Citizens Against Communist Chinese Propaganda is a group of interested individuals devoted to the non-violent and legal removal of religious and minority exhibits from the Communist Chinese government owned and operated theme park known as Florida Splendid China in Kissimmee, Fla.
If you wish to be removed from this 'mailing list', please send us email, and we'll not trouble you again. On the other hand, if you know someone who wishes to be added, ask them to send their email address to trinley@churchward.com.
And as always, send in your thoughts and ideas as well.
Focus:
Getting ready for upcoming Florida Splendid China Protest demonstration on 06/01/97 to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the Demonstration for Democracy in TianAnMen Square.
1. Accomplishments
2. Plans
3. Action List
a. Florida Public School District Campaign !
b. Florida Pleasure Passport Campaign
Letter from supporter with some great new ideas
Tom Vogler's letter to AAA
CACCP Letter to AAA
CACCP Letter to Bok Tower Gardens
c. Walk for Tibetan Independence
d. Tibetan Freedom Concert
e. Collecting letters/articles
4. Misc.
a. ICT Press Release on Chatrel Rinpoche
b. US State Department Daily Briefing
c. Fear
d. CACCP Letter to FSC
1. Accomplishments
Wrote letters
2. Plans
Assimilate incoming data...
Start latest newsletter
3. Action List
a. Florida Public School District Campaign !
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1730/fpsd.html
We are putting together a package to send to the green targets and focus on them to start our campaign. Please send in your comments and suggestions.
b. Florida Pleasure Passport Campaign
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1730/fpp1.html
The business arrangement between AAA, Splendid China, Bok Tower, Cypress Gardens, and Fantasy of Flight is known as 'Florida Pleasure Passport'.
We have suggested letters to these establishments to ask them to stop supporting FSC. Your letters are still coming in as well as the responses from the particulars named above (minus FSC).
Addresses for mailing letters
Bok Tower Gardens
1151 Tower Boulevard
Lake Wales, Florida 33853
Cypress Gardens
PO Box 1
Cypress Gardens, Florida
Fantasy of Flight
PO Box 1200
Polk City, Florida 33868-9417
American Automobile Association
Florida/Louisiana/Missippi AAA
1000 AAA Drive,
Heathrow, Florida, 32746-5080
Phone: 407-444-4000
***
Letter from a supporter...
I have been writing to AAA as well as other organizations that have participated in the Florida Pleasure Passport with Splendid China. Like you and Tsering Yangdon, I have received those same letters. I have also written to the CEO and Public Relations of AAA in my region (Michigan), the two of them have contacted Florida AAA (Rena Callahan). They seem genuinely concerned and embarassed by this matter. Though they have no say in how AAA Florida operates, that they took time to contact and communicate with Ms. Callahan was a positive movement. Perhaps you can suggest that others write to their regions AAA as well. Maybe the more they hear about this from other regional AAA offices, the more they will take action to change.
***
April 27, 1997
Rena Callahan
AM Public Relations
1000 AAA Dr.
Heathrow FL 32746-5080
Dear Rena Callahan:
I completely disagree with all you had to say in response to a letter from Tsering Yangdon, which I recognize as a Tibetan name, dated March 26, regarding Florida Pleasure Passport, particularly Splendid China.
Its not so much that you insult Tibetans and any one concerned about the brutality inflicted by Communist China, but you insult Floridians and Florida tourists by contributing to a whitewash of history and general assault on humanity by including Spl. China in the Passport program. I read your letter in the weekly electronic journal to members of the Citizens Against Chinese Communist Propaganda.( internationally available on the WWW)
The points on which you base your argument /decisions are not points of great controversy and any diligent inquiry will tell you that China Travel Service, although registered as a business takes its orders directly from those same Beijing officials that give the orders to execute prisoners--- whose crimes are often political, i.e. raising their voice against an unjust gov't--- and then sell their body parts. I'm betting that your source of information on the "acceptable " status on CTS and FSC comes from those with personal financial interest in the success of those outfits. In fact l'm willing to bet that your statements are not yours at all via research, but were "bought" business as usual.
