<DOC>
[108th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:86862.wais]
OPEN FORUM ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINA
=======================================================================
ROUNDTABLE
before the
CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 10, 2003
__________
Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov
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CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
House
Senate
JIM LEACH, Iowa, Chairman CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska, Co-Chairman
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming
DAVID DREIER, California SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas
FRANK WOLF, Virginia PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
JOE PITTS, Pennsylvania GORDON SMITH, Oregon
SANDER LEVIN, Michigan* MAX BAUCUS, Montana
MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio* CARL LEVIN, Michigan
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio* DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JIM DAVIS, Florida* BYRON DORGAN, North Dakota
EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
PAULA DOBRIANSKY, Department of State*
GRANT ALDONAS, Department of Commerce*
D. CAMERON FINDLAY, Department of Labor*
LORNE CRANER, Department of State*
JAMES KELLY, Department of State*
John Foarde, Staff Director
David Dorman, Deputy Staff Director
* Appointed in the 107th Congress; not yet formally appointed in
the 108th Congress.
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
STATEMENTS
Zhou, Roy, president, the Association of Chinese Students and
Scholars of the New York Area, New York, NY.................... 2
Crook, Frederick, independent consultant, the China Group, Great
Falls, VA...................................................... 3
Chen, Yali, research assistant, the Center for Defense
Information, Washington, DC.................................... 5
Dorjee, Lhundup, a Washsington, DC area resident speaking on
behalf of the Capital Area Tibetan Association [CATA].......... 6
Mr. Tenzin, a Washington, DC-based Tibetan exile who recently
visited Tibet for the first time............................... 8
Turkel, Nuri, general secretary, the Uighur American Association,
Washington, DC................................................. 9
Walton, Greg, a research consultant focusing on the Internet's
impact on human rights, New York, NY........................... 11
Huang, Ciping, Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition and
Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars,
Whitehouse, OH................................................. 13
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements
Zhou, Roy........................................................ 28
Crook, Frederick W............................................... 30
Chen, Yali....................................................... 36
Dorjee, Lhundup.................................................. 38
Turkel, Nury..................................................... 39
Walton, Greg..................................................... 41
Huang, Ciping.................................................... 45
OPEN FORUM ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW IN CHINA
----------
MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2003
Congressional-Executive
Commission on China,
Washington, DC.
The open forum was convened, pursuant to notice, at 2 p.m.,
in room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, John Foarde [staff
director] presiding.
Also present: Steve Marshall, senior advisor; and Lary
Brown, specialist on labor issues.
Mr. Foarde. Welcome, everyone, this afternoon to the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China's open forum. The
open forum is a format of our biweekly issues roundtables that
we have been holding for just about a year now.
It is a special format in that we open it to anyone who
wishes to register with us in advance to speak for 5 minutes on
any subject within the mandate of the Commission, that is, on
human rights and the development of the rule of law in China.
In the other issues roundtables that we hold, we normally
invite specific speakers to address specific issues. But the
open forum gives a chance for people who might normally not be
able to appear on a specific issue panel to come and share
their views with us. So, we are delighted to continue this
format once in a while, and delighted that we have eight
panelists this afternoon to share their views with us.
We are going to hear four panelists first, then four after
a very brief break to change seats. Then we will do questions
and answers and figure out the most convenient way to address
those questions. We may have to set a microphone up over here
on the side and let someone sit down there.
Each panelist is permitted to make an oral presentation for
5 minutes and then we will go on to the next speaker. We will
have a question and answer session after everyone has spoken,
so some of the points that you may not have had time for, we
hope we will be able to get to during the Q&A session.
Our timer up here is set for 4 minutes, then I will give
you a signal, either orally or by flashing a yellow card, that
will tell you that you have 1 minute left to wrap up your
remarks.
We have a very interesting set of speakers this afternoon,
a very diverse set. Without further ado, I would like to
introduce the president of the Association of Chinese Students
and Scholars of the New York Area, Mr. Roy Zhou, who will help
us.
Please, Mr. Zhou.
STATEMENT OF ROY ZHOU, PRESIDENT, THE ASSOCIATION OF CHINESE
STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS OF THE NEW YORK AREA, NEW YORK, NY
Mr. Zhou. Good afternoon. I am very delighted to come here
and give this presentation to you on behalf of the Chinese
Students and Scholars studying in the New York area. We are the
largest group of its kind here in the United States, and the
only regional one.
Today, I want to talk about this special group of people
who are of increasing importance to both America and China--the
Chinese students and scholars who are studying and living here.
I want to talk about three issues. First, most Chinese
students come to the United States for the academic excellence
and the opportunity to pursue their studies at American
universities.
However, there are certain people who have been driven by
some interests and advocated the so-called ``China Threat''
concept, and claim that many Chinese students are spies.
Recently, the New York Times reported that the FBI is
recruiting Chinese students as spies for the United States
Government. This has brought an in-depth discussion in the
Chinese community. Most foreign students follow the rules and
regulations well and are not interested in getting involved in
politics. The Chinese community was silent in the past, but
this does not mean we have no position. We want to stay away
from politics and from spy issues.
We came to the United States for academic and personal
development and for improvement of the U.S.-China relationship,
not for spying.
Second, Chinese students receive acceptance into U.S.
institutions through competitive exams and the rest of the
admission process on an equal basis with American students.
Unfortunately, many dreams are broken because of unreasonably
high rates of visa refusals, including many of those who were
granted a full scholarship at prestigious U.S. institutions.
A number of Chinese students who returned to China during
the winter break were either refused a visa to reenter or had
to wait for almost 6 months for a security check in China.
For example, there are at least four students from Stony
Brook University who were not able to return to school for the
spring semester and they are still waiting in China. They have
to postpone their studies until the new semester starts.
For these students, the delay of visas imposed big
difficulties to their study and personal life. For example,
Heng Zhu, a post-doctoral scholar at Yale University in its
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology,
was refused the visa.
The Wall Street Journal reported his story, saying, ``His
absence of work due to the visa issue has derailed work under a
$1.5
million National Institutes of Health grant to understand how
thousands of genes work, a process that could ultimately aid
drug discovery.'' Clearly, the loss of such students and
scholars undermines the U.S. national interest.
Third, we respect U.S. policy on homeland security and we
firmly support the war on terror. However, treating foreign
nationals nicely will help the U.S. global image.
We are wondering if it is possible for the Bureau of
Citizenship and Immigration Services [BCIS] to consider
providing a new service to accept the security check
application prior to departure from the United States for
foreign aliens already in the United States.
Accredited foreign aliens will receive expedited processing
when they re-apply for a visa in their home country. If
possible, this would be beneficial to foreigners, especially
enrolled students, while not compromising homeland security
measures.
At last, we wish the two great nations prosperity and
friendship. We also hope to be able to contribute to the
increasing U.S.-China communications on politics, economics,
trade, culture, and education, and help improve the relations
between the two countries.
Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with
you. I would be glad to try and respond to any questions you
may have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Zhou appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. Thank you for your presentation. You bring up
some very serious issues. I hope, in the question and answer
session, we can have a minute to discuss them further. Thank
you.
Our next panelist is an independent consultant currently
with The China Group, but had a long and distinguished career
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an agricultural
economist, and a student of Chinese rural areas and Chinese
agriculture.
I have benefited many times in the past from your
presentations and look forward to hearing from you today.
Fred Crook.
STATEMENT OF FREDERICK CROOK, INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT, THE CHINA
GROUP, GREAT FALLS, VA
Mr. Crook. I appreciate the opportunity to come and
participate on this panel. The topic that I would like to talk
about is living conditions in rural villages. I would like to
talk about three things.
The first one is the wide gap between urban and rural
living standards. The second thing, is the growing tension
between
China's basic-level institutions, the popularly elected village
committees, with the Party-appointed village party branch.
The third topic is the specter of famine that lies over
many Chinese villages to this day and the effects that it is
having.
I think probably one of the most serious problems China
has, is that in the last 50 years China's leaders have
constructed a two-sector society, a modern, urban, wealthy
China and a backward, rural, and poor China.
This ``house divided'' is a major weakness in contemporary
China. To unite this house into a major Asian power will take
enormous effort and resources and may require decades to
accomplish.
So many researchers in the United States and visitors go to
China, and they usually go to Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, and
that is it. I have spent most of my career traveling in rural
areas, so I thought I would be of most benefit to the
Commission by giving you a little bit of a view of what I see
in rural areas.
If you turn to the second page there, on the top is the
Shanghai skyline. This is epitomized by cars, metros, good
roads, department stores, Nanjing Road, sports stadiums,
apartments with air conditioning, good secondary and primary
schools, universities, McDonald's, Baskin-Robbins, Pizza Hut,
international Internet bars, and five-star hotels.
If you look at the picture below, this is a picture I took
in 1988 in Heilongjiang. What do you see in rural areas? You
see lots of bicycles, crowded, small buses, small stores, a few
houses with air conditioning, poor primary schools, small
restaurants, limited Internet access, two-star hotels, if you
can find them, and so on.
If you turn to the third page, I have a chart there that
shows rural per capita income, and there is a massive gap that
the Chinese leadership is having to deal with now. I took the
picture below in Shanghai in August 2001.
If you turn to page four, you can get a quick view of
consumer durable goods ownership, urban versus rural. So, for
example, about 13 percent of urban Chinese households now have
computers.
If you look back and forth between these two columns, there
is a vast gap between what urban households have and what rural
households have. I would guess that most of my Chinese
colleagues here today came from urban China. There is a vast
difference from what they experienced and what happens in rural
areas.
If you look at the per capita income or per capita
consumption in kilograms, you can see that urban people have a
wide variety of food, and much more nutritious, healthy diet.
They eat fewer grains, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, lots
of pork and beef, more eggs, more milk, and so on. People in
the rural areas eat a lot of rice and wheat products. They eat
far fewer vegetables, far less fruit, and far less meat.
If you take a look on page five, I think this diagram is
extremely important. What we have here is the village committee
up in the upper left-hand corner, that has now been
democratically elected. They may not be perfect elections, but
they are democratically elected.
What really drives rural China is the Party branch. The
people in the Party branch are selected or appointed by the
Party committee at the township level, so they manage all the
things that go on in rural China, all the resources.
They are the ones responsible for managing the land, labor,
and capital. There is a tension between these two now, and how
that plays out is going to be very important.
Finally, improved security. I usually go into Chinese rural
houses and I find that they are stocking up grain because, in
1958 through 1961, and so on, a lot of people starved to death.
Almost every Chinese farm family had someone in their family
that died, and that specter is still hovering over the rural
areas. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Crook appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. Thank you very much for the food for thought.
We will come back to some of these questions in the question
and
answer session.
Our next speaker is a research associate at The Center for
Defense Information here in Washington, DC. Her name is Chen
Yali. We are very happy to have you here, Ms. Chen. Please, go
ahead.
STATEMENT OF CHEN YALI, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, THE CENTER FOR
DEFENSE INFORMATION, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Chen. Thank you very much. My topic here today is about
China's press freedom. I believe most of you already have an
idea about the state of China's press freedom. I think most
people sitting here will agree if I say a Chinese journalist
does not have as much freedom as an American journalist. But I
do not know how many of you will agree with me if I say most
Chinese journalists have a large amount of freedom in reporting
and writing.
When news about harassment and the prosecution of Chinese
journalists come out to the Western newspapers continuously, it
might be counterintuitive to say that Chinese journalists have
more freedom in reporting and writing than many Westerners
believe.
Here, I want to make two points, actually, but I will focus
on the first one. First, increasing diversity and freedom of
the Chinese press. The second point is self-censorship. I will
focus on increasing diversity and freedom and freedom of the
Chinese media in my presentation, but would like to talk more
about censorship later on.
The development of China's press freedom, I believe, can be
generalized as two steps forward, one step back. The steps
forward area is often the area that falls off of the Western
world's radar screen: the socioeconomic development. If you
look back to the Chinese newspapers 15 to 20 years ago, you
will see reporting of the economic and social problems are far
more restricted than now.
I still remember I wrote the first article criticizing the
Chinese Government's corruption problem in 1998 immediately
after Zhu Rongji, our premier, took power. However, it was
unthinkable in 1993, or even 1994, to write such a story.
Also, another example is about family planning policy. It
is one of the most holy policies from 1975 to 1998 for China.
However, I was encouraged by my own editor in China to write a
story about the policy debate on whether the family planning
policy should go on. I can give you more examples later on, if
you want.
The recent changes I see in the Chinese media is in the
reporting on political policy, the area that is often a ``one
step forward and half step back'' area. Recently, you might see
a widely published article lashing out on North Korea and
advocating why China should join the United States to pressure
North Korea for China's own security.
Another example I can cite is a report on a study by
Chinese scholars on why there is no direct causal relationship
between educational level and the success of the direct
election mechanism.
Chinese journalists are not faced with the ``to-be-or-not-
to-be'' questions such as, ``should we speak truth or not,'' or
``shall I challenge the censorship or not,'' every day. Most
Chinese journalists, including me, 3 years ago were just
running around to news conferences or following leads that
seemed interesting.
There is no evil mastermind sitting in my office watching
every step I take or every word I write. For 85 to 90 percent
of my work, I write about whatever I want to write. Chinese
journalists who cover economic news probably have more freedom
than I do, since I am working for the op-ed page.
I want to give three measures that Chinese journalists are
using to create press freedom for themselves. One, is many
journalists are trying to push the limit of political
correctness--political, here, is in the literal sense--and are
successful in doing so.
For example, we got a line saying we could not quote or
write about a very liberal economist called Mao Yushi, but
actually I did a full story about his opinions in the
newspaper. I saw all kinds of cases in the Chinese media that
Chinese journalists are trying to push the limit.
There are also counter measures in the Chinese media. When
one newspaper is closed down or purged, the majority of editors
and reporters will be transferred to another newspaper.
I want to emphasize here that I am not suggesting that
Chinese journalists are as free as American journalists in
writing and reporting. We are far from that. However, I am
trying to explain that it is difficult to generalize whether
Chinese journalists have, or do not have, free press freedom in
a black and white manner.
As a transitional society inevitably heading for
liberalization and social plurality, China should be treated
with a more nuanced approach, and therefore the targeting
policy from the outside world to help promote press freedom
will see better results. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Chen appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. Thank you, Ms. Chen. Very interesting views. We
will come back to them.
Our next speaker is a Tibetan living here in the United
States, Mr. Lhundup Dorjee.
STATEMENT OF LHUNDUP DORJEE, A WASHINGTON, DC AREA RESIDENT
SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF THE CAPITAL AREA
TIBETAN ASSOCIATION [CATA]
Mr. Dorjee. I speak here today on behalf of the Capital
Area
Tibetan Association. Before I begin, I would like to thank the
Commission and staff for providing us this opportunity to speak
here.
