Newsletter - #344 [APA Justice] 8/4 Meeting; Ohio's Bills; China Initiative Harms Science, Security, and Dr. GK Chang+ #344 [APA Justice] 8/4 Meeting; Ohio's Bills; China Initiative Harms Science, Security, and Dr. GK Chang+ In This Issue #344 · 2025/08/04 APA Justice Monthly Meeting · Ohio's Pending Alien Land Bills · Revival of China Initiative Harms US Science and Security · Dr. Gee-Kung Chang: "From Injustice to Integrity: A Journey Through Fire" · Third District Court Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Restrictions · News and Activities for the Communities 2025/08/04 APA Justice Monthly Meeting The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held on Monday, August 4, 2025, starting at 1:55 pm ET.In addition to updates from: · Judith Teruya , Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) · Joanna YangQing Derman , Program Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC · Gisela Perez Kusakawa , Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) We are honored by and welcome the following distinguished speakers: · Al Green, Member, U.S. Congress (invited) · Munira Abdullahi , Member, Ohio House of Representatives · Guangya Liu , Member, North Carolina House of Representatives · Min Fan , Executive Director, US Heartland China Association 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 . *****Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) hosted Asian American Pioneer Medal Symposium and Ceremony at Stanford University on July 25-27, 2025. Picture provided by Vincent Wang , Co-Organizer of APA Justice. Ohio's Pending Alien Land Bills Ohio State Representative Munira Abdullahi is a confirmed invited speaker at the APA Justice monthly meeting on August 4, 2025. We have requested her to update us on House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 88 in Ohio, as well as several bills targeting immigrant communities and people of color this year as well.House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 88 seeks to restrict land ownership by foreign governments and nationals from “adversary” nations—particularly China—within 25 miles of military and critical infrastructure sites, citing national security concerns. Opponents argue the bill is overly broad, potentially banning ownership across nearly the entire state, and unjustly targeting ordinary immigrants and visa holders. Critics—including lawmakers, legal advocates, and hundreds of Ohio residents—warn the bill promotes racial profiling, echoes historical discrimination, and violates constitutