(Clearwisdom.net)

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C

Dear President Bush:

I am writing you on behalf of a Fremont resident whose sister has been arrested as a practitioner of Falun Gong. I know that many people have requested United States pressure on China in regard to human rights violations so I am going to present what may be a somewhat different rationale for approaching China. Our city, Fremont, California, is one of the 90 largest cities in the United States. The majority of our population is of non-European origin and 17 % are Asian. Fremont recently traveled to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China on a cultural and trade mission. Representatives from our city met with local representatives in Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an. Discussions were held on ways to encourage economic ties between our area and theirs. Future trade between the United States' West coast and China will be important to Chinese as well as American economic interests. In addition, Chinese American citizens and Taiwanese American citizens are a tremendous economic force in California. Many of our largest companies are owned by such citizens.

It creates serious problems for American government entities to pursue economic ties to China when our own citizens' relatives are being imprisoned in China simply for being a Falun Gong practitioner. Perhaps our government's representatives might be successful in helping their Chinese counterparts to understand this.

I am attaching the letter I received from Joan Chang, a Fremont resident.

Thanks you for your consideration of this very serious problem.

Judy Zlatnik
Vice-Mayor, City of Fremont
California

Chinese version available

Category: Voices of Support Worldwide