As I speak here right now, members of the Tibetan community
here, joined by our American friends and supporters, will be
gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy to mark the
anniversary of a very tragic event that took place in Lhasa,
the capital city of Tibet, 44 years ago.
On this day in 1959, Chinese Communist troops massacred
thousands and thousands of Tibetans, men, women, children,
monks, nuns and lay people, who had gathered together in
spontaneous demonstrations to protest the Chinese occupation of
their country and to protect the life of their young leader,
the Dalai Lama.
Finding indiscriminate fire insufficient, Chinese troops
rained artillery shells into the crowds of innocent people to
kill the maximum number. The Chinese soldiers spent days
turning over the dead bodies of monks in the hope of finding
the Dalai Lama's dead body.
Yet, for us Tibetans, the events of that day 44 years ago
resonate with meaning and significance far greater than the
tragedy of the day. It was a day on which the heroism, courage,
and bravery of our people found expression as never before in
the face of China's brutal might, and stirred the collective
consciousness of new Tibetan identity, one that united all
Tibetans, from Kham and Amdo regions, as well as Central Tibet.
The Chinese Government describes March 10, 1959, as
quelling of a rebellion. We Tibetans call it the Tibetan
National Uprising day and we proudly commemorate it every year
in the free world, remembering our common sacrifices and
rededicating ourselves to the cause.
Much water has flowed through the river Tsangpo in Lhasa
since then. Or maybe, tears would be more apt, instead of
water, for the suffering of our people under Chinese occupation
was unprecedented and immeasurable. Or maybe it should be
blood, for more than a million Tibetans have died as a result
of their rule.
Sadly, the situation in Tibet is not getting any better
today. The veneer of economic development taking place there
notwithstanding, a veneer that many well-meaning observers seem
to take as a sign of progress.
I would urge the members of the Commission to look beyond
this veneer in assessing the situation in Tibet, for it masks
issues of far greater and critical importance for Tibetans.
These are the transfer of Chinese settlers into Tibet,
reducing Tibetans to a minority in their own homeland, economic
and educational marginalization of ethnic Tibetans, gross
violations of human rights, severe political repression,
systematic efforts to
undermine Tibetan culture and language, and environmental
degradation.
While the fact of economic development taking place must be
accepted by us Tibetans, it should be pointed out that since
the Chinese Government is implementing economic development as
part of a strategy to consolidate its colonial rule in Tibet,
and not for the sake of improving the lives of ordinary
Tibetans, the results of this economic development, in fact,
tend to exacerbate the negative impacts of many of the issues
mentioned earlier and will worsen the situation further in the
long run.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the leader of all Tibetan
people, has long advocated and pursued a path of peaceful,
negotiated solution by working with the Chinese. However, the
Chinese Government has spurned his efforts and vilifies him
repeatedly.
It is said that China is banking on a strategy of waiting
for him to die to solve the Tibetan problem for good. It will
be tempting for China to think this will be a smart option,
since the Dalai Lama is a powerful symbol of the Tibetan
freedom struggle and unifies all the Tibetans.
In spite of the visit of a delegation of exiled
representatives to Tibet in the past year, it is not clear if
China really has had a genuine change of heart and has reviewed
this strategy. If not, it would be a very serious mistake.
In my opinion, if the Tibetan problem is not resolved
during the lifetime of the 14th Dalai Lama, China can be
assured of long-term instability in the region.
We hope that the new generation of leaders in Beijing will
put aside their arrogance and suspicions and find the wisdom to
realize that the only path that can be good for both the
Tibetan people and the Chinese people is one that involves
working with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Dorjee appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. Lhundup, thank you very much.
Well done. I must say, all four of the panelists deserve
credit for being so disciplined. Let me invite you all to stand
and take a seat, if you can, in the first row. We will have the
other four panelists up, and then go to the question and answer
session when their presentations are complete.
Mr. Tenzin, Ms. Huang Ciping, Mr. Greg Walton, and Mr. Nury
Turkel, please.
[Pause]
Mr. Foarde. Our second group of speakers is now with us and
we will begin, as we usually do, from window to wall, with
another Tibetan speaker, also living here in the United States.
Mr. Tenzin, please.
STATEMENT OF MR. TENZIN, A WASHINGTON, DC-BASED TIBETAN EXILE
WHO RECENTLY VISITED TIBET FOR THE FIRST TIME
Mr. Tenzin. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank you
for
letting us speak on these issues. I am fortunate to get this
opportunity to speak because of my recent visit to Tibet.
I got an opportunity to go to Tibet a few months back. It
was my first time. I always wanted to travel to Tibet because,
growing up as a young Tibetan in exile, all the stories that
you hear from your parents about Tibet, the beauty, and the
stories of your ancestors, and all that. I pretty much longed
to go to visit Tibet.
This happened to me recently, that I got a visa to go to
Tibet. Fortunately, being an American citizen, that gave me the
opportunity to visit. So after arriving myself, I felt such joy
for me to land in my own country.
I was quite amazed to see Lhasa, the capital city, itself
because of the buildings and everything. But as days went on, I
met a few people who were willing to talk to me about the
situation in Tibet. I see their faces now.
I got to talk to them and they mentioned to me about the
railroad the Chinese Government is building going to Lhasa, and
they feel that once this is built, it is going to be over for
the Tibetans. Right now the Tibetans aren't getting the jobs.
They are looked down on and it is very difficult to get jobs
unless they speak Chinese or they have good Chinese language
skills and so on. So in general for Tibetans, it is very
difficult. So if the railroad is built, there will be more
Chinese coming in. So that is why some of them told me about
this.
There were a few people also who came from outside from
another town to work, looking for jobs in Lhasa, and I met
these two at the Tibetan tea shop. I talked to them a little
bit. Of course, they were a bit nervous.
But I asked them if they knew how was it to get a job. They
said it is very difficult. They had been looking for weeks to
get a job. Finally, they found one and it pays less than $2 a
day, and they work for 11 or 12 hours per day. This is helping
building, like
hotels and offices, and so on.
The interesting thing is that for the same work for the
Chinese is, like, double the salary. The Chinese get more than
the Tibetans. The shop owner I was talking to, I was asking her
about the school, how her children go to school.
She said it is very difficult to send her only child to
school because it is very expensive and she cannot afford it.
So these are some of the things that I have seen when I
traveled inside the Tao region, as well as in Eastern Tibet.
As I came to Eastern Tibet, I met my relatives for the
first time. They told me about the situation. Every time I met
people, old people there, they tell me about the stories of the
Cultural Revolution, the suffering they went through during
those times.
One of my relatives has also been working for 12 yuan, less
than $2 per day. So it is not just this one region, it is all
over that Tibetans are paid less. So the living conditions,
based on this, I can
answer afterward. But it is very poor for Tibetans in general.
Mr. Foarde. Mr. Tenzin, thank you very much. Very sobering
views and testimony. We will come back in the question and
answer session.
Our next speaker is the general secretary of the Uighur
American Association in Washington, DC, Mr. Nury Turkel.
Nury.
STATEMENT OF NURY TURKEL, GENERAL SECRETARY, THE UIGHUR
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Turkel. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is a
real honor to be here to address some of the issues which are
of great concern to the Uighur people.
The political situation in East Turkestan has been
increasingly worsening, especially after September 11, 2001.
Here, I would like to address a few important issues for your
attention.
China's ``go west'' campaign has an inherently destructive
nature. Migrant Chinese have been the major beneficiaries of
Western development programs in East Turkestan, but Uighurs are
paying the highest price for it.
Chinese observers believe that the Chinese western
development policies are designed to bring more prosperity to
the west. Such a believe contradicts the reality where
unemployment and economic disparity are rampant among Uighurs.
Media reports indicate that the government favors Chinese who
have migrated to the area over their more qualified Uighur
counterparts in its hiring practices. Xinjiang Communist Party
Chief Wang Lequan's recent statement further disproves such a
belief.
At a recent meeting, when Wang stated that it is wrong to
believe that economic development would help reduce and
eliminate separatist activity in Xinjiang, so the Government's
priority should be cracking down on separatist activity.
This reveals that the Chinese Government's real intent of
developing the west is not to win over ethnic minorities in
those areas, but attracting more ethnic Chinese immigrants into
the region in order to permanently change the demographic
structure of the region in favor of ethnic Chinese.
The changed demographic structure, in turn, will help the
government's long-term policy of assimilating Uighurs into
Chinese. China's discriminatory policies against Uighurs are a
blatant
violation of its obligations under the U.N. Convention on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to which China has been a
signatory country since 1982.
So called ``western development'' now only facilitates
China's attempt to make the Uighurs second class citizens in
their own homeland, but also destroy Uighur cultural identity.
The pace of destruction is breathtaking. Today, the ancient
city of Kashgar, that is considered as the cradle of ancient
central Asian civilization, is virtually unrecognizable.
At the same meeting, Wang also called for a fight against
Uighur dissent in an ideological front. He stated, ``Xinjiang
must promote patriotism and the unity of nationalities
education, and resolutely condemn the distorted history
promoted by ethnic separatists, including the history of ethnic
development and religious progress.''
Locking up historians, burning books, destroying historic
sites, and imposing Chinese language education are not a recent
phenomenon, but rather a continuing effort by the Chinese
regime to wipe out the Uighurs from the face of the earth.
The Uighurs have long suffered such destruction since 1949,
especially during China's notorious Cultural Revolution. Now
they face even greater danger. The intentional destruction of
the Uighur culture violates the U.N. convention that was also
adopted at United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization [UNESCO] and signed by China.
Uighurs are discriminated against not only at home, but
also in other Chinese cities. The Uighurs are not only facing
discrimination and ill treatment in East Turkestan, but are
also experiencing the same in Chinese cities.
It has been reported that the Uighur residents of Beijing
have been evicted and even put on a train to be sent back to
their hometowns. Harassment by the police, rejection of
lodging, and
disapproval of business licenses are commonplace in inner
Chinese cities, thanks to Chinese propaganda that portrays the
Uighurs as ``terrorists.''
The indoctrinated belief of the local Chinese residents and
government's tacit approval of mistreating Uighurs have created
enormous frustration and humiliation among the Uighurs.
Some of the Uighur ``fortune seekers'' are forced to come
to inner Chinese cities to look for a job because of the
limited employment opportunities at home, where all the jobs
are taken away by
migrant Han Chinese.
Denying access to information, Chinese authorities have
been enforcing strict media censorship in past decades. This is
true even during times of natural disasters. It has been
reported that the Chinese authorities have rejected foreign
journalists' requests to cover the deadly earthquake that took
more than 266 lives, injured 4,000, and left many homeless in a
cold winter.
Despite being in danger of being arrested and expelled,
some journalists entered the area. The remaining ones only used
photographs provided by the Chinese state-owned media.
The TV network is mainly broadcasting pictures of Chinese
soldiers helping thousands of victims. However, no independent
observers have been admitted into the disaster areas, and
witnesses are disputing the official death toll and the
effectiveness of rescue efforts.
The existence of the Uighur people is under extreme threat.
The human rights situation is worsening day by day as the
civilized free world is watching the perpetuators continue
devastating and waging cultural genocide against the Uighur
people.
Mr. Foarde. I will have to ask you to stop there, but we
will take it up some more in the question period.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Turkel. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Turkel appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. Our next speaker comes to us from New York
City, where he is an independent consultant, Mr. Greg Walton.
Greg.
STATEMENT OF GREG WALTON, A RESEARCH CONSULTANT FOCUSING ON THE
INTERNET'S IMPACT ON HUMAN RIGHTS, NEW YORK, NY
Mr. Walton. Thank you. Thank you to the CECC staff for
arranging this forum.
I am an independent research consultant focused on the
impact of the Internet on human rights and democratic
development, particularly in Asia. I have no particular
affiliation to any organizations; however, I have working
relationships with a number of international human rights NGOs
and other groups and individuals engaged in advancing human
rights in China--particularly in the digital sphere--through
activism, or ``hacktivism.''
By ``hacktivism,'' I mean specifically the adoption and
extension of universal human rights principles and mechanisms
to the needs of an information-based society, including where
this runs counter to the preference of authoritarian regimes.
An information society increasingly employs advanced
information and communications technologies in a double life.
These technologies are, more often than not, derived from high-
tech military research programs.
My research suggests that so-called neutral dual-use
technology can easily be abused in the hands of totalitarian
governments. In fact, in the absence of democratic
accountability, nationwide data base-driven surveillance
systems will be used against the interests of the general
public in a highly dangerous way.
This afternoon I would like to tell you about the
development of two parallel networks of routers that typify for
me the development and the contradictions inherent in the
Chinese Internet today.
One set of these routers restricts and chokes off the free
flow of information, the other network, seek to expand the
democratic sphere.
In the first story reported last week by the Associated
Press [AP], it is reported that Chinese Internet users are
``suffering sharp slow-downs in access, which industry experts
blame, in part, on heightened efforts by the Communist
government to police on-line content.''
BBC confirmed that these problems have worsened as security
operations in China have been stepped up as the annual National
People's Congress meeting continues in Beijing.
The Commission staff will probably be aware that these
problems date back to October 2002, when packet-sniffer
software was installed. This software briefly holds each chunk
of data that passes in and out of the Chinese Internet and
screens it.
Beijing has effectively built an on-line barrier around
China that requires traffic in and out to pass through just
eight gateways. The result is a huge bottleneck and much slower
service, progressively slower service, especially, as I said,
at so-called sensitive times.
Drawn largely from the latest research by a company known
as Dynamic Internet Technology, Incorporated, I would like to
briefly highlight our initial understanding of how the system
is working today, speculate about its capacity, and underline
the reasons for its failure.
The second story I would like to touch on briefly today,
and this is the other set of Internet routers, is from the
story in E-Week Labs Review, in which the magazine is
evaluating a beta version of the developer's edition of the
Six/Four System by the hacking group ``Hacktivism.''
This software became available last week under the
Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement
[HESSLA]. The Six/Four System is a peer-to-peer technology
system that does make it possible to carry out almost any
Internet activity, both securely, and more importantly,
anonymously.
E-Week Review has found that this software has a huge
potential in this regard, but at this date it has not quite
achieved its goals. This network, which relies on many node
clients with very few trusted peers to handle the routing, is
understandably very slow right now, because the network is so
small. Also, the system's capabilities are very raw, in that
the developers have yet to develop an interface.
I anticipate that once this tool is ready, it will be
widely distributed in China. My predication today is that
ultimately the Six/Four System will render state censorship
impossible. I think, in fact, I will submit the rest of the
testimony in writing to the Commission, perhaps because it goes
into considerable technical detail.
Basically, the bottom line of what I am saying today is
that China really does not have a legal system, in the sense
that it does not have the rule of law. Its economy exists
without transparency and, as the Commission is no doubt aware,
is rife with corruption. I would ask the Commission to further
investigate the reality of Internet censorship in China and,
where appropriate, apply pressure to all levels of the Chinese
Government.
I also urge the Commission, particularly, to examine the
role of U.S. corporations engaged in exporting censorship, as
well as infrastructure, to the Chinese state.
Finally, I would urge the Commission to take every
opportunity to remind governments and corporations that
international legal instruments are very clearly a matter of
the free flow of information.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Walton appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. Thank you.
As you know, the Commission has already looked into a great
many of the issues here, and you gave us more information just
now. So, thanks for doing that. We will stay on top of those
issues, because they are very important.
Our next speaker is representing, today, the Overseas
Chinese Democracy Coalition and the Independent Federation of
Chinese Students and Scholars. She is Ciping Huang, who is our
old friend, who has appeared many times before, particularly at
these open forum sessions. Welcome again, Ciping Huang. Please
go ahead.
STATEMENT OF CIPING HUANG, OVERSEAS CHINESE DEMOCRACY COALITION
AND INDEPENDENT FEDERATION OF
CHINESE STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS, WHITEHOUSE, OH
Ms. Huang. Thank you to the Commission for the opportunity,
and thank you for trying to accommodate my schedule.
My name is Ciping Huang. I represent the Overseas Chinese
Democracy Coalition and the Independent Federation of Chinese
Students and Scholars.
My topic today is about women's issues in China, which I
have wanted to make since I attended the roundtable discussion
on the same subject organized by this Commission on February
24, 2003. I was not satisfied with the way the subject was
presented, which was on a similar path with the other subjects
that were presented to this Commission.
I feel this Commission should be concentrating more on the
Chinese human rights issues due to its founding background in
the permanent normal trade relations [PNTR] debates and its
mission to monitor human rights and the development of the rule
of law in China.
I feel that it is very important to focus on the Chinese
economic situation. However, focusing on the Chinese economic
situation with respect to American business enterprises is not
as important to me as it is to focus on the Chinese human
rights conditions and the needs and demands of the Chinese
people.
For this Commission, I hope we will have more fellow
Chinese testify on the human rights abuses conducted by the
Chinese Government and its officials--testimony that the
Commission has been short of. Here again, I would like to offer
assistance and help when you need it to locate victims and
witnesses to testify in this regard.
Talking about women's issues, I want to point out the
conditions described in your February 24, 2003 discussion are
not quite to the essence of the problem. Also, today, since the
session is so short and I can only give you a brief
introduction, I will submit a longer written statement to you.
On the one side, I understand there is a time limit to
discuss a very complex problem. I understand the scholars' and
experts'
insight and detail on certain aspects.
On the other side, I have learned that many scholars have
restricted themselves from harsh criticism of the Chinese
Government in concern for the typical retaliation from that
government, which would simply not allow them to back to China
or sabotage their studies and discredit them afterward. The
Chinese Government has arrested and harassed the Chinese-born
scholars in the past; they have upgraded this harassment from
green-card holders to U.S. citizens, and now the threat and
fear has reached even further to the United States. The arrest
and trial of several scholars, such as Gao Zhan, Li Shaomin,
and Xu Zerun, are just a few of their escalated episodes that
have received media attention, but there were many more.
Dr. Jianli Yang was detained 10 months ago without any
communication by him to the outside, even to his family, not to
mention any other legal proceeding or trial. This is not just
violating international standards, but also Chinese law itself.
Under this type of harsh environment for scholars, I feel
more than ever a responsibility to speak out to speak for our
fellow Chinese people, especially the unfortunate Chinese
women. Partially due to my own background, of course, there is
a social background supporting this issue.
However, for a government boasting perfect equality such as
``women will hold half the sky,'' and a government that is so
successful in carrying out its policy of suppressing dissidents
and religious believers, one has to wonder why they could not
carry out their slogans and policies for equity for women.
Women lack not just social and economic status, but also
political status in China. There have been very limited, yet
well-revealed stories in the press, about how women are treated
in China. They were the victims of ignorance in the past.
With the economic development in China, they are further
and further dragging behind the men and have become victims of
cheap labor and exploitation, not just economically and
socially, but also sexually. The highest suicide rate for women
in the world is in China. This fact alone is one of the best
pieces of evidence.
There is widespread knowledge of the present surge of
prostitution, women trafficking, female fetus abortion, and
abortion and sterilization of women. Sexual harassment is
experienced by 84 percent of women. However, let me summarize
the areas of my great concern for Chinese women regarding their
rights.
One is the growth of China's economy is built on the abuse
of human rights, especially for women, via the lack of
unemployment opportunity for women and cheap labor exploitation
of young girls engaged in ``little-sister labor,'' and a
diminution of the state-owned enterprises, as well as those
people who do not respect women.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Huang appears in the
appendix.]
Mr. Foarde. We are going to have to leave it there, Huang
Ciping, but we will come back in the question and answer
session.
I think what we are going to do, because we are a little
pressed for space, is ask our four original panelists to come
up, and we will get some chairs, and just have you come up
right next to the table. If you spoke on the first panel, we
would like you up here, please.
Then we will address some questions to all of the panel
members. Of course, this is an excellent opportunity to make
some additional points, if you have them.
I get to exercise the privilege of the chair, but then I am
going to call on my colleagues to help as well. What we
normally do is each questioner gets 5 minutes to ask a question
or two and hear responses, and then we will move on and we will
do as many rounds as we either have time and interest in, or
until we reach 3:30, whichever comes first.
So let me begin by asking Lhundup Dorjee, your assessment
of how things are going in Tibet with respect to the Chinese
Government's relationship, or lack of relationship, with the
Dalai Lama and the Tibetans in exile was very downbeat. Is
there any reason at all for hope from the visit of the Dalai
Lama's special representatives to China and to Tibet last year?
Mr. Dorjee. There is ground for hope with the mere fact
that a visit occurred in the first place. But, in my own
opinion, even while the visit was taking place, accompanying
events and statements that Chinese Government officials made,
government officials and diplomats overseas, did not seem to
reflect any genuine change of heart in their assessment of the
situation in Tibet and how they intend to solve that problem.
Also, the skepticism shared by many in my own community is
that the visit was arranged to facilitate a face-saving public
relations effort for Jiang Zemin's impending visit to Texas in
October 2002.
Yet, in the case of Tibet, any small development is a good
development. We keep hearing of a visit of a second delegation,
although I have no confirmed information on that. But that
would be more grounds for optimism that something real may be
happening. So far, we have not seen much effort to back it up.
Mr. Foarde. Thank you very much. Very, very useful.
Greg Walton, I am really interested in the Six/Four System
that you were talking about. Can you give us a little bit more
detail? I have got about 3 minutes for you to do it in.
I am particularly interested in why you think this is going
to be so revolutionary in kind of blowing apart the bottlenecks
in the information pipe on the Internet, and whether the
Chinese Government, which has a great number of very adept code
writers, will have any success in overcoming it or finding a
solution to it that will escalate some other new innovation
elsewhere, et cetera.
Mr. Walton. Right. I think that Six/Four is one of a number
of systems that could, in the future, be of use in
circumventing government censorship. I pick it out in
particular, or rather that class of software known as peer-to-
peer software. I pick it out in particular as being useful in
this regard.
Mainly, if I could use the metaphor of a wheel, in fact, at
the moment under the current way in which the Internet works,
we have a client-server system. So there is the opportunity for
centralized control, in this case, the eight international
gateways in and out of China.
With the peer-to-peer system, we distribute that
controller, or rather, we circumvent it by routing the data
around the outside of the network, around the edges of the
network, as it were.
More importantly, perhaps, than the censorship issues--and
in fact this Commission has addressed, as you mentioned, in the
past, the censorship issues on one or two occasions--something
which concerns me more is the surveillance aspect of this
situation.
I am very concerned that, in the past, the U.S. Government
might have funded programs which have helped the Chinese
security efforts and to identify people who are circumventing
the state-sponsored censorship.
So, I am particularly concerned about not just
circumventing the fire wall, but doing so anonymously and
securely. By doing so securely, I mean with military-grade
encryption technology. That is the case with Six/Four.
I should just mention, actually, that the Department of
Commerce, 2 weeks ago, licensed the export of this software
because it contains munitions-grade encryption.
I intend to present to the Commission the full-page
summary, really, which answers in considerable detail these
questions, and keep you updated on the development of that
software.
Mr. Foarde. Great. Some of our Commission members--
Senators, Congressmen, and Administration officials--are, in
fact, pretty technically savvy. One or two of our staff is as
well, so we are quite interested in these details.
Mr. Walton. Sure. Yes.
Mr. Foarde. Great.
I would like to cede the floor to our friend and colleague,
Steve Marshall. Steve is a senior advisor on the Commission
staff, and I am sure he has a question or two. So, please,
Steve, go ahead.
Mr. Marshall. I think everything everybody said is very
interesting and important. But because today is the special
anniversary, or a very un-special anniversary, of the 10th of
March uprising in Lhasa, I would like to ask another question
of Tenzin and Lhundup. I would like both of you to comment on
this.
Lhundup, you said something very interesting, that you
thought that if the situation was not solved in some respect,
some improvement I would take it, between the Dalai Lama and
the Chinese within his lifetime, that it would be a very
serious situation, a very serious consequence. My question is,
what do you mean by ``very serious consequences?''
Mr. Dorjee. I think there is not enough appreciation of the
leadership that the Dalai Lama has been providing to the
Tibetan
people, in the sense that he has advocated a very non-violent
approach.
So far, the Tibetan movement, even after almost 50 years of
Chinese invasion and occupation, has not turned violent. While
there are a few people who do disagree with him, his leadership
has been effective in keeping the movement on track on a non-
violent path. I think there needs to be a real appreciation of
his contribution on that side.
If China does not realize the value of what the Dalai Lama
is proposing and the wisdom of the path that he is proposing,
once he is out of the picture, if the situation is not resolved
within his lifetime, the Tibetan people will suffer also,
definitely.
But that does not mean that China will win. China does not
win when Tibetan people suffer more. If the Dalai Lama is out
of the picture, my fear is that the Tibetan people will not
have a centralized leadership and will not have a guiding
principle like the path of non-violence to follow, and the
movement will get fragmented, and that would cause instability
in the region.
Mr. Marshall. Instability was the word I was looking for.
Tenzin, we have got a minute or so left. Could you add to that?
Do you feel that the Tibetans would have the capacity or the
will to actually create instability if some sort of improvement
is not made through the Dalai Lama process?
Mr. Tenzin. Yes. I think the younger generation,
especially, is basically tired of not having any results from
His Holiness' approach to the Chinese Government. There is
growing, I would say, tension among youths who are losing
patience, basically.
I think, as Lhundup said, the Dalai Lama is asking to
benefit not only the Tibetans, but also to benefit the Chinese
people with his approach. So I think it would be wise to accept
this middle way approach by the Dalai Lama before he passes
away. That is what I want to say.
Mr. Foarde. I next recognize our friend and colleague, Lary
Brown, who is a specialist in labor affairs for us. I am sure
he has a question or two.
Lary, please.
Mr. Brown. Mr. Crook, in your presentation you mentioned
the growing disparity in income between urban and rural areas
in China. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit
what needs to happen in rural areas before they can begin to
catch up with the income levels in the urban areas. I am sorry,
that is a big question and you do not have very long to answer
it.
Mr. Crook. I think that what has to happen is there has to
be a resource transfer. I think that the central government
needs to start funding, for example, primary and junior/middle
school education. That is something that should have been going
on for a long time.
In urban areas, the government pretty much does that. In
rural areas, farmers pay. But that is one thing. I think they
need to reduce the burdens on the peasants. If you look at the
tax burden, it is about five times higher in rural areas than
it is in urban areas.
I would say that the modern urban China has been built on
the backs of Chinese peasants. There has been a resource
transfer. That is not unusual, because that happens in almost
every developed country. That is what has happened.
But I think there comes a stage when the urban areas have
to slow down the growth. We think about per capita or GDP
growth rates. That is not the main question now for China. The
main question, is what kind of growth, unfair growth or a more
fair growth?
So, I think that it is transfers, I think they need to
reduce the burdens in rural areas. They need to allow rural
people, not just in Tibet, but in Anhui and so on, to be able
to move. For many years, labor could not move. They have to
allow the rural people to start to move.
Mr. Brown. Ms. Chen Yali, I found your discussion of the
controls on Chinese journalists to be very interesting and very
nuanced. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit about what
needs to happen and what changes need to take place in order
for
Chinese journalists to have an internationally acceptable level
of freedom to do their jobs?
Ms. Chen. I did not mention in my presentation about self-
censorship, which is a major form of the censorship system in
the Chinese media. My central point is, I think to break the
censorship system in the Chinese media, to win more freedom for
Chinese journalists, the first thing is to help empower, help
advocate and train Chinese journalists, and learning to work
within the system.
From my own experience, I clearly know, in the Chinese
media, there are two groups of journalists. One, is the ``in
the system'' journalist, one is a journalist ``living on the
edge'' who is a troublemaker who might have some explosive
things to say but anyway stays in the media area. I think they
need to get more opportunities to go to the United States, to
get some scholarships for training opportunities. These people
are the hope for breaking the
censorship. Thanks.
Mr. Brown. One more quick question for Mr. Tenzin, and Mr.
Lhundup may want to chime in.
One thing that you mentioned, is as the economic
development flows into Tibet and the new economy develops, it
is mostly the Chinese that seem to be benefiting. One factor
you mentioned, going back to Tibetans, was the fact that they
do not speak
Chinese.
So my question to you is, if the Tibetans, in fact, were
bilingual, would the discrimination stop? Or is the
discrimination that they face in the newly developing economy
based on something more than just language?
Mr. Tenzin. I do not think it is just the language itself.
Tibetans are allowed to learn the Tibetan language. I mean,
they teach it on a basic level. But once you get in school and
so on, I think they do not teach Tibetan.
But even if they do, I think it would definitely improve
and people would be willing to train Tibetans. Because, right
now, there is no basic incentive to train Tibetans. So, I think
in that sense it would help the Tibetans.
But I think there is more than just the languages, just
basic treatment, looking down on the Tibetans, I think, are a
factor. It would help if the Chinese would allow Tibetans to
study Tibetan and give them jobs based on their knowledge and
their skills. That is all.
Mr. Brown. Can I interrupt? My actual question is, if their
Chinese language skills were better, would they be in a better
position to compete or would they still be discriminated
against based on the fact that they are Tibetan?
Mr. Tenzin. Oh. All right.
Mr. Dorjee. Actually, that is happening right now. In fact,
the Tibetan language is not the primary language in operation
in Tibet. Tibetan is taught at the primary level, I think. As
you move along the systems. Chinese is required to get a job,
or even get in the government, or even go for higher studies.
So what you are thinking is happening right now, but that does
not change the basic underlying problem, which is, really,
China's intent of economic development effort in Tibet. As my
Uighur friend mentioned, China's plan is to really consolidate
their colonial rule in Tibet, as well as in Xinjiang. Because
the intent is to consolidate rule, the projects focus on doing
things that are not directly beneficial to the Tibetans, or to
the other minorities, I guess. So, the underlying problems have
to be addressed, I think.
Mr. Foarde. Let me pick up the thread here and ask a
question or two of Mr. Roy Zhou, please. You spoke quite
eloquently about the interests of Chinese students and scholars
coming to the United States and about the recent problems that
Chinese scholars have faced trying to visit the United States
for purposes of scholarships, and also those who are already
here, because of the heightened attention and heightened
interest in foreign students in the United States after 9/11,
and just because of security concerns, generally.
I wonder if you could tell us, for the record, what you
understand about why it is taking so long for Chinese students
and scholars to get visas to come to the United States at this
present moment.
Mr. Zhou. Your question is a really good one. In my
opinion, China has the largest population in the world, so it
has the largest number of students and the learning skills of
the students are excellent. As I said, they were accepted by
the U.S. institutions and are competitive through the whole
process and are admitted into U.S. institutions. So there are
many students who go to the U.S. Embassy or the Consulate in
China and apply for a visa. As far as I know, your Immigration
office in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing--and there were lots of
Chinese students applying for the visa because of their
significant opportunities are really good, and so----
Mr. Foarde. So, in part, it is because of just the numbers.
Is that what you are saying? The large numbers of people that
are
applying?
Mr. Zhou. Yes. I think that might be the most important
one.
Mr. Foarde. Oh. All right. And are there other reasons for
the extra-long period of time that it is taking? Because my
understanding was, Mr. Zhou, and correct me if I am wrong, that
traditionally you would get a response to a student visa
application in China relatively quickly, within 2 or 3 days.
Now, according to what you told me, sometimes it is taking 3
months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months. Why the long time, now?
Mr. Zhou. Can I refer this question to a student here from
Columbia University called Michael Ren?
Mr. Foarde. Yes, please. Could you identify yourself for
the record, please?
Mr. Ren. Yes. Sure. Mike, from Columbia, associated with
the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars of the Greater
New York Area.
There are instances of Chinese students and scholars not
being able to return to the United States, at Columbia, as
well. I think the number one reason is the sheer number.
Mr. Foarde. Can I stop you, just to understand you a little
better? We are talking about scholars that have already been
here in the program and that have returned to China for a
family visit or for a vacation or something, not necessarily
all first-time scholars.
Mr. Ren. It is both.
Mr. Foarde. It is both.
Mr. Ren. Right. Right. For returning students, for example,
students went back to China this winter, but they were not
allowed to come back because they had to go through the
security check that the State Department does. The security
check.
Mr. Foarde. The security advisory opinion.
Mr. Ren. Right. Right. That the State Department
established after 9/11 in response to the heightened security
situation. As Mr. Zhou eloquently mentioned in his remarks, we
students are here primarily as students and do not really pose
a threat to national security.
Our International Students Office already has a measure
where they certify each student for their enrollment in school
prior to departure from the United States. That should be
adequate in terms of establishing that the student is enrolled
and is in good economic standing.
With the added measure of 9/11, that just seems not to be
enough for the visa officers. The measure that Mr. Zhou
proposed was that, if it would be possible to establish a
mechanism where these students can be certified by security
before they would come to the United States.
Mr. Foarde. Mr. Zhou, I think you suggested that there was
an organization that could do that. Did you say BCIS?
Mr. Zhou. That is the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services at the INS.
Mr. Foarde. At the INS. All right. We need to get you on
mike to say that. BCIS stands for?
Mr. Zhou. It is the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services, I think.
Mr. Foarde. All right. Is that the name of this department
as part of the Immigration Service as it has in the new
Homeland
Security Bill?
Mr. Zhou. Yes.
Mr. Foarde. It is. All right. All right. That is useful to
know.
Steve Marshall.
Mr. Marshall. I would like to address a question to Mr.
Turkel here. I think it is widely understood that there is a
certain amount of Uighur nationalism that is expressed through
means that any government would probably disagree with, such as
with arms, or with a bomb, or something.
But I think there is also an impression that China treats
the Uighur culture itself, the religion, the Uighur identity,
as a threat, even when there is no violence involved. Do you
believe that is true? And if you do believe that is true, why?
Mr. Turkel. I believe that is very true, and I appreciate
the question. It is a very important question to address, so I
would like to go into a little bit of details on that.
The Chinese have been trying to assimilate the Uighurs into
the Chinese culture for the last 54 years, and have realized
that it has not gone very well because of the different culture
that the Uighur people have been proudly living with for
centuries. So, the Chinese feel that the Uighur culture is
standing in their way to assimilate the Uighurs to make them
think, eat, and act like the Chinese, therefore they come up
with this new war, that is, a cultural genocide. They have been
locking up Uighur historians, banned the Uighur language,
banned the Uighur cultural gathering. In other words, Chinese
authorities outlawed anything that is posing a threat to the
Chinese assimilation policies.
One of the ways that the Chinese are successfully doing
this is by making Uighurs' lives difficult, by limiting
economic and employment opportunities, so that the Uighurs
think nothing but to make a living. The Chinese have carried
out policies to assist the migrant Chinese to become an
economically advantaged class of citizens, and this led the
Uighurs to admire the Chinese lifestyle because of their better
living conditions and earnings. This has been making the
Uighurs feel inferior and causing enormous frustration for
becoming economically and socially disadvantaged people in
their own homeland.
Mr. Marshall. And this happens irrespective of whether or
not there is a threat of violence. This happens even in the
case of peaceful behavior?
Mr. Turkel. Yes. In the last several years, many peaceful
demands for human rights and self determination have been
brutally suppressed. And those isolated incidents and acts of
violence need to be correctly addressed. Because those isolated
incidents do not represent the will of over 15 million Uighurs.
The majority of the Uighurs does not agree with the means of
violence to achieve their objectives. And the Uighurs are peace
loving people and they disagree with violent acts against any
people. But one thing needs to be understood. The frustration
and humiliation in the Uighurs' daily lives, and the
international community's lack of awareness for the Uighur
sufferings may have been causing those incidents. And once
again, any of those isolated acts of violence does not
represent voices of 15 million Uighurs.
Mr. Marshall. Thank you very much.
A technical question for Mr. Walton. Today, the People's
Daily of China announced a new VeriSign network, a VeriSign
Corporation product that would allow, apparently, more secure
surfing. I am wondering, whose security benefits more from the
VeriSign software, the user or the state? Did you see that
article?
Mr. Walton. I have not seen the article. I do not know the
details.
Mr. Marshall. But, given the nature of VeriSign products,
what do you think?
Mr. Walton. Well, I think that VeriSign is generally
engaged in e-commerce certification. I assume that it is
somehow connected with that. I think that is a good thing.
We cannot have e-commerce without trust, and we cannot have
e-commerce within China, or between China and other countries,
without a level of trust. Commercial-grade encryption is
necessary--it is illegal in China, in fact--but I think that
the Chinese Government realized that that wasn't going to work.
So, as far as I understand, Chinese legislation still holds all
forms of encryption illegal.
But, gradually, corporations are rolling it out piece by
piece, presumably. The first one has now got their form of
encryption, or whatever, legitimized by the Chinese Government.
The bottom line is, in this particular case, it is good for
everybody, I think.
Mr. Foarde. Lary Brown.
Mr. Brown. I have no more questions.
Mr. Foarde. No more questions. All right.
We have a few minutes left. Let me ask a few more
questions.
Fred Crook, I think it would be really useful, for the
record, if you would not mind, to give us all a sense of, we
see a variety of figures on the number or percentage of Chinese
population that is rural, the amount of employment in the
agricultural sector in rural China, et cetera. I wonder if you
can give us your best figures on the scope of China's rural
population in 2003.
Mr. Crook. I do not know if I can give really definitive
numbers. But I guess I would say 65 to 70 percent of the
Chinese populace can be considered rural. It is changing.
A lot of farm people are leaving the land and working in
small villages and townships. So it is not just that people are
leaving the villages to go to Shanghai. Sometimes they leave
the village to go work in the local township, the county town,
or the provincial town, and so on.
I worked with a researcher at the Ministry of Agriculture.
I think her estimate was about 130 million people, young men
and young women, leave the villages and work outside their
townships.
A large part of it is linked to education. If a young
person living in a rural area has a junior/middle school
education, or senior high school education, the probability is
extremely high that he is not going to be a farmer. He is going
to move off of the farm.
So that kind of links back to the state as an advantage,
and it should take up the education responsibility. As it
exists now, what happens is, if a village invests in a child,
in a young student, and the student leaves, they have lost
their investment because the
investment is gone.
If the state does it and the student moves to Wuhan or
Shanghai, then he is still inside the Chinese realm, or to
Tibet, or Xinjiang, wherever they go. They are still within
China, so there is a lot to be said for that.
I think that in the next 20 years, we are going to see a
major population change take place in China. A number of our
colleagues here at the table were talking about whether there
needs to be a Uighur in the Chinese system, whether there needs
to be Tibetan, and so on. But it is also, what does it mean to
be a rural person? Part of what goes on is just not simply, you
are Uighurs, but you are from west China, and poor, and so on.
So I think that in the urban areas, if the urban people
looked down upon Tibetans, Uighurs, and farm people, then you
are going to have a lot of tension in Chinese society. I think
it is a major, major problem that China has to face.
They have created this monster, this two-sector country
that is really two countries in China. There is poor, rural
China, and then there is rich, urban China. Somehow, in the
next 20 years, Chinese leaders have got to address that
problem. How they do that is going to affect stability and what
happens with U.S.-China
relations.
Mr. Foarde. This is a really important point. A lot of
times we see people in our offices who say, ``Well, I have just
been to China.'' ``Well, where have you been?'' ``I have been
to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.'' I said, ``the real China
is really elsewhere.''
What we are trying to do on our own staff trips, to the
maximum extent possible, you have to go to one of the Big
Three, but try to go to other places, because that, to me, is
where the real China is. So, it is really useful.
Mr. Nury Turkel, I would just give you an opportunity, if
you wanted to, for a minute to talk more about the recent
earthquake. As you do that, I just wanted to say that both our
chairman and co-chairman, Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa and
Senator Chuck Hagel, are very concerned about the earthquake
and the death toll, because they raised it with me when we met,
and we have had a long discussion about it. So, if you had a
couple more thoughts on that.
I am particularly interested in the difference in the
casualty totals between the official Chinese ones, and then
some that we are hearing from our friends in the Uighur
community in exile, and anything else you wanted to say about
that for a couple of minutes.
Mr. Turkel. This is a really important question. Radio Free
Asia [RFA] recently opened up a hotline that made it available
for the Uighurs to channel their voices out and express their
concerns, and provide non-fictional information to the
journalists in the United States.
I think they can provide you firsthand information. Because
that information was provided by the victims, the relatives of
the
victims, and/or people who lived in that area that has ties to
the disaster area.
According to the RFA reports, the victims are not even
allowed to accept humanitarian aid. What we are talking about
isn't foreign aid, but domestic. Another RFA report indicates
that monetary and other humanitarian aid from the local Uighur
business communities was rejected without any explanation.
We have heard from the media that some of the countries,
such as Greece, Turkey, and the United States offered
humanitarian assistance, especially the Turks, but their offers
were rejected. Since Turkey is one of the most experienced with
earthquakes, they have very well-equipped and experienced
rescue forces that they can send to Turkestan to help the
earthquake victims, but the Chinese Government bluntly rejected
their offer. We have heard that similar types of help offered
by other countries was also rejected.
The Uighurs have tried to collect some donations to send to
the victims in the region and want to make sure that this money
will be given to the victims directly, not to the pockets of
the Chinese officials or the other people who can use it for
some other purposes.
There are instances in the past that foreign aid or
monetary donations went straight to the government to build or
upgrade their offices and even buy ambulances in major
hospitals in the capital city, Urumqi, but not in the
earthquake area. This information was provided to us by
reliable sources.
Here, we would like to ask the U.S. Government to send an
independent observer to investigate the actual death toll and
monitor the rescue effort. I personally believe that the actual
death toll exceeds what has been reported by the Chinese
Government-owned media outlets. That is the only media outlet
that was allowed to go to the disaster area to make reports.
So, I doubt that 266 is an actual death toll.
We would like to ask the U.S. Government to work with the
Chinese authorities to provide all necessary humanitarian
assistance to the victims. We believe that it can be done and
is not too much to ask because the victims are really
suffering. It's hard to imagine in a civilized world that the
victims of natural disaster are treated heartlessly. Instead of
providing humanitarian aid, the Chinese Government is
collecting blankets, daily supplies, and food from the local
communities while rejecting the foreign aid by telling the
world that China is capable of taking care of the earthquake
victims. The Chinese Government can use the money from the
international community to rebuild schools, homes, and
hospitals. Many victims and kids who lost their parents are
still staying outside in cold winter weather. It's been
reported that heavy clothes and blankets didn't provide much
shelter for the victims to stay warm in recent heavy snow and
freezing weather.
Here, we are not asking the whole world to come together to
liberate Uighurs but simply asking for humanitarian assistance
which will help them to get back on their feet. What they are
facing is a real danger and they need the world community to
tell the Chinese to pay attention to the sufferings of the
earthquake
victims.
Mr. Foarde. Thank you very much.
Mr. Turkel. Thank you.
Mr. Foarde. Very useful.
I will let my colleague and friend, Steve Marshall, ask the
last set of questions for this afternoon.
Please, go ahead.
Mr. Marshall. Thank you. We are going to come back to March
10 again. I will point out that the Chinese Government has just
released today, and posted on their Web site, a new white paper
focusing on the Tibetan environment and ecology.
When they say ``Tibet,'' they mean just the Tibet
Autonomous Region. One entire chapter of this white paper is
dedicated to the study of the railroad that may be built
between Golmud and Lhasa. Both of the Tibetans have mentioned
the population issue. Mr. Turkel, I think, and the Uighur
people are very familiar with the population issue.
If the railroad is built and the population influx
continues and accelerates, what can the Tibetans do to cope
with the population pressure and still maintain their identity?
Let's face reality head-on. If there is no option, and you
cannot just turn the railroad off, but you want to preserve
your self-identity, how do you do it? Somebody?
Mr. Turkel. May I answer that question?
Mr. Marshall. Sure.
Mr. Turkel. There has been an influx of Chinese immigrants
flooding into the region, especially since the southern
railroad is built in Xinjiang. There is a city called Kashgar
in the southern part of East Turkestan. Kashgar is not only
considered as an
important historic city to the Uighurs but also is regarded as
the cradle of Turkic civilization for the Turkic people in the
entire Euro-Asian continent.
