#205 9/11 Meeting; No to Discriminatory Laws; March on Washington; "A Life Well Lived;" +

In This Issue #205

• 2023/09/11 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

• Tell Congress NO To Discriminatory Land Laws; Is China Really Buying Up U.S. Farmland?  NPR Interview

• UCA on March on Washington

• Vigil Honors "A Life Well Lived" at The University of North Carolina

• News and Activities for The Communities

2023/09/11 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, September 11, 2023, starting at 1:55 pm ET. In addition to updates by Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC); John Yang 杨重远, President and Executive Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC; and Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), confirmed and invited speakers include:

• Clay Zhu 朱可亮 (confirmed), Partner, DeHeng Law Offices 德恒律师事务所; Founder, Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance 华美维权同盟, to report on the latest developments of the lawsuit against Florida's discriminatory alien land law

• Deborah Seligsohn (confirmed), Senior Associate (non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies; Assistant Professor, Villanova University on the case for US-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) https://bit.ly/3OMc8En

• Steve Kivelson (confirmed), Prabhu Goel Family Professor of Physics Luke Blossom Professor, Stanford University, on the joint letter with Professor Peter Michelson to President Joe Biden and members of the National Security Council on renewing the STA https://bit.ly/44xTNPX 

• Sudip Parikh (invited), Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher Science Family of Journals at AAAS, on moving open science, basic research, and US-China collaboration forward in today's environment.

• Ting Wu (invited), Advisor, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, Office of the Chief of Staff, The White House, on the letter to the President and more

The virtual monthly meeting is by invitation only. 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

On August 24, 2023, Stanford University Professors Steven Kivelson and Peter Michelson sent a letter to President Joe Biden and the Members of the US National Security Council to  express their strong support for renewing the Agreement Between the United States and China on Cooperation in Science and Technology, which was signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping on January 31, 1979.  Their letter was endorsed by over 1,000 faculty and scholars from many US universities including multiple Nobel Laureates, members of the National Academies, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read the letter: https://bit.ly/44xTNPX.  Read the APA Justice coverage: https://bit.ly/3E9NmI8

Tell Congress NO To Discriminatory Land Laws; Is China Really Buying Up U.S. Farmland? NPR Interview

1.  Tell Congress NO To Discriminatory Land Laws 

On August 25, 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) put out a call for the public to tell Congress: Say NO to Discriminatory Land Laws."Dangerous laws are being introduced at the state and federal level right now that use 'national security' as an excuse to discriminate against immigrants from China. In Florida, for example, Governor DeSantis has banned many Chinese immigrants from buying a house in much of the state – a move that is both unconstitutional and unfortunately, not new."This type of 'alien land law' should sound alarm bells for all of us. From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, to the ongoing post-9/11 surveillance of Black and Brown communities – we’ve seen how such racist policies created under the guise of 'national security' are racist and used to scapegoat entire communities."We cannot allow history to repeat itself: Tell your Members of Congress to speak out against any law that falsely equates Chinese people with the Chinese government."Thanks to ACLU, take one easy step to tell Congress NO to discriminatory land laws at https://bit.ly/3qRsFOh

2. CNBC: Is China Really Buying Up U.S. Farmland?

According to NBC News on August 26, 2023, state and federal lawmakers are pushing to regulate foreign ownership of U.S. real estate because of fears that Chinese entities are creating a national security risk by amassing swaths of U.S. farmland, some of it near sensitive sites.A review by NBC News of thousands of documents filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), however, shows very few purchases by Chinese buyers in the past year and a half — fewer than 1,400 acres in a country with 1.3 billion acres of agricultural land. In fact, the total amount of U.S. agricultural land owned by Chinese interests is less than three-hundredths of 1%.But the review also reveals a federal oversight system in which reporting of foreign ownership is lax and enforcement minimal.NBC News was able to review filings on foreign purchases and leases of agricultural land, meaning both farm and forestry land, from 35 states since Jan. 1, 2022. The vast majority of the transactions were European wind power companies leasing land from U.S. farmers to build wind turbines. One Italian wind company disclosed 40 new leases of farmland in just one rural Illinois county. The same company had leases in at least four other states.In those 35 states, NBC News found 11 purchases by Chinese entities that had been reported to the USDA from Jan. 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.Several of the disclosures were not recent sales, and at least one was a repeat of a previous disclosure. Another was not reported to the government till it had been revealed in the media.Historically only about 3.1%, or 40 million acres, of the nation’s 1.3 billion acres of agricultural land has been owned by foreigners. Almost half of the foreign-owned land is forest. USDA records show that a third of the 40 million foreign-owned acres are held by Canadian interests, while Chinese interests hold less than 400,000 acres.In the name of national security, members of Congress have called for tougher laws to regulate foreign land purchases, criticizing existing efforts by the USDA to police disclosure.In late July, the Senate passed a ban on China, Russia, North Korea and Iran buying American agricultural land, but it’s unclear if the amendment will make it into the final defense spending bill that will go to a vote in Congress this fall.Read the NBC News report: https://cnb.cx/3sGWSAk

