#284 10/7 Meeting/Gene Wu; CAPAC Letter; McCarthyism & Roy Cohn; Rep. Summer Lee; USCET; +

In This Issue #284

·       2024/10/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·       CAPAC Members Renew Effort to Prevent the Relaunch of Trump-Era China Initiative

·       McCarthyism - Who is Roy Cohn?

·       National Security, China Initiative, McCarthyism

·       USCET: Celebrating 20th Anniversary of the American Studies Network in Beijing

·       News and Activities for the Communities

2024/10/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, October 7, 2024, starting at 1:55 pm ET. In addition to updates by Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) and Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), confirmed speakers are:

·       Grace Meng, Member, U.S. House of Representatives;  First Vice-Chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

·       Gene Wu, Texas State Representative

·       Min Fan, Executive Director, U.S. Heartland China Association

Congresswoman Meng has agreed to take a few questions for a brief Q&A session immediately following her talk.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.

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State Representative Gene Wu, who represents District 137 in the Texas House, is also an attorney in private practice. On October 7, 2024, he will address the APA Justice monthly meeting, speaking on "Anti-Asian Laws in America." A dedicated advocate for the Asian Pacific American community in Texas and across the nation, Gene Wu regularly holds town hall meetings and travels nationwide, urging the community to confront the rising threat of anti-Asian legislation at both the state and federal levels. His 26-slide presentation offers a concise overview of this issue, tracing its roots from the founding of the United States to the recent "China Week" in the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2024.  Watch his town hall meeting on September 29, 2024, on this topic: https://bit.ly/3XN7Ujm (49:37)

CAPAC Members Renew Effort to Prevent the Relaunch of Trump-Era China Initiative

On October 1, 2024, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Rep. Judy Chu, First Vice-Chair Rep. Grace Meng, and Sen. Mazie Hirono led a push with 34 other lawmakers to stop Republicans from reviving the China Initiative, a controversial program created in 2018 under the Trump administration.Originally intended to combat espionage, the program disproportionately targeted individuals of Chinese descent, raising concerns about racial profiling. The Department of Justice ended the program in 2022 after many cases resulted in acquittals or were dropped. However, Republicans are now attempting to restart it through the CJS (Commerce, Justice, Science) Appropriations Act, while also advancing bills like H.R. 1398, which seeks to reinstate the China Initiative."Federal authorities wielded this prosecutorial initiative as a blunt instrument... enabling the racial profiling and targeting of individuals who had 'some nexus to China,'" the members wrote to House and Senate leaders. The members urged Congress to avoid "short-sighted policy and fear-mongering language," advocating for solutions that align with American values of fairness and freedom.Rep. Grace Meng will lead off the APA Justice monthly meeting on October 7, 2024, with remarks on the state of Asian-Pacific Americans and will hold a brief Q&A session immediately following her talk. Read the CAPAC press statement: https://bit.ly/3TQzDhM.  Read the letter to Congressional leaders: https://bit.ly/4gHLjgJJuan Zhang, editor at US-China Perception Monitor, contributed this report.

McCarthyism - Who is Roy Cohn? 

According to Wikipedia, Roy Cohn came to prominence for his role as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s, where he played a key part in the notorious anti-Communist hearings known as the McCarthy trials. These hearings were part of a broader effort to root out suspected communists and subversives in the U.S. government and society, often based on little evidence, leading to the term "McCarthyism."Born to an affluent Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City, Roy Cohn graduated from Columbia Law School at the age of 20.  He worked as a clerk for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for two years. In May 1948, at age 21, he was old enough to be admitted to the state bar. He became an assistant U.S. attorney later that month.  He played a prominent role in the 1951 espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg that led to their conviction and execution. At age 24, Roy Cohn was hired by Senator McCarthy to work for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, becoming known for his aggressive questioning of suspected Communists. Roy Cohn preferred not to hold hearings in open forums, which went well with Senator McCarthy's preference for holding "executive sessions" and "off-the-record" sessions away from the Capitol to minimize public scrutiny and to question witnesses with relative impunity.After his work with Senator McCarthy, Roy Cohn became a powerful attorney in New York. Known for his aggressive and unethical legal strategies, Cohn built a career based on influence and power. He was disbarred in 1986, shortly before his death at age 59 from complications related to AIDS despite being involved in campaigns against gay rights.Read Wikipedia about Roy Cohn: https://bit.ly/3XMnr2V.  