After the building of the railroad, Kashgar is almost
becoming another Chinese city. In order to facilitate the
settlement of the migrant Han Chinese, the Chinese Government
is destroying the ancient streets and old residential districts
to connect the new train station to the city center. Ancient
streets, historic buildings and sites have been the major
driving force for the local economy, and demolition of such
tourist attractions is making it impossible for the local
Uighurs to make a living. Obviously, tourists won't go to
Kashgar to see high-rise apartment buildings and wider streets,
but rather they are much more interested in learning the Uighur
culture and history. As a signatory country of UNESCO, China
should protect the Uighur cultural heritage but not destroy it.
Having said that, the Uighurs are not opposed to the
construction of the modern transportation to catch up with the
rest of the world if such projects are not based on the
destruction of cultural and ethnic heritage. So called
``western development'' policies aren't designed to help the
Uighurs and Tibetans to have a better life but it was designed
to facilitate migrants to settle in the lands of the Uighurs
and Tibetans.
It is unfortunate but I think my Tibetan friends might face
the same consequences as a result of this railroad project.
Now, the Kashgar residents are frustrated because they are
losing their homes. Those homes might be a few hundred years
old. The ancient city is disappearing, local economy is getting
hurt badly and thousands of Han Chinese immigrants are arriving
daily and they are the real beneficiaries of this so called
``western development'' program at the heavy price that the
Uighurs are paying.
Mr. Marshall. We have only got a minute or so left, so
could I cut in and see if Lhundup wants to add something? Do
you have something to say?
Mr. Dorjee. Thank you for your question. This is a very
difficult question really to even try to think through. But,
trying to think through it, if I go back to the agenda of
today's forum, where I see human rights and the development of
rule of law in China, and protection of minorities, and
development of democratic structures and institutions.
I mean, we can fight for those kinds of rights and
institutions and probably those can provide some sort of
protection for our cultural identity, though I remain very
optimistic. I have not seen Tibet. I was born in India, in
exile.
My parents were from Eastern Tibet in the Amdo region, now
called Qinghai. In the areas bordering China, traditional
ethnic Tibetan areas bordering China, the influx of Chinese
settlers, Han as well as Hui, the changes that have come about
seem to be irreversible now. The concern that this can happen
in central Tibet from the railroad construction could be really
difficult to imagine for us. Thank you.
Mr. Foarde. We have run out of time, unfortunately. Very
rich and interesting conversation with each one of you.
On behalf of Chairman Jim Leach and Co-Chairman Chuck
Hagel, and the other Members of the Congressional-Executive
Commission on China, and every one on the staff, I would like
to thank each of the eight speakers today who helped us by
giving us your views and your very interesting information on
all these questions.
Our next issues roundtable will be held on Monday, March
24, in room 2255 of this building, the Rayburn House Office
Building, at 2:30 p.m. We are going to focus on non-
governmental organizations in China and we will have a
distinguished group of panelists to help us.
The time has come for us to give up the room to another
group at 4 o'clock. We thank you once more on behalf of the
CECC, and thanks to everyone who came. We will see you again at
the next open forum. I hope we will have another of this type
of forum later in the year, and I hope it is as successful as
this one.
Thank you all, and good afternoon.
[Whereupon, at 3:30 p.m. the open forum was concluded.]
A P P E N D I X
=======================================================================
Prepared Statements
----------
Prepared Statement of Roy Zhou
march 10, 2003
Good afternoon, I am very delighted to come here and give this
presentation to you on behalf of Chinese Students and Scholars studying
in New York Area. We are the only regional and the largest group of its
kind here in the United States. Today, I want to talk about this
special group of people who are of increasing importance to both
America and China--the Chinese students and scholars who are studying
and living here.
I'll start with a story, a story that happened on a fierce winter
of 1854. After 98 days on a tea ship called ``Huntress'' from
Guangzhou, Mr. Yung Wing, the first Chinese national who ever received
admission from a prestigious U.S. institution, set his rugged cotton
shoes on the hustle-bustle port of New York City. The prosperous street
views shocked Mr. Wing, who realized that a legendary land existed
outside of his motherland ``Central Kingdom.'' Five years later, on a
similar bone-freezing winter, Yung returned to China as a Yale
graduate. Among his meager luggage, he bundled not only diploma but
also a dream--a dream that later influenced several generations of
China's youth. ``During my last year at Yale College, I had almost
decided what I wanted to do. I believe the next generation of China
youth should have the same opportunity to receive the education that I
have received. Through the Western education that its citizens would
receive, China may turn into regeneration, and become more civilized
and stronger. It is the goal of my life to make this dream true,'' said
Mr. Wing.
The road to Yung's dream proved to be rough. During the most part
of the 20th century, China and its youth suffered consecutive wars:
including the two World Wars, the numerous military conflicts waged by
colonial powers like Britain and Japan, and the Civil War. China
plunged into unprecedented poverty, ignorance, and chaos. China's youth
still dreamed about traveling and studying overseas but very few of
them made their way into institutions of higher education in the West.
Especially during the cold war, the hostility between different
ideologies caused tremendous difficulties for young intellectuals to
fulfill their dream of studying in America. It was not until late
1970s, after Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing, that American
universities started admitting an increasing number of Chinese students
and scholars.
Since the normalization of U.S.-China relations in the 1970s,
hundreds and thousands of excellent Chinese students and scholars have
been overseas to places like the United States to learn the Western
technology, culture, political and economic systems. They have also
spread knowledge of Chinese culture to the United States. After their
study, many students were either hired locally, devoting their effort
in academic and business areas, or returned home with the knowledge.
More and more students are returning to China, like a bridge connecting
the two countries. Among the ones that stayed in the United States,
many of them achieved quite remarkable success in the business world.
For example, there is one company called ``UT Starcom'' based in New
Jersey, which was started by a student called Wu Ying in 1992. After 10
years, UT Starcom is an ISO 9001 certified company providing 2,500 job
opportunities to American workers. We can find similar examples in
which Chinese businessmen devoted to the society all over the nation.
There are many other success stories, like Hong Chen, who founded an IT
Firm called GRIC, and Zhu Min, who founded WebEx which provides Online
Meetings Service. Both are leading in the their respective industries.
The United States and China are two great countries of great human
talents and intellectual heritages. The reopened opportunities for
exchanging students have seen many young Chinese receiving their
degrees from the best universities in the United States and many of
them going on to contribute in both China and America in various
fields. There is an interesting pattern in the history of Chinese
Students and Scholars coming to America. Early on, thousands of them
decided to stay and work for big corporations and academic institutions
because they felt that China was too backward in their research area or
too rigid in governing. This trend once wreaked havoc on some Chinese
government officials who worried about ``brain drain'' due to the high
rate of non-returning students and scholars. But now this worry turned
out to be less than temporary. Since China's accession into the WTO,
Chinese students and scholars are more than willing to return for the
unprecedented opportunities for growth at home with the knowledge they
have learned in the United States. Just take a look at recent
recruiting, business opportunities and investment conferences held by
different Chinese municipalities, the long line waiting outside of the
meeting place is stronger evidence than any words or arguments.
Even the Brookings Institute's China expert David Shambaugh
exclaimed that the next 10 or 20 years, America will see the most
tremendous impact that it has on China due to the large number of
students and scholars returning to their motherland. President of U.S.-
China Business Council Dr. Robert Kapp also predicted that the fast
development of China and its market economy has drastically reduced its
distance from the most developed countries, therefore its business,
cultural and intellectual talents are facing a new round of relocation
and integration. All these changes point to a brighter future for both
China and America. It's a mutual benefit to both governments.
Having said that, I want to talk about three issues affecting
Chinese Students and Scholars.
First, most Chinese students came to the United States for the
academic excellence and the opportunity to pursue their studies at
American universities.
However, there are certain people who have been driven by some
interests and advocated the so-called ``China Threat'' concept, and
claimed that many Chinese students are spies. Recently, New York Times
reports that FBI is recruiting Chinese Students as spies for the U.S.
Government. This has brought an in-depth discussion in Chinese
Community. Most foreign students follow the rules and regulations well
and are not interested in getting involved in the politics. The Chinese
Community was silent in the past, but this does not mean that we have
no position. We want to stay away from politics and from spy issues. We
came to the United States for academic and personal development and for
the improvement of U.S.-China relationship, not for spying.
Second, Chinese students receive acceptance into U.S. institutions
through competitive exams and the rest of the admission process on an
equal or less-advantaged basis with American students. Unfortunately,
many dreams broken because of unreasonably high rate of visa declining,
including many of those who were granted full scholarship at
prestigious U.S. Institutions. A number of Chinese students who
returned to China during the winter break were either declined re-entry
visas or had to wait for almost 6-month security check in China. For
example, there are at least 4 students from Stony Brook University who
were not able to return to school for this spring semester and they are
still waiting in China. They have to postpone their studies when new
semester starts. For these students, the delay of visas imposed big
difficulties to their study and personal life. For example, Heng Zhu, a
post-doctor student at Yale University in its Department of MCDB
(Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology) was declined the visa.
Wall Street Journal reported his story, saying ``his absence of work
due to visa issue has derailed work under a $1.5 million National
Institutes of Health grant to understand how thousands of genes work, a
process that could ultimately aid drug discovery.'' Clearly, the loss
of such students and scholars undermines U.S. national interest.
Third, we respect U.S. policy on Homeland Security and we firmly
support the war on terror. However, treating foreign nationals nicely
will help the U.S. global image. We are wondering, if it is possible
for BCIS to consider providing a new
service to accept Security Check Applications prior to departure from
the United States for foreign aliens already in the United States.
Accredited foreign aliens will receive expedited processing when they
re-apply for visa at their home country. If possible, this would be
beneficial to foreigners, especially enrolled students, while not
compromising homeland security measures.
At last, we wish the two great nations prosperity and friendship.
We also hope to be able to contribute to the increasing U.S.-China
Communications on politics, economics, trade, culture, educations, and
help improve the relations between the two countries.
Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with you. I
would be glad to try and respond to any questions you may have.
appendix
U.S. Security Stymies Scientists By Bernard Wysocki Jr. 01/21/2003, The
Asian Wall Street Journal, Page A1
FBI Recruiting Chinese Students in US--NYT 02/07/2003 Dow Jones
International News
Homeland security? Don't forget homeland sensitivity. By Tom Plate. 02/
17/2003 Straits Times
China Reforms Bring Back Executives Schooled in U.S. By Jonathan
Kaufman 03/06/03, Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal
______
Prepared Statement of Frederick W. Crook
march 10, 2003
Living Conditions in China's Villages
For the past 43 years I have focused my interests on China. I have
lived in China (mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong) for a total of 10 years. I
served as an Agricultural Attache in Hong Kong, and worked on a TDY
basis in the US Embassy in Beijing, and in the US Consulate Generals in
Shenyang and Chengdu. I retired from USDA with 30 years of service and
in 2000 organized The China Group that provides information to clients
about China's rural economy and agricultural trade. In the past 3 years
I made 14 separate trips to visit China's rural areas.
Since most US visitors to China typically travel to Beijing, Man,
and Shanghai but given my background and experience I thought I could
be most useful to the Commission by providing some views about rural
China--the China that most visitors seldom see.
My presentation addresses three topics.
1. The wide gap between urban and rural living standards.
2. The growing tensions in China's basic level institutions Party
appointed cadres in the Village Party Branch Democratically elected
Village Committees.
3. The shadow of famine in rural villages--two strikes and you are
out.
urban wealthy (modern china) and rural poor (relatively backward china)
My view is that one of China's most serious problems is that over
the past 50 years China's leaders have constructed two China's: a
modern wealthy China and a backward rural poor China. This ``house
divided'' is a major weakness in contemporary China and to unite this
house into a major Asian power will take enormous effort and resources
and may require decades to accomplish.
Many researchers in China and in the United States have focused
effort on analyzing the effects China's entrance into WTO may have on
China's rural economy. But when I have asked some of my colleagues in
China to highlight major problems looming for China in this decade
their answer typically is: ``WTO is not the primary problem. The main
problem is the `Dual Structure.' ''
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
Consumer durable goods per 100 households, urban/rural comparison
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commodity Urban 2001 Rural 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bicycles............................ 165............. 121
Sewing machines..................... 51.............. NA
Washing machines.................... 92.............. 30
Electric fans....................... 171............. 129
Refrigerators....................... 81.............. 14
Motorcycles......................... 19.............. 25
Tape recorders...................... 49.............. NA
Cameras............................. 40.............. 3
TV sets:
Color........................... 121............. 51
Black and white................. NA.............. 54
Telephone sets...................... 93.............. 34
Computer............................ 13.............. NA
Cell phone.......................... 34.............. NA
Air Conditioning.................... 36.............. NA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: NBS, China Statistical Yearbook, 2002. Table 10-12 and Table 10-
28.
Per capita consumption, 2001
[In kilograms]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grain......................................... 80.0 238.0
Fresh vegetables.............................. 116.0 98.0
Edible vegetable oil.......................... 8.0 4.4
Pork.......................................... 16.0 16.0
Beef.......................................... 1.9 0.4
Poultry....................................... 5.0 2.0
Eggs.......................................... 10.0 2.3
Aquatic products.............................. 10.0 3.4
Sugar......................................... 1.7 1.3
Fruits........................................ 51.0 13.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: NBS, China Statistical Yearbook, 2002. Table 10-11 and Table 10-
27.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
Many farm households in 2003 had a family member or a relative that
starved to death during the great famine in 1958-1961. The primary
cause for this famine was irrational government policies. My view is
that since 1961 the Party has lost a great deal of its legitimacy in
rural areas. Before 1961 farmers were forbidden to store grain in their
farmstead and houses. But since 1961 farmers began to store grain as a
major part of their family's survival strategy. The grain serves as a
hedge against extreme price fluctuations, injury and sickness
insurance, and insurance against crop failures.
______
Prepared Statement of Chen Yali
march 10, 2003
Press Freedom
My topic today is about China's press freedom. I believe most of
you already have an idea about the state of China's press freedom. I
think most people sitting here will agree if I say a Chinese journalist
does not have as much freedom as an American journalist. But I don't
know how many of you will agree with me if I say most Chinese
journalists have a large amount of freedom in reporting and writing.
When news about harassment and prosecution of Chinese journalists
comes out to the Western newspaper continuously, it might be
counterintuitive to say that Chinese journalists have more freedom in
reporting and writing than many westerners believe. Here I want to make
two points because both of them are crucial components of the state of
China's press freedom: first, the increasing diversity and freedom of
the Chinese media; the second self-censorship. I will focus on the
increasing diversity and freedom of Chinese media in my presentation
but would like to talk more about censorship later on.
