China's Great Wall of Silence: A Letter to Congressman David Wu

Dear Congressman Wu,

As the first and only Chinese-American in Congress, and as a lawyer, you are uniquely positioned to be receptive to this request for assistance in the investigation into the murder of Bian Zhongyun.

Bian was beaten to death on August 5, 1966 by her Red Guard students at the privileged Girls School Attached to Beijing Normal University. She was the first educator to be murdered by students in the Cultural Revolution. All of her attackers were girls.

The historical significance of Bian's murder was made complete on August 18, 1966 when Song Binbin, the leader of the Red Guards at Bian's school, was given the honor of pinning a Red Guard armband onto Mao Zedong. The photograph of that moment is one of the most famous of the twentieth century. The occasion was the first rally of Red Guards in Tianenmen Square. Over a million were in attendance.

Bian's murder has ever since been a subject of interest to many. Two films, Though I am Gone, by Hu Jie, and the pseudo-documentary Morning Sun, by Red Guard sympathizer Carma Hinton, have been produced in the last few years. The latter was partially funded by your and my tax dollars through the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Although some courageous people, such as Hu Jie and Dr. Youqin Wang of the University of Chicago, have kept the memory of Bian's murder alive, only one of the perpetrators has been named, Liu Tingting, daughter of the then President of China, Liu Shaoqi. Ms. Liu was one of those who beat Bian on August 5 but there were others, three or four, who committed most of the violence and they have never been named.

It's not for lack of witnesses that those responsible have not been identified. The beating was a public spectacle carried out in front of the student body in broad daylight. The beating lasted for hours. In similar public circumstances Bian was also beaten on June 23 and August 4. After the former beating Bian made a futile written appeal to the Beijing municipal authorities.

Liu Tingting, Song Binbin and a host of other former Red Guards subsequently immigrated to the United States and started new lives. Liu Tingting is now a wealthy, jet-setting business consultant with a residence on Central Park. Song, the most infamous of the Red Guards, changed her name to Yan Song once in the U.S., got her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and had homes in Lexington and Concord, the birthplaces of the American Revolution. Others, such as Weili Ye, are comfortably ensconsed in academia. None have even been questioned about their actions during the murderous period of the Cultural Revolution that resulted in an estimated 3,000,000 killed.

With the above as background these are the specific issues that I am asking for your assistance on:

(1) How did Song Binbin and Liu Tingting get into this country? I would respectfully request that you provide me with their immigration forms in order to determine if either made any false or misleading statements there on.
(2) How could the National Endowment for the Humanities fund Morning Sun? What vetting of content occurred or didn't occur that led to N.E.H.'s approval for funding? I would respectfully ask that you provide me with Ms. Hinton's application and any internal N.E.H.documents that informed their decision.

Congressman, your website says that you will not respond to email from folks outside of your C.D., that all other correspondence must be in writing, so I will send this to you in letter form.

Finally, I just ask that you not send me a form letter in response. If you do not wish to assist no response is necessary.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Harris, J.D.