What's Happening in San Jose Vietnamese Community & Interested News:

Aug. 4, 1999: San Jose Vietnamese Song Writer Club! Congratulation! San Jose has been considered as one of the two biggest centers on Vietnamese musical center ouside Vietnam, the other is in Westminter, Orange County. The first ever organized in the U.S, right here in San Jose. With 15 founding members, first meeting has been held at our agency, Vietnamese American Council on August 1, 1999 at 7p.m. gave a promissing proliferation of new songs would be produced ouside Vietnam and also reflecting the sentimentals and the lives of Vietnamese beyond Vietnam. Founding memberships including the renowned song writer Tran Quang Nam of San Jose and others such as Thuong Thuong, Pha Le, Phong Pham, Khai Phan, Nguyen Nhu, M. Hoang, Trung Pham, Nguyen Dung, Bui Huu Nhut, Nguyen Thien Doan, Thanh Vu, Truoung Xuan Man and To Chau. The group has already an ambituos program activities for its memberships as well as for the Vietnamese Community at large in the future. Once again, congratulation! you guys for contributing to the livehood of us, Vietnamese in San Jose.

Vote Counted on H.J Res.58 Failed to Pass on yesterday after debated by 130 - 297 and no voting of 6 of  roll call  365 on: Disapproving the extension of the waiver authority contained in section 402(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 with respect to Vietnam. To see who is voting in congress Details.

War over words has Vietnamese on edge SOCIAL ISSUES: The owner of a Little Saigon market didn't see a fight coming over his published views on the recent trade pact. Tran, 58, had given an interview to The Orange County Register for a July 26 story on the trade agreement between Vietnam and the United States. He noted that there could be an upside for his customers —     less-expensive groceries. The story focused on the business ramifications of the pact. But some interpreted his statements to mean he supported the agreement without human-rights conditions. So the pickets came. Eight in all. Tuesday, more than a     week later, they were still out there. The sight is familiar. Vietnam and its communist government can be taboo topics among highly sensitive Vietnamese immigrants, and passionate protests are triggered easily.Tran has gone on a radio talk show and taken out ads in newspapers and magazines to explain his position. Dzung Nguyen went to the Little Saigon Supermarket from Cerritos on Tuesday to buy groceries. She said she feels sickened by the protest. "I don't think what the demonstrators are doing is right," said Nguyen, 67. "They are not allowing this community any peacefulness." Tran denies that he supports the trade agreement without making human rights a priority. In 1975, he was a wealthy businessman in Saigon who had to turn over financial control of his 700-employee bicycle factory to the communists. He fled with his wife and six children. Full story OC. Register.

Congress OKs waiver on trade with Vietnam. Hanoi is not held to emigration requirement. The House of Representatives on Tuesday affirmed a special trade waiver for Vietnam, defeating critics of Hanoi's progress on human rights, emigration and political freedom. The House voted, 297-130, against a resolution that would have reversed President Clinton's decision to grant Vietnam a one-year waiver of the freedom-of-emigration requirements in the 1974 Trade Act. The president can make such a so-called Jackson-Vanik waiver if he believes it would substantially promote the achievement of U.S. emigration objectives.

Supporters said Tuesday's vote would encourage Hanoi to continue improvements in its programs to allow Vietnamese to leave the country. It also was an early indication that the House might approve a recently announced trade agreement, the first between the two countries. But the vote was not directly connected to last month's deal, which must be formally submitted to Congress for approval once it is finalized. That agreement -- which would extend ``normal trade relations'' to Vietnam and could be completed by next month -- would be subject to the emigration requirements and need a Jackson-Vanik waiver. China's normal trade relations status, formerly known as ``most favored nation'' status, requires such a waiver each year. Lofgren, who represents the majority of the more than 100,000 Vietnamese-Americans in Silicon Valley, voted against the waiver last year. She believes that Vietnam's communist government has ``gone downhill'' in making reforms since the United States normalized diplomatic relations in 1995.

Tuesday, Lofgren was joined in her opposition by many Vietnamese organizations in the United States. In contrast, more than 150 business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urged Congress to uphold the waiver. The only Bay Area representative to join Lofgren in opposing the waiver was Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo,            did not vote. ``It's very difficult to look at heart, to look at logic, to look at economics,'' said Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham,         R-Escondido, a decorated Vietnam War fighter pilot, who opposed granting Vietnam the waiver. ``I won't chastise anybody for either side of this vote.'' '' ``I recognize that our history with Vietnam is a troubled one. The scars of the past run deep, and we           can never forget those who sacrificed their lives in service for their country,'' he said. ``But isolating Vietnam . . . will not heal those scars.'' Full story SJMN.

