Cadre busy rewriting history: Department of Apologies forgot to check with the source

This is funny. The cadre is serious about its face. Which makes this very funny.

Also on www.rfa.org:
Crackdown in Tibet

WASHINGTON—The Chinese student who sparked outrage among Chinese
nationals who say she sided with Tibetans at a Duke University campus
protest says a public apology letter purported to have been written by
her father is a fake, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.



"That wasn't written by them. I have been in touch with my parents.
They told me very clearly that it wasn't written by them," Grace Wang,
20, from Qingdao, told RFA's Mandarin service. "I don't know who wrote
it."



"I'm sure. They were very clear about that. They also said they knew
I would never do anything to betray my country," Wang said. "They
said that they were just lying low, waiting in silence for the coming
of spring, as it were, until everyone had calmed down a bit and could
take a different view of the matter."



Wang claims that she was only trying to mediate at an April 10 campus
vigil, in which several dozen pro-Tibetan students were facing off
with several hundred Chinese students. She doesn't support Tibetan
independence. But she gave up under verbal assault from the Chinese
side.



A few hours later, she published an online essay to the Duke Chinese
Students and Scholars Association forum, calling for tolerance—and
sparking thousands of e-mails and hundreds of phone calls. Her
personal data appeared on the Internet, she received death threats,
her home in China was vandalized, and her parents are in hiding.



"My mother told me they support me," Wang told RFA's Cantonese
service "My father thinks he may have to change jobs—but he has no
regrets. I just had a phone conversation with them. My father is firm
in his position and mom also said ' Don't worry. '"



"My parents just told me that someone released a statement or
something under their names. They didn't see it and they don't want to
see it. They told me if I see it to just ignore it…They said they are
safe and I have to protect myself. Justice will prevail."



The phony apology, widely circulated on the Internet and purportedly
written by Wang's parents, said: "On behalf of Wang Qianyuan, we beg
the forgiveness of the people of China, the forgiveness of all the
Chinese in the world. We beg the entire nation to forgive her
ignorance and give her an opportunity to rectify her mistake."



"Every morning [and evening] we exchange e-mails to say we are still
alive, and that everything is fine," she said. "They are being very
tight-lipped and not saying much about it. I think they are on the
run. I don't know their exact location. They aren't telling me. I
think that's because they are afraid the Chinese government will
intercept the e-mail."



"I don't know when they moved out or where they are staying now. But
at least they seem to be all right according to their e-mails. At
least they say they're safe. Now it's got to the point where it's not
a question of what I say making them worry; it's me who's worrying."



An official at the Qingdao police station, contacted by telephone,
acknowledged that the Wang family had been threatened and their home
vandalized. He declined to give out further information. "We can't
present our information to the public," the officer said.



Wang said Thursday she had stopped attending classes and had extra
police protection, but she said she worried mostly about her family in
China. She said she didn't believe her life was in danger.



"My parents support some of my views and oppose others. But I
wouldn't expect them to think the same as me. That would be
terrifying, if everyone thought the same way."



Asked how her fellow students were treating her, she replied: "I was
beginning to think that the whole thing would just blow over. But
actually it's not going to blow over until there is some sort of
settlement, some justice. It doesn't really matter what they say to
me. The incident itself will probably blow over, but the problem will
remain. The truth is still out there if we want to go after it."



"I think some of them support me because they feel that I am a young
female student who is being bullied, but I tell them it's not me they
should support, but the truth. I would just like them to support the
right to freedom of expression."



"I have had threats from a lot of people, both spoken and written. I
get a lot of e-mails, but I don't read them. I just delete them. I
don't bother trying to find out who is sending them. I believe that
everyone has the right to free speech, and also the right to say the
wrong thing sometimes and to be forgiven for it."



Wang doesn't support Tibetan independence—she sees herself as a
champion of human rights and free expression. "I think that Tibet is
definitely a part of China. It is indivisible from China. This means
that we must deal with Tibet and Tibetans as our brothers and
compatriots," she said.



"That means that we should use other methods than those used to deal
with outsiders. You can use whatever methods you think expedient with
outsiders, even very forceful methods. But with Tibetans we are
dealing with our own relatives. There should be more reason and more
relatedness in our dealings with them."



Original reporting by Shen Hua for RFA's Mandarin service and Ho Shan
and Lydia Cheung for RFA's Cantonese service. Cantonese service
director: Shiny Li. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou.
Translation by Shiny Li and Luisetta Mudie. Written and produced in
English by Sarah Jackson-Han.