If you wish to refute that the Potala Palace in Lhasa of the Tibetan Himalayas, was seized by the Chinese Communist insurgences of 1949 and 1959, that the murder of life-affirming, people-loving Buddhist leaders, and theft of their cultural artifacts and actual wealth are dispicable, uacceptable actions of a tyrannical gov't, then I don't want to, or have any of my friends or family have anything to do with AAA, or Splendid China or the "Pleasure" passport.
I suggest you meet with a few members from the growing coalition of groups organizing periodic protests at Splendid China, to review the documentation of not only the points I've tried to make, but to learn more as well about the other neighboring countries to Red China that they are currently in the process of defrauding with genocidal, culturalcidal assaults.
Thanks for your attention and consider me very unfriendly to all AAA programs until these points are resolved. By the way, I was born in St.
Pete, have been an RN for almost 20 years and regularly write Letters to the Editor about Splendid China In Jax, St. Pete, and St. Augustine.
Yours,
Tom Vogler
***
American Automobile Association
Rena Callahan, Public Relations
Florida/Louisiana/Mississippi AAA
1000 AAA Drive,
Heathrow, Florida, 32746-5080
Dear Ms. Callahan,
Thank you for your letter of April 17th in response to our two earlier letters concerning the 'Florida Pleasure Passport' business arrangement between the American Automobile Association (AAA), some other Florida attractions and the Chinese Communist Party owned and operated propaganda theme park known as Florida Splendid China (FSC). As you have admitted in your letter, FSC is an element of the government of the People's Republic of China. The exhibits/replicas/materials that are presented in the park represent the ideology, policy, and concepts of the single ruling party in power, the Chinese Communist Party. Rather than promote the truth concerning the conditions within the PRC or provide an accurate version of history, the purpose of this park is to mislead visitors to accept the Communist Chinese version of events. Far from being known as a bastion of free speech or allowing discussion of even the most innocuous regulations, there are no political dissidents, as they are all now in jail or have escaped
their homeland. The new laws which were touted as moving towards greater freedom and democracy have been openly and flagrantly violated, take for instance, the case of Chatrel Rinpoche, who was sentenced to prison this week after being held without trial for two years. His only crime was to speak with a representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama about the selection of the Panchen Lama and to indicate to the authorities the proper choice for that position. A selection process that has been going on for centuries was grossly manipulated by the Communist authorities, going so far as to imprison an eight-year old boy (who, with his family, has not been seen for over two years). Speaking personally, as a parent, I can't imagine how a pre-teen boy could be so dangerous as to require complete isolation and imprisonment and how holding him for two years can be justified. Since you are good friends with these fellows, perhaps you could ask about him for us.
This is just one example of the behavior of the thugs you are in bed with. Many more examples of the unacceptable actions and policies which the PRC government perpetrates on it's people and those whose territory it occupies can be detailed. Your support for the theme park aligns you with the same activities and policies which they commit everyday on their own people. I again urge you to disassociate yourself and AAA from FSC, as a parent, as a six-year veteran of the United States Navy, as an Eagle Scout, as an American citizen, as a life-long resident of Florida, and as a member of AAA. The financial rewards can not outweigh the destruction of people's lives and culture. Your continued support for FSC indicates that these financial rewards are enough to let business as usual continue; the repression and brutalization mean nothing to you or your corporation. This places AAA miles away from the moral high ground, deep in the slime and muck of greedy, money-hungry business dealings with no regard for how peop
le are affected.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Jack Churchward
Coordinator, CACCP
***
Mr. John Shaw, President
Bok Tower Gardens
1151 Tower Blvd.
Lake Wales, Florida 33853
Dear Mr. Shaw,
I am taking this opportunity to write again because I recently ran across and purchased a copy of "The Americanization of Edward Bok", a book by the creator of Bok Tower Gardens.
I find some of Mr. Bok's opinions and ideas most agreeable, especially what he has to say about 'idealists'. I have taken the liberty of copying a section of the book and including it in this letter which elaborates his opinion on this subject.