FBI's S.F. bribe probe. Feds in dual raids at S.F. Housing Authority, Human Rights Commission. FBI agents have seized records and documents from a second city agency in a widening probe of alleged improprieties under Mayor Willie Brown's appointed commissions, The Examiner has learned. Informed sources said on Friday that FBI agents appeared unannounced at  offices of San Francisco's Housing Authority and seized a computer, address book and files belonging to a veteran staffer who supervises a rent-subsidy program for poor tenants. The agents were seeking evidence as part of a probe of whether Housing Authority officials have taken bribes in exchange for federal rent-subsidy certificates, the sources said. Full story SF. Examiner.

Aug. 3, 1999: Leadership: White House fellows come from diverse backgrounds. For the first time in its 35-year history, a prestigious White House fellowship for promising young leaders is mostly made up of minorities. The White House Fellows program is also packed with Californians at a time when the Golden State is leading the nation in racial and ethnic demographic change. Ten of the 16 doctors, lawyers, military officers and business people who survived a grueling interview process are members of a minority group. Four fellows are from California, the state most heavily represented in the program, including a San Jose police officer. ``The program now reflects the diversity in society and in America. We have for the first time a majority minority of White House fellows, and this has been a longtime goal,'' said Jackie Blumenthal, the program's director. The non-partisan program gives people with a record of remarkable achievement early in their careers a bird's eye view of presidential decision-making. Fellows spend a year as assistants to Cabinet members and senior White House staffers, helping draft and review legislation, research public policy and write speeches. They are paid about $70,500 a year. Bill Woo of Stanford University's Department of Communication is on the commission that helps select participants. ``Every finalist for a White House fellowship is a woman or man of extraordinary achievement. People of color are becoming White House Fellows because they have risen to the top of their particularly fields of endeavor,'' Woo said. ``That's a statement about America.'' Full story SJMN.

Aug 2, 1999: For Vietnamese, it's a transoceanic reunion in O.C. CELEBRATION: Some graduates of high schools from across the Pacific see faces they haven't for 30 years. FOUNTAIN VALLEY — There were plenty of smiles, bearhugs and surprises here Sunday. Hundreds of far-flung refugee students, and their families, reunited at Mile Square Park to thank the teachers and celebrate the class reunions they believed had been left far behind in Vietnam. "We want to thank them for providing us structure," said Danh Tran Bui, 58, a pharmacist who flew in from Dallas in hopes of finding her favorite teacher from Gia Long High School in South Vietnam. The event was organized by the Vietnam High School Alumni Association, attracting students from 20 high schools, said Mai Thanh Pham, one of the organizers. The first reunion was held in 1992 with participation from four Vietnam schools. For some, it seemed unimaginable to find a classmate decades after graduation and more than 2,000 miles from former hometowns in Vietnam. Full story OC. Register.

Aug. 1, 1999: TAIWAN-FREMONT CONNECTION. Taiwanese investment has helped catapult Fremont into a higher-profile position within Silicon Valley. A review of immigration and business data, along with interviews with local Chinese business leaders, shows the following: At least 69 Taiwanese companies in 1996 were based -- or had offices -- in Fremont, according to the Taiwanese government. This put Fremont second only to San Jose with 95 firms. Though the Taiwan government hasn't updated those numbers, Fremont is believed to have gained even more Taiwanese companies. According to Immigration and Naturalization Service statistics for 1992 through 1996, Fremont was listed as one of the top four destinations statewide for Taiwanese immigrants arriving on the West Coast. In the Bay Area, Fremont was second only to San Jose. Census figures show 11,000 Chinese (including Taiwanese) lived in Fremont in 1990. While there are no reliable, updated figures, the mayor of Fremont -- using school district attendance data that shows more than 30 percent of the school population is now Asian -- estimates the Chinese population could be as high as 30,000 today. Full story SJMN.

Taiwan Ties. Rapid influx is changing bedroom community to business hub Freemont's jampacked Mission Square Shopping Center is only a year and a half old, yet Chinese-American high-tech executives and employees already know it by a more revealing name: Little Taipei. The five-acre shopping center at Mission and Warm Springs boulevards is the most visible symbol yet of how Taiwanese and Chinese-American investment is helping transform Fremont from drowsy suburb to local magnet for new immigrants and high-tech business.A computer analysis of Immigration and Naturalization Service data shows Fremont has been one of the four most popular destinations statewide for Taiwanese immigrating from 1992 to 1996, ranking behind only San Jose, Arcadia and Hacienda Heights in Southern California. More than 1,100 Taiwanese came to Fremont during those years. San Jose gained nearly 2,800. The Taiwanese influx has perhaps as much as tripled Fremont's Chinese population since 1990.The city's 30,000-student school district now has 10,000 Asian students -- with Chinese as the largest Asian ethnic group. Chinese churches and congregations regularly spring up around town. And these new communities, in turn, attract restaurants, acupuncturists, language schools and banks. Shir believes there are at least 100 non-high-tech Chinese businesses and organizations in Fremont. Full story SJMN.

