From: FACSS%UMNACVX.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu (FACSS AT U OF MINN)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china
Subject: Lobbying Effort in Jeopardy - From CCSA
Date: 27 Jul 92 23:23:34 GMT
Reply-To: "FACSS AT U OF MINN" <FACSS%UMNACVX.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Organization: Indiana University


                      Lobbying Effort in Jeopardy
                                          -- A Message from CCSA

To all parties Concerned:

Due to Zhao, Haiching's busy schedule, I feel compelled to say something
about the current confusing situation regarding the lobbying effort.  This
lobbying effort has been led by Haiching Zhao has successfully led the
lobbying effort in the past three years.  Since the 4th Congress of the IFCSS,
Haiching had testified in the Congress among other things.  A teleconference
of nationwide lobbying coordinators was held on Sunday night, July 12, to
organize the nationwide effort.  CCSA (Committee on Chinese Student Affairs)
has always been the account for lobbying in the past.  A special post office
box has been established in Washington DC to better facilitate the donations.



Both MFN and Immigration bills are in the final stages of passing the US
Congress.  There are still much high level maneuvering and high pressure
mass lobbying to be done.  Last Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee
passed the Chinese Student Protection bill with a great danger of Haitian
issue being attached to it.  Our effort should be directed toward a successful
passage of the bill out of the House.

The final week before recess, there should be high power mass
lobbying at the Capitol Hill by Chinese students from all over the country,
especially those states where their Senators and Representatives are key on
our issues.  To do this, it takes two things, money and coordination.
Fundraising and signing up capable and experienced people to go to
Washington DC. were the planned emphasis this passing weekend.

Last Thursday night, Geng Xiao's email posting, establishing another lobbying
arm and another donation account, put an effective brake on that.  As a
result, our coordinated lobbying effort was severely damaged.  Instead, more
attention was paid to resolving the in-fighting and the legal implication of
such implementation.  Arent, Fox, the law firm who has been working on the
immigration matters with us in the past three years, had also had to divert
its attention to our disputes instead of concentrating on the Hill's lobbying.
The law firm has very effective assisted us in lobbying Chinese student
protection bills.  They were instrumental in the J-1 lobbying and they have
been working on this immigration bill for over a year.

We were concentrating on the Capitol Hill day and night prior to this in-
fighting.  We have been moving both bills along in both houses relatively
smoothly in spite of various difficulties.  The Council resolution and Mr.
Geng's posting are dealing with the matters that have serious consequences
to our lobbying effort.   Yet, we were never consulted in advance.  We were
only notified by Mr. Geng couple of hours before the actual posting.  So far
we still don't see what problem the action was attempted to solve other than
creating current confusion and causing a serious hampering on the planned
lobbying activities.

It might on the surface have appeared that the resolution and the report
were to help the effort.  In reality, it creates two problems.  1) Mr. Geng's
action takes over the responsibility of coordination.  Yet he could not be
reached on Friday or until now.  2) By creating two donation accounts, it
creates tremendous confusion among students and other donors.

What is at stake is three fold: 1) three years of hard work of IFCSS lobbying
effort; 2) the passage of the immigration bill which affects the livelihood and
well being of tens of thousands of Chinese students and scholars and their
families in this country; and 3) a good opportunity of passing the MFN bill
which will help improve human rights and economic reform in China.

Time is of the essence.  We only have very limited time before the recess.  It
has to be a coordinated effort.  We will try our best to have the current
situation resolved.  We certainly hope we will have an opportunity to speak
to Mr. Geng Xiao soon.

We feel very strongly that this is not the time for in-fighting.  The effort in
the past three years by thousands of Chinese students and scholars led by
IFCSS should not go down the drain simply because some minor internal
discrepancies or who is going to get what credit or glamour.  At this critical
moment nothing is more important than the future and well-being of our
fellow Chinese students and scholars in this country.  We will again do our
best under the circumstances to ensure the passage of the bill as we have
always attempted to do in the past three years.  We appeal to all Chinese
students to work together to achieve this goal.

Ji, Yingquan
Chairman of the Student Affairs Committee of the IFCSS 3rd Term
University of Minnesota
July 26, 1992