Submitted March 3, 2011

Dear Members of Congress: 

This letter is to request your strong support to restore the budget for Voice of America Cantonese Service and Voice of America Mandarin Service in the FY 2012 Budget.

We object to the proposal by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which serves to manage Voice of America (VOA), to eliminate the entire VOA Cantonese Service, as well as eliminate the positions of more than half of the VOA Mandarin Service staff members.

This egregious effort to disappropriate funding from VOA will effectively eliminate the purpose of the Congressionally mandated Public Law 94-350 to the people in China who speak Cantonese and Mandarin to be provided with news broadcasts that promote freedom and democracy.

This target against Voice of America – right on the heels of PRC President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to the United States – is nothing less than a concession that will dismantle America’s commitment to broadcast news from the United States.  During the same time of this funding cutback, the PRC intends to spend more than a billion dollars to enhance their propaganda goals in the United States.

This campaign against Voice of America comes during the PRC’s media crackdown on stories against Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo. It comes during a time when PRC’s media has blocked news about uprisings in Egypt and Libya.  It comes during a PRC crackdown against any stories shared about the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, and all prisoners of conscience in China.

We implore you to restore the FY 2012 Budget funding for the Voice of America’s Mandarin and Cantonese Services so Voice of America can continue to fulfill its mandate to provide a balanced and comprehensive view of significant American thought and institutions; and to clearly present the policies of the United States to the people of China.

Respectfully,

Harry Wu, Laogai Research Foundation,

Justin Yu, The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New York

Ann Lau, Visual Artists Guild

Ann Noonan, Free Church for China

Bob Fu, China Aid

 


Anna Cheung, Alliance for Hong Kong Chinese in the US

New York State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz

Peggy Chane, Visual Artists Guild

Joe Brown, Pasadena NAACP

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Reggie Littlejohn, Women's Rights Without Frontiers

Ganden Thurman, Tibet House

Jeremy Taylor, Free Burma Alliance

Ethan Gutmann. Recipient Tiananmem Spirit Award

Jonathan Cao, Chinese Coalition for Citizens’ Rights

Juntao Wang, National Committee Democratic Party of China

Robert A. Senser, Human Rights for Workers

Jing Zhang, Women’s Rights in China

Karin M. Burke, Esq., New York, NY

Jim Roberts

Agnes Lin, Beverly Hills

Bobby Wang, Visual Artists Guild

Lucas Kamp, Pasadena

Sandy Wang, City of La Palma, Ca

Aivars Jerumanis

Wendy Maccoun, Coastline Community College ESL Instructor

Dr. Frank de Balogh, Hungarian American, South Pasadena

Song Yongyi, Associate Professor/Librarian, California State University, Los Angeles 

 

Robert Branch, Visual Artists Guild


Bishop Ron Allen/CEO & President, International Faith Based Coalition

 

Albert Roman, Amnesty International Club, South High School, Torrance, Ca

Philip Watt, Visual Artists Guild

Fred Leong, San Jose, Ca

Ann Leong, San Jose, Ca

Arnold Hung

Joon Lee

Linda Lin

 

Shan He

Wenqian Gao

Xuan Meng

Shujun  Wang

Ning Ye 

Qihuang  Tang  

Lewis Liu

Dongfang Xiao

 Youcai Wang

Tiancheng Wang

Nianchun Liu

Shenqi Fu

Shuyuan Song

Baosheng Guo

Ce Wang

Cheng Wang

Zhijian Yu

Junjuo Liu

Liqun Chen

Guangjun Gao

Fengjie Mo

Yan Xiong

Jinjin Li

Jinghua Lv

Xueyuan Zhu

Gai Yi

Ming Xia

Xiaoqin Huang

Quanbao Wei

Ping Gao

Yan Jin

Dimin Shen

Jianwei Li

Juemin Dong

Qilong Liu

Chengshan Tan

Weijiang Shi

                                    Open Letter to Members of House Appropriations Committee

Addendum

There are a total of 27 pages with approximately 717 people who signed the open letter online to the members of the House Appropriation Committee.

The people include those who live in the United States as well as those who live inside China as well as the rest of the world.

Those who are from China include people from various provinces of China and from all walks of life.  Many are human rights activists, banned political parties members, writers, labor activists, etc.  Many also include their phone numbers.