat the People's Republic of China as a civilized and rational government and to maintain a dialogue with it." Shengde Lian, Executive Director of the Free China Movement, said, "detaining Yang for two years without allowing family visit and charges is not due process of law and should be condemned; This is the same experience I and many other students activists in Beijing Qincheng Prison experienced right after the Beijing Massacre in 1989." D.J. McGuire, President of the China e-Lobby, said, "Yang was incredibly brave, willing to risk his life and his freedom in America to help his fellow Chinese resisting the Communist regime. His sentence, and the refusal to allow for time served, is a sign of just how scared the Communists are of the people he came to help, ordinary workers demanding fair treatment from a state supposedly built in their name. While I hope he is 'expelled' to the U.S., I am concerned that the attention this case has generated will fade once he returns, and the Communists will then be able to continue lying to, stealing from, and torturing their own people. That cannot be allowed to happen once, I hope, Yang is back on American soil." Curry Kenworthy, Field Director of the China Support Network, said, "It comes as no surprise that Communist China has sentenced another innocent person. The free world should call for the immediate release of not only Yang Jianli, but all of China's prisoners of conscience, faith, and ethnicity." On Thursday, Yang's wife Christina Fu received a call from the White House's National Security Council, "assuring me that the United States is very concerned about this verdict and deeply troubled by the sentencing of Yang." And now, a closely-related editorial by John Kusumi at CSN,for the Bush administration Where is White House rights policy with China? "Dialing for dissidents"? I guess it's nice that a phone call comes into our community, but I can't point to any other component of White House rights policy with China. Last month in Geneva, there were two setbacks: the resolution failed, and China discontinued human rights dialogue. In other words, last month, White House rights policy with China became shredded, much like the Columbia space shuttle over Texas. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice should be looking under their couch cushions, saying, "Dude, where's our rights policy?" It is easier to find Iraqi WMDs than to find White House rights policy with China. The Yang Jianli case has had its high level attention, and we appreciate what we have heard of the efforts from Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice. The trouble is that White House policy has come down to this one case of one man. The immediate trouble upon his release is that there are 5 million more Yang Jianli's who ought to be released in China, and there are Tibetans who ought to be released. A Geneva resolution would have been better for its across-the-board applicability. Or, as Mr. Kenworthy suggested above, a call to release "all of China's prisoners of conscience, faith, and ethnicity." Furthermore, such call should be backed up with teeth. The United States needs to restore its credibility on human rights, and what better way than to finally get serious with Chinese abuses? Rights policy recently shredded like the Columbia over Texas. We saw that, and we were about to make a Lian / Kusumi, or Free China / China Support, co-signed Op-Ed, to note that the White House needs 'Plan B,' and they owe us one. The White House must arrive at the new 'Plan B' China policy. We were further going to note, that China's PNTR is not literally trade itself, nor is it WTO membership. PNTR is literally the absence of MFN reviews, and we would like to bring MFN reviews back into the Sino-U.S. relationship. That doesn't even impact business, but it makes China worry about next year. It gives the sense of getting tough with China, but this move is rhetorical, without business consequences. To revoke PNTR is the obvious smooth move du jour. At this point, it is indicated, and we are calling for the removal of PNTR trading status for China. I will use some of my editorial space here to quote my colleagues. Shengde Lian, Executive Director of the Free China Movement, said, "The policy recommendation to revoke PNTR -- that's always our point. Unconditional PNTR was wrong in 2000 and still in 2004. USA needs a realistic, effective and powerful policy with China -- not the one we have today which is helping the regime to grow at a dangerous speed which will be a growing threat to USA's own security in the coming future. Not to mention the human rights policy that comes after the unconditional PNTR. This explains [why] there is arrest of all known CDP activists, kidnapping of Dr. Wang, permanent detention of Dr. Yang and ruthless suppression of any dissent in mainland and Hong Kong." Curry Kenworthy, Field Director of the China Support Network, took exception to singling out one dissident and to handling one case at a time. He said, "If Congress sits down to do anything less than demand a release of all political prisoners, as well as immediately re-linking trade with human rights and democracy (and anti-terrorism and anti-proliferation requirements) and starting the ball rolling on defense against China's military buildup and negative international influence, it's frankly a huge waste." The White House scratched the surface by calling Christina Fu. If they had the guts to call Lian, Kusumi, Kenworthy, and McGuire, they would get the above earful. But, more than dialing for dissidents, the White House should implement the above policy. I'm preparing my speech for June 4, the fifteenth anniversary of Tiananmen Square, and rather than denounce everybody, I would prefer instead to thank everybody. As a start, let me thank you for reading today's editorial. -------------------------- |