#188: 4/3 Meeting Summary; Robert Underwood; Paula Madison; Alien Land Bills; Students; More
In This Issue #188
2023/04/03 Monthly Meeting Summary Posted
Dr. Robert Underwood - President's Advisory Commission and More
Paula Williams Madison's Proposed National Network and Strike Forces
Latest on Discriminatory Alien Land Bills
How the U.S.-China Clash is Being Felt on Campus
News and Activities for the Communities
2023/04/03 Monthly Meeting Summary Posted
The April 3, 2023, APA Justice monthly meeting summary has been posted at https://bit.ly/3qogBU1. We thank the following speakers for their updates and discussions:
Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), provided updates on the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, federal alien land bill, OMB Directive MD-15, and U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing. Video of her report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIrq1hfl4A (video 6:32 to 11:34)
John Liu 刘醇逸, New York State Senator on the importance of Asian American studies, his efforts to include it in New York state education curriculum, and the case of New York Police Department Officer Baimadajie Angwang and its broader implications.
Kai Li 李凯, Vice President, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) substituted for Gisela Perez Kusakawa, AASF Executive Director on upcoming AASF activities in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month and its continuing efforts for due process and accountability from the federal government such as the National Institutes of Health and universities. AASF is collecting stories on those who are harassed or interrogated at the border of entry.
John Yang 杨重远, President and Executive Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC, on its congressional interactions, its efforts to ensure talking about US China relations with nuance, and caution about some policymakers trying to pull apart the AANHPI, African American, Hispanic American, and Native American communities.
Robert Underwood, Member, President's Advisory Commission on AANHPI; Former President, University of Guam; Former Chair, CAPAC; Co-Chair of the United States Institute of Peace China-Freely Associated States Senior Study Group, on his experience in Dr. Wen Ho Lee's 李文和 case, the purpose of the President’s Advisory Commission and upcoming activities, his experience with hiring of professors of Chinese origin as President of University of Guam, and what Guam is facing with the rhetoric of the China threat and military buildup. Dr. Underwood encourages the audience to communicate directly with him and the Advisory Commission. Watch Robert's report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIrq1hfl4A (video 11:48 to 25:21)
Paula Williams Madison 罗笑娜, Former Print and TV Journalist, Retired NBCUniversal Executive and GE Company Officer, Former Vice President of the Los Angeles Police Commission and Owner of The Africa Channel, on her experience as a Hakka, Jamaican, African, and Chinese American; the need for the AANHPI community to build a national alert network and strike teams; and her experience on community building the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Watch Paula's report and discussions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpOg_XkigGI (video 54:50)
Dr. Robert Underwood - President's Advisory Commission and More
On April 3, 2023, Dr. Robert Underwood joined the APA Justice monthly meeting from Guam at 4 am Chamorro Standard Time. It is the only time zone named after a people - Chamorro is the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands including Guam in the Pacific Ocean. Naming of the time zone was the work of then-Congressman Underwood about 25 years ago. Robert served as Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) from 1997 to 2001, which intersected with the wrongful prosecution of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a nuclear scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Dr. Lee, born in Taiwan and a naturalized US citizen, was wrongfully accused of spying for the People's Republic of China. CAPAC held briefings in Congress specifically on racial profiling at the DOE labs. Judge James Parker apologized for the government's treatment of Dr. Lee. New York Times expressed second thoughts about its reporting of the Wen Ho Lee case beginning in March 1999. Dr. Lee was later compensated with a $1.6 million settlement from the U.S. federal government and five news organizations for privacy violations.According to a report by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) 22 years ago on May 11, 2001, Robert began his talk at LLNL by saying "[w]e need to look at the effects of the Wen Ho Lee case and racial profiling by the FBI on the whole Asian Pacific American community. While no one condones espionage, it’s time to look at the effects of these kinds of investigations.""It is amazing that racial profiling and all its problems can exist among the best — highly educated, highly literate people, who really understand American history," Robert said at LLNL. "Now we have the perception that Asian Americans are somehow a threat to national security. It is so important to tell the story of how Asian Americans in fact have made a proportionally large contribution to national security through technology and their work at the national labs."
In the April 2023 meeting, Robert recalled learning from LLNL that about 30% of its physicists were of Asian background. Instead of giving the Asian American scientists a double look, he suggested that we should thank them for disproportionately protecting the United States and the nuclear stockpile.According to Robert, we are experiencing many of these issues right now. You can see it in the conversation about TikTok. There may be good reasons to deal with that, but it is the nature of the conversation. It is the emotional content that is driven by people looking again at each other and giving people double checks. The intelligence agencies are looking at people again over and over and over, giving them double, triple checks. That is xenophobia.As a commissioner on the President’s Advisory Commission on AANHPI (Commission), Robert explains that the purpose of the Commission is equity, justice, and dealing with anti-Asian xenophobia. The Commission has several committees on topics ranging from Data Equity and Disaggregation, Health Equity, Economic Equity, to Asian Hate and Inclusion. The Commission is the vehicle through which all of us can participate.However, racial profiling is currently not on the Commission's radar screen. Robert urges all of us to pay attention, get involved, and make our input known to the Commission at aanhpicommission@hhs.gov. APA Justice submitted its comments titled "Pursuing a More Perfect Union and an Equitable Society" to the Commission on March 10, 2023.
The Commission is planning to hold two public sessions in Hawaii and Washington DC in July and September respectively. A report including findings and recommendations is due for the President before the Commission expires later this year. A new Presidential Executive Order will be needed to renew the Commission. Unlike other commissions for African and Hispanic Americans that have permanent staffs, the current Commission on AANHPI rotates temporary staff every three months. This is an inequity that should be addressed with the next Commission.In Guam, Robert has seen the possibility of an 8-billion-dollar investment in anti-missile defense systems, 19 missile batteries, which were not even thought of 2 or 3 years ago. It is advertised as deterrence to generate public support.In reality, in order to generate public support for the massive investment in military spending and in rearranging the so-called defense architecture in the Pacific Ocean, you have to generate a kind of fear of China and a concern about China.This has manifested itself in various ways of conversation in Guam. There are always subset issues that come up as a result because the exacerbated rhetoric has to be the basis for the justification.Once you get the military defense complex, you think about 8 billion dollars, that is a lot of money for a small area like Guam (2020 population 154,000 according to the Census Bureau). You are talking about an anti-missile defense system and a massive investment by companies that are going to provide these systems.So there are articles coming out. There is always conversation - the local military commanders talking about homeland security on a monthly basis. The public is told that there is a missile being tested in North Korea and don't panic.
But every time someone tells you every 2 or 3 weeks, don't panic, it has the effect of actually creating panic because: why are we in this heightened environment?All of those things in combination create a very unfavorable and disturbing set of circumstances, particularly for Asian scientists.Robert has seen that personally in his capacity as President of the University of Guam. Some of the faculty members and professors that Robert hired were from the People's Republic of China and some from Taiwan. He has seen that in the conversation. Robert was successful in hiring them and, parenthetically, they are great faculty members, some are doing patents, they are doing different things that are enhancing the capacity of the university in Guam. But the nature of the conversation for hiring them was disturbing because it reflects some of this xenophobia, which is being heightened at this time.Robert welcomes the audience to communicate with him on these issues. He can be reached at anacletus2010@gmail.com. Read the summary of his remarks at: https://bit.ly/3qogBU1. Watch a recording of his remarks at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIrq1hfl4A (video 11:48 to 25:21)
Paula Williams Madison's Proposed National Network and Strike Forces
Paula William Madison was a newspaper reporter, then editor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Dallas Times Herald. Later she joined ABC and became a TV news executive at WFAA TV8 in Dallas and moved to NBC to join KHOU-11 in Houston. In 1989, she returned to her hometown New York City and became an executive of NBCUniversal until her retirement.In early March, Paula raised in the Coalition for a Better Los Angeles weekly Zoom meeting that the AAPI community could use a media watchdog group. It would be tasked with submitting content to news media and disseminating to the general community information, news stories, editorials, op-eds and more regarding acts of discrimination, hatred, and other dangerous actions which target AAPI folks. Perhaps a conversation could be held with a number of national organizations that would form such a task force which would be useful and appropriate for the foreseeable future. Several organizations including UCA, CACA, Committee of 100, and Asian American Advancing Justice could form such an entity.Paula referred to this background at the April 3 meeting. She started by saying that the concept may not be revolutionary, but it has perhaps not been proposed the way she was going to propose.The idea was certainly prompted by Texas Senate Bill 147. Paula reached out to a number of friends and organizations and began to agitate. While this bill was introduced in Texas, the implications nationally and globally are huge. Paula hopes that there will be some consideration given to forming in a more formalized fashion a task force or a national monitoring group that goes across a variety of organizations. When there are issues to deal with, a strike force composed of well respected and well credential individuals from throughout our communities would be ready to speak clearly and effectively about the particular matter.
At this time, when something happens, we respond and we react.Paula proposes that we go on the offensive by employing strategies to reach editorial boards of major media with enough of a portfolio and credibility to meet and talk about how a particular issue is being framed by them or not being addressed, as well as to suggest speakers to the editorial boards. The public is now being frightened into considering anything that is from the East - anything that is Chinese or Chinese-like - to be scary and dangerous to the United States.In the past two years, look at how much attention has been paid to anti-Asian hate. We have never seen this kind of coverage. Many of the news organizations are willing to hear our perspectives.It is an approach tried and true by Paula. We should take into account the strategies that have been used effectively by the African American and Hispanic American communities. There is already a playbook that could be adopted with many similar strategies without being in our own silos. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Paula became very concerned about media reports. Paula and Gay Yuen, Chair of the Friends of the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, reached out to two congresswomen – Judy Chu and Barbara Lee – about the optics that young people were marching arm-in-arm, but comments were sought by the media from the older generation and siloed by race. One of the important messages is the “disrespect” towards the AAPI community. Incidents of slights for the AAPI community occur in ways that would never exist for the African or Hispanic communities.
Paula recognizes that Confucianism does not make waves. Do not be too loud. Try to get along. However, in our society, those values are not held high generally. Consequently, there is a stereotype about people of the AAPI community – they are model minorities who are quiet and do not make waves. They do not create concerns or issues. Paula implores our group to consider that those stereotypes, however incorrect they may be, are not serving us.This is a time in a variety of ways in this society when we are beginning to see some willingness to be more accepting. Maybe there has been discrimination. Maybe we are not being fair. So maybe that door is opening a little bit. But again, Paula opines, when we take a look at xenophobia, that door slams shut right away.Paula’s proposal is to come together and form a strike team - a task force that takes a look at not only media but also legislative actions that will push our communities into the realm of mysterious and fearful. A vibrant discussion followed. The proposal was warmly received. Paula's basic concept has been growing. In upcoming issues of this newsletter, we will further describe a roundtable that took place on April 17, how the concept was put into immediate action in addressing the alien land bills, and the developing vision and plans to further implement the concept.Read summary of Paula's talk: https://bit.ly/3qogBU1. Watch Paula's talk and discussions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpOg_XkigGI (video 54:50)
Latest on Discriminatory Alien Land Bills
1. APA Justice Updates Its Tracking of State Alien Land Bills and Laws
APA Justice updated its tracking map and table on June 3, 2023: https://bit.ly/43oJ0YI.According to AL.com and Alabama Political Reporter, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed House Bill 379, also known as the Property Protection Act, into law to prohibit the governments of China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from purchasing certain property in the state. The bill drew strong opposition from Chinese Americans living in Alabama after it passed the House. It initially banned Chinese citizens, including those living and working in Alabama, from buying property in the state. Opponents of the bill overflowed a committee room at a public hearing. They said the bill was a baseless attack on Chinese immigrants who work in Alabama in education, medical care, research and other fields, raise their families here, and contribute to their communities in multiple ways.The state Senate changed the bill and passed it on a vote of 26-7, with Republican support and opposition from most Democrats. The House concurred with the changes, sending the bill to the governor for signature.Although the Senate changed the House version of the bill that targeted individuals, concerns from the Chinese American community and others remain. Opponents of the bill said it would contribute to negative attitudes and hostility toward Chinese Americans and other Asian immigrants. They said the sentiment of the original bill, targeting Chinese citizens and failing to distinguish them from the Chinese government, had caused lasting damage.
Yeqing Bao, a professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and Management in the College of Business at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, contacted lawmakers and urged them to vote against the bill. Bao was also at the public hearing where the Senate committee changed the bill. “While I support Governor Ivey and our legislators’ goal of safeguarding our country’s national security and economy, the Bill itself is misaligned with that goal,” Bao commented on Ivey signing the bill. Linyuan Guo-Brennan, Secretary of the Central Alabama Association of Chinese, stated the law was racist and discriminatory to all countries targeted by the law. “The passage of the bill demonstrates that Alabama has not come afar from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act,” Linyuan said. “History has shown us that any law specifically targeting countries and their people is unconstitutional and [discriminatory]. This law is no different, no matter what is the motivation behind it.”The Alabama state law will restrict specific entities or “foreign principals” from certain countries from obtaining agricultural property as well as property on or near a military installation or certain infrastructure facility. The foreign countries include China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Read the AL.com report: https://bit.ly/3C6ZUzc. Read the Alabama Political Reporter report: https://bit.ly/3oGIw1b
2. The Hill: Chinese Americans fight back against bans on buying property
According to the Hill on June 2, 2023, Asian Americans are fighting back against what they see as discriminatory efforts to ban Chinese citizens from buying property in certain states. “These are Chinese Americans who have come here to build a better life,” said Nabila Mansoor, executive director of Texas progressive group Rise AAPI, which has helped to organize against the Texas bill. “And what you’re telling them is that’s not good enough; we welcome you here with open arms, but we’re not going to give you the same rights and privileges that everyone else has.”The Alabama House passed a similar bill in May, which was scaled back to focus on hostile governments before passing the Senate. Many other states have passed or considered narrower bills that only focus on agricultural land or banning purchases by entities affiliated with the Chinese government. But the broader bills in states like Texas and Florida have drawn particularly fierce pushback. “Florida’s discriminatory property law is unfair, unjustified and unconstitutional,” said Ashley Gorski, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is helping to represent the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Florida state law, “Everyone in the United States is entitled to equal protection under our laws, including citizens of other countries.”“All Asian Americans will feel the stigma and the chilling effect created by this Florida law, just like the discriminatory laws did to our ancestors more than a hundred years ago,” said Clay Zhu of the Chinese American Legal Defense [Alliance], a party to the suit.
