World Tibet Network News Tuesday, June 23, 1998

By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - President Clinton criticized China's decision to cancel visas for three Radio Free Asia journalists as highly objectionable Tuesday and said the White House would protest the move.

Clinton, under attack for leniency toward Beijing, said: ''We will protest it. We hope they will reconsider it.''

The White House later said it had protested through the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and was still working on a settlement.

``The deputy National Security Adviser (Jim Steinberg) is now en route to Beijing to do some last-minute work before the president's arrival and will continue to work at that,'' White House spokesman Mike McCurry said.

But Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong airline which owns the press plane, will not let people board without valid Chinese visas because of aviation law, McCurry added.

A Chinese embassy spokesman said the embassy issued visas to the three journalists because of a technical error and then withdrew them because China objected to the radio station's programs.

Richard Richter, president of Radio Free Asia, criticized the Chinese for trying to stifle the free flow of information and the White House for failing to take a strong enough stand.

``We have officially been told by the White House that they are not going to let us get on the press plane,'' he said. ''This is a regrettable decision on the part of the White House and obviously on the part of the Chinese. I think the White House should have allowed us to make the trip,'' he told Reuters.

The White House handled the visa applications for the three journalists -- Washington-based reporter Arin Basu, producer and technician Patricia Hindman and Mandarin broadcaster Feng Xiaoming. Feng and Hindman are U.S. citizens, Basu is Indian.

Friday the passports came back from the Chinese embassy with visas but embassy staff rang the journalists at home the next day to say their visas were canceled, Richter said.

``What they're doing is interfering with objective coverage of an important presidential visit. The Chinese people once again will be deprived of a valuable source of information and that's consistent with Chinese attempts to stifle the dissemination of information in their country,'' Richter said.

Clinton said the decision would be counterproductive. ``It is depriving China of the credit that it otherwise would have gotten for giving more visas to a more diverse group of journalists and allowing more different kinds of people in there than they've ever done before,'' he said.

Created by Congress as an Asian counterpart to Radio Free Europe, the radio began beaming Mandarin-language programming to China in September 1996. It says its mission is to provide accurate information in Asian countries with authoritarian governments where freedom of expression is curbed.

The station receives federal funds but it has the status of a private corporation. It broadcasts to China, Tibet, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and North Korea.

The Chinese embassy spokesman, Yu Shu Ning, said China did not accept the argument for tolerating Radio Free Asia.

``We are opposed to such kinds of broadcasts which aim to interfere in Chinese internal affairs in the name of the free flow of information,'' he told Reuters.

Members of Congress and human rights groups condemned the Chinese decision and urged Clinton to take a stand.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a statement that he was gravely concerned. ``This is censorship -- pure and simple -- and the U.S. government must not stand for it,'' he told Clinton in a letter released by his office.

``If the Chinese government does not immediately return the visas ... you should bring them (the three journalists) with you in person on Air Force One,'' Gingrich added.

The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontieres sent Chinese President Jiang Zemin a protest against the visa cancellation and urged him to reverse it.

It said the Chinese authorities would also prevent journalists from two Hong Kong publications, Apple Daily and Next Magazine, from covering the state visit in Beijing.

House International Relations Committee chairman Ben Gilman, a New York Republican, said, ``This is insulting to our government, to all Americans everywhere, and to the presidency itself. It shows what China's leaders resort to when they fear the freedom of communication.''

Congressman Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, called it ''outrageous'' and noted that China regularly jams Radio Free Asia. He offered a bill to make it a 24-hour broadcast.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California, one of the most outspoken critics of Clinton's China policies, said the Chinese ''knew they could get away with it'' because Clinton had sent signals he was backing off on other issues.

``It is so unfortunate China has given the president's trip a black eye from the start by determining who will cover his visit in China,'' she said.