#270 08/05 Monthly Meeting; Franklin Tao; NCAPA Policy Platform; "Stop Woke Act" Stopped+

In This Issue #270

·       2024/08/05 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·       2024/07/23 Capitol Hill Press Conference on Professor Franklin Tao

·       NCAPA 2024 Policy Platform

·       Part of Florida’s "Stop WOKE Act" Permanently Blocked

·       News and Activities for the Communities

2024/08/05 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, August 5, 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:

·       Anne S. Chao, Co-founder, Friends of the National Asian Pacific American Museum; Program Manager, Houston Asian American Archive, Rice University

·       Franklin Tao, former Professor of Kansas University, Victim of China Initiative; Hong Peng, Wife of Professor Tao

·       Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, Committee A Co-Chair, Kansas Conference of the American Association of University Professors

Sonal Shah, Chief Commissioner, President's Advisory Commission on AANHPI, will join us in a future meeting.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.

*****Anne S. Chao is a modern Chinese historian, and currently an Adjunct Lecturer in the Humanities at Rice University, and co-founder and manager of the Houston Asian American Archive at Rice University. She is a co-founder of the FRIENDS of the National Asian Pacific American Museum, whose goal is to establish a national AAPI museum on the nation's Mall in Washington DC. Anne serves on the boards of the Houston Ballet, Wellesley Colleges, the National Archives Foundation, the Dunhuang Foundation among others.  Ann will update us on her activities.Professor Franklin Tao was the first academic scientist indicted under the China Initiative.  It took him almost 5 years to clear all 10 charges against him, the last of which was overturned by the 10th Circuit Appeals Court on July 11, 2024.  None of the charges were related to espionage or the transfer of sensitive information to China.  Franklin and his wife Hong will share their thoughts and remarks about their experience and plans.  The Kansas Conference of the AAUP is a collection of individual chapters from a variety of institutions of higher education from around the state of Kansas. All of the officers are volunteers with many being trained at the national level in University Governance. The Conference regularly handles issues regarding denial of due process, governance, tenure adjudication and dismissal.  With more than 400 AAUP members state-wide, the Conference is the only state-wide body representing all faculty members.  Dr. Ron Barrett-Gonzalez will describe the work of KCAAUP.

2024/07/23 Capitol Hill Press Conference on Professor Franklin Tao

On July 23, 2024, a press conference was held on Capitol Hill following Professor Tao’s recent victory in a federal court appeal.  "Unfortunately, I was one of the earliest scientists arrested under the China Initiative.  More than 4 years, I was indicted for 10 felony counts.  Thanks to my lawyers, we fought the charges.  Now, we have finally won.  But this victory is bittersweet.  I have lost almost everything.  My academic career … has been destroyed," Professor Tao said at the press conference.  “It has been 1,786 days. Each of those days was lived with fear and desperation,” he said of the period from his arrest to a US appeal court tossing out his conviction on July 11.The 52-year-old chemical engineer said his immediate hope was to return to the University of Kansas, where he was a tenured associate professor before the school fired him after he was convicted of four counts in 2022.Tao’s lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, said he represented dozens of individuals like Tao who “were caught up and charged in multiple felonies for civil paperwork errors in their grant applications”.  “They’re not stealing money. They’re not diverting money. They’re not sharing secrets with anyone who isn’t allowed,” he said.Rep. Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, also spoke at the press conference, "we are at a critical moment for our nation and our community.  It is because Chinese Americans, and more broadly Asian Americans, have had target on their back, scapegoated for public health crises, economic downturn, and now national security concerns.  So we recognize the full realization of justice with Dr. Tao today, but we must remain vigilant.  No American should have to live in fear that their entire life may be turned upside down due to wrongful accusations, unwarranted racial profiling, or ugly xenophobia.  There is no room for this prejudice in our government or our country."

In recent months, lawmakers and advocacy groups have pushed back against efforts to bring back the China Initiative, including one in a House Republican funding bill that was ultimately removed.  Rep. Judy Chu said that she and her team were “constantly on [their] watch” for such efforts.“With few convictions and multiple dismissals, the China Initiative has tragically damaged the lives and careers of too many innocent Americans and has actually hurt the nation’s ability to lead in global scientific research and innovation,” said the Committee of 100, a non-partisan organization of prominent Chinese Americans.Watch the report by Sinovision: https://bit.ly/46p8is4 (video 5:16).  Read the South China Post report: https://bit.ly/3zTJk7U

NCAPA 2024 Policy Platform 

The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) has published its 2024 Policy Platform.  The 127-page report covers eight policy priorities:

·       AA and NHPI Visibility

·       Civil Rights

·       Education

·       Empowering AA and NHPI Workers

·       Health

·       Housing and Economic Justice

·       Immigration

·       Tech and Telecom

Recommendations under Civil Rights include

·       Require law enforcement agencies to conduct cultural competency and anti-profiling training, improve government monitoring of their activities with respect to race and other protected classes, and create effective complaint resolution processes.