National Security, China Initiative, McCarthyism

In a September 24, 2024, hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on “Defending America from Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare, Part III,” Representative Summer Lee (D-PA) stressed that while national security deserves to be taken seriously, it must also be balanced in a way that is not bigoted, xenophobic or racist. Focusing only on China and the CCP not only leaves the United States vulnerable to attacks from elsewhere, but it also poses a risk to the personal safety, civil rights and civil liberties of Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants living in the US. While the Trump administration’s Chinese initiative is said to mean protecting labs and businesses from espionage, it was used as a tool of discrimination. Nearly 90% of the more than 150 cases brought by the FBI under the initiative were against ethnically Chinese people, and many of the cases were the result of simple administrative errors and no obvious connection to national security or the theft of intellectual property or trade secrets. The initiative is just McCarthyism in a new form. Under the initiative, scientists falsely accused of having ties to the CCP had their lives upended and their careers compromised.Representative Lee is Vice Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services.Jacob Stokes, Senior Fellow, Center for New American Security, testified that the Justice Department has said that the initiative fostered an environment of at least apparent bias and had a chilling factor over the scientific community. However it is certainly right that China is seeking to steal our technical and scientific secrets. We have to refocus the initiative on the actual networks at play, rather than kind of casting aspirations over a broad group of people.Watch Rep. Summer Lee's post on X: https://bit.ly/4doLOteKen Lao contributed this report.

USCET: Celebrating 20th Anniversary of the American Studies Network in Beijing

The U.S.-China Education Trust (USCET), a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. that promotes US-China relations by strengthening mutual understanding through educational exchange, will host its 20th American Studies Network (ASN) Conference in Beijing from October 25-27, 2024, partnered with Beijing Foreign Studies University.The conference's theme, "Connecting People, Cultures and Ideas: Re-examining Sino-American Exchange," reflects its mission to explore the evolving nature of educational and cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China.Founded in 1998 by Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch, USCET has been an important player in promoting educational exchange between two countries. The ASN, organized by USCET, consists of 54 Chinese institutions of higher education, and this conference continues its tradition of fostering dialogue on U.S.-China relations.The conference will bring together scholars, students, and practitioners from various disciplines to examine the history and current state of Sino-American educational and cultural exchanges. Some key topics of discussion will include the impact of geopolitical challenges, advancements in digital diplomacy, and how these exchanges shape mutual perceptions between the U.S. and China. The event will also feature prominent keynote speakers, such as David M. Lampton, Robert Daly, Yingyi Ma, and Elizabeth Knup.For more information, please read: CALL FOR PAPERS – 20th ASN Conference - US-China Education Trust (uscet.org)Juan Zhang, editor at US-China Perception Monitor, contributed this report.

News and Activities for the Communities

1.  APA Justice Community Calendar

Upcoming Events:2024/10/06 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/10/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2024/10/08 Media Training for Election Season2024/10/10 China in the Heartland: Building a Balanced Approach2024/10/11 China and the World Forum2024/10/11 Reverse Brain Drain: A Threat to U.S.Technological Leadership2024/10/13 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/10/16 Rebuilding Trust in Science2024/10/20 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/10/25-27 Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the American Studies NetworkVisit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details.

2.  Reverse Brain Drain: A Threat to U.S. Technological Leadership

WHAT: Reverse Brain Drain: A Threat to U.S. Technological LeadershipWHEN: October 11, 2024, Time: 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET, Dinner Reception 6pm PT.WHERE: 

·       In-Person at DingDing TV, 3350 Scott Blvd Building 54, Santa Clara, CA 95054

·       Live stream on the Ding Ding TV YouTube channel.

HOSTS: Kenson Ventures, Silicon Valley Community Media, SFCAUSE, NAA UnitedModerator: Joel Wong: Asian American community leader and moderator.Speaker: 

·       Scott Rozelle & Peter Michelson: Stanford University professors with expertise in reverse brain drain.

·       Peter Zeidenberg: Renowned lawyer who successfully overturned a wrongful conviction of a Chinese professor.

DESCRIPTION: Join leading experts for a critical discussion on the challenges and solutions to the “reverse brain drain” that’s threatening the U.S.’s technological edge. Learn about its impact on innovation, the economy, and how we can combat it.REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/4epqvJj

3. APA Justice Newsletter Web Page Moved to New Website

As part of its continuing migration to a new website under construction, we have moved the Newsletters webpage to https://www.apajusticetaskforce.org/newsletters.  Content of the existing website will remain, but it will no longer be updated. We value your feedback about the new web page. Please send your comments to contact@apajustice.org.