3.  NPR: Slew of new landownership bills are reminiscent of anti-Asian Alien Land Laws

On August 28, 2023, National Public Radio (NPR) talked with legal expert Edgar Chen, Special Policy Adviser for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), about the recent slew of legislation aimed at restricting U.S. land ownership for Chinese citizens and businesses.The following are excerpts of his responses:"Fear of so-called malign influence by the Chinese Communist Party over American agriculture or fear that China will use land for spying purposes has often been cited as the basis for introduction of these bills. But to be clear, several of these bills, as introduced, also placed restrictions on the ability of ordinary Chinese citizens to purchase residential real estate, like condos."In Florida, a law recently enacted there would prevent persons from certain countries that are deemed adversaries to the U.S. from purchasing agricultural land, land near military bases or critical infrastructure and - so most habitable areas. And that would ban persons from countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela or Cuba from doing so. But that Florida law has an entire separate section dedicated to restricting those from China. And that law even has higher penalties for those violating the Chinese section than for other sections. So there are felony provisions for violating the Chinese section of the Florida law and misdemeanors for the other sections."The Chinese spy balloon in February of this year doesn't help matters. That provided a tangible illustration of the ongoing geopolitical threat posed by China. But again, these laws that we've seen introduced do nothing to address that particular threat head on. I don't see how banning someone from buying a condo in the downtown area will address that particular threat."The problem is there is a false moral equivalency that equates ordinary Chinese citizens, even those with no ties to the Chinese Communist Party, as essentially being agents of those regimes. So these laws assume that if you immigrate from China, your loyalty is to China. And that's extraordinarily harmful to the broader Asian American community in this country."This country has already seen this movie before. We've experienced the discriminatory effects of these laws. The court that recently upheld the Florida law cited to a widely discredited 1923 precedent which contains language about those who are eligible for citizenship and therefore entitled to purchase property. And that 1923 Supreme Court precedent says that Natives of European countries are eligible. Japanese, Chinese and Malays are not. That is the type of case law that is being cited to. And as an Asian American and as a lawyer, I'm stunned that the court would continue to rely on a case that contains so much discriminatory reasoning.

"As legal precedent, those alien land laws helped set the groundwork for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. So for the Asian American community, we have seen this. This slippery slope has already come and, we thought, gone."Listen to the interview and read the entire transcript at: https://n.pr/45Sa4k6.  Follow APA Justice coverage of Alien Land Bills at: https://bit.ly/43epBcl 

UCA on March on Washington

According to a summary report on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington by United Chinese Americans (UCA), several hundred members and partners joined the March at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 26, including nine members of its Board of Directors. UCA made customized placards and banners such as "We Belong Here", "Against Asian Hate", "One Common Dream" and wore unified UCA T-Shirts. At the same time, as a symbol of anti-Asian hate, thousands of Yellow Whistles were distributed on the spot. The Yellow Whistles were described as "a symbol of self-preservation and solidarity in the fight against racism and anti-Asian violence," and feature a yellow color that "has been used as a symbol of hateful mentality against Asians."Haipei Shue 薛海培, UCA President, was invited to have a cordial and in-depth conversation with Martin Luther King III and his daughter-in-law, Arndrea Waters King, and discussed the development of the American civil rights movement and cooperation.Haipei Shue remarked afterwards: "Today, I participated in the historic 60th anniversary March on Washington.  I met with the King family and had a good talk. I expressed my gratitude from the Chinese community, telling them that without the March on Washington in 1963 and the vigorous civil rights movement in the 1960s, there would be no immigration law reform in 1965, and thus many Chinese would not be able to settle down in the United States today. I further told his family about the current difficult situation faced by the Chinese community such as the 'China Initiative' and the discriminatory alien land bills, as well as UCA outreach to various ethnic groups, including NAACP and the Jewish community.  The King family is very interested in connecting with UCA to continue bilateral communications. The Chinese community was often absent in the past social and political movements in the United States. Today, more than 100 people from over ten states participated in this March with high visibility.  It is a significant milestone worthy of everyone's pride!  UCA calls for the launch of a new civil rights movement of our generation! Thanks again for the participation and concern of friends from far and near!"Steven Pei 白先慎, Founding Chair of UCA, said, "Chinese Americans have a long history of civil rights movement, such as the Yik Wo v. Hopkins case in 1886." From participating in the previous March on Washington and building intercultural partnerships, advocating for the creation of racial studies, to participating in the Black Lives Matter protests, the Asian American community does not stop for civil rights for all. Early in the 2020 pandemic, UCA hosted a summit of Asian, Black and Jewish community leaders to discuss the challenges each community faces and ways to work together to address injustice.