In response to the new Florida law, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chairwoman Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) and CAPAC Housing Task Force Chairman Al Green (D-Texas) introduced legislation in Congress to preempt state laws that restrict individuals from purchasing property based on country of citizenship.State Rep. Gene Wu (D), a Texas state legislator who opposed SB 147, said it can take years for people to get a green card, and even longer to become a U.S. citizen. “These are people who are lawful immigrants,” Wu said. “These are people who are here at the behest of the United States.” Wu added that Asian Americans not covered by the legislation could still be impacted if sellers aren’t sure whether they’re allowed to buy property.Haipei Shue, president of United Chinese Americans, said such bills unfairly equate Chinese immigrants with the Chinese government. “You say you hate CCP, but you love Chinese people, then you turn around and you make these laws, at least on the state levels, you’re targeting a whole class of Chinese Americans or Chinese nationals who have nothing to do with the Chinese government,” he said.Read the Hill report: https://bit.ly/43goUQm
3. Major Law Firm Joins Florida Lawsuit and Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction
During the June 5 APA Justice monthly meeting, Clay Zhu announced that Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has joined ACLU, DeHeng Law Offices PC, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund as co-counsel in the Florida lawsuit. Read the developments of Shen v. Simpson (4:23-cv-00208) at https://bit.ly/43idmvB.On June 6, 2023, a corrected emergency motion for preliminary injunction against implementing and enforcing the new Florida law, SB 264. Without the Court’s intervention, the law will go into effect on July 1, 2023. Read the corrected motion for preliminary injunction: https://bit.ly/43LTRvH
How the U.S.-China Clash is Being Felt on Campus
According to NBC News on June 2, 2023, there were only about 350 Americans studying in China in the most recent academic year. That compares with about 300,000 students from China at schools and universities in the United States.That imbalance could have long-lasting implications for relations between the two countries, which are already at their worst in decades, said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China. Young people from the U.S. and China “need to have a familiarity with each other,” he said in an interview at an embassy event in Beijing for students heading to the U.S. “American students need to speak Mandarin and learn to be comfortable here so whether they’re in the private sector or the public sector, they have an understanding of how this place works,” Senior U.S. officials have been publicly warning China that a lack of high-level communication risks dangerous incidents “spiraling out of control,” and while students won’t be the answer to any immediate clash, they could prove central to managing relations in the future. Increasing the number of American students in China is crucial for cultivating the U.S. government’s “next generation of China experts,” Burns said. “You want the two countries’ people to be talking to each other, and 20-year-olds probably do that best,” he said. “They achieve a degree of familiarity and expertise in a country that is lifelong.”It wasn’t always like this. A decade ago, there were almost 15,000 American students in China.
When the seriousness of Covid-19, which was first detected in China, became clear in early 2020, academic exchange programs were swiftly canceled and international students left the country in droves. But the number of Americans studying in China, like the number of Americans studying abroad generally, was declining even before the pandemic.The drop in numbers comes as U.S.-China relations have soured over a range of issues including trade, human rights and the status of Taiwan. The dearth of American students also contrasts with China’s growing popularity among students from Africa, Latin America and elsewhere in Asia, who are drawn by scholarships and world-class universities funded by China. “It just seems like China is knowing a lot more about the rest of the world, but the U.S. is not getting to know much more about what’s going on outside of the States,” said New York University Shanghai student Cindy Li, 21.Read the NBC News report: https://nbcnews.to/3qjI49j. Watch the NBC News report at https://bit.ly/3oRjkVy (video 5:40).
News and Activities for the Communities
1. Demystifying Presidential Appointments for Asian American Scholars
On June 8, 2023, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) will host a webinar in partnership with the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) to cover the process by which those in the scholar community can become Presidential appointees. The Presidential Personnel Office is responsible for aiding the President in recruiting, vetting, and nominating over 4,000 political appointments throughout the federal government. Read the announcement and register for the event: https://bit.ly/43HOGwE
2. Six Universities Join Elite Research Group AAU
According to the Washington Post on June 1, 2023, six universities, half public and half private, are joining an invitation-only club of top research institutions. The Association of American Universities (AAU) announced the expansion, bringing its membership to 71, the largest ever. Three public institutions known for providing access to large numbers of disadvantaged students are among the newcomers: Arizona State University, the University of California at Riverside and the University of South Florida. The other three are private universities: George Washington University, University of Miami and Notre Dame. Read the Washington Post report: https://wapo.st/45Ieivh
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June 8, 2023