Our campaign is not against the Chinese people or culture (how could it be, we have active Chinese members). Our campaign is against the inclusion of the so-called 'minority' and religious exhibits which the Chinese Communist government is using to change public opinion regarding the past, present, and future abuses against the people under it's control. The park refuses to communicate with us or any interested parties as to the content of the park, including representatives of the Dalai Lama of Tibet whose office has communicated their thoughts and opinions as well. We have communicated with the park on numerous occasions regarding the exhibits that are objectionable to us and others. Out of the fifty-nine exhibits at the park, we have objections with only five and are willing to see only the signs that label them change to stop our campaign. We are maintaining the moral high ground in this issue, which can also be interpreted as being 'idealistic'. When I speak to my Tibetan, Uighur, and Mongolian friends,
they don't see the park as entertainment or educational, they have a clear understanding how it is being used to eliminate their traditional life-style and culture in the eyes of visitors to the theme park. It is part of a long-term propaganda plan to legitimize the takeover of their once independent countries.
I beseech you, in the name of all that is good and decent, to reconsider your involvement with FSC.
As Mr. Bok says, "No man has a right to leave the world no better than he found it." I trust that you will agree that the world is not a better place where conquerors are allowed to place their spoils of war into theme parks and destroy ancient civilizations in the minds of people.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Jack Churchward
Coordinator, CACCP
***
c. Walk for Tibetan Independence
(see www.rangzen.com for the latest)
Funds to support the "March for Tibet's Independence" are still needed.
Please share whatever amount you can afford and forward it to:
International Tibet Independence Movement
PO Box 194
Fishers, Indiana 46038-0194
USA
d. Tibetan Freedom Concert
NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 14, 1997--
Lineup in Alphabetical Order:
A Tribe Called Quest Pavement
Beastie Boys Porno For Pyros (acoustic)
Biz Markie Radiohead
Bjork Rancid
Chaksam-Pa Patti Smith
De La Soul Sonic Youth
Foo Fighters Michael Stipe & Mike Mills
Ben Harper Taj Mahal
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Plus Surprise Guests -- More To Come --
The Milarepa Fund, in conjunction with Delsener-Slater, has announced the lineup and location for the second annual Tibetan Freedom Concert, a two-day event at a soon-to-be-announced venue in New York City. All proceeds will benefit the Milarepa Fund, which funds various educational projects regarding Tibet and nonviolence.
This year's event features a number of returnees from last year's Tibetan Freedom Concert, which netted over $800,000 for the Milarepa Fund and drew over 100,000 people to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to see 20 bands perform in favor of global responsibility and human rights, and to learn about U.S. corporate involvement in human rights abuses abroad and their lobbying power in the U.S. government.
The Milarepa Fund, a non-profit co-founded by the Beastie Boys and based in San Francisco, has again organized this year's concert with the purpose of raising awareness of the ongoing injustices in Tibet. "The Tibetan Freedom Concerts are about the message, not the money," said Erin Potts, director of Milarepa. "Until the situation in Tibet is resolved, we will continue to educate people to the situation there. The Tibetan struggle is nonviolent and therefore a timeless example of how social change may be achieved through peaceful means."
1997 is an important year for Tibet, as the world will see the premieres of several films on the subject -- Martin Scorsese's Kundun, on the life of the Dalai Lama, and Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt. The Milarepa Fund is also producing a concert film and documentary of last year's Tibetan Freedom Concert, entitled Free Tibet, slated for theatrical release later this year.
Since 1949, an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a direct result of the occupation by the Chinese government.
Countless others have been tortured and imprisoned, often for trying to exercise their basic human rights. Yet under the leadership of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans have based their resistance on principles of compassion and nonviolence, while suffering some of the worst human rights and environmental abuses on the planet.
CONTACT:
Maria Ma, 212/219-1455
Perry Serpa, 212/343-2314
e. Collecting letters/articles
Please send copies of your letters to the editors, school board members, etc., so that they can be included in our web-pages. Let your voice be heard. Thanks to those who have mailed your letters in.
