My reply in the order of
issues raised by the leaders of the working group are as follows.
My
pieces have occasionally appeared in guancha.cn and in Global Times. I do not write
specifically for those online publications and I am always delighted when they
find my pieces appealing enough to repost in their blogposts; guancha even does
the translation into Chinese. I should hasten to add that I received no
compensations and did not expect any.
The late
William Chiu was the prime mover and organizer of the Peaceful Reunification of
China in Australia and was a dear friend of mine. My wife and I accepted his
invitation to attend the first conference in Sydney in 2002 because (1) we were
and are enthusiastic supporters of the idea of peaceful unification and wanted
to support his initiative, (2) saw an opportunity to visit Australia for our
first time, and (3) a possible photo-op with former President Bill Clinton who
was the invited keynoter at the conference. He was well compensated for his appearance. We
paid our own way.
Even
though I am listed as an advisor ever since the first annual conference, I have
not attended any since. I note that many luminaries including former prime
ministers of Australia are listed as advisors of one capacity or another to
this organization. The presence of United Front was not obvious to me and no
one had to convince me "that Taiwan should be united with China."
I was
invited to join the Overseas Friendship Association in 2003. I was on vacation
in China at the time and I flew from Kunming to Beijing to participate in the
conference organized by the OFA. Since then I participated in some of their
organized activities, the last was in 2007.
In
general the activities include a gala, a meeting where official position and
status papers were distributed and sightseeing where we had opportunities to
mingle with overseas Chinese from all over the world, including many from
Taiwan. The meetings and/or conferences were not riveting and I don't remember
ever being asked to go forth and spread a particular message. The host took
care of local expenses while travel to China was always on our own.
I cannot
explain how I was listed in the Overseas Exchange Association. The organization
listed my affiliation as Deloitte. I retired from Deloitte in April 2008 and
therefore the information was at least ten years out of date.
Since
1978, I go to China frequently to help US companies do business in China. My
travel expenses were either paid by me or by my clients. Not one trip was paid
by anyone from the China side, except for local expenses as noted above.
After my
business activity tapered, I devoted increasing amount of my energy to
explaining China to the American public. I try to present a Chinese American
point of view that I believe is absent in the American mainstream. To that end,
my friends in China have arranged for me to meet various organizations and
experts such as Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing and Tsinghua universities.
These exchanges and discussions were no different in nature from China hands
that visit China regularly, including those in the Hoover working group.
I do not
recall the March 2008 meeting with CSSN mentioned at the end of the response
from Diamond et al. But I can categorically state that no Chinese organization
paid for my travel.
Since
2003, I have occasionally met officials of the United Front. We talked about
issues as related to Chinese Americans and rarely if ever about American
politics and never have the United Front folks asked me to promote a certain
point of view. I even expressed interest in wanting to know more about Harry
Wu's past before he emigrated to the US and all I got was no response.
I am
absolutely convinced that it is in the national interest of both the US and
China to get along and peacefully co-exists. The future and prospects of the
win-win quadrant is unlimited for both countries and for the world. On the
other hand, no win-lose scenarios can be viable, only lose-lose and that would
be tragic and most regrettable outcome. I hope to continue to be a
"constructive" contributor to the discussion about the future of the
US China relations. I too support the First Amendment; it's one of the best
reasons to be an American
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