From: Zixiang Tang <tang@IMAFS.IMA.UMN.EDU>
Subject: (none)
Reply-To: Zixiang Tang <tang@IMAFS.IMA.UMN.EDU>
Organization: Indiana University
Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 1992 17:03:30 CDT
Comments: To: china-nt@uga.cc.uga.edu

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                     Lobby Efforts in Minnesota
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                     Minnesota Lobby Group
                       July 26, 1992

 The Minnesota Lobby Group was established in May, 1992. Ever after its
establishment, it has accomplished a great deal to lobby the Chinese
Protection Act. The following is a brief summary of what we have done so
far.

1. Lobby the local Congressmen. There are all together eight US Congressmen
from Minnesota. The Lobby Group has met with five of the Congressmen, and has
persuaded them to take a positive stance on the bill. As far as we know, there
is at least another one Congressman who is a cosponsor of the bill. Therefore
there are at least six out of eight who are definitely in support of this bill.
The meeting with Congressman Jim Ramstad is a very good example of our lobby
efforts. Congressman Ramstad is a member in the House Judiciary Committee. His
original position on this bill was negative. He held that the United States
government can either extend President Bush's executive order, or grant
political asylum to Chinese nationals on an individual basis. He was not
convinced that we should be granted PR status. We met with him and explained
to him why PR status was necessary. Because of our consistent efforts, he
promised to vote for us in the Judiciary Committee.

2. Fund raising. The Minnesota Lobby Group has also been actively involved
in fund raising for lobbying this protection bill. On June 12, 1992, Dr.
Haiqing Zhao visited the University of Minnesota, and gave a speech to an
audience of more than 100 Chinese students and scholars. We used that
opportunity to raise fund for lobby efforts. We collected over $1100, a portion
of which was donated to the May Fourth Foundation. On July 16, we held another
meeting consisting of coordinators from major departments, and issued an
emergency appeal to more than 800 Chinese students/scholars at the University.
With the help of the coordinators from each department, we received $3800 in
donation so far.

3. Lobby the House Rules Committee. When the Judiciary approved the bill, we
immediately issued a newsletter to Chinese students at the University. We
briefed them on the status of the bill and initiated a campaign to call the
offices of the 13 Rules Committee members. So far, there is a warm response
to our initiation.

4. We plan to send 2-4 people to Washington D.C. the week after next to
participate in a national effort to lobby the bill. We feel that we need a
strong leadership to organize this campaign. We are not happy about the
current situation. We hope the issue of two accounts should be resolved
immediately, and both sides should come to a compromise. We can not afford
to wait and lose our chance, our last chance, to protect ourselves.

                                          Zixiang Tang (Signature)
                              Posting for the Minnesota Lobby Group
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china