#210 9/11 Meeting Summary; Franklin/Angwang; Paranoia/Scapegoating; "Stop The Blame"; More

In This Issue #210

• 2023/09/11 Monthly Meeting Summary

• Franklin Tao 陶丰 and Baimadajie Angwang 昂旺 - Support Their Fight for Justice

• Paranoia and Scapegoating with Discriminatory Alien Land Laws

• "Stop The Blame" Campaign Starts

• News and Activities for the Communities

2023/09/11 Monthly Meeting Summary

The September 11, 2023, APA Justice monthly meeting summary is now available at https://bit.ly/48lSE1h. We thank the following speakers for their updates and discussions:

• Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), nisha.ramachandran@mail.house.gov with updates from CAPAC

• John Yang 杨重远, President and Executive Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC with updates from AAJC

• Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), gpkusakawa@aasforum.org with updates from AASF

• Clay Zhu 朱可亮, Partner, DeHeng Law Offices 德恒律师事务所; Founder, Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA) 华美维权同盟 with updates on the Florida alien land bill lawsuit 

• Deborah Seligsohn, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Villanova University; Senior Associate (Non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on the case for renewing the U.S.-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement (STA)

• Steven Kivelson, Professor of Physics, Stanford University on a letter to the President and the National Security Council to renew STA

• Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Executive Publisher of the Science family of journals on the future of ethical science collaboration

• Ting Wu, Special Advisor, Office of the Chief of Staff, The White House, on observations and response from The White House.

The 9/11 meeting was privileged for APA Justice invited attendees.  The meeting summary is limited in distribution to APA Justice subscribers.  It is posted at https://bit.ly/48lSE1h

Franklin Tao 陶丰 and Baimadajie Angwang 昂旺 - Support Their Fight for Justice

1.  Professor Feng "Franklin" Tao

Professor Franklin Tao 陶丰 was the first scientist to be charged under the now-defunct US Justice Department's "China Initiative," which unjustly targets many Chinese American scientists and causes significant harm to their careers and families.  On September 21, 2023, over 30 people led by Haipei Shue 薛海培, President of United Chinese Americans, attended the Appeals Court hearing of Professor Tao's appeal to overturn his only remaining charge of making a false statement. The hearing was livestreamed via YouTube.  The audio portion is available here:  https://bit.ly/46dOxmc (2:24:52) starting at around 1:45:08.Read Professor Tao's case at https://bit.ly/3fZWJvK and visit his GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/5bf4adbe

2.  NYPD Officer Baimadajie Angwang 

Baimadajie Angwang 昂旺 is an officer of the New York Police Department (NYPD), U.S. citizen, Marine Corps veteran, and Army reservist.  He was arrested in September 2020, charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government and jailed pre-trial for six months under the now-defunct "China Initiative" based on intercepted phone calls.  In January 2023, a federal judge dismissed all the charges against him at the request of the Department of Justice "in the interests of justice."However, the NYPD has not only failed to reinstate Officer Angwang, but will hold an administrative trial against him on September 26, 2023, starting at 10 am ET.  The trial will be held on the 4th floor, Departmental Trial Room A, 1 Police Plaza, New York City.In a letter sent to Rep. Judy Chu 赵美心, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Restore The Fourth provided details of the continuing persecution of Officer Angwang.  "We all need this unjust treatment to not become the norm. Officer Angwang needs vocal, public support to ensure a fair judicial process. His trial is public, which means that the more people watch across the country, the more momentum we can build behind Angwang’s case. We seek justice for Officer Angwang, and call attention to the broader abuses committed by U.S. intelligence officials," the letter said.In a message to APA Justice, Officer Angwang said, "[t]he reason why we are fighting back is to send a message to any wrong doing against our community is that we do fight back, don’t think we would just take it like how they want us to be. We won’t be silent. We also want to send a message to anyone who is going through my situation or Professor Franklin Tao’s situation or who might going through this, we want them to know that don’t give up on fight, the community is behind you. We will support you. That’s also the reason why I am going to Denver to support Professor Tao. Thank you."Read the Restore The Fourth letter: https://bit.ly/3RuO9v8.  Read the case of Officer Angwang: https://bit.ly/3RIqXId

