My letter to NY Times
puzzled
China's Internet. PLease revise and send your own version. Two ways
to send it:
1. From http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/world/asia/03china.htm?_r=1
在那篇文章标题的下面，有作者HOWARD W.
FRENCH的名字，点击那个作者名字就可以在时报网页上给作者留言了。It
worked.
2. Send email to globet...@howardwfrench.com. It worked.
3. Comment on
http://www.howardwfrench.com/archives/2004/12/06/about_howard_w_french/#contact
It did not work for me.
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Dear Mr. French,
I read your article Online Throngs Impose a Stern Morality in China
from New York Times, in which you mentioned the poisoning of a Tsinghua
University student, an alleged murder case that dates to 1994 in
Beijing. I thought that you might be interested in this case.
The victim, ZHU Ling, was a beautiful and talented girl when she was
poisoned with thallium in the murder case. Although her life was saved
by telemedicine, she has become handicapped 100% both mentally and
physically ever since then. The only suspect was her roommate, whose
family members were top ranked leaders in the Chinese national
government back then. After the suspect was questioned, this case was
mysteriously discontinued and the murderer is still at large. When
interviewed by the news reporters, the police officer in charge of the
case said: “This case is very sensitive. According to our
discipline, we cannot disclose its status. If you want to report the
case, is it still too early?”
At the beginning of this year, the suspect, SUN Wei, organized a
web-based defense to clean her name in front of the public. Based on
her self-defending statements, many people started questioning her
innocence and possible political interference to the case. The
suspect’s family background and more details about the case were
revealed by the netizens, including the fact that the suspect has
changed her name (her current name is SUN Shiyan) and birthday in her
official ID certificate which was verified by querying the China’s
Identification database. In addition, the netizens found the
following online message from Dr. Robert A. Fink, indicating that the
Bureau of Public Security in China had enough evidence to convict the
murderer:
“A recent article appeared in "U. S. Medicine" regarding the work of
Dr. Steve Cunnion, a U. S. Navy physician, which states that a report
has been made to the Bureau of Public Security in China, alleging that
Zhu Ling's thallium poisoning was the result
of an attempted murder. It was further alleged that the perpetrator was
a jilted suitor and that the source of the thallium was *not* the
laboratory in which Zhu Ling worked.”
It is available at:
http://list.mc.duke.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9601&L=occ-env-med-l&D=0&P=14965
I learned the case from the internet and have great sympathy toward the
victim. Recently, I contacted her family for donation. The victim’s
parents are very nice. Already in their seventies, it has become
increasingly difficult to take care of ZHU Ling. Their only hopes were
her recovery and the conviction of the murderer. Her mom mentioned to
me that the situation of continuing the investigation of the murder
case had been EXTREMELY difficult. I think this case is different from
Bronze Mustache. Those who are paying attention to ZHU Ling have
contributed tremendously to her family both financially and
emotionally. Twelve years ago, internet created a miracle that saved
Zhu Ling’s life. We sincerely hope that it can create another miracle
by bringing justice to her family. Your further report on this case
may help to continue the investigation and lead to conviction of the
murderer.
For more information, please read:
http://www.helpzhuling.org/ (search “Media Reports”)
Lab poisoning mystery triggers debate
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-01/13/content_512136.htm
puzzled
庸庸叶叶
珍珠E
Times know how we feel about the newspaper's article. Your letter is
very objective, detailed and informative. Thanks a lot for the effort.
庸庸叶叶
Your recent article 'Online Throngs Impose a Stern Morality in China'
on NY TIMES caused my attention. It is not the story Bronze Mustache
you cited as major example that interested me but the Zhu Ling thallium
poisoning case, which remained unsolved for 12 years, that urges me to
write you this short messages. I think this case, in which the victim
and the victim's family have been struggled for more than 11 years and
seen no hope of getting back to normal life, deserves more than just
one-sentence attention.
I am a Chinese student who is now studying in US. I wasn't aware of
Zhu Ling's poisoning case until this January when the sole suspect
designated by the Chinese police posted a declaration of innocence
online. I was so shocked and grabbed by this case as more and more
astonishing details and facts about this case were revealed to the
public online. I couldn't help tearing for Zhu Ling and her family on
whom adversities have repeatedly descended (Zhu Ling's only sibling,
her elder sister died from an accident before Zhu Ling went to
college). I couldn't help being outrageous about the malicious soul who
so deliberately destroyed this beautiful and intelligent girl who
deserved many possibilities of glorious life in the future rather than
being constrained in the wheelchair forever and tortured by illnesses
every day. I couldn't help feeling hurt by the facts that the dignity
of law which is supposed to protect innocent people, has been abused to
escape an ugly soul from being legally punished. I couldn't help
worrying about my family and other powerless people in China wondering
could our laws really serve to protect our life, our legal right and
interests?