The development of China's press freedom, I believe, can be
generalized as ``two steps forward, one step back.'' The steps-forward
area is often the area that falls out of the western world's radar
screen: the socio-economic development. If you look back 15-20 years,
the reporting on the economic and social problems in China is much more
liberal and sophisticated now. I still remember I wrote the first
article criticizing the Chinese Government's corruption problem in 1998
immediately after Zhu Rongji took power. However, it was unthinkable in
1993 or even 1994 to write such a story. Family planning policy is one
of the most holy policies from 1975 to 1998. However, I was encouraged
by my own editor to write a story about the policy debate on whether
family planning policy should go on. I can give you more examples later
if you want.
The recent change is in the reporting on political policy, the area
that is often one step forward and half-step-back area. Recently, you
might have seen a widely published article lashing out on North Korea
and advocating why China should join the US to pressure North Korea for
China's own security. Another example is a report on a study by Chinese
scholars on why there is no direct causal relation
between educational level and the success of direct election mechanism.
Chinese journalists are not faced with the to-be-or-not-to-be
questions such as ``should we speak truth or not'' or ``shall I
challenge the censorship or not? '' Most Chinese journalists, including
me 3 years ago, are just running around the news conference or follow a
lead that seems interesting, or talking to scholars and trying to
contact officials. There is no evil mastermind sitting in my office,
watching every step I take or every word that I write. For the 85-90
percent of my work, I write about whatever I want to write. Chinese
journalists who cover economic news probably have more freedom since I
am working for the op-ed page.
push the envelope
Many journalists are trying to push the limit of ``political
correctness'' and are successful in doing so in many cases. Mao Yushi;
Dong Yuyu
freedom created for structural reasons
Media outlets directly under the propaganda watchdogs suffer from
strictest censorship. Media outlets under the provincial propaganda
authority will have more leeway to move around if the local propaganda
authorities are more flexible. Beijing Youth Daily for example is under
the Propaganda office of the Youth League, which is a part of the
Beijing Municipal Government. Therefore, the Central Propaganda
Ministry has to go through layers of bureaucracies to send warnings to
them. Take another example: Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekend) is under
the Propaganda Branch of the Guangdong Provincial Government, which is
kind of independent in economic policy and even domestic politics
anyway.
creating freedom in writing
Avoid direct confrontations and avoid advocating the slogans that
immediately draw fire on you but use small details and facts to
communicate what you mean. Avoid putting the criticism as your own
judgment. You can write or structure your ideas in the way that is less
inflammable and therefore unnoticed by the censorship. To read a story
on China Daily, start from the last five paragraphs. Chinese readers
are smart readers. They can read between lines.
countermeasures: ``there is a policy from above, and then there is
countermeasure from the bottom''
When one newspaper is closed down or purged, the major set of
editors and reporters will be transferred to another newspaper. Where
there are needs, there are deeds. Nanfang Zhoumo, when purged, turned
into 21st Century Herald. Internet and commercialization are two
factors to help these activities.
I want to emphasize that I am not suggesting that Chinese
journalists are as free as the American journalists in writings and
reporting. We are far from that.
However, I am trying to explain that it is difficult to generalize
whether Chinese journalists have or don't have press freedom in a
black-and-white manner. As a transitional society inevitably heading
for liberalization and social plurality, China should be treated with a
more nuanced approach and therefore the targeting policy from the
outside world to help promote the press freedom will see better
results. One immediate policy implication for the western countries is
to help educate, train and empower Chinese journalists, especially
those with more free spirit but sidelined, instead of criticizing the
lack of press freedom in China.
self-censorship
I have to say the ``evil mastermind,'' if there is any, is a shadow
sitting in my own mind or the minds of every Chinese journalist: that
is self-censorship. Self-censorship is the major form of media control
in China. Self-censorship in Chinese media is like in the US you should
be careful not to say anything ``politically incorrect.'' Self-
censoring yourself in China as well is not to say something politically
incorrect, here politically in the literal sense. The censorship system
helps enforce the self-censorship by giving guidance in advance and
making examples, punishing those that crossed the line too far.
censorship takes effect in recruiting journalists and journalists'
promotions
Two distinctive groups of journalists: in-system (follow the rules,
obedient to their superiors and always get the best opportunities) and
those living on the edge of the system. You cannot write what you are
not allowed to write; but, as a journalist, you can often refuse to
write what you don't want to write; Case: Falun Gong. The latter group
of journalists is often regarded as ``trouble-makers'' in this
profession. Media organizations want to keep them because their
articles are more marketable than others. However, these people won't
have much chance to get major promotions. In China, promotions are
related to salary, bonus, housing, training opportunities, good beats,
interesting topics and in one word other people's respect. This group
of journalists are often discouraged, pushed around and ripped off good
opportunities. Two ways for these people: go out of the system and work
for the private sectors or go abroad; swallow their pride and join the
``mainstream.''
actical problems for chinese journalists: monopoly of the government
over information
Personal relations with these ministries are also very important.
Guanxi plays in Chinese journalism as well. Alternative source:
scholars, more open-minded and have less restraint to speak. How much
you can reply on an non-official source, it depends on which area you
are talking about. The ownership of China's information was still very
much held in the hands of the government, statistics, market research
and opinion polls are very much controlled. In many cases, only the
government control the information, for example, when a policy is to be
let out and what the policy might look like. Since China is not a
democracy, government agendas and policy
debates are more or less held in black box. Journalists therefore
depend on government for information. So going back to alternative
source, if in economic news, you have much more other resources you can
rely on, more critics that like to jump out to make comment. But you
talk about, for example, arms control, you very much rely on the
foreign ministry and Moftec for any information since the think tanks
in this field rely on the government as well.
Government officials took journalists, especially journalists from
the mainstream media groups, as ``their own people.'' They would talk a
lot, I guess even a lot more than American government officials would
do, to the reporters. On the other hand, journalists in turn will watch
for the ends of these officials, sifting through things provocative or
sensitive, which might bring troubles to this official. In many cases,
journalists know much more about the story behind than they appear to,
i.e., the articles published. That is the rule of the game. Chen Xiao
was put onto the
blacklist of Moftec. Nobody talks to him ever. You could write one
provocative story or two, but then you lost your jobs afterwards. You
have to do something else.
______
Prepared Statement of Lhundup Dorjee
march 10, 2003
My name is Lhundup Dorjee and I speak here today on behalf the
Capital Area Tibetan Association [CATA]. Before I begin, I would like
to thank the Commission and the staff for providing us this opportunity
to speak here.
As I speak here right now, members of the Tibetan community here,
joined by our American friends and supporters, will be gathered in
front of the Chinese Embassy to mark the anniversary of a very tragic
event that took place in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, 44 years
ago. On this day in 1959, Chinese Communist troops massacred thousands
and thousands of Tibetans--men, women and children--monks, nuns and
lay--who had gathered together in spontaneous demonstrations to protest
the Chinese occupation of their country and to protect the life of
their young leader, the Dalai Lama. Finding indiscriminate fire
insufficient, Chinese troops rained artillery shells into the crowds of
innocent people to kill the maximum. The Chinese soldiers spent days
turning over the dead bodies of monks in the hope that the Dalai Lama's
body could be found among them. Yet for us the events of that day 44
years ago resonate with meaning and significance far greater than the
tragedy, for it was a day on which the heroism, courage and bravery of
our people found expression as never before, in the face of China's
brutal might, and stirred the collective consciousness of a new Tibetan
identity, one that united all Tibetans--from Kham and Amdo regions as
well as Central Tibet. The Chinese government describes March 10, 1959
as the quelling of a rebellion. We Tibetans call it the Tibetan
National Uprising Day and we proudly commemorate it every year in the
free world remembering our common sacrifices and rededicating ourselves
to the cause.
Many waters have flowed through the river Tsangpo in Lhasa since
then. Or maybe, tears would be more apt, instead of water, for the
suffering of our people under Chinese occupation was unprecedented and
immeasurable. Or maybe it should be blood, for more than a million
Tibetans have died as a result of their rule. Sadly, the situation in
Tibet is not getting any better today, the veneer of economic
development taking place there notwithstanding; a veneer that many
well-meaning observers seem to take as a sign of progress. I would urge
the members of the Commission to look beyond this veneer in assessing
the situation in Tibet for it masks issues of far greater and critical
importance for Tibetans. These are the transfer of Chinese settlers to
Tibet reducing Tibetans to a minority in their own homeland, economic
and educational marginalization of ethnic Tibetans, gross violation of
human rights, severe political repression, systematic efforts to
undermine Tibetan culture and language, and environmental degradation.
While the fact of economic development taking place must be
accepted by us Tibetans, it should be pointed out that since the
Chinese government is implementing economic development as part of a
strategy to consolidate their colonial rule in Tibet, and not for the
sake of improving the lives of ordinary Tibetans, the results of
economic development, in fact, tend to exacerbate the negative impacts
of many of the issues mentioned earlier and will worsen the situation
further in the long run.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the leader of all Tibetan people, has
long advocated and pursued a path of peaceful, negotiated solution by
working with the Chinese. However, the Chinese government has spurned
his efforts and vilifies him repeatedly. It is said that China is
banking on a strategy of waiting for him to die to solve the Tibetan
problem for good. It will be tempting for China to think this will be a
smart option since the Dalai Lama is a powerful symbol of the Tibetan
freedom struggle and unifies all the Tibetans. In spite of the visit of
a delegation of exiled representatives to Tibet in the past year, it is
not clear if China really has had a genuine change of heart and
reviewed this strategy. If not, this would be a very serious mistake.
In my opinion, if the Tibetan problem is not resolved during the
lifetime of the 14th Dalai Lama, China can be assured of long-term
instability in the region. We hope that the new generation of leaders
in Beijing will shed aside their arrogance and suspicions, and find the
wisdom to realize that the only path that can be good for both the
Tibetan and the Chinese people is one that involves working with His
Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Nury Turkel
march 10, 2003
china's western development program and its deleterious impact on the
lives of the uyghur people
It is a real honor to be in here. I would to thank the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China for giving me this
opportunity to address some of the issues, which are of the gravest
concern to the Uyghur people in East Turkestan.
The political situation in East Turkestan has been worsening
increasingly, especially after September 11. Despite many criticisms
and warnings by the United States government and human rights groups,
China's persecution of the Uyghurs in the name of the War on Terror has
escalated. As a result, more than 3,000 Uyghurs have been arrested, and
a percentage of whom were executed. At this crucial moment, the Uyghurs
desperately need the attention of the international community listen to
their grievances to urge the peace-loving people of the civilized world
to make the distinction between terrorists who seek to take innocent
lives and those who simply seek self-defense from a brutal and
intolerant regime. Here, I would like to address a few important issues
for your attention; (1) the Chinese communist chief, Wang Lequan's
recent statement in which he proposed the policy whereby Uyghurs live
with economic adversity, and intentional destruction of ancient Uyghur
buildings and sites in Kashgar, (2) the expulsion of the Uyghurs from
Chinese cities, and (3) China's denial of the foreign media requests'
to cover the
recent earthquake in the Kashgar region.
destructive nature of china's ``go west'' campaign
The migrant Chinese have been the primary beneficiaries of the
western development program in East Turkestan; however, the Uyghurs are
paying a huge price for it. China watchers believe that China's western
development policies are designed to bring more prosperity to the west.
Such a belief contradicts the reality of the unemployment and economic
disparity which are rampant among the Uyghurs. Media reports indicate
that the government favors Chinese who have migrated to the area over
their more qualified Uyghur counterparts in its hiring practices. The
Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang, Wang Lequan's
recent statements further disprove such a belief. At a recent meeting,
when Wang stated that it is wrong to believe that economic development
would help reduce and eliminate separatist activity in Xinjiang, he
implies that government's priority should be that of cracking down on
separatist activities. This demonstrates that Chinese governments' real
intent of developing the West is not to win over ethnic minorities in
those areas but to attract more ethnic Chinese migrants into the region
in order to change irrevocably the demographic structure of the region
in the favor of the ethnic Chinese. Resulting changed demographic
structure, in turn, would help the government's long term policy of
assimilating the Uyghurs into the Chinese. China's such discriminatory
policies against Uyghurs are a blatant violation of its obligations
under the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
which was ratified by China in 1982.
So called ``Western development'' not only facilitates China's
attempt to make the Uyghurs second class citizens in their own homeland
but also to destroy the Uyghurs' cultural identity. Foreign travelers
have expressed their disappointments when they witnessed the
disappearance of central Asian charm and destruction of the valuable
Uyghur cultural heritage. The pace of the destruction is breathtaking.
The community has been destroyed, the charming neighborhoods are gone
with no compensation, and people have been rusticated. Today, ancient
city of Kashgar, that is considered the cradle of Turkic civilization
in Central Asia is virtually unrecognizable.
At the same meeting, Wang also called for a fight against Uyghur
dissent on the ideological front. He stated, ``Xinjiang must promote
patriotism and the unity of nationalities education, and resolutely
condemn the distorted history promoted by ethnic separatists, including
the history of ethnic development and religious progress.'' ``Xinjiang
must sow the ideas in the minds of people to preserve stability.''
Wang's statement further displays the hidden intent to wipe out the
Uyghur identity. This has been achieved by Beijing's waging relentless
destruction of Uyghur culture. People are identified by their culture,
rather than not by their religion, race and facial complexion. The
Uyghurs are very proud of their cultural heritage despite their long
suffered humiliation and cultural annihilation. Locking up historians,
burning books, and destroying historic sites, and imposing Chinese
language education are not a recent phenomenon but rather a continuing
effort by the authoritarian Chinese regime to wipe the Uyghurs out from
the face of the earth. Since 1949, the Uyghurs have born the brunt of
these destructive policies especially during China's notorious Cultural
Revolution; and now they face even greater danger. The intentional
destruction of the Uyghur cultural heritage is a violation of the U.N.
convention adopted by UNESCO which China is a signatory country. Such
reckless acts perpetuated by the Chinese authorities constitute harmful
impoverishment of world heritage.
uyghurs are facing discrimination both at home and china
Not only the Uyghurs are facing myriad types of discrimination and
unspeakable treatment in East Turkestan but also in China. It has been
reported that the Uyghur residents of Beijing has been expelled and
even forcefully sent back to their hometowns. That is causing enormous
social tensions and discontent, and it appears to be increasing. A
Uyghur woman in Beijing told Western journalists that Uyghurs are not
allowed to work and live in Beijing, she, herself, had been ordered to
leave. She also said, millions of Han Chinese can go to East Turkestan
and do whatever they want but that hundreds of Uyghurs may not live in
Chinese cities. Police harassments, denial of lodging, and disapproval
of business licenses are commonplace in Chinese cities thanks to the
Chinese propaganda that portrays the Uyghurs as ``terrorists.'' This
indoctrinated belief of the local Chinese and government's tacit
condonation of the mistreatment of the Uyghur people has created
enormous
frustrations and humiliations among the Uyghurs. Some of the Uyghur
``economic migrants'' are forced to go to Chinese cities to look for
jobs because of the lack of employment opportunities in East Turkestan
where all the jobs are taken by the Han Chinese. In fact, Chinese
authorities are trying to limit Uyghurs' employment opportunities and
economic resources wherever possible in order to make the Uyghurs think
of nothing but their most basic survival; so that the people do not
have the luxury of independent thought.
denying access to information in east turkestan has deep roots
China has been enforcing strict media censorship in past decades.
