Radio Free Asia Reporters Stay Home

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Published in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, June 24, 1998 www.washtimes.com

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RFA Schedule "RFA Deserves a First Birthday Present, Christian Science Monitor, September 17, 1997 USIA US Embassy - China Chinese Embassy - US US Department of State Press Briefing June 23, 1998 Links supplied by Clandestine Radio Intel Web See also: "Visa Denial is the Latest Slap at RFA," Washington Times, June 24 1998

Radio Free Asia reporters stay home

By Martin Sieff and Sean Scully
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

hree Radio Free Asia reporters followed advice not to try boarding a flight to China for the presidential summit yesterday, leaving President Clinton unhappy but helpless and members of Congress seething.
     "We will protest it. We hope they will reconsider it," Mr. Clinton said of what he called China's "highly objectionable" decision to pull the visas of the three reporters.
     However, sources disclosed that Mr. Clinton's ambassador to Beijing, James Sasser, counseled earlier this month against allowing the Voice of America to add a second person to its permanent staff in Beijing for fear of angering the Chinese.
     "We doubt that the value of increased VOA reporting outweighs this negative impact" of Chinese displeasure, Mr. Sasser wrote in a confidential cable made available to The Washington Times.
     The three RFA reporters --Washington-based reporter Arin Basu, producer and technician Patricia Hindman and Mandarin broadcaster Feng Xiao Ming -- all were advised by the White House that federal regulations would prohibit them from boarding the charter flight to China without a valid visa.
     None of the three turned up for the press flight from Andrews Air Force Base yesterday afternoon, and there was no show of protest from other journalists at the airport. Mr. Feng and Miss Hindman are U.S. citizens; Mrs. Basu is Indian.
     State Department officials said they had formally protested the exclusion of the reporters both in Beijing and at the Chinese Embassy in Washington. White House spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Chinese Foreign Ministry had promised Mr. Sasser it would look into it.
     But Mr. Sasser is likely to face new criticism over his classified June 5 cable to the State Department and VOA rejecting the government broadcast outlet's proposal to add a second reporter to its Beijing bureau and another in Shanghai.
     "The [U.S.] Embassy in Beijing cannot approve this NSDD 38 request at this time," Mr. Sasser wrote in the cable, titled "VOA Staffing in Beijing and Shanghai." NSDD stands for a National Security Decision Directive.
     VOA spokesperson Mary Ellen Glynn confirmed that VOA was trying to add two reporters to its staff in China.
     "VOA is seeking to beef up our bureau in Beijing [from one reporter to two] and add a person in Shanghai," she said.
     It was not clear whether Mr. Sasser had discussed the matter with Chinese authorities before writing the cable. A Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington said there was "no problem with VOA" but left open the possibility that any problem had been dealt with.
     Administration sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Sasser previously had appeared at times to be uncomfortable with Chinese government disapproval of controversial stories about dissidents and human rights carried by Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America.
     "We understand Ambassador Sasser's concern. But the VOA is a journalistic organization which needs its independence," said one administration official.
     The disclosure of the cable fueled the anger of members of Congress, who were already upset at the exclusion of the three RFA reporters from the press flight.
     The cable was "consistent with the effort of this administration to go to any efforts to avoid any displeasure with China," said Sen. Tim Hutchinson, Arkansas Republican.
     House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia yesterday called on Mr. Clinton to take the three RFA reporters to China as his personal guests when he leaves today.
     "This is censorship -- pure and simple -- and the U.S. government must not stand for it," said a letter released by the speaker's office. "If the Chinese government does not immediately return the visas ... you should bring them with you in person on Air Force One."
     Presidential spokesman Michael McCurry did not directly answer when asked at yesterday's White House press briefing if the president would do this.
     Mr. Clinton personally expressed regret at the Chinese decision.
     "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 told reporters at a White House event.
     A Chinese Embassy spokesman said the embassy issued the visas because of a technical error and then withdrew them because China objects to the programs broadcast on the U.S. government-run radio station.
     "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," spokesman Yu Shuning told Reuters news agency.
     Radio Free Asia chief Richard Richter said White House and State Department protests at the decision had been fruitless.
     House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman of New York 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."
     National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger, on Capitol Hill to meet with senators, refused to say how the president would respond.
     "We protested this to the Chinese, we're working on it," he said, brushing past a reporter. "That's all I'll say."
     Lawmakers said the Chinese actions could hurt the president's effort to renew most-favored-nation trade status for China. Congress is expected to consider MFN in July.
     House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican, who supports MFN for China, said, "It's going to be a tougher vote that it should have been."
     Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, blamed the president directly for the Chinese affront.
     "They knew they could get away with it. ... It demonstrates that Clinton will accept any terms put forward by the Chinese," she said.
     Lin Neumann of the Committee to Protect Journalists said the Chinese government was "putting politics in the way of standard journalistic practice. It seems to me it's not up to Beijing to say who ought to cover Mr. Clinton's visit."
     Jane Kirtley, director of the Reporter's Committee to Protect Journalists, said, "I would hope and expect the Clinton administration to communicate to the Chinese that this is not acceptable."

Staff writers Warren P. Strobel, Gus Constantine and Gaedig Bonabesse contributed to this report.