One of the issues raised at several meetings which became a project was how to respond to a statement by Hillary Clinton in China. The group asked that a letter to be written and sent to her with our views.  The Secretary of State had come under a great deal of criticism from human rights groups and China watchers.  The fear was that the Secretary's statement signaled a return to a cold war approach on human rights, giving more weight to security and economics than human rights. The group asked Larry to draft a letter to be sent to Secretary Clinton on behalf of the working group. A draft had been distributed in February and again in March.  All members were asked to comment.

As might be expected, such a letter was controversial and went through a variety of text changes.  Eventually a vote was taken.   A significant majority wanted the letter to go forward; but no majority could be found to recommend an approach to do that.  One minority wanted the letter to signed by the member supporting it; but another minority said that disenfranchised those members who can't put their names to public documents, due to their jobs.  The consensus decision in late April was to endorse the letter and thank those who advanced the effort; but to take no action unless the statement became part of a pattern.

Final Text

Vote on Text and Handling of Letter

Ning and public email conversations on the Letter.