Chen Jian 陈健, Founding Director of UCA came to the Lincoln Memorial early in the morning to provide logistical support.  She said that "we Chinese Americans are facing various challenges at present. But we firmly believe that, as Martin Luther King Jr. conveyed, the dream of equality and justice must be inherited by each of us. This mission transcends skin color, transcends background, and is integrated into the veins of our great country. Let us work together to overcome difficulties and write a better and more inclusive future."Read the UCA report: https://bit.ly/47WGV9d.  Read APA Justice's coverage of the 2023 March on Washington: https://bit.ly/3OVojxs

Vigil Honors "A Life Well Lived" at The University of North Carolina

According to the University of North Carolina (UNC) on August 31, 2023, thousands wore ribbons and lit candles at the Dean E. Smith Center service in memory of Zijie Yan 严资杰, a brilliant, soft-spoken faculty member and nanoscience researcher killed in a campus shooting.The vigil at the Smith Center allowed the Carolina community to come together to process the fear and uncertainty caused by the shooting and resolve to be “Carolina Strong” in the wake of the tragedy.“His loss will be deeply felt by all those who knew him and loved him,” Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz said to the mourners, who included Yan’s mother and two young children. “Dr. Yan left this world a better place for his brilliance, his commitment and the lives that he affected. That’s a life well lived and a life ended far, far too soon.”An estimated 5,000 faculty, staff, students and community members attended the vigil, and another 10,000 watched the livestream from the Smith Center. Many wore blue ribbons and held candles that were handed out at the Smith Center entrance. Music professors played somber selections on cello and violin as mourners filled the seats.Leah Cox, vice provost of equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, reminded audience members of the mental health resources available for faculty, staff and students. “Let us never forget that we are truly one Carolina where hope always triumphs over fear, where inclusivity arises above difference,” she said.According to the South China Morning Post on August 30, 2023, a doctoral candidate Tailei Qi 齐太磊, 34, was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm on educational property.  He was ordered held without bail until his next scheduled court appearance on September 18.Read the UNC report: https://unc.live/45BgVP4.  Read the South China Morning Post report: https://bit.ly/3PnoLGaUnited Chinese Americans (UCA) issued the following report in Chinese:

8月30日星期三晚，大约五千名北卡罗来纳大学（UNC）教堂山分校校园和社区成员，聚集在史密斯中心（Dean E. Smith Center）举行烛光守夜活动，纪念两天前在校园不幸遇害的严资杰教授。校长古斯基维奇（Kevin M. Guskiewicz）在讲话中表示，“所有认识他和爱他的人，都会对他的去世深感悲痛，严以他的才华、他的承诺以及他所带来的影响，让这个世界变得更美好，这样一个美丽的生命如此戛然而止，令人痛心。”音乐系教授演奏了大提琴和小提琴的忧郁音乐，陪伴在场的人们凭吊和追思。据报道，身为纳米科学研究人员，严是一位才华横溢、为人谦和的教授，有两个年幼的孩子。2005年在华中科大以计算机和材料工程本科双学位毕业后，严先后在纽约和芝加哥攻读硕士、博士和做博士后研究，2019年起在UNC担任副教授。他生前所在的艺术与科学学院、应用物理科学系系主任丁格曼斯（Theo Dingemans）回忆说，严是他见过的最友善的人之一，也是一位杰出的科学家，“他的研究计划突破了纳米科学的界限……我确信，这些研究最终将改变世界。”枪击案凶嫌齐太磊是严教授手下的博士在读学生，被控一级谋杀罪和在教育场所持有武器，不得保释，这两项罪名都是重罪，但目前对于动机尚没有确切的信息。根据2010年中国媒体的报道，他是河南省高考状元之一，家境拮据，父母务农，他在武汉大学读物理学，在进入UNC之前与路易斯安那州立大学获得材料科学与工程硕士学位。凶杀案引起华人社区的热议，有一些猜测是在背后存在长期的心理问题，呼吁学生注重精神健康并善用相关资源。

News and Activities for The Communities

Mark Your Calendar - National API Elected Officials Summit

API Coalition and Civic Leadership USA (CLUSA) will convene the Inaugural National API Elected Officials Summit on November 18-19, 2023, immediately following The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting.  This summit aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences, ideas, and the establishment of enduring relationships geared towards mutual support.  The event will be held at The Westin St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94102.  Hundreds of current Asian Pacific Islander (API) elected officials, representatives from APEC member countries and regions, and the world's top business AANHPI elected officials will participate in the event.  Contact Andy Li, President of API Coalition and CLUSA, at andy.j.li@gmail.com or (860)-263-9540 for additional details. APA Justice has also posted the event at its newly created Community Calendar: https://bit.ly/45KGyga