Such censorship can best serve China's objective to keep its brutal
crackdown on political dissent behind the closed doors and thereby
mislead the world and its own people with false information. This has
even been true during times of natural disaster. Denial of access to
and dissemination of information in East Turkestan is not a sporadic,
but rather is systematic. It has been reported that the Chinese
authorities have turned away foreign journalists who came to cover the
devastating earthquake which took more than 266 lives, injured 4000 and
left tens of thousands homeless in Kashgar's cold winter. Despite the
ban, several foreign journalists have entered the areas, at their
personal risk of being arrested and expelled they filed their reports.
The remaining international media have been restricted to using only
still photographs, or news received from the Chinese State media, this
includes CCTV, the only national TV network whose members are given
access to disaster areas. The network is mainly broadcasting pictures
of Chinese soldiers helping thousands of disaster victims. However, no
independent observers have been admitted into the disaster areas, while
witnesses are disputing the official death toll and the effectiveness
of the rescue efforts. Foreign media have been systematically banned
from using the real footage of the recent earthquake. This clearly
demonstrates how the Chinese authorities mislead the foreign media in
order control the flow of information.
The very existence of the Uyghur people is threatened. The human
rights situation is worsened day by day as the civilized free world
watches Chinese authorities' continuing to wage cultural genocide
against the Uyghur people. The people of East Turkestan need help from
the free and democratic world to put pressure on the Chinese government
and urge it to respect the fundamental human rights of the Uyghur
people. We hereby respectfully ask the United States government to
appoint a special coordinator at the State Department to monitor the
human rights situation in East Turkestan.
Thank you very much for your kind attention in this very important
matter.
______
Prepared Statement of Greg Walton\1\
monday, march 10, 2003
Great Wall, Small World\2\
Washington DC.--Good afternoon. Thank you to the CECC Staff for
organizing this forum. I have followed the proceedings of the
Commission since its inception, and note with interest the real
progress being made with regard to understanding human rights, the rule
of law, and the Internet in China.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ CECC Open Forum, Monday, March 10, 2003, at 2 PM in room 2200
of the Rayburn House Office Building. http://www.cecc.gov
\2\ The Great Firewall of China, Xiao Qiang and Sophie Beach http:/
/www.cpj.org/news/2002/China--Firewall25aug02.html;
The Small World problem. S. Milgram Psychology Today, 2:60-67, 1967
Citations: http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/context/302442/0
\3\ Noting particularly the innovative roundtables: China's Cyber-
Wall: Can technology break through? (11/04/02)http://www.cecc.gov/
pages/roundtables/110402/index.php?PHPSESSID=
544c601e2b3f199980e642804f9e84d1; the quality of the contributions to
Wired China: Whose Hand is on the Switch? April 15, 2002 http://
www.cecc.gov/pages/roundtables/041502/index.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
My name is Greg Walton. I am an independent research consultant
focused on the impact of the Internet on human rights and democratic
development--particularly in Asia. [I will reference the URL of my
eJournal for supporting documentation and further written testimony I
wish to submit for the record.]\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ http://go.openflows.org/cecc
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I have no affiliation to any organization. However, I have working
relationships with a number of international human rights NGOs, and
other groups and individuals, engaged in advancing human rights in
China--particularly in the digital sphere--through Internet activism or
``hacktivism.'' By ``hacktivism'' \5\ I mean specifically the adoption
and extension of universal human rights principles and mechanisms to
the needs of an information-based society\6\--``including where this
runs counter to the preferences of authoritarian regimes.'' \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Hacktivism and Human Rights: Using Technology to Raise the Bar:
http://www.cultdeadcow.com/panel2001/hacktivism--panel.htm
\6\ Article Zero::Access Universal, on the occasion of the World
Summit on Information Society in Geneva. Forthcoming, December 2003
\7\ What if There is a Revolution in Diplomatic Affairs? David
Ronfeldt and John Arquilla: http://www.usip.org/vdi/vdr/
ronarqISA99.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information Society increasingly employs advanced information and
communication technologies in daily life. These technologies are--more
often than not--derived from hi-tech military research programs.
Sophisticated networks which were originally designed to track the
movements of troops on the battlefield, for example, are increasingly
part of the modern surveillance arsenal. Such systems have been
described as the ``central nervous system of the repressive regime that
connects the brain to the boot.'' \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ http://www.amnesty.ie/news/2001/irelandarms.shtml The use of
the term arms trade has the effect of making many people think that it
is only tanks and guns and weapons of mass destruction that are the
problem . . . By focusing solely on weapons and torture equipment, we
can ignore the fact that in some cases it is state of the art
technology and communications equipment that allows repressive
governments to monitor and arrest human rights defenders and pro-
democracy campaigners. Electro-shock equipment and leg irons may be the
visible implements of torture but it is the use of global positioning
devices and call interception equipment that enables a government to
track the movements of its opponents.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
My own preliminary research suggests that the application of such
so-called ``neutral,'' dual-use technology is a double-edged sword. It
can easily be abused in the hands of totalitarian governments--in fact,
in the absence of democratic accountability, nationwide data base-
driven surveillance systems--for example--will be used against the
interests of the general public in a systematically destructive way:\9\
it's a path that gradually but inevitably suffocates civil society.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ http://www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/
globalization/goldenShieldEng.html [English] http://
Internetfreedom.org/gb/articles/1069.html [Chinese]
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Now, more than ever, it is critical for technologists to act
responsibly: one suggestion within a trust model inspired by the
Hippocratic Oath--``Above all, do no harm.'' \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ http://www.almaden.ibm.com/software/dm/Hippocratic--Data
bases/hippocratic.pdf--scientists at IBM Almaden are working on a
system where ``contracts'' are created between data bases and
administrators/primary users to ensure the privacy and integrity of
data. This contract system is based on 10 principals, including
stipulations that the information will be kept accurate and up-to-date,
the data is used solely for what it was specifically collected for, and
the data is only retained for as long as it is needed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The fundamental question that should be asked is, ``Does this
technology expand the democratic experience, or does it cause
irreparable damage? '' It is a given that any technology can be abused
by the enemy's of democracy. But, going by the averages, does the
technology do more good than harm?
This afternoon, I would like to present a snapshot of my inbox last
week and
examine how the development of two parallel Internet routing
technologies underscores the importance of these questions in everyday
China.
Developed in the labs of a cutting-edge hi-tech corporation, the
first set of routers are governed by code that restricts--closing down
the free flow of information, and deployed right across national
networks hard wired for centralized control.
The other network of routers, a shared resource developed around an
open source protocol, opens up secure, decentralized channels of
communication--connecting
people in a secure, private, trust-based environment.
A respected industry consultant in Beijing characterized the
current end-user
impact of the ``closed'' routers as being as if all China's online
population were ``breathing through the same tiny air hole.'' \11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ Michael Iannini, general manager of Nicholas International
Consulting Services Inc. in Beijing. ``Through this hole the government
has set up many filters,'' he said. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/
2907: China's Web surveillance slows access even as government promotes
Internet use. [The Associated Press Mar 5 2003]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In obvious contrast, the open network of routers seeks to expand
the global democratic sphere through ``peer-to-peer technology that
makes it possible to carry out almost any Internet activity securely
and--more importantly, for all sorts of
reasons--anonymously.''
There is little time for extended analysis so I hope to allow the
facts speak for themselves.
So in our first story\12\ AP reports that China's Internet users
are ``suffering sharp slowdowns in access, which industry experts blame
in part on heightened efforts by the communist government to police
online content.'' The BBC reports that ``these problems have worsened
as Security operations in China have been stepped up as the annual
National People's Congress continues in Beijing'' \13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\12\ ibid.
\13\ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2828433.stm
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The Commission's staff will be aware that these problems emerged in
October after ``packet-sniffer'' software was integrated into key
routers on China's Internet backbone--this was following the
redirecting of Google's domain name.\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ http://www4.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc--cd=110031: The
Chinese government commonly blocks access to sites it deems to have
inappropriate content, but it has never before
redirected users trying to access certain domains to other Web sites.
Doing so turned a political decision into a trade problem.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was also noted at the time that Chinese authorities were
systematically hijacking the domain names of thousands of Websites--
including some belonging to the U.S. Government, human rights
organizations, and other civil society organizations.\15\ Banned topics
include human rights and the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual group.\16\
The result is a huge--quite intentional--bottleneck, and a much slower
service, especially at ``sensitive'' times. This was at the same time
that ICANN--the body that governs the global Domain Name System (DNS)--
was meeting in Shanghai.\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\15\ http://www.dit-inc.us/
\16\ http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56699,00.html
\17\ http://www.icannwatch.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/07/
151227&mode=thread ICANN's China Question.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to draw the commissions attention to forthcoming
research by Dynamic Internet Technology Inc.\18\ I would like to
highlight their growing understanding of how this system is working
today, and why it leads to sharp slowdowns during ``sensitive''
periods.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ http://dit-inc.us, forthcoming, http://www.dit-inc.us/hj-09-
02.html for background.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The main body of the DIT Inc research--part of a series of in-depth
briefings that I believe will be released over the coming months,
provides explanation of the routing mechanism, exhaustively explores
the keyword list that triggers the domain name hijacking system.
The second story--that is the other set of Internet routers I'd
like to touch on today comes from an eWEEK Labs review in which the
magazine evaluated a beta version of the developers edition of the Six/
Four System [Hacktivismo], which
became available last week\19\ under the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source
Software
License Agreement [HESSLA].\20\
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\19\ http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,919681,00.asp
\20\ Full text of the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License
Agreement is available at: http://www.hacktivismo.com/hessla.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Six/Four System is eWeek reviewers found that ``Hacktivismo
hasn't quite achieved its goals. The peer-to-peer network, which relies
on many node clients with some trusted peers that handle routing, is
understandably very small right now. Also, the Six/Four System's
capabilities are very raw.''
This is a fair analysis: It should be noted that this version of
Six/Four is a developer release. My understanding is that, once an
intuitive application interface has been developed and localized--and
once a significant user base has been installed in the liberal
democracies--I anticipate the tool will be widely distributed in China.
My prediction/hope is that Peer2Peer computing--Six/Four and systems
like it\21\--will render state sponsored censorship ultimately
impossible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ Freenet-china.org for example.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I understand that a number of the CECC Commissioners and Staff are
tech-savvy and will submit further details of the Six/Four system for
the record.\22\ The Commission will note among the feature set, what
the U.S. government classifies as munitions-grade encryption.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\22\ http://www.hacktivismo.com/news/
modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=19
\23\ http://cryptome.org/DOC--BIS.pdf
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So which of these technologies expands the democratic process--
which constricts? Which of these technologies does more good than harm?
To human rights--to civil society--to business?
The HESSLA license agreement says that anyone using the code
released under it must respect digital human rights: that is to say,
software distributed under Hacktivismo ``enhanced source'' license will
be legally prohibited from censoring or spying on users. The
Hacktivismo legal team was very careful to define that anyone using
code released under it must respect privacy, free expression, due
process and other human rights.\24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\24\ http://cryptome.org/hack-cow.htm
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In contrast DIT's research is examining in some considerable detail
how Chinese authorities redirect or ``hijack'' proscribed domain names.
I think--that for the first time--and this is what is really remarkable
about this research--DIT are evolving a robust and reproducible
methodology, accurate across provinces and ISPs. I believe part of the
motivation in publishing the in depth briefs is in the hope that other
researchers can further their own studies in the implementation of
China's Internet censorship and surveillance system.
In brief, as DIT researchers explore Chinese networks they are
finding that the domain name hijacking is implemented systematically on
a nationwide basis and regardless of ISP. They found there is a key
word list--and yes--it does change from time to time--the more
``sensitive'' that day is in the Communist calendar--the longer the
word list--the slower the connection. The system seems adaptive--maybe
it is even ``learning.''
What intrigues me, is that a handful of routers sited very close to
the international gateways are ``sniffing'' millions of dns requests
each second. Based upon CNNIC bandwidth surveys these devices are
processing a certain amount of traffic. They must be fairly
sophisticated.\25\ One can't but help wonder about the provenance of
this technology. If it was designed by a western corporation it seems
ironic that not only does this one sale effect millions of individuals
rights--it also impacts international business productivity.\26\
Perhaps ``people don't realize we're exporting censorship.'' \27\
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\25\ Perhaps a best-of-class Intrusion Detection System of some
sort: [applied across an entire country].
\26\ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2264508.stm: The cost of
China's Web censors.
\27\ http://hacktivismo.com/news/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229: Lee Tien, senior staff
attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the online civil
liberties group in San Francisco.
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Understanding the impact of surveillance networks on China means
recognizing a society often in the grips of a shadowy security
apparatus--a truly Kafkaesque legal system without any apparent logic
or Rule of Law; an economy without transparency--whole sectors rife
with corruption. The context of China is a state without democratic
accountability. Exporting dual-use technology to China is about placing
technology in that political context: a profoundly anti-democratic
context.
I would ask that the Commission further investigate the reality of
Internet censorship and digital surveillance in China and then apply
appropriate pressure to all levels of the Chinese government.
This is particularly the case with regard the growing number of
Internet prisoners that Amnesty International\28\ has recently noted
constitute a new class of prisoner of conscience--for a new form of
crime.\29\
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\28\ China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture
and even execution http://www2.amnesty.se/aidoc/press.nsf/thisweekpr/
80256AB9000584F680256C78004EEF43?open document
\29\ See George Orwell, 1984.
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The Chinese authorities must release all those currently detained
or jailed for using the Internet to peacefully express their views or
share information:
Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing their
views or other information on the Internet or for accessing
certain Web sites are prisoners of
conscience. They should be released immediately and
unconditionally.\30\
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\30\ http://www.dfn.org/focus/china/netattack.htm: Attacks on the
Internet in China: Chinese individuals currently detained for online
political or religious activity. Digital Freedom Network provides a
list of individuals currently detained for online activity. DFN has
also compiled a list of Chinese legal actions and site shutdowns since
January 2000 that restrict online expression. These lists are updated
regularly. DFN also has a useful page containing the latest news
related to Net restrictions in China (http://dfn.org/focus/china/
chinanetreport.htm).
I hope the Commission particularly to regularly re-examine the role
of U.S. corporations engaged in exporting equipment that enables
censorship and surveillance infrastructure in China.