Any articles mentioning Splendid China are welcome also, we prefer to re-print in it's entirety so we can't be blamed for an 'out-of-context' quotations.
4. Misc.
a. ICT Press Release on Chatrel Rinpoche
International Campaign for Tibet
Washington, D.C.
For Immediate Release Contact: Bhuchung Tsering
May 7, 1997
202-785 1515
China Sentences Head of Original Panchen Lama Search Committee Move Seen as Tightening Chinese Grip Over Tibet
Washington, D.C.: China has announced the sentencing of Chatrel Jampa Trinley a.k.a Chatrel Rinpoche, the head of the original search committee for the 11th Panchen Lama, to six years in prison for "colluding with separatist forces abroad." Two other Tibetans, Jampa Chung, a monk at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery and assistant to Chatrel Rinpoche, and Samdrup, a businessman who managed a commercial enterprise of the previous Panchen Lama, were also sentenced to four years and two years of prison term respectively for "disclosing state secrets." The sentences were passed by the Intermediate People's Court of Shigatse.
"Colluding with separatist forces abroad" is an indirect reference to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. The Dalai Lama's announcement of a six-year-old boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama was followed by vehement denunciations from Beijing.
"This blatant action is a direct attack on the core religious belief of the Tibetan people, and will further alienate the Tibetan people from the Chinese rulers," Lodi Gyari, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, said. "Chatrel Rinpoche only followed customary Tibetan religious tradition in his efforts to find the true reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama," Gyari added.
All three officials of the former Panchen Lama were detained in mid- May 1995, soon after the Dalai Lama announced his recognition of the 11th Panchen Lama. While Chatrel Rinpoche and Jampa Chung were detained in Chengdu, Samdrup was detained in the town of Dhingri. The trial which took place in late April was not open to public because it "related to state secrets," the court announced.
"China's sentencing of Chatrel Rinpoche is the latest indication that the Chinese authorities have no plans to loosen their control in Tibet," said Gyari. In recent months, the Chinese authorities have launched a series of repressive measures in Tibet aimed at denying religious freedom to Tibetan people and undermining the influence of the Dalai Lama.
The sentencing took place around the time when the Dalai Lama was meeting President Clinton in Washington, D.C. The President had assured the Dalai Lama that he would raise the Tibetan issue with Chinese President Jiang Zemin during their forthcoming summit. The sentencing was announced as the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, was beginning his first trip to China.
On December 13, 1995, the United States Senate passed a resolution which among others condemned China's detention of Chatrel Rinpoche for refusing to denounce the Dalai Lama's recognition of the 11th Panchen Lama. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing on Tibet on May 13, 1997 and the sentencing of Chatrel Rinpoche is likely to figure prominently.
***
The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) was established in 1988 to monitor and promote internationally recognized human rights and democratic freedoms in Tibet. ICT is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.
b. US State Department Daily Briefing
U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
Thursday, May 8, 1997
Briefer: Nicholas Burns
QUESTION: A senior Tibetan monk convicted. The Dalai Lama was here. You talked to the Chinese for the umpteenth time about human rights. I know we have a multi-faceted foreign policy. But would you say that your pleas on behalf of Tibetan culture are succeeding?
MR. BURNS: Well, we have obviously seen the report that a senior Tibetan monk, Mr. Chadrel Rinpoche has been sentenced to six years in prison. The United States is deeply disturbed by this decision. We would note that Mr. Rinpoche has been detained for nearly two years, apparently, we think, in violation of Chinese law - and detained before his conviction.
Under the provisions of the Revised Criminal Procedure Law which went into effect on January 1st of this year, such a lengthy detention period of two years would have required action by the National People's Congress Standing Committee upon a request by the Supreme People's Procurator. That didn't happen. He was held without being brought to trial for more than two years, and that, to us, apparently is a violation of Chinese law.
