程翔

An Open Letter to Mr. Zeng Qinghong, Vice-President,
the People’s Republic of China
by ‘Ching Cheong Incident Concern Group’ on September 9, 2005

Dear Vice-President Zeng,

We are most happy to learn of your visit to Hong Kong and we extend to you our warmest welcome. We truly believe that your visit will greatly enhance the mutual understanding and strengthen the close ties between the Central Government and the SAR.

We are a group of professionals and executives from various sectors of the Hong Kong society. We have always been concerned about the healthy development of the motherland, supportive of her open door and reform efforts, peaceful unification of the motherland, the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement and her other fundamental state policies. Most of us graduated from the University of Hong Kong some twenty or thirty years ago, have known Mr. Ching Cheong for a long time and have not had any doubt whatsoever of Mr. Ching’s love for both the motherland and Hong Kong nor how strong his convictions have been for a unified China and the implementation of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle. We have been gravely concerned about Mr. Ching’s circumstances in the recent months and wholeheartedly hope that he could soon be cleared of the alleged offences, could regain his freedom and be reunited with his family in Hong Kong.

We are deeply disturbed by and worried of the fact that Mr. Ching has been detained in the Mainland since late April this year. Expressing our concerns and expectations, we had published on June 14 “An Open Letter to Mr. Hu Jintao, President, the People’s Republic of China” in several Hong Kong newspapers, and again on August 10 issued a public statement entitled “Our Response to the Latest Development of Mr. Ching Cheong’s Incident.” On both occasions, we had had the support of hundreds of signatories, reflecting the high level of respect and trust for Mr. Ching’s moral character amongst his many university alumni and friends. (Please refer to the attachments)

We are fully aware that communication and interactive research across the straits are becoming fairly common nowadays. Sometimes the nature of the materials used for such purposes might be open to different interpretations under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, and that this is something we are not in a position to tell. We sincerely hope that in handling Mr. Ching’s incident by the relevant government departments, consideration would be given to the use of different yardsticks under “One Country, Two Systems” so as to arrive at a more accommodating assessment of his case.

Mr. Ching has been a dedicated journalist for decades, passionately loves his mother country, strives to do good for the nation and the people, and fervently promotes the peaceful unification of the motherland. In some of Mr. Ching’s reports and in-depth analyses of the nation’s affairs, he might have at times been rather direct and blunt, but we think this should be within the tolerance limits of our political leaders. Even if there might sometimes be contrary views, they could be regarded as differences of opinions within the people’s ranks rather than as vicious attack by the enemies.

At the risk of over-imposing ourselves, we sincerely hope that you would find the time from your busy Hong Kong schedule to grant us a short meeting with you so that we can present to our national leader in person our understanding and aspirations concerning Mr. Ching, and let you know our frustrations and thoughts on the incident as well as our hopes for a timely resolution of the issue.

In order to uphold Mr. Ching’s legal rights and ensure that he receives fair and righteous treatment, and to secure his early resumption of freedom and reunification with his family, we, a group of his old friends, have come together to form a ‘Ching Cheong Incident Concern Group’ to follow up the incident’s development.

We eagerly look forward to receiving your favorable reply to our request for a meeting with you.