Finally I would urge the Commission to take every opportunity to
remind governments and corporations that international legal
instruments are clear:
International law requires that: online free expression shall
not be restricted by direct or indirect means, such as
censorship, restrictive governmental or private control over
computer hardware or software, telecommunications
infrastructure, or other essential components of the electronic
networks. The right to privacy, anonymity and security includes
the protection from arbitrary massive surveillance of either
content or association online as well as the right the choose
privacy technology such as cryptography to protect
communication.
My belief in global Internet freedom is based upon an understanding
of communication as the universal driving force of human civilization,
and as the foundation of individuality, as well as community:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.\31\
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\31\ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19.
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______
Prepared Statement of Ciping Huang
march 10, 2003
My name is Ciping Huang, I am the Secretary General for the
Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition and a Council member and Human
Rights Committee chair for the Independent Federation of Chinese
Students and Scholars. I am speaking on
behalf of these two organizations today.
My topic today is about women's issues in China, which I have
wanted to make since I attended the roundtable discussion on the same
subject organized by this Commission on February 24, 2003. I was not
satisfied with the way the subject was presented on that date, which
was on a similar path with the other subjects that were presented at
this Commission.
As I have talked to your staff before, I feel strongly that this
Commission should concentrate more on the Chinese human rights issues
due to its founding background in the PNTR debate and its mission to
monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China.
Despite this mission, although I understand the conditions and
limitations, I feel the Commission has focused more on other issues
such as the Chinese economic situation with respect to American
business enterprises, instead of the Chinese human rights condition and
the needs and demands of the Chinese people. I feel it is extremely
important for the Commission to have more of our fellow Chinese testify
on the human rights abuse conducted by the Chinese Government and its
officials, testimony which the Commission has been short of. Here
again, I would like to offer assistance and help when you need to
locate victims and witnesses to testify in this regard.
Coming back to the women's issues in China, I want to point out
that the conditions described in your February 24, 2003 discussion are
not quite to the essence of the problem. On one side, I understand
there is a time limit to discuss such a big and complicated problem and
I do understand the scholars' and experts' insight and detail on
certain aspects. On the other side, I have learned that many scholars
have restricted themselves from a harsh criticism of the Chinese
Government in concern for the typical retaliation from that government,
which would simply not allow them to go back to China or sabotage their
studies and discredit them afterward. The Chinese Government has
arrested and harassed Chinese born scholars in the past; they have
upgraded this harassment from green-card holders to US citizens, and
now the threat and fear has reached even further. The arrest and trial
of several scholars such as Gao Zhan, Li ShaoMin and Xu ZeRun are just
a few of their escalated episodes that have received media attention.
Their 10 months of detention of Dr. Yang JianLi without any
communication by him to the outside, even to his family, nor any other
legal proceeding nor trial is not just violating international
standard, but also Chinese law itself.
Under this type of harsh environment for the scholars, I feel more
than ever a responsibility to stand out to speak for our fellow Chinese
people, especially the unfortunate Chinese women. As a second daughter,
I have experienced sexual discrimination myself from the birth. Even as
the most outstanding student, I had to take a lesser job or other
position due to the fact that I was a woman. My boss told me to my face
that he must place me in a less desirable position because I was a
woman. Even now, my female classmates and friends have lost their jobs
to the male counterparts because of their sex.
Of course, there is a social background supporting this issue.
However, for a government boasting perfect equality such as ``women
will hold half the sky'' and a government that is so successful
carrying out their policy of suppressing dissidents and religious
believers, one has to wonder why they could not carry out their slogans
and policies for women. Women lack not just social and economic status
but also political status in China. Taking the recently opened People's
Congress as an example, only about 20 percent are women. There was an
even smaller fraction of women in the main decisionmaking body of the
Chinese Communist Party Congress that was just closed last November.
There have been very limited yet well revealed stories in the press
about how women are treated in China. They were the victims of
ignorance in the past. With the economic development in China, they are
further and further dragging behind the men and have become victims of
cheap labor and exploitation, not just economically, socially, but also
sexually. The highest suicide rate for women in the world is in China.
This fact alone is one of the best pieces of evidence.
There is widespread knowledge of the present surge of prostitution,
women trafficking, female fetus abortion, and abortion and
sterilization of women. 84 percent of women experience sexual
harassment. However, let me summarize the areas of my greatest concern
for Chinese women in regarding their rights:
1. The growth of China's economy is built on the abuse of
human rights, especially of women, via the parity of lack of
employment opportunity for women and cheap labor exploitation
of young girls.
a. Engaged in ``Little-sister labor,'' many teenager
girls who go to the city for a job in a factory not
only lose their opportunity for education, but also
become vulnerable for lower pay and unfair treatment
without protection, even sexual harassment.
Take the quote (which is not the worst of all) from
the report a few months ago (as my second attachment),
about young girls working in foreign ventures making 30
cents an hour for 16 hours a day, with only 2 days off
every month. In these kinds of places, these young
girls are not just exploited economically; some were
taken advantage of sexually and even raped by the
managers and owners of the factories.
b. With the diminishing of State Owned Enterprises
(SOEs), women are losing their social warfare and
health benefits altogether.
Even according to data permitted by the Chinese
Government, nearly half of the unemployed female laid
off workers experience age and sex discrimination when
they try to find a new job. A women over 35 years old
usually has no hope of finding a job unless she has
strong connections or excellent skill. My sister was
thrilled to get a senior engineer job which
specifically required: ``male and younger than 35 years
old,'' she was the only exception for that company,
which is the biggest one in my hometown of more than
300,000 population.
If one thinks these kinds of job ads are not
respecting women, one will find that the ones seeking
women specifically are only worse.
Take as an example, a newspaper ad to recruit a
janitor: ``Female, under 25 years old, pretty, slight,
over 160cm in height, no education required.'' My
friend read me another ad seeking flight attendants who
must be
``virgin.''
2. Women's rights are worsened along with the ``free market
economy,'' which included the loss of their own freedom and
liberty, even social status.
I want to emphasize to this Commission that, although many
perceive the economic growth in China, nevertheless, it has not
helped to improve women's conditions. As a matter of fact, it
only opened more cracks to make women fall into as victims. The
system under the Chinese Government only lets such a ``free
market economy'' to be free to abuse women's rights.
a. In worsening family violence, sexual annoyance,
and sexual assaults, many women find themselves to be
in abusive positions, and some fall into the
victimization of human trafficking.
b. Young prostitutes are in the millions. In poverty-
stricken areas, girls specifically have lost their
education rights as a result of the collapse of the
iron rice bowl. Many go to cities for a rosy promise,
but only find themselves working as ``Little-sister
laborers,'' or even as prostitutes. Some are sold to
cities or even abroad as prostitutes. For example, the
number of prostitutes in Malaysia has increased
dramatically since 2000. Most of them come from China.
Women become the victim of AIDS due to the sexual
exploitation. These women infected with AIDS do not
dare to reveal their disease, not to
mention having any hope to be taken care of.
A recent story was about a father who had to pretend
to be a customer to meet his kidnapped teenage daughter
who had disappeared for 3 months and was already forced
to receive about 700 customers!
How outrageous this kind of crime is! Yet the Chinese
Government seems so weak to wipe out this ``social
virus'' as effectively as they wipe out the dissidents'
voice. Why? The ones conducting these types of crime
are often local officials, police, or at least
associated with these governmental authorities, so
unlike the powerless young girls, they make money and
escape law without punishment. Recently, there were
several cases of police brutality in China. Young girls
were forced to make confessions of prostituting and
paying fines and go to jail. They were more fortunate
because eventually they were freed to claim their
innocence after getting examinations to prove that they
were virgins.
c. ``Er Nai,'' a new term for concubines, has not
only become the most popular term in China, but is more
in practice for wealthy and powerful men in the last
few years.
When I was visiting China in 1998, I mistakenly went
to a bathhouse, which had a massage center that turned
out to be a place for men to pick up young girls for
the night. As I was wondering why there were no female
customers, I got my opportunity to learn the sobbing
conditions and environment these homeless girls have.
Now, I have learned that the situation has only gotten
worse for these girls with the further economic
development in China. Nevertheless, when I was talking
to these hopeless girls, to be some well off man's ``Er
Nai'' was a better outlet for them.
3. Along with the loss of women's rights is the loss of
rights and even lives of baby girls and unborn female fetuses.
a. There is a high rate of female infanticide and
baby girl abandonment.
Under the Chinese Government's One Child Policy, this
issue really became aggravated. Millions of baby girls
and fetuses have been killed and aborted. If we say
this issue reveals the low status of women in China,
then the government's capacity of being able to carry
out the One-Child Policy yet unable to protect the
lives and happiness of the innocent female babies and
fetuses is the indication that their strict policy is
very selective. It is the government that forced such
policy on the unwilling citizens who do not have many
other choices. It is the government that forced the
women to have sterilization. It is very clear that they
too ignore human lives, which is in coherence with
their abuse of human rights.
An official datum is that, for every 100 girls in
China, there are more than 120 boys. Some suggest that
the number of boys is even higher.
Along with the birth or just pregnancy of female
infants, is the lost status of the mothers who do not
bear sons. Some women are discriminated against for
that reason, or even become an excuse for the husbands
to file for divorce and/or seek other women. Some of
them are driven to suicide, contributing to the
previously mentioned highest world rate.
b. The position and value of female children is
decreasing.
Especially in poor areas and for poor families,
female children are under greater pressure than their
male siblings to discontinue schooling. The subsequent
neglect of the care and education for a female child is
still prevalent. Girls have very difficult chances to
get into competitive and reputable colleges for higher
education. In my class, only 10 percent of the students
were girls.
4. Women's social, economic and health benefits are
decreasing.
a.Women do not have their adequate health benefits,
along with other social benefits. Sometimes, the
minimum ``benefit'' was built on the fact that their
human rights were violated. As an example, in a factory
in WuXi, a well-developed city close to Shanghai, the
female workers received free feminine napkins but were
required to submit evidence of their menstruation and
were subject to search and examination of their private
parts in order to get a fair pay. Termination was the
likely result if one was discovered to be pregnant.
I know of women who wait to die instead of seeking
treatment because they cannot pay the hospital bills.
The lady (with the enlarged neck due to lack of iodine)
presented in the recent PBS show ``China in Red'' is
one of them.
b. For the women experiencing domestic violence, the
government and the society do not provide adequate
protection. When some women report men's brutality to
the police, the answer is like: ``Men do what men do.''
Just on February 10, Ms. Su ChunMei, a 33-year-old
woman, was
critically injured when her husband threw her out from
the third floor. According to official Chinese
Government data, at least 34 percent of Chinese
families have different degrees of domestic violence.
32 percent of people (mostly men) admitted violent
behavior against their spouses.
c. Unfair divorce and child custody is increasing.
The divorce rate is climbing in China. Not only do
the divorced women get a smaller or even virtually no
share of their property and housing, but also lack
protection from the abusive husbands future abuses.
There are reports about revengeful husbands killing the
ex-wives. Yet, in contrast, women do not have much to
say, nor much to take when husbands leave them for
whatever reason, even a new women.
5. Last but not the least, Chinese Government systematically
suppresses the human rights of our fellow Chinese, especially
of religious believers and political dissidents.
In particular, there are large-scale abuses and torture
against female Falun Gong members and underground church
members, not to mention ordinary female prisoners. Besides
being refused food and water, female detainees are often
sexually abused, even gang raped by male jail mates and
officers. There are incidents where the officers intentionally
throw the female prisoner into all male cells for hours of
sexual abuse even rape. There is police brutality of not only
taking female prisoners clothes off, but also using electric
shock and hot iron bars to burn nipples and lower body parts.
Of course, there is some limited struggle for the suppressed.
One such effort is by a group of Tiananmen mothers who spend
painstaking effort to collect names and details about the
victims of the June 4, 1989 students movement. Lost their own
loved ones to that massacre, they recorded deaths, seek
justice, and speak out for the rights of others such as the
Tibetans and have left a bright mark for the Chinese women's
record of defending their human rights.
I speak here not just for these women whose rights are
offended, but also for these people who defend their rights. I
am speaking here not just to let this commission to know the
terrible human rights condition in China, but also to seek this
commission's sympathy and help to push for Chinese human rights
in your capacity. Hereby, I want to urge the Commission not to
forget these powerless and voiceless youth and not to let the
superficial economic development details cover up the very fact
of the severe Chinese human rights abuses.
I also want to point out the wrong approach of a suggestion
to take the All China Women's Federation as an NGO, or at least
treat it as such even though knowing it is really a Chinese
Government agency. It is well known that there is no real
workers' union in China that is permitted and admitted by the
Chinese Government. The so-called the All China Workers' Union
is really an organ of the Chinese Government to support their
effort of exploiting workers' rights rather than to protect the
workers and promote their rights and benefits. Well, the All
China Women's Federation fares no better than the All China
Workers' Union. To work, to associate with, even to help and
fund these types of organization not only contributes to
suppression of the Chinese, but also deceives freedom loving
American taxpayers.
Finally, I want to thank this Commission for paying attention
to women's issues. However, I must decry an effort to isolate
these problems without emphasizing their connection to the
Chinese human rights problem. Hereby, I want to emphasize that
the women's problem in China is very much a human rights
problem. I wish this Commission will pay attention to this
issue and play a positive role in the improvement of women's
rights in China.
I am submitting to you, in addition to the full text of my
speech, some other materials as reference and supplement.
Attachment 1 is my suggestion to the Commissioners and staff of
CECC on February 3, 2003. There is much more material both in
English and in Chinese on the subject, both in the traditional
news media and on the Web, that I will not submit at this time.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.
attachment 1
My suggestion to the Commissioners and staff of CECC on February 3,
2003:
1. CECC is a commission established after the PNTR debate in
the Congress in 2002. Its primary mission is and should be ``to
monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in
China.'' Unfortunately, since the Commission officially got
functioning 1 year ago, it has focused much more on the Chinese
economic details than its human rights conditions.
2. In an effort to monitor the Chinese human rights
condition, I suggest the Commission to get more Chinese to
testify on the Chinese human rights abuse reality, instead
concentrating on American scholars and American business
associates' detailing the Chinese economic situation. As I have
offered before, I will be happy to assist the staff if you do
not know enough of Chinese contacts and I will be happy to help
you to establish communication and provide potential candidates
within the Chinese dissidents community and victims who have
suffered human rights abuses in China.
3. On CECC's Web page, there is a victims registry part that
has provided nothing on it. Well, we surely could have many
contributions, either from the political prisoners, or Falun
Gong members, or underground church members, etc. If the
commission needs help to collect data and detail, we will be
glad to help.
4. At end of the each session, it is nice to have a Q&A
session from the Commission representatives and staff. What I
would like to know is if it is possible for the attendees (with
positive ID and credentials) to ask questions as well, in case
of oversight. I think this would help the session to be more
well covered and balanced and provide motivation and sense of
participation for those who care about the Chinese human rights
condition, as well as the well being of this Commission.
Thank you very much for your attention.
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