Paranoia and Scapegoating with Discriminatory Alien Land Laws

According to AsAmNews on September 18, 2023, three U.S. Congressmen set off alarm bells after a major land deal near a military base raised fears of Chinese spies.  "They saw red and now some might say, they have eggs on their faces," the report said.According to ABC7 News, Flannery Associates has been purchasing $1 billion worth of farmland for the last five years near Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, 50 miles east of San Francisco.  It is not unusual for the backers of a corporation to remain anonymous.However, with U.S.-China relations at a low, Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA), John Garamendi (D-CA) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) all expressed concern that Chinese spies were behind the purchase of 55,000 acres of farmland in Solano County, prompting federal legislation on foreign real estate transactions and investigations into a type of malware that China could disrupt military operations across the country.When the dust settled, the truth finally came out. Flannery Associates is backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalist and billionaire Michael Moritz. Moritz has been highly critical of San Francisco’s liberal politics. His hopes are to build a new housing development and city near Travis Air Force Base, one he says will bring new jobs to the area.All of this could be dismissed with a shrug, except for one trend.  According to APA Justice, 34 states as well as Congress have passed or have considered legislation to ban the purchase of land by Chinese and others from countries considered threats to the U.S.  The bills are reminders of the Alien Land Laws that banned the purchase of land by Asians 100 years ago when the Chinese Exclusion Act and anti-Asian discriminatory laws were in effect.

“Legislative action must be based on evidence and facts, not fear,” said Edgar Chen, Special Policy Advisor, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.  “While we recognize there are legitimate national security concerns over geopolitical competition between the United States and China, unless there is concrete evidence that land investments from individuals who hail from foreign nations, whether from China or elsewhere, are being used for espionage purposes, lawmakers should not rush to paint all real estate transactions – especially by ordinary individuals with no ties to foreign governments – as threats to national security.”

Cynthia Choi of Chinese for Affirmative Action and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate expressed her own concerns.  “Many politicians have been citing Chinese ownership of farmland as a threat to national security, when in reality, experts say Chinese land ownership accounts for less than 1% of farmland and an even smaller percentage of agricultural land. Despite the facts, they continue to sensationalize issues regarding China to justify overreaching measures that harm innocent Asian Americans and immigrants,” she said.

The ACLU recently joined in a lawsuit to overturn a ban against Chinese ownership of homes and land in Florida signed by GOP presidential candidate and Gov. Ron DeSantis.  “We continue to remain concerned about any attempt by Congress to target individuals solely because of their national origin, which falsely equates individuals from countries like China as synonymous with the Chinese government,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU. “These efforts are a reminder of historical instances where false claims of national security were used as a justification to prohibit Asian immigrants from becoming landowners and will only serve to exacerbate discrimination against Asian communities living in the United States.”

Read the AsAmNews report: https://bit.ly/3LrTobg

Rep. Al Green’s Remarks to Challenging Discriminatory Land Laws

During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on September 13, 2023, Rep. Al Green remarked, "my state [Texas] had the legislature to propose restrictions that would be directed toward specific persons and it created quite a stir because while the people who passed these laws don't have to interact with the people who can suffer from some of the consequences that may not be intended, persons of Chinese ancestry for example.  When you start using specificities of this type, there are people in this country who suffer.  They suffer in terms of how people approach them generally, but they also suffer in the sense of consternation as to what they will do with land that they currently hold or will they be able to purchase additional property."  Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxwYblt-Ja0 (4:55)

"Stop The Blame" Campaign Starts 

According to NBC News on September 21, 2023, Asian American civil rights organizations are launching a new effort to help monitor and prevent the use of inflammatory anti-Asian political rhetoric, ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. The “Stop the Blame” campaign, spearheaded by the nonprofit groups Stop AAPI Hate and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), kicked off with a website that includes information on the impact of racist language and policies.According to the Stop the Blame mission statement on to its website, "Everyday Asian Americans and immigrants are caught in the crossfire as tensions between the U.S. and Chinese governments grow.  An alarming number of politicians and lawmakers today are using geopolitics as an excuse to justify hate and racism against our communities.  They're promoting anti-Asian political rhetoric, discriminatory surveillance measures, and unconstitutional land ownership bans across the country."This is anti-Asian scapegoating - a political tactic used for centuries by those in power to deflect blame, instill fear, and rile up their voter base at the expense of our safety and our rights.  We're on a mission to stop the hate, stop the blame, and stop anti-Asian scapegoating once and for all."Rep. Judy Chu 赵美心, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, underscored the campaign’s critical timing.  “This anti-Asian rhetoric, many times, has to do with politicians who are trying to outdo one another,” she said. “They don’t care who they hurt in the process.”

Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of CAA, said the website not only contains data and research on anti-Asian language, but also a tracker that will document states seeking to pass land ownership bans. At least 33 states have proposed bans on land ownership from the Chinese government, entities or citizens in 2023. The website will additionally feature information on different campaigns and initiatives in individual states that are pushing back on anti-Asian policies. They will also be calling on Congress to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Currently, Section 702 of the legislation gives U.S. intelligence agencies the authority to acquire communications of non-Americans, who use American communications platforms, without a warrant. The measure has been criticized by many Asian American and other advocacy groups for its potential to be weaponized as a tool to racially profile communities of color. “We’ve seen how policies created under the guise of ‘national security’ are used to scapegoat Asian American communities in the U.S., and they fuel further racism, violence and the erosion of everyone’s rights,” said Ashley Gorski, a senior staff attorney of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.Instead of leaning on racist, anti-China rhetoric, Chu said, politicians should be careful with their words, and distinguish between the Chinese government and Chinese individuals. Chu brought up her own experience in which Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, questioned her “loyalty” to the U.S. Chu had defended Dominic Ng 吴建民, a Biden appointee, who was featured in an article by the conservative Daily Caller, that alleged he had ties to a Chinese Communist Party front group. “It was his way of outdoing other politicians,” Chu said. 

Choi said that with the campaign, she hopes to send elected officials the message that “scare tactics” are not a winning strategy.  “The message is that if you attack our rights and put us in harm’s way, we will take action,” she said. “We won’t stand for it. We will hold you accountable.”Read the NBC News report: https://nbcnews.to/3ZurAbV.  Visit the Stop The Blame website: https://stoptheblame.org/

US House Education Subcommittee Hearing

According to The Oklahoman and The Hill, Reps. Raul M. Grijalva and Suzanne Bonamici said a September 19 U.S. House education subcommittee hearing on the threat of Chinese influence in American schools perpetuated a debunked conspiracy theory and could fuel anti-Asian American bias.  Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director of Asian American Scholar Forum and an invited speaker in the hearing, encouraged the subcommittee to exercise caution when crafting laws and rhetoric on China.  She said Asian Americans and immigrants suffer discrimination when the country’s leaders espouse anti-China language.  “For many of them, they are not differentiated between this foreign government and who they are here,” Kusakawa said. “Decades after the systemic incarceration of Japanese Americans, we find ourselves repeating history as Asian Americans are treated as ‘perpetual foreigners’ and economic or national security threats,” Kusakawa said. “It has become a harmful pattern that when the United States has tensions with an Asian country, Asian Americans and immigrants face the backlash at home and become collateral damage.”   Read The Oklahoman report: https://bit.ly/45ZAK2L and the Hill report: https://bit.ly/48uv81Z

News and Activities for the Communities

1.  Community Calendar

The APA Justice Community Calendar is located on the front page of the APA Justice website at https://www.apajustice.org/.

Mark Your Calendar:  

Upcoming Events:

• 2023/09/25-27 AAUC National Unity Summit 

• 2023/09/26 NYPD Trial of Officer Baimadajie Angwang 昂旺 

• 2023/09/27 1990 Institute: Teaching Asian American Narratives through Literature

• 2023/09/27 U.S.-China Climate Cooperation Organizing Webinar 

• 2023/09/27-28 APAICS 2023 Tech Summit

• 2023/10/02 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

• Visit https://bit.ly/45KGyga for event details.

2.  Organizing for Climate Action: The Opportunities of U.S.-China Cooperation

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16) will lead an online discussion called “Organizing for Climate Action: The Opportunities of U.S.-China Cooperation” on how the U.S. and China can act together to tackle climate change and help build a green and fair global economy.  Justice is Global, the Quincy Institute, the 1990 Institute, and climate, peace, and racial justice organizations co-sponsor this event on the need for deeper U.S.-China climate cooperation.  Register for the event at https://bit.ly/3t9U9PM

3.  Asian Faculty Association at Yale (AFAY)

According to Yale News, Asian and Asian American faculty gathered at the Yale School of Medicine’s Brady Auditorium to announce AFAY’s inaugural board.  The organization aims to build support both within and beyond its membership, and its mission statement includes advocacy for both members and for Yale’s Asian students, especially when facing challenges related to their cultural backgrounds or ethnicities.  Currently, 194 faculty members have registered to join AFAY, of which 12 are non-Asian.  Professor  Haifan Lin 林海帆 served as AFAY election moderator.  Professor Qin Yan 严钦 and Professor Yongli Zhang serve as President and President-elect respectively.  Read the Yale News report: https://bit.ly/48pIZGQ

4. APAICS Tech Summit - Impact of Increased Competition Between the US and China

Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) will host the 2023 Tech Summit on September 27-28.  The event will bring together community and corporate leaders, subject matter experts, as well as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA & NH/PI) elected officials for bipartisan policy discussions that affect the AA & NH/PI community and the nation at-large.  Register for the summit here: https://www.apaics.org/tech-summit-2023