July 31, 1999: Center of Attention. Little Saigon's 1st Cultural Facility Is a Hit. Picture. Walking through the Nguyen Ba Hoc Cultural Center in Westminster, founder Peter Nguyen surveys the buzzing activity with a smile. It's not often that a dream comes true, says the soft-spoken activist. Two months after the opening of the first cultural center in Little Saigon, its founders point out with satisfaction that the center is becoming a place where young and old cross paths. "Since we started in May, this has become the meeting spot for the Vietnamese community," said Peter Nguyen. "We finally have a place the community can call its own." All five pooled their resources and time, raising $50,000 in seed money and putting in 20-hour days for a solid month to get the building ready for its opening May 2. "We were thinking of putting in beds because we were here so often," joked Henry Nguyen. "But on the day it opened, I felt so much pride. We had done this for the kids." A community center in Little Saigon is not a new idea, but what made this one different is that the organizers were able to get it off the ground, said Peter Nguyen. "There have been plans in the past, but so many people wanted a share of running it. They fought among themselves and it was disastrous. Nothing ever got done," he said. This time we did it our way. To us, this is about education and culture, not politics." Full story LA. Times.

July 30, 1999: Here is the contents of the fax I' ve got from the White House Yesterday. In regard to Professor Tien, member of National Science Board.

                            THE WHITE HOUSE
                       Office of the Press Secretary
                          (Aboard Air Force One)
For Immediate Release                                         Contact:202/456-6047
July 29, 1999

                     Statement by the Press Secretary

     The President wishes to express his special gratitude to Professor Chang Lin Tien, who begins his service today on the National Science Board. Professor Tien and other Board members help sustain American leadership across the frontiers of scientific knowledge.

     Professor Tien's rich background, as a world-class engineer and as the former Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley, provides him with a unique understanding of the important links between science and technology, and education and society.

     "Asian Pacific American scientists and engineers have long made major contributions to our country, to our national security, and to our unmatched scientific enterprise," the President said.  "That is why it is intolerable that the patriotism of Asian Pacific American scientists be questioned in the wake of recent allegations of espionage at one of our national laboratories.  Security matters are of the highest priority in my Administration, but history has shown the damage to the lives of our citizens and to our society that results from the destructive grip of prejudice, suspicion and discrimination.  Racism and stereotyping have no
place in our One America in the 21st century."

     In answering the call to public service, Professor Tien carries on the principles and cherished traditions of Asian Pacific Americans who have helped build and strengthen our nation with diligence and determination.

                                 30-30-30

July 27, 1999: Spiritual crackdown targets government. China officials sent for re-education, group says. SHANGHAI, China -- As part of an expanding political campaign that could affect China's economic reforms, Chinese authorities have detained about 1,200 government officials who are members of Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that was officially outlawed last week, a human rights group reported Monday. The officials were taken over the weekend to schools in a city in northern China, where they are being required to study Communist Party documents and to renounce any allegiance to the movement, said the Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, based in Hong Kong. Since last week, Chinese authorities have rounded up more than 5,000 members of Falun Gong, ransacking homes and confiscating printed material. State television reported Monday night that customs officials had been ordered to seize all religious and promotional material related to the group. To complicate matters, Falun Gong is just one school of qigong, the traditional practice of using exercises to cultivate and channel vital energies that the vast majority of Chinese believe in, in some form.State-controlled newspapers reported Monday that the crackdown on Falun Gong was a success, and that many people were voluntarily turning in religious materials. Full story SJMN.

July 26, 1999: Firms see chance in Vietnam for deals.  BUSINESS: From banks to supermarkets, entrepreneurs look forward to the agreement taking effect. "That's a key ingredient to get business flowing," said Cheng, president and chairman of Cathay Bank. Cheng, whose bank has 17 branches in California  — including one each in Westminster and Irvine — as well as Taipei and Hong Kong, harbors hopes of opening one in Vietnam. "With 77 million people, Vietnam is one of the larger (Southeast Asian) countries and has resources, the people are intelligent and hard-working," Cheng said. "There's no reason why Vietnam shouldn't do well." The trade agreement is the key that some Orange County entrepreneurs hope will unlock the floodgates for American investment in Vietnam and hassle-free imports from that country. David Tran, who owns three flourishing Orange County Vietnamese supermarkets, believes that will change with direct trade with Vietnam. Fish sauce, dried shrimp and other seafood, fine Vietnamese noodles and rice could be imported directly from Vietnam. Many of the products on Tran's store shelves get shipped from Vietnam to Thailand and other Asian countries, where they get labeled and then shipped to the United States, he said."If they want food from Vietnam, I have to provide it," said Tran, 58, who had to turn over control of his 700-employee bicycle factory in Saigon to the communists after they took over in 1975. Full story OC. Register.