·       Prevent the return of the Department of Justice’s defunct “China Initiative” and any future iterations of such programs and policies

·       Engage directly with impacted members of the Asian American scholar community, and ensure that due processes are in place both within federal agencies and academic institutions to protect the rights of Asian Americans – particularly those of Chinese descent – who have been subjected to heightened scrutiny as US-China tensions worsen.

·       Oppose discriminatory land laws introduced at the state and federal levels, with a specific focus on bills that target individuals based on their national origin, race, ethnicity, or color. (also under Housing and Economic Justice) 

·       Ensure that surveillance authorities are not overbroad, overused, and abused to the detriment to vulnerable communities of color. This includes opposing the reauthorization of Sec. 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without comprehensive reforms, and preventing any future surveillance authorities that lack appropriate checks and balances against prejudice and bias against a person based on their race, ethnicity, national origin or religious background.

Recommendations under AA and NHPI Visibility include

·       Invest in and make public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across government and private sector hiring. Oppose efforts to dismantle existing programs designed to encourage diverse workforces

The 2024 Policy Platform is available at https://bit.ly/3yiCM2k.  The NCAPA platform website is located at https://ncapaplatform.org/

Part of Florida’s "Stop WOKE Act" Permanently Blocked

According to multiple media reports, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a final order to overturn a Florida law known as “Stop WOKE Act” that was pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers in 2022 as part of the war on “woke ideology.”  It attempted to limit diversity and race-based discussions in private workplaces.In August 2022, Judge Walker issued an injunction that blocked Florida from enforcing parts of the law prohibiting mandatory workplace activities and trainings that suggest a person is privileged or oppressed based on their race, color, sex or national origin.  Judge Walker said in a 44-page ruling that the "Stop WOKE Act" violates the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague. He said the law, as applied to diversity, inclusion and bias training in businesses, turns the First Amendment "upside down" because the state is barring speech by prohibiting discussion of certain concepts in training programs. He also refused to issue a stay that would keep the law in effect during any appeal by the state.Judge Walker's decision was upheld by an appeals court in March 2024.  His latest order makes his temporary injunction permanent.The challenge to the law was brought in June 2022 by several Florida businesses, represented by Protect Democracy, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, anti-authoritarianism group.”  Shalini Goel Agarwal, counsel for Protect Democracy, said in a post on X, “(This is) a powerful reminder that the First Amendment cannot be warped to serve the interests of elected officials.  Censoring business owners from speaking in favor of ideas that politicians don’t like is a move ripped straight from the authoritarian playbook.”Judge Walker also has separately issued a preliminary injunction against part of the law that would restrict the way race-related concepts can be taught in universities. A panel of the appeals court held a hearing in that case in June.

2024/07/29 CNN: Judge permanently blocks part of Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’2024/07/27 Fox News: Judge permanently blocks part of Florida's 'Stop WOKE Act' as unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds2024/07/27 Tallahassee Democrat: Federal judge permanently blocks part of Florida's Stop WOKE Act, pushed by Gov. DeSantis2024/07/27 CBS News: Federal judge takes final step to overturn Florida's 'Stop WOKE Act'

News and Activities for the Communities

1.  APA Justice Community Calendar

Upcoming Events:2024/08/04 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/08/05 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2024/08/19 DNC Convention, AAPI Briefing & Reception, Chicago, IL2024/09/01 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/09/09 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2024/09/19-20 AANHPI Unity SummitThe Community Calendar has moved.  Visit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details.

2. TMAC 2024 Community Contribution Award Ceremony

On July 26, 2024, the Texas Multicultural Advocacy Coalition (TMAC) hosted the 2024 Community Contribution Award Ceremony.  The event was held at the STV Global Theatre of the Southern News Group in Houston, Texas.  Wea Lee, Treasurer of TMAC and Chairman of Southern News Group, opened the ceremony.  Congressman Al Green presented a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition to The Committee of 100 and its Interim President Cindy Tsai in honor of their service to the community. 

3. APIAVote: Recap of Presidential Town Hall

On July 13, 2024, APIAVote held a Presidential Town Hall in Philadelphia, featuring speakers including Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congressman Ted Lieu, Congresswoman Jill Tokuda, Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, Philadelphia Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmed, anchor & reporter for NBC10 Frances Wang, actress and activist Tamlyn Tomita, and others. Watch video of the event: https://bit.ly/3WGMIfv (2:35:15).  A photo album of the event is available at: https://bit.ly/3SravNU.