US Congress Calls for Sacking of Chinese General
By Wang Zheng
The Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-7-25/30545.html
Jul 25, 2005
The US House of Representatives has called for the sacking of the
Chinese Communist Party’s Major-General Zhu Chenghu after his recent
statement that China would attack over one hundred American cities
with nuclear weapons if the United States interferes in a war
between Communist China and Taiwan. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
The US House of Representatives has called for the sacking of the Chinese
Communist Party’s Major-General Zhu Chenghu after his recent statement
that China would attack over one hundred American cities with nuclear
weapons if the United States interferes in a war between Communist China
and Taiwan.
General Zhu was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organized
by the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry on July 14. During the function
Zhu said: “We...will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the
[Chinese] cities east of Xian. Of course, the Americans will also have to
expect that hundreds...of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.” Zhu
has previously said that China has the capability to attack the USA with
long range missiles. The general is a professor and dean in China’s No. 1
National Defense University Strategic Defense Institute which is under the
direct leadership of the CCP’s Central Military Committee.
Britain’s London Telegraph published an editorial titled, “The Bullies in
Beijing,” in which the editors said that Zhu’s speech is similar to one
made by Mao Zedong in 1957. Mao said that nuclear war would both raze
“imperialism” to the ground and kill half the world’s people. Although
General Zhu is not currently a member of Mainland’s China’s policy
establishment, his speech was given during the critical period of US-China
trade discussions and the Kuomintang’s presidential election in Taiwan.
Purposely Arranged by Beijing
The Chinese Communist Party did not reject Zhu’s speech and a spokesperson
from the Foreign Affairs Ministry said Zhu’s speech was his own personal
opinion. This spokesperson declined to comment on whether or not the
speech represented the government’s view.
Although General Zhu emphasized that what he said was his own opinion, a
Pentagon official, speaking to a reporter at the Washington Times, said
that Chinese generals normally express only official positions and that
Zhu’s comments represent the views of senior Chinese military officers.
“These comments are a signal to all of Asia that China does not fear US
forces,” this official said. He added that a disclosure such as this of
elements in a Chinese war plan may have either been inadvertent, or
cleared in advance by senior political leaders.
Professor Tang Ben of the Claremont Institute’s Asian Studies Center
published an article in Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao on July 20, in which he
asserted that what General Zhu alluded to was actually Beijing’s strategy
to deal with current world circumstances, even though Beijing labeled his
remarks as “personal opinion.” Professor Tang wrote that people aware of
the CCP’s diplomatic history would know that Zhu’s speech was purposely
arranged by Beijing and not written by himself.
Tang says that China has always used diplomats to discuss major issues, to
prevent its military from commenting on sensitive foreign affairs topics.
So in this instance, according to Professor Tang, CCP leaders in
Zhongnanhai (the Chinese Kremlin) used a medium ranking official to state
what they themselves could not say publicly.
Andrew Yang, Secretary General of the Taiwan Council of Advanced Policy
Studies (CAPS), said that Zhu’s speech is specifically directed at both
the United States and Japan, because they announced for the first time
that Taiwan’s security is of concern to both countries. Beijing’s
communist government is watching how they respond in order to learn what
policy will be adopted towards China. Mr. Yang also said that Zhu’s speech
means the decision-makers in Beijing have already had discussions
regarding changes in China’s “no nuclear first strike policy.”
Speech Represents Views of Some of the Military
The editor of Taiwan’s Top Technology military magazine, Mr. Xie
Zhongping, is not surprised that Zhu’s speech represents the views of some
inside the Chinese military. Mr. Xie said that the part of the speech
referring to the destruction of hundreds of American cities is the basic
estimate of the situation by part of the Chinese military, even the
government. His explanation is that the CCP’s government could tolerate
more civilian and military casualties than could the US government or
people.
In an interview with Austria’s Die Presse, political science professor
Ming Chu-cheng of Taiwan University said he also believes that General
Zhu’s speech represents the view of part of the Chinese military.
Professor Ming believes that Beijing uses fanatical nationalism to
manipulate China’s internal affairs, to divert attention from the
increasing poverty in the countryside and people’s lack of confidence. All
the saber-rattling over Taiwan serves to warn and quell any rebellion
inside China.
US Congress Asks China to Sack its General
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Zhu’s remarks “highly
irresponsible” and told reporters that they hoped these were not the views
of the Chinese government.
On July 20, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment drafted by
Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) that “expresses the sense of Congress that
recent comments made by Chinese Major General Zhu Chenghu which openly
advocate the use of nuclear weapons against the United States damage
US-China relations and violate China’s commitment to resolve its
differences with Taiwan peacefully. It further expresses that the
government of the People’s Republic of China should renounce the use of
force against Taiwan, reject General Zhu’s statements and remove Zhu from
his position.”
