Newsgroups: soc.culture.china

The attached is a message I sent to a friend who asked me about a project
involving several Chinese organizations, including SVDC, to help Bill Clinton's
transition team to identify and recruit capable Chinese-Americans to join his
new administration.

This is in response to an opportunity presented to us from the Democratic
National Committee (DNC).  What they have in mind might not be that same as
what we want.  There is no use to get some token positions, quota, or
allocations of middle or low level appointments.  This is a chance to have a
breakthrough for the Chinese in the mainstream American politics.  We can't
limit ourselves to think of Chinese affairs only and must use the occassion to
correct the perception that Chinese are ALL passive, takers not givers,
non-participants, and so on.  Americans should understand that we are willing
and very capable to contribute in many areas of concern.

Stay tuned for more on this subject.  Please communicate with us if you have
any suggestions or individuals whom you wish to refer us to.  Thanks.


Ignatius Y. Ding
SVDC Communications

ps.  Please note that all candidates must be American citizens.
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Dear xxxxxxx,


There is a slight misunderstanding regarding the position paper that I am
writing.  It is not limited or even focused on Chinese affairs.  It is to
outline our view of what our Chinese-Americans can and should offer the new
adminstration.	First, I will point out that our talent search will base on
addressing the top issues in the current national agenda, namely economy,
education reform, environment, and health care.  Then, I will add three more
focus areas to that list:  civil rights and human rights, high competitiveness
(productivity and quality as differentiators in the international marketplace),
and international political and trade policy development.

Our goal is to identify and recruit the best people in the Chinese community
and target to get assistant secretary level postions and appointments to
various presidential commissions and advisory councils.

We have divided the search committee to seven sub-committees and delegated the
search of individuals in one of focus areas to a sub-committee.  I am
personally responsible to collect from the sub-committees and present the whole
package to the search committee on Nov. 18th.  You are welcome to join us if
you want.

We expect to have a list of no more than twenty people.  Each one of them must
be a world class high achiever in his/her field.  We are asking not only their
resumes and letters to state their interests, but also recommendation letters
from credible organizations, e.g. IEEE, CIE, AAMA, universities, US senators
or chairpersons of key House committees.

In addition to the Chinese-American organization in D.C. which has been in
contact with the Democratic National Committee, we also developed three other
channels to communicate with the Clinton camp.	We will copy our deliverables
to all four parties to ensure that the Clinton transition team understands our
sincerety.  One of the channels is a pair of top notch lobbists who used to
work in the State Department.  Both work for major industries and have personal
interest to help position our people into the new administration.  The second
channel is an independent institute headed by two former Assistant Secretaries
of State who are close friends of Warren Christopher's.  The third channel is
through the Director of the Asian-Pacific Political Affairs of the Clinton-Gore
Campaign who happens to a Chinese-American from San Jose.

The project has taken off nicely.  We have spreaded the words and generated
quite a bit of interest in the Chinese community.  I strongly urge all of you
to help recruit individuals who will carry the Hong Kong issues to the capital.
I will include the American policy towards Hong Kong in my writing but it will
not be a main topic because the position paper is intended to state the purpose
and reasons of the talent search in the Chinese-American community and to avoid
the perception of our effort being limited to self-serving interest.  It is in
the long run, but is not the goal for the immediate future.


Ignatius