We would also note that his trial was held in secret, without due process safeguards, which, of course, does not meet international standards - any notion of international standards. We were surprised to hear of the conviction, frankly, because the events in question for which he was tried took place many years ago.
We urge China to ensure full exercise of religious freedom, as set forth in its own constitution. We urge China to release all people imprisoned in China simply because they have expressed divergent religious or political views from the Chinese Government. We urge China to preserve Tibet's unique cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage.
We also reiterate our call to the Chinese Government to address the continuing concerns of the international community regarding the boy designated by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama, and we urge China to do so that the boy and his family can receive visitors, if he and his family wish to do so, and that this boy might be able to return to his home in Tibet as a free person, and his family as a free family. That has not happened. So we do have very deep-seated concerns about that is happening in Tibet to people who simply want to practice their religion. Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Yes.
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION: Follow-up.
MR. BURNS: I think Sid wants to follow up just for a moment. Yes.
QUESTION: Do you think the Tibetans should have the right to pick their own religious leaders? Or do you agree that this arrangement between the Chinese and the Tibetans on selecting the Panchen Lama is appropriate?
MR. BURNS: We have long believed that the mechanism for formally recognizing or identifying a reincarnated Lama is a religious matter. It's a religious matter. For that reason, we have not taken a specific position on what should be the specific steps taken in identifying or recognizing a reincarnated Lama. That we think is for the Tibetan Buddhists and others to work out. We have not taken a position on that.
But we clearly feel that since the Dalai Lama has recognized a reincarnated Lama, a young boy and his family, that that young boy and his family have been taken away from a normal practice of Tibetan Buddhism, that that boy should be returned to Tibet and allowed to practice his religion, along with his family's religion, freely. But we haven't said we think this person or that person should occupy that position.
QUESTION: But you know that the practice is that the Chinese pick
MR. BURNS: Yes, we are very well aware of that.
QUESTION: -- for the Tibetans, their religious leaders.
MR. BURNS: Yes, and the Dalai Lama objects to that, and what we have said is that we think this problem, a very obvious problem, ought to be worked out, and the steps to recognize a reincarnated Lama ought to be worked out between the Tibetan Buddhists and the Chinese Government. We have not identified an individual who we would recognize. We think the process has not been followed very well because this young boy, identified by the Dalai Lama himself, has been spirited away from Tibet and is not able to receive visitors.
QUESTION: Not to belabor it, but why should the Chinese have any say at all in who the Tibetans pick as their religious leaders? And why should you say that they should have say?
MR. BURNS: Sid, I think I would prefer to make a different point, with all due respect. You have asked a good a question. It's a difficult one for someone like me to answer. This is a very sensitive religious issue which has now political overtones, given the problems in Tibet.
We don't believe that anyone's cause is going to be served if we become part of the argument. We prefer to support the principle of religious freedom, and support the right of a young boy to return to Tibet and practice his religion freely. But we prefer not to inject ourselves into the religious and political debate by preferring one person or another.
QUESTION: How does the U.S. rate its performance? I mean, you've made your compromises. You compromise on this. You compromise by making these declarations about Tibet's cultural rights, but being careful to say within China, and you have the sentencing here. I mean, of course, nobody knows how many other people would have been sentenced under different conditions. Would you say the U.S. is making headway in human rights in China? All the political opposition is in prison; what else is there?
MR. BURNS: I disagree with the way you've phrased your question and I take issue with the premises of your question.
QUESTION: Well, there is a compromise here.
MR. BURNS: You name one country in the world, one country, any country, Europe, North America, Latin American, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, name any country that has spoken out more boldly, more clearly and more consistently for human rights in China. Name one country.
QUESTION: Name one country that has more leverage than the United States, and chooses not to use it entirely.
MR. BURNS: And I would also reverse in my own view, reverse the way you've asked the final question --
QUESTION: I mean, you know --
MR. BURNS: -- judge China.
QUESTION: Venezuela can't do anything to force China to change its human rights policy.
MR. BURNS: -- judge the responsible governing authorities in Beijing about whether people are free in China or not. It is not the responsibility of the United States that there are no political dissidents in China, that thousands of people are in jail.