Also on July 20, in an amendment to the Appropriation Bill for the
Department of State, the House urged the State Department to allow senior
Taiwanese officials to visit the United States and communicate with their
US counterparts. The House amendment specifically named Taiwan’s
President, Vice-President, and the ministers of foreign affairs and
defense as examples, and said it is in the interests of the United States
for them to visit.
CCP Spy Network Runs Deep in U.S.
Military laboratories, Ivy League universities, private citizens face
widespread espionage and repression from Chinese agents
(http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-6-20/29637.html)
By Jonathan Browde
The Epoch Times
Jun 20, 2005
(AFP/Getty Images)
A large network of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies is rampant in the
U.S., say members of Congress, Ivy League academics, and two defecting CCP
officials.
The spies aim not only to steal military and technology secrets but also
to influence, repress, and even control the ideals and actions of
Americans.
In defecting in Australia early in June, CCP officials Mr. Hao Fengiun and
Mr. Chen Yonglin sparked a string of headlines, first in Australia then in
Canada, about a massive network of CCP spies in Western countries that
could far exceed previously held estimates of the problem.
On the heels of these revelations, Australia’s foreign minister and
Canada’s prime minister both personally responded to criticism from
opposition leaders that their governments had not done enough to curb
espionage and other illicit activity by CCP agents in their countries.
According to one scholar with intimate knowledge of several Ivy League
universities and associated research centers, however, the problem is far
greater in the United States, where a public dialogue on the issue has yet
to emerge.
“If China has deployed 1,000 spies to Australia and another 1,000 to
Canada,” the scholar noted, “can you imagine how many are here in the
U.S.?”
Military Designs and Technology Stolen
Prior to 9/11, Chinese espionage was a top concern among the nation’s
lawmakers and security agencies.
In May 1999, a Congressional select committee on military and commercial
concerns with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued a report
detailing the problems of Chinese espionage in the U.S. According to the
declassified version of the report, known as the Cox Report, the primary
targets of Chinese espionage had been the nation’s weapons laboratories,
such as Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge and Sandia.
Dating back several decades “and almost certainly continu[ing] today,” the
report says key military technologies such as advanced thermonuclear
weapons, the neutron bomb and an assortment of nuclear missiles had been
taken by Chinese spies.
“The PRC,” says the report, “uses a variety of techniques, including
espionage, controlled commercial entities, and a network of individuals
and organizations that engage in a vast array of contact with scientists,
business people, and academics.”
According to the FBI’s annual report, there has been a 20-30 percent rise
in the number of Chinese espionage cases in Silicon Valley, a hotbed of
technology innovation located south of San Francisco.
On February 13, 2005, Time magazine reported that over 3,000 companies in
the U.S. are suspected of gathering intelligence for the PRC. Many of
these companies, says a source who has worked with a number of Ivy League
Universities and associated research centers, are fronts for China’s
“People’s Liberation Army.”
According to Xu Wenli, a pro-democracy advocate who was jailed for 12
years in China, the CCP actively recruits and sends students abroad to
gather information for the government. Some of these students then move on
to work for military and government contractors here in the U.S.—all the
while, gathering and sending information back to the CCP.
More recently, however, another side of China’s spy network, one that aims
to influence, repress, or control ideology and discussions on university
campuses, has been highlighted.
Chinese Communist Fronts Mobilized at U.S. Universities
According to several academics at Yale, Harvard, Columbia University and
the University of Pennsylvania, the CCP has been very active on U.S.
campuses. Working primarily through on-campus student groups, they say
Chinese consulate officials seek to silence academics critical of the CCP,
and promote the regime as peaceful, progressive and a vital player on the
world stage.
According to one Ivy League scholar, Chinese consulate officials meet with
students on campus, providing them with direction and organizing “united
fronts” against CCP critics.
“I was present at one such meeting,” said the scholar.
As a result, lecturers at the universities offering critical analyses of
the Chinese government have sometimes met with hecklers who would stand up
and yell at them in the middle of their lectures. “The aim,” says the
scholar, “is to not only discredit the lecturer and the subject matter,
but also intimidate fellow students from adopting points of view critical
of China. This has happened to me on a number of occasions.”
According to this scholar, consulate officials also pay students to attend
rallies and other events promoting the Beijing government. Dr. Yi Rong, a
human rights worker in New York City concurs. “Chinese students are paid
and bussed in by the hundreds to form a greeting rally whenever a
high-ranking Chinese official visits the city,” says Dr. Yi.