Pact veers Vietnam on new course. U.S. trade deal to help transform its socialist economy, analysts say.In a brief and sweltering ceremony, the United States and Vietnam announced they had agreed to terms on a comprehensive trade deal that had been three years in the making. ``It will help move us from adversaries to trade partners,'' said Deputy Trade Representative Richard Fisher, adding that the agreement would ``assist in the transformation and modernization of the Vietnamese economy. ''Analysts said the agreement, if and when it's finalized, will almost certainly mark a change of economic direction for communist Vietnam, which, over time, will have to open its highly protected markets and compete more fully in the global economy. Although the text of the draft agreement remains secret, the new deal was widely seen here as a potentially bold move by Vietnam's typically wary and cautious planners. Some suggested it might even prove to be as dramatic as the adoption of the doi moi economic liberalization movement that began a dozen years ago. Doi moi marked the country's first tentative steps away from a hard-line socialist past and toward a free-market future. ``This is big,'' said a U.S. diplomat who asked not to be named. ``The political will (on the Vietnam side) is finally there. It was a long time coming. But I want to be clear: This is not a small change in direction for Vietnam. This is a veer.''Vietnam remains one of the world's poorest countries, with an average per capita income of $300 a year. Bicycles outnumber cars 90 to 1, the basic cab ride is a dollar, and the agricultural sector is still powered by water buffalo and stoop labor.The draft agreement still must be formally signed and passed by Vietnam's National Assembly and the U.S. Congress, although senior officials said they saw no deal-breaking obstacles in Washington. But not if Rep. Loretta Sanchez has her way. The Democrat from Orange County said Sunday that the new trade agreement was ``premature.'' ``The United States should normalize trade relations only when Vietnam takes measurable steps to promote economic and human rights for all its citizens,'' said Sanchez, who visited Vietnam in the spring. ``Moving forward now, without receiving tangible concessions from Vietnam, is a mistake.The voluminous agreement, detailed and exacting, is the most complicated trade deal ever negotiated by the United States. It will take the lawyers and translators a month to prepare a final copy. Full story SJMN.

Mixed views on Vietnam trade deal. For the better part of this decade, anti-communist activists in San Jose's Vietnamese emigre community have been battling the notion of ``normal'' relations with their homeland. They condemned President Clinton when he lifted a punishing trade embargo with Vietnam in 1994. They decried the administration when it established diplomatic ties with Hanoi a year later. Now, the third leg of the three-legged ``normalization stool'' is complete. Assuming the U.S. Congress approves the trade deal -- which most political observers say is a virtual certainty -- the United States will have truly normal relations with Vietnam for the first time since Saigon fell 24 years ago.``This is very disappointing,'' said Chan Tran, spokeswoman for the San Jose-based National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam. ``We are giving away trade privileges to a country that is violating all of the human rights principles that we Americans uphold. We are nurturing this oppressive regime.'' The sentiment is not shared by all Vietnamese-Americans. Even some devout anti-communists recognize the imperatives of the global economy. Others, many of them professionals who fled their country when they were young children, see normal relations with Vietnam as the only way out of historical cycles of war, retribution and poverty. It was a vote that turned Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a liberal Democrat from San Jose, and Sen. Jesse Helms, the arch-conservative Republican from North Carolina, into political bedfellows.

Both argued that Vietnam had not moved far enough on human rights. Proponents of trade normalization, including Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Campbell, contended free trade was critical to Vietnam's economic reforms and would eventually move the country toward democratic political reforms. The human rights issue has been a constant source of friction between the two former enemies for the last several years. Vietnam claims its citizens are not jailed for religious and political beliefs. But a February report by the State Department put the number of religious and political prisoners at between 100 and 150. When the embargo ended, many Vietnamese-Americans were forced to define their feelings for a homeland they loved and a government they loathed. Five years later, the emigre community is still engaged in a battle that often pits ideology against pragmatism, generation against generation.``We have 350 businesses in Vietnam now, and there is mounting pressure from them,'' said Duc Ngo of San Jose, director of foreign affairs for the Free Vietnam Alliance. ``At this point in time, Vietnam will get it.'' Nguyen Xuan Phong, Vietnam's consul general in San Francisco, said he hoped more trade would ``help Americans and Vietnamese-Americans understand the situation in Vietnam better.'' Ngo of the Free Vietnam Alliance.... arguing that corruption and communist cronyism have left the average Vietnamese citizen only economic scraps. ``I think the problems of Vietnam's economy are inherent to its system,'' Ngo said. ``The socialist orientation simply cannot work.'' Full story SJMN.