#175 4/3 Meeting Takeaways; CCS Letter to President; Franklin Tao Appeals; NY Hate Crimes +
In This Issue #175
2023/04/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting - Quick Takeaways from Three
Invited Speakers
Committee of Concerned Scientists Letter to President Biden on Cross
Border Profiling
Professor Franklin Tao To File Appeal to Reverse Lone Conviction
22-Year Sentence for Man Guilty in Hate-Crime Killing of Asian
Immigrant
News and Activities for the Communities
2023/04/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting - Quick Takeaways from Three Invited Speakers
2023/04/17 Roundtable on a National Media Alert Network and Strike
Teams. High level of interest was expressed following Paula Madison's thought-
provoking and informative suggestion of a proactive national media alert network. As
follow-up action, a virtual roundtable of about 90 minutes will be convened on
Monday, April 17, 2023. An agenda for the event is being prepared at this time.
Additional details will be coming soon. Please mark your calendar.
2. Let the President's Advisory Commission Know Your Issues and
Concerns. Commissioner Dr. Robert Underwood joined the meeting from Guam
whose Chamorro Time Zone is 14 hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Time Zone. On March 10, 2023, APA Justice submitted its comments to the Commission, expressing
concerns about government-instigated racial profiling that has been repeatedly
explained away and justified under the cover of national security that sacrifices the
civil and human rights of the Asian American and immigrant communities. Dr.
Underwood encourages the communities and individuals to send their issues and
concerns to him at anacletus2010@gmail.com and to the Commission
3. Educate, Educate, and Educate; Reinstate NYPD Officer Angwang. Despite his
busy schedule that included a special session of the New York State Senate, Senator
John Liu joined the meeting and spoke passionately about the need for education to
counter anti-Asian hate. Senator Liu is in touch with New York Mayor Eric Adams'
office regarding the reinstatement of Officer Angwang to the New York Police
Department and an apology to Officer Angwang.
Committee of Concerned Scientists Letter to President
Biden on Cross Border Profiling
On March 20, 2023, the Committee of Concerned Scientist (CCS) wrote a letter to
President Joe Biden, expressing concerns about Chinese American researchers being
profiled, harassed, and interrogated without just cause at the border. The letter was signed
by Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander
Greer, Co-Chairs of CCS. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, House
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken were copied. CCS referenced a report by the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 1, 2023, which
describes instances where professors and scientists have been subjected to harassment and
interrogations at the US border.
The letter said in part "In this [Chronicle of Higher Education] article, advocates for Asian American academics describe several instances of harassment and interrogations, which have been rising over
the past few months. The situation is worrisome since Chinese American researchers should
feel free from the China Initiative policy of a few years ago. This policy disproportionately
focused on Chinese American researchers in the U.S. Department of Justice’s sometimes
overzealous efforts to uncover academic and economic espionage, and in our opinion often
constituted ethnic profiling.
The climate for Chinese American researchers needs to be made more welcoming.
Indeed Gisela Kusakawa (Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum) commented
poignantly “Although the China Initiative has ended — and that was a very important and
critical step — for many Chinese Americans, it is clear that they still live in a climate that’s
less welcoming.” While the Asian American Scholar Forum is aiming to collect more exact
data on the number of these border stops, we are aware of a few specific cases: (1) Zhigang
Suo, a professor of mechanics and materials at Harvard University; (2) Hong Qi, a visiting
scholar of mathematical sciences at Louisiana State University and lecturer at Queen Mary
University, London; and (3) a young daughter of a Chinese American scholar traveling alone
who was stopped and interrogated about the nature of her father’s research.
We ask for border officials to receive further anti-bias training and be encouraged to not
focus selectively on Chinese American researchers in stopping them for secondary
screening. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter and we look forward to
a response from you shortly."
Read the CCS letter: http://bit.ly/3Mwsdxx
Professor Franklin Tao To File Appeal to Reverse Lone Conviction
Attorney Peter Zeidenberg representing Professor Feng "Franklin"; Tao is in the process of
filing a brief in the 10th Circuit Court seeking the reversal of the sole count of conviction
against Professor Tao. He was the first academic indicted under the now-defunct "China
Initiative.";
The brief concludes:
"The conviction on Count 9 should be reversed because the KU Institutional Responsibilities
form—which Dr. Tao submitted only to KU and which KU never shared with NSF or
DOE—and which neither agency considered when making funding or other decisions, was
not within the Executive Branch’s jurisdiction. There is no legal basis for a felony false
statement conviction in these circumstances.
The Court’s affirmance would not only be unjust, but it would also open the floodgates to
federal prosecutions of employees accused of making misrepresentations to employers that
receive federal funding. It would subordinate the decisions of university department chairs,
tenure committees, and Human Resources to the whims of federal prosecutors and jurors.
An affirmance would also frustrate the ideals of our system of limited government.
The Department of Justice is not the Ministry of Truth, and it should have no role regulating
routine employee-employer interactions. The Court should reverse."
Read the Franklin Tao story: https://bit.ly/3fZWJvK
22-Year Sentence for Man Guilty in Hate-Crime Killing of Asian Immigrant
According to a report by the New York Times on March 31, 2023, a man who admitted to
brutally, and fatally, attacking a 61-year-old immigrant in East Harlem two years ago because
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the victim was Asian was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
The sentencing of the man, Jarrod Powell, came several months after he pleaded guilty to
manslaughter as a hate crime in the killing of the immigrant, Yao Pan Ma. Mr. Powell had
suddenly shoved Mr. Ma from behind while the older man was pushing a grocery cart full of
bottles and cans near 125th Street and Third Avenue. Video footage released by the police
showed that after Mr. Ma collapsed to the ground, Mr. Powell had stomped on his head and
kicked him several times in the face.
Mr. Ma spent about eight months in a coma before dying as a result of the injuries he
sustained in the attack. In entering his plea, according to prosecutors, Mr. Powell, 51, said he
had targeted the older man because he was Asian.
“New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world,” Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan
district attorney, said in a statement announcing the sentence. “And no one should have to
fear that they may be in danger because of their background.” Mr. Bragg’s office said that it
had 39 open cases of anti-Asian hate crime.
People of Asian descent have been the victims in several high-profile crimes in the past few
years. In November 2021, GuiYing Ma, a 61-year-old Chinese immigrant, was fatally beaten
as she swept a Queens sidewalk. In January, the man who admitted attacking her was
sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In January 2022, Michelle Alyssa Go was pushed to her death by a mentally ill man at the
Times Square subway station. The next month, Christina Yuna Lee was fatally stabbed by a
man who followed her from the street into her apartment. In March 2022, a 28-year-old man
was charged with seven counts of assault and attempted assault in connection with a two-
hour spree of attacks on women of Asian decent in Manhattan.
Read the New York Times report: https://nyti.ms/3zstXjw
News and Activities for the Communities
1. Harvard admits record number of Asian American applicants
According to a report by NextShark on March 31, 2023, amid allegations of bias against
Asian students in its admissions process, Harvard University welcomed its largest proportion
of Asian American first-year students in its history.¶ From a pool of 56,937 applicants, the
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Ivy League university admitted a total of 1,942 students — its second-lowest admissions rate
on record — to its Class of 2027. Of this batch, 722 were accepted through an early action
process in December 2022, while 1,220 were notified of the regular decision on March 30,
2023.¶ Asian American students composed 29.9% of the new admissions, marking a 2.1%
increase from last year’s 27.8%. This, according to Harvard, is the group’s largest-ever
acceptance rate.¶ Starting with the Class of 2027, the costs to attend the university —
including tuition, housing, food and other fees — will be free for families with annual incomes
of less than $85,000, up from last year’s $75,000 threshold.¶ Read
the NextShark report: http://bit.ly/3TYEz34
2. The Silence of Florida’s Presidents
According to a report on March 31, 2023, Inside Higher Ed asked 40 public college
presidents in Florida to weigh in on state higher education reforms. None were willing to
speak, even when offered anonymity.¶ As Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis,
seeks to enact sweeping reforms to dramatically reshape higher education in the Sunshine
State, students and faculty alike have protested legislation that would ban teaching certain
topics, limit institutional authority and undermine tenure protections.¶ But one group has
remained conspicuously silent: Florida’s college presidents.¶ Of the 40 presidents at
Florida’s public colleges and universities, none have publicly challenged DeSantis as he has
gone after diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; sought data on health care for transgender
students; and pushed HB 999—legislation to remake Florida higher education.¶ Given their
shared silence, Inside Higher Ed asked all 40 presidents that lead the institutions that
comprise the State University System of Florida and Florida College System for comment.
None of the presidents agreed to discuss attacks on higher education from the DeSantis
administration, even when offered anonymity, and multiple institutions did not respond to a
request for comment.¶ Florida’s college presidents remain silent as constituents demand
they speak up with HB 999 advancing through the state Legislature. Observers suggest
presidents are in a no-win scenario, where silence equals compliance but speaking out
carries personal and institutional risks.¶ Read the Inside Higher
Ed report: http://bit.ly/40yLh2a
3. In the war against history, Los Angeles and Asian American history offer hope
According to an opinion by Erika Lee, Regents Professor of History at the University of
Minnesota and the president of the Organization of American Historians, published by The
Hill on April 1, 2023, since January 2021, 44 states have introduced bills or taken other steps
to restrict discussions of race, gender, and sexuality in U.S. history. In 2022, proposed
educational gag orders attempting to restrict teaching about race, gender, American history,
and LGBTQ+ identities in K-12 and higher education increased by 250 percent compared to
the previous year. Further, according to a new report by Pen America, more than 2,500
different book bans were enacted in schools across 32 states during the 2021-2022 school
year. A few months ago Florida rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement course on
African American Studies in the state’s high schools, claiming that it “lack[ed] educational
value.Ӧ There is a war being waged against American history by those hostile to an honest
portrayal of our country’s history—and who seek to stamp out the expansive, inclusive, and
complicated understanding of America’s past that recent scholarship has revealed.¶ As
more than 1,000 U.S. historians gather in Los Angeles on March 30 to April 2, 2023, for the
annual Organization of American Historians meeting, the question of how educators,
scholars, officials, and activists can work together in this war will be front and center. We will
be discussing how current community, civic, and historian-led efforts are confronting our past
in ways that should all give us hope for the future. And how Los Angeles may serve as a
model for other cities and states to follow in developing approaches that openly and
inclusively tackle our country’s difficult racial history.¶ The stakes could not be greater.¶
Read The Hill opinion: http://bit.ly/3MxIAKf
4. Interim Executive Director for MOCA
On March 30, 2023, the Museum of Chinese Americans (MOCA) announced the selection of
arts and cultural leader Nina Curley as its Interim Executive Director to succeed outgoing
President, Nancy Yao, who has been named the founding director of the Smithsonian
American Women’s History Museum, effective June 5. Read the MOCA
announcement: https://bit.ly/3ZEJ8AE
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April 4, 2023