Nov.12,2000 --- To: Trent Lott, Denny Hastert

[ Up ]

Dear　Mr. Trent Lott,
　　　Mr. Denny Hastert,

A follower of the Falun Gong spiritual sect died suspicious circumstances at a labor camp, becoming the latest victim of communist China’s crackdown against the group, a rights group reported Wednesday.

Prison authorities in eastern Shandong province immediately cremated the body of Zou Songtao and have refused his wife’s pleas to investigate his death, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Zou’s death means 68 Falun Gong practitioners have died in police custody since the communist government outlawed the group 16 months ago, the center said.

Hundreds of thousands of followers have been pressured to renounce ties to the sect, and the Information Center said 10, 000 practitioners have been put in labor camps --- twice previous estimates and a number that could not be immediately confirmed.

Zou, who earned a masters degree in biology last year, visited Beijing several times to protest the ban, the Hong Kong center said. It added that police arrested him at his home in Qingdao city on July 18 and sent him to a labor camp for three years --- the maximum allowed without a trial.

Zou’s family was informed on Nov. 4 by the Wangcun Labor Camp that he had committed suicide by jumping from a prison building, although guards refused to release his body for burial, the center said. His family, the center said, suspects Zou was killed.

Meanwhile; we thought, as a leading of world’s democracy that the chaos over who will be the next American President deepened. Some people around the globe were beginning to wonder if the political turmoil in the United States would erode security abroad.

President Chen Shui-bian writes in an article published in Japan yesterday that his administration’s handling of relations across the Taiwan Strait so far has been “successful.”

Chen’s article, titled “Asia Shares Common Destiny --- Pooling Wisdom and Creativity to Pursue Lasting Peace in the Taiwan Strait,” appeared in the December issue of the Japanese magazine “Voice,” which hit newsstands yesterday.

In view of Taiwan’s current situation, Chen continues, the government must first seek cross-strait peace and stability before it can cope with domestic issues and carry out needed reforms. He then takes great pains to explain Taiwan’s basic stances and commitments on cross-strait relations as set forth in his May 20 inaugural speech.

As a result, Chen writes, present cross-strait relations have remained as stable as they were before the presidential election. “I think the new government’s handling of sensitive cross-strait relations should be given credit as ‘successful,’” he notes.

To ensure regional security, Chen writes, military force should not be used to resolve disputes. The human rights lawyer-turned-president also calls on all Asia-Pacific countries to pool their wisdom and creativity to resolve major regional problems, including cross strait disputes. “We are more than willing to listen to the opinions of our Asian neighbors on the promotion of cross-strait rapprochement and regional cooperation.”

Quoting the Japanese proverb: “If a cuckoo does not cuckoo, we should wait,” Chen writes that his administration will wait patiently for Beijing to open its doors to dialogue with Taiwan to break the current cross-strait stalemate.

Voice, a monthly magazine, is published by the noted Japanese thinktank and Happiness through Prosperity (PHP). The political magazine was inaugurated in 1978 and has a monthly circulation of 200,000. Intellectuals and leading figures in the academic and political communities form the mainstay of its readership.

PHP Vice President Katshuhiko Eiguchi also interviewed Chen in Taipei in mid-October. The December issue of Voice also carries an article by Toshio Nagahisa, a senior PHP research fellow, that suggests that Chen’s minority government refine its political strategies and cooperate with the country’s major opposition parties to ensure smooth operation and stability.

Beijing’s guarantees to pressure Hong Kong’s freedoms were said to good for 50 years after 1997. But Beijing could count on the fact that the rest of the world would quickly lose interest.

Taiwan does need America’s backing in coping with the military threat from across the Taiwan Strait over strategic defense in Asia-Pacific forward base.

Bush administration will become more unlikely to tolerate the PRC’s continuous military build up and see it challenging proper measures to counter that potential threat.

Gore, give his strong moral principles could take a tougher stand toward Beijing over human rights issues and labor standard concern.

In our view, take Bush who views mainland China as a “strategic competitor” of the U.S. would implement Gore’s moral principles on human rights and labor issues on deal with Beijing.