QUESTION: Of course not.
MR. BURNS: It is our responsibility to speak to up for those people and we do that.
QUESTION: I'm just saying how do you rate the success or lack of success of the U.S.' carefully compromised policy?
MR. BURNS: It is very clear that China has a failed record. China has a failed record on human rights. The United States is the major defender of the human rights of the Chinese people and I'm not going to submit to your question that somehow the United States is at fault, which is implied, for the current situation.
QUESTION: I just - how are you doing?
MR. BURNS: How are we doing or how are the Chinese doing?
QUESTION: I'm just asking you. Do you think you're bending them? Do you think you are getting them to --
MR. BURNS: The Chinese know that this issue will remain a central part of our relationship, and it will continue to be a discussion at every opportunity with the Chinese. We stand up for human rights around the world, Barry, quite consistently.
QUESTION: I know you do.
QUESTION: I'm a little confused by your answer to the question.
MR. BURNS: On the Panchen Lama?
QUESTION: Yeah, if the selection of a Lama is a religious issue, why shouldn't it be left to religious leaders?
MR. BURNS: Judd, I don't know any other spokesman around the world, frankly, or government or ministry of foreign affairs that even comments on this issue besides us. We comment because it is an important issue of religious freedom. You have to make a tactical choice.
Does the United States want to inject itself as an actor in these individual questions of human rights and say we agree with this decision, we don't agree with that decision, we agree with this person and not that person. It is clearly a religious dispute and a political dispute between China and the Tibetan Buddhists. We have enunciated a very clear principle of support for religious freedom. But we chose not to say that we are going to back this religious leader versus that religious leader - very clear.
c. Fear
Fear
----To my fellow Mongolian activists
Tsengelt
Fear is a reins holds the souls unfree and suffered Fear is like the AIDs viruses could kill you in your nightmare Fear is the lock made by the regime to put you in silence, die in silence and decompose in silence Fear is the marked boarder stone, kills your courage and desire of crossing it Fear insults the value and integrity of men and enjoys to see you kneel down to the enemy kiss the smelly feet of the rulers
Fear is an eye behind the watch-hole on the door takes your joy and comfort out of you breath Fear is the twin brother of the horror You don't fight it, it strangles you with your own hands But when you speak out fear is just an accent attached to your second language
But fear even cannot take one smile of innocency
Fear is a winter coat that you don't have to wear in hot summer
Fear is a cup of vodka, you can drink it with a straw politely
Fear never makes me to have a drink in peace why do I have to care about it
Fear is the man of shadow, always fears the light of fearlessness
It is so humane, live without fear It is so sweet, love without fear
It is so fun, make trouble to the regime It is so dignified, fight to death fearlessly
May 1997
e. CACCP letter to FSC
Sunny Yang
Chairman
Florida Splendid China
3000 Splendid China Blvd.
Kissimmee, Fla. 34747
Dear Mr. Yang,
I am writing again to let you know that the members of CACCP will be holding another protest demonstration in front of your establishment to commemorate the suppression of the Democracy movement eight years ago in TianAnMen. We will be there on June 1, 1997 at 9AM.
Just as the Tibetan, Uighur and Southern Mongolian people are seeking the right to self-determination, the freedoms of speech and religion and the end to one-party rule, so are many other Chinese citizens inside the PRC.
As the representative of that government here in Florida, we want you (and your superiors) to know that working with these people would help in the long run to build a stronger China. Please pass our comments along.
We are still available at your convenience to discuss the matter of the disputed exhibits. As a gesture of goodwill, we will suspend all demonstrations until July 13, 1997 (the anniversary of the opening of ChinaTown) so that you will not feel pressured. However, please expect us there bright and early on that day for a protest demonstration if we do not hear from you.
See you on the first of June,
Jack Churchward
Coordinator
Citizens Against Communist Chinese Propaganda PO Box 6812
Clearwater, Florida 34618-6812
May all beings know happiness free from suffering,
Jack