In October 2002, Chinese students from several universities, including the
University of Chicago and University of Houston, were offered free
clothing and payment to welcome then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin during his
trip to Chicago and Houston. In an e-mail to the students, the Friendship
Association of Chinese Students & Scholars described the event as a
“serious political task” and, according to Voice of America, required all
participants to sign a document forfeiting their First Amendment rights
during the event in an apparent attempt to curb any would-be protesters.
Any one violating the agreement could be fined up to $5,000 dollars, VOA
reported.
The First Secretary of the Office of Tibet in New York City, (Snu) Tendar,
says the CCP has also deployed teams of “scholars” around the world to
deliver lectures at major universities. Tendar says that using the forum
of scholarly discourse and lectures, these teams have promoted pro-Beijing
ideas, such as classifying the invasion of Tibet as a “liberation” of the
people from the “feudal lords” of the Dalai Lama.
At Columbia University, hate literature was found posted in the Asia
Studies building, reiterating word-for-word CCP propaganda against the
Falun Gong group. Campus police quickly disposed of the materials upon
their discovery.
At Yale University, a student running for president of the Association of
Chinese Students & Scholars at Yale (ACSSY) quickly found herself a target
of criticisms attacking her personal beliefs when it became known she
practices Falun Gong. During a public debate on the day before the
election, a member of the audience asked, “If you get elected, how are we
going to keep our relations with the Chinese consulate?”
Many of the ACSSY activities around campus are sponsored by the New York
Chinese consulate.
“You’d think that an Ivy League campus would be free of this sort of
thing,” says one graduate student at Columbia University, “given the
weight that dialogue, diversity, respect, and tolerance have in our
community. But it’s pretty clear these aren’t quite traditions or values
China’s current leadership subscribes to, and that’s why we’re seeing acts
of hate and intimidation like these happening here, in the U.S., of all
places.”
CCP Repression of Falun Gong Throughout U.S.
Outside university campuses, CCP agents or those believed to be working
under their direction, have sought to repress and intimidate practitioners
of Falun Gong, Tibetans and other groups perceived as a threat or vocal
critics of the CCP.
Acting as a volunteer spokesperson for Falun Gong in New York City, Ms.
Gail Rachlin says her apartment has been broken into five times since the
CCP first launched its campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in 1999. In each
break-in, no valuables were stolen. “Only my personal phone list…a
rolodex….things like that,” says Rachlin.
On two separate occasions, Dr. Sen Nieh, a professor at Catholic
University of America in Washington D.C and a local Falun Gong
spokesperson, has come home to find private conversations with
friends—which took place in public venues such as parks or
walkways—recorded on his answering machine. The second of the two
instances, reported in the Washington Post on July 20, 2001, was a
conversation he had with other Falun Gong practitioners while standing
outside a Senate building on Capitol Hill immediately after meeting with a
senator’s staff to brief them on the persecution of Falun Gong.
“Obviously, they are trying to send a clear message that they are watching
us at every moment...they’re trying to scare us,” says Dr. Nieh.
In January 2003, Hong Lei, a spokesperson for the Chinese consulate in San
Francisco, went on local Chinese television to say that the consulate had
a list of all Falun Gong practitioners in the San Francisco Bay area and
warned them not to go back to China.
Public venues have also come under fire. Hotels in San Francisco and New
York have been contacted by Chinese consular officials or threatened by
unidentified callers, pressuring them not to allow Falun Gong events to be
conducted in their facilities. In November 2004, the National Arts Club in
New York City received several threatening phone calls, including at least
one bomb threat, on the opening night of an art exhibit with works
depicting the Falun Gong practice and the persecution in China.
Several Falun Gong spokespersons have reported receiving death threats.
There has also been actual violence.
In September 2001, two assailants attacked Falun Gong practitioners
conducting a sit-in outside the Chinese consulate in Chicago, beating one
victim to the ground and tearing his clothing. Two of the assailants were
arrested and pled guilty to battery. They were both members of an
organization with very close ties to the Chinese consulate.
In June 2003, a group of assailants attacked several Falun Gong
practitioners as they demonstrated outside a restaurant in New York’s
Chinatown. The head of a local Chinese community organization, Mr. Guan
Jun Liang, was arrested in connection with the attack. Criminal charges
against Liang, who personally greeted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao when he
visited New York in 2003, were dropped, but a civil lawsuit against Liang
is in progress.
Falun Gong practitioners have also been physically attacked in San
Francisco, Toronto, and Boston.
The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution in September
2004, condemning China’s actions of spying on and harassing Americans who
practice Falun Gong, which listed instances of breaking and entering as
well as assault and battery.