The above paragraph described my emotional experience of this case,
which is my reason to persistently participate in Internet discussion
of the case hoping to reveal the truth and return the undone justice to
the Zhu family. I read messages everyday in a forum at ZHU LING BA in
Baidu.com, where thousands of netizens (throngs) who are concerned
about this case voice their sympathy and solicit help to the Zhu
family.
While a pragmatic life attitude, or in other word, selfishness, is
dominant mind set in the nowadays Chinese society, the huge attention
to Zhu Ling's case from people through Internet demonstrates an awaking
social conscience. Your article has caused the attention of the
traditional Chinese media too. However, the point you made in your
article, “online throngs”, whose essence and significance is only
derived from one example Bronze Mustache, is bias. Your point is
further abused by the traditional media to attack the behavior of the
“online throng” regardless of each case’s truly essence,
including Zhu Ling’s case.
An American friend said Free Speech is realized in real sense thanks to
the Internet because people are free of receiving information just from
traditional mass media that are always manipulated by interested or
political groups. This is truer in America. But when the media is
overly controlled by the government the criminal aspect of Zhu Ling’s
case has been unknown by the general public for years. For Zhu Ling’s
case, the Internet has served as a platform and opportunity to gather
people’s voice to urge the government to reopen the case to show the
truth and punish the perpetrator, and above all, to redeem the dignity
of law.
珍珠E
wrote to the NY Times reporter. Thanks all of you above who made the
effort to let the outseid world know what is happening here and how
different what we are doing from the so-called "Bronze Mustache" event.
Just a reminder, it'd be really great if you could also sent the letter
to the NY Times editors directly besides to the reporter himself. We
need to let our message acrossed and voice heard to a wider audience.
It's a great opportunity to do so! I just did a search at the
newspaper website and found the following email addresses of the
relevant editors we may possibly reach to and pass our concerns on.
They are shown as below:
executiv...@nytimes.com
for...@nytimes.com
Again thanks you all. Well done!!
Enfamil
address you indicated above?
thanks,
Enfamil
庸庸叶叶
You click the first link which would direct you to the website where
the article is.
Below the title it shows
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: June 3, 2006
You click HOWARD W. FRENCH, which will direct you to another website
you see
'''Recent and archived news articles by Howard W. French of The New
York Times.
Send an E-Mail to Howard W. French
Then you click ""Send an E-Mail to Howard W. French""
Finally you reach the place where you can "Send a Message to HOWARD W.
FRENCH:
珍珠E
Since I simply copied and pasted the editors' email address from NY
Times website, I guess it's the protective measure google uses for a
more secured purpose. You need to click the underlink following ... and
then you will be directed to a page that you need to type the twisted
character in the little box shown. If you type correctly, the page will
show the full writing of the email addresses. Give it a try, it's
fun.:)
Otherwise, here below are the full writing of the editors' email boxes:
executiv...@nytimes.com
for...@nytimes.com
Good luck!
zhenzhu
Enfamil
Thank you for writing.
I think that you and a number of other people who have emailed me to
make a similar point have misunderstood the point of my article.
I was writing about a phenomenon in which many people become involved
online in efforts to obtain "justice" through their own efforts.
To me, that's what Internet hunting is. Nowhere have I made the point
that any particular party is guilty or innocent. I have no way of
knowing that, and I would argue that in most of these cases, neither do
the impassioned strangers who become involved in these discussions. I
have no doubt that injustices occur often in China. I write about them
often. This murder may very well be an example of one. For me to ssert
that, though, with no command of real evidence, would be to commit
another injustice. Moreover, as I've said, that was not the point of
what I was writing about.
Sincerely,
Howard French
芳香正时
puzzled
Maybe we can try another writer who is interested in China. We can
broaden the topic covered in the articale to social environment,
medicare, higher education, more transparent govenmental procudures,
etc. Zhen Zhu's idea is very nice. We can also send emails to the
editors of NY Times.
What do you guys think?
Puzzled
庸庸叶叶
phenomenon in which many people become involved online in efforts to
obtain "justice" through their own efforts.
看看他对铜须事件大篇幅的负面描写，直接了传达了网民是暴民的信息。他一句话带过朱令事件，让不了解的人也会认为对朱令事件参加网络讨论的网民也是暴民，要说有也是少数，想想对朱令案件的讨论已经长达6个月，暴民能够坚持那么长时间么？
Enfamil 写道：
珍珠E
另外大家还可以告诉时报的编辑，由于时报记者的片面不公正的报道，中国的媒体在翻译和转载时抱记者的过程中断章取义，过分强化了网络的负面影响。大家要指出，在中国，由于互联网的发展，给处于政府控制媒体、政府行为不透明、民众言论自由受到限制的情况下，人们能够从互联网获取信息是一项非常难得和珍贵的权利。而由于时报某记者的片面和不客观的报道，客观上给众多在朱令事件中为努力接近真相、为受害人寻求正义的行为造成了不应有的伤害和抹黑。
benjian...@gmail.com
peace
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