Dear Co-chairs:
My name is S.B. Woo, Former Lt. Governor of Delaware and current president of 80-20 Educational Foundation, which is by far the largest Asian American political organization. I write to request if you have any direct evidence that George Koo was "openly sympathetic to the goals of Chinese Communist Party." George Koo is the writer whom you refer to in footnote 20 of your Section 3 entitled "The Chinese American community" in your "Chinese Influence & American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance" article. A verbatim quote of footnote 20 is shown below. Emphasis are added.
"The Chinese embassy also targets prominent Chinese Americans through the
Committee of 100
, an organization of the most elite Chinese Americans in the United States.
Committee members report significant pressure from the Chinese consulate on committee members to toe the Party line.
Some prominent Committee members
are openly sympathetic to
the
goals of the Chinese Communist Party
.
One of them is George Koo, who in addition to serving in a senior
position on the committee is also listed as an 'overseas director of the China Overseas Friendship Association, based in Beijing."
If you have evidence, please share it with me and the entire Chinese American community. If you don't, then I demand that you retract the statement and apologize to the Chinese American community, and George Koo.
Let me illustrate to you the degrees of your affront and the need for your public apology.
First,
when one of you, namely Orville Schell was "critical of the United States role in Indochina during the Vietnam War and supportive of establish-ing diplomatic relations with the PRC", was he "
openly sympathetic to the goals of Chinese Communist Party", or
was Mr. Schell simply exercising his patriotic duty to remind our govern-ment
of its possible mistaken policies? The first quote was taken from
Wikipedia on Orville Schell
. Are you applying the same standard to George Koo?
Secondly, unless you can present evidence that the C-100 "members report significant pressure from the Chinese consulate on committee members to toe the Party line", you become suspects for using McCarthy era tactics to intimidate C-100 and/or the entire Chinese American community. You must urgently present such evidence. Otherwise, you cast doubts on the accuracy and worth of your entire article. 80-20 Educational Foundation under separate covers has openly called for the Committee of 100 to either deny your allegation or promise the Asian American community to stop such inference from China henceforth.
Thirdly, while you repeatedly warned NOT to "demonize Chinese Americans or their feeling for and pride in China", you went out of your ways to taint a writer like George Koo, who has exercised the same freedom of speech and patriotic duty as
Orville Schell did.
The only difference is that George is a Chinese American.
So are you racists or just being hypocritical in your statements, if you don't apologize?
I await to hear from you, hopefully within several days. If you need more time, please let me know and state your reasons. If I don't hear from you, then 80-20 Educational Foundation together with other Asian-/Chinese-American organizations shall take appropriate action to call our nation's attention to your racist double standards. We'll also call attention to your attempt to suppress the freedom of speech by Chinese Americans and intimidate the same community by
a
contrived attempt to tie our community to the Chinese communist Party without any evidence.
Frankly, if you don't clarify, present evidence to back up your allegations or retract the statements and apologize, your behavior is worse than that of those totalitarian
governments you purport to object.
The lack of integrity and worth of your entire article will be the laughing stock of the world.
Sincerely yours,
S. B. Woo
President
80-20 Educational Foundation, Inc.
Within Hours Both Co-Chairs Responded
One promised
"
a substantive reply within a week." The other provided
some background information on the history of this H.I.
article. No substantive conversation has occurred yet. You can count on 80-20 EF to be courageous and
diligent in guarding your rightful interests.
