#278 9/9 Monthly Meeting; Harmful Anti-China Rhetoric; NASEM Report; War for Chinese Talent
In This Issue #278
· 2024/09/09 APA Justice Monthly Meeting
· Rhetoric of Who is Tougher on China Has Tragic Consequences
· International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment
· The War for Chinese Talent in America: The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations
· News and Activities for the Communities
2024/09/09 APA Justice Monthly Meeting
The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, September 9, 2024, starting at 1:55 pm ET. In addition to updates by Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC); Joanna YangQing Derman, Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC; and Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), confirmed speakers are:
· Christine Chen, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Vote
· Jane Shim, Director, Stop Asian Hate Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
· Tori Bateman, Director of Advocacy, Quincy Institute
· Sandy Shan, Director, Justice Is Global
The virtual monthly meeting is by invitation only. It is closed to the press. If you wish to join, either one time or for future meetings, please contact one of the co-organizers of APA Justice - Steven Pei 白先慎, Vincent Wang 王文奎, and Jeremy Wu 胡善庆 - or send a message to contact@apajustice.org.
***********APIAVote is the nation’s leading national, nonpartisan organization to engage, educate, and empower Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) to strengthen their voices and create impact. Since 2007, APIAVote’s mission is to work with local and state community based organizations to mobilize AAPI communities in electoral and civic engagement. After attending and hosting events at the RNC and DNC, Christine Chen will update us on the state of AAPI voters in the upcoming November elections. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) is a national organization founded in 1974 to protect and promote the civil rights of Asian Americans. It is a key member of the legal team that filed suit against Florida's alien land bill known as SB 264 in 2023. More recently, it filed an amicus brief with 11 Asian Pacific American organizations in support of Dr. Yanping Chen's privacy rights lawsuit. Jane Shim will update us on the these latest developments and related AALDEF activities.After five years of discussion across the progressive community, the Quincy Institute has teamed up with the Institute for Policy Studies and Justice is Global to produce a brief on "A Program for Progressive China Policy." It proposes a new policy framework that would shift the current US approach of pressure and exclusion against China toward a relationship rooted in solidarity, healthy competition, and cooperative efforts to address shared challenges. Tori Bateman and Sandy Shan will give a joint presentation on the brief and discuss plans for its promotion over the next few months.
Rhetoric of Who is Tougher on China Has Tragic Consequences
On September 1, 2024, The Washington Post reported that 171 campaign ads for congressional and presidential candidates have already mentioned China in this election cycle.
These ads include a range of dark insinuations: one candidate allegedly recruited as a spy by Chinese leaders in his youth, another accused of profiting from a Chinese fentanyl manufacturer, and a third alleged to have sold Chinese-made SUVs at his car dealership.
Both Democrats and Republicans are aggressively associating their opponents with China as the 2024 campaign intensifies. They hope that invoking China—a country many Americans blame for the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis, and ongoing economic challenges—will sway voters in their favor.China-bashing has long been a staple of U.S. politics. In 2016, former President Donald Trump made cracking down on China central to his campaign, and both parties have historically capitalized on voter anger over outsourcing, especially in Rust Belt states. However, as tensions between the two nations rise in 2024, the issue has become especially heated, with candidates sparring over locked in battles over who is more connected to China.
During the 2020 cycle, 82% of China-related ads for Senate candidates were funded by Republicans or GOP-aligned groups. This cycle, however, most of these ads are paid for by Democrats, with 36% coming from Republicans.Some of the attacks have veered into conspiratorial territory, evoking Cold War-era fears. Republicans, for example, have made unfounded claims that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, may have been “groomed” by China. Walz, who traveled to China numerous times as a young English teacher and later as a member of Congress, has been baselessly insinuated by GOP figures like Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as being a Chinese plant.
The barrage of negative ads and rhetoric suggests that future Congresses may adopt an even more hardline stance toward China, partly to appease voters’ growing skepticism. Since 2019, Congress has sharpened its tone, introducing six times as many China-related bills in 2021 as in 2013. In recent years, lawmakers have allocated billions more to counter China’s military, restricted its access to semiconductors, and bolstered global anti-China coalitions. Countering China remains one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill.However, there is growing concern that this intense focus on China could lead to a broader blame game targeting Chinese people, including immigrants. Since the pandemic, the FBI has reported a surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans. Rep. Norma J. Torres (D-Calif.), who serves on the House subcommittee overseeing U.S. foreign policy spending, warned that for some of her colleagues, "it all starts and ends with China," which she warns could "create a lot of potential for violence in our communities again."Read the Washington Post report: https://wapo.st/3XaMcFGThe scientific and Asian Pacific American communities are still mourning the tragic passing of Northwestern University Professor of Neurology Dr. Jane Y. Wu who was reportedly subject to years of endless investigations by the National Institutes of Health's "China Initiative." APA Justice is currently looking into the reported suicide of an internationally renowned professor of electrical engineering at the Arizona State University during the "China Initiative." There has already been a reported suicide of a Stanford University professor at the beginning of the "China Initiative." Rhetoric of who is tougher on China has tragic consequences on the Asian Pacific American community, especially those of Chinese descent.
International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment
On August 29, 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released a consensus study report titled International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment. The report recommends ways to improve relative to programs and incentives used by the U.S.'s strategic competitors.At the request of the U.S. Department of Defense, this report reviews foreign and domestic talent or incentive programs and their corresponding scientific, economic, and national security benefits. The report acknowledges the legitimate concerns about protecting U.S. intellectual property and national security but also points out the negative consequences of the China Initiative. It notes that the initiative has created a climate of fear among researchers, particularly those of Chinese descent, and has led to a decline in collaboration between U.S. and Chinese scientists. This, in turn, could hinder the U.S. innovation ecosystem, which has long benefited from the contributions of international researchers.Specifically on the China Initiative, "The U.S. Department's China Initiative resulted in lingering, chilling effects on attracting and retaining Chinese-origin STEM talent because of a fear of and actual harassment and intimidation. Such chilling effects extend to other vulnerable groups, including both foreign and domestic students and professionals, and result in the loss of talent from the United States, avoidance by researchers of some fields of inquiry and the pursuit of federal funding, and reduction of international collaborations," the NASEM panel finds. The report also discusses how the U.S. government's response to China’s Thousand Talents Program, including increased scrutiny of researchers with ties to the program, has contributed to the broader concerns about international talent programs.
The report critically examines the role of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies in managing the risks associated with international talent programs. While these agencies are tasked with protecting national security, their involvement has led to tensions with the academic and research communities. The report highlights instances where aggressive law enforcement actions have resulted in the wrongful prosecution of researchers, damaging careers and undermining trust in the U.S. as a welcoming destination for international talent.The report suggests that a more balanced approach is needed, one that protects national security without undermining the contributions of international researchers. It calls for clearer guidelines and better communication between law enforcement agencies, universities, and researchers to ensure that security measures do not harm the U.S. research ecosystem.The report concludes with several recommendations for improving the management of international talent programs in the U.S. and the effectiveness of U.S. mechanisms for attracting and retaining scholars, It advocates for policies that strike a balance between protecting national security and maintaining an open and welcoming environment for international researchers. The report also calls for increased transparency in the implementation of security measures, as well as efforts to rebuild trust within the academic community.Read the NASEM report: https://bit.ly/3TgaHQl
Juan Zhang, editor at US-China Perception Monitor, contributed this report.
According to Science on September 3, 2024, the NASEM report warns that the U.S. risks losing its status as a global leader in research due to a broken immigration system. The report highlights the importance of allowing more immigrants with advanced degrees in STEM fields to stay in the country, as the U.S. heavily relies on foreign-born scientists. It criticizes the now-defunct China Initiative that targeted Chinese scientists under the guise of preventing economic espionage.The panel urges the government “to take measures to address the lingering chilling effects of the China Initiative.” Gisela Kusakawa, who leads the Asian American Scholar Forum, calls the critique a “milestone” for a NASEM report.The panel suggests that U.S. immigration policy should be reformed to attract and retain top international STEM talent. Recommendations include easing the green card process for foreign-born STEM experts, removing country-specific caps, and granting green cards to those who earn advanced degrees in the U.S.The report also warns that restrictive policies in the name of national security could backfire if perceived as discriminatory, and it advocates for more transparency and fairness in research security measures. The report calls for a significant investment in domestic STEM education but notes that building a strong domestic talent pool could take decades, similar to the long journey the U.S. took to achieve energy independence.The report recommends a massive investment aimed at attracting more domestic students into STEM fields akin to the push after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.The panel chair, Mark Barteau, chair of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, predicts it could take a long time, using as an analogy how long it took the United States to achieve energy independence.
“Richard Nixon [in 1973] was the first U.S. president to say that the solution is not to turn off imports but to boost domestic production,” Barteau says. “And it took us decades to achieve it. I'm not sure the timeline between oil and STEM talent is all that different.”Read the Science report: https://bit.ly/47fYktj
The War for Chinese Talent in America: The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations
On September 27, 2024, Stanford University will host a book talk on "The War for Chinese Talent in America," featuring David Zweig, Professor Emeritus, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as speaker.In 2018, the Trump Administration launched the "China Initiative," a campaign aimed at curbing China's efforts to access U.S. technology. Dr. Zweig’s new book documents the U.S. government's measures to limit technology transfer to China and features case studies of several unknown victims of this campaign. It also explores the detrimental effects on Sino-American scientific collaboration and the education of Chinese students in America. Join the China Program at Stanford's Shorenstein APARC for a presentation by the book's author on this critical topic in U.S.-China relations.Dr. Zweig is from Canada and has been a China expert for 50 years. He is fluent in Mandarin. He spoke at the September 2020 APA Justice monthly meeting. His presentation, meeting summary, and video recording are located here: https://bit.ly/3Q9Uda6. Register for the Stanford University event here: https://stanford.io/4e97uKB
News and Activities for the Communities
1. APA Justice Community Calendar
Upcoming Events:2024/09/09 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2024/09/10-12 Chronicle Festival: The Road Ahead to 20352024/09/12 AA4D: Nobel Laureates and Scientists for Democracy 2024/09/19 1990 Teachers Workshop: Asian American Identity2024/09/19-20 AANHPI Unity Summit2024/09/25 C100: State of Chinese American Survey 2024 2024/09/26 White House Initiative AA& NHPI Policy Summit2024/09/27 The War for Chinese Talent in America: The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations2024/10/02 C100: Asian American Career Ceiling Initiative The Community Calendar has moved. Visit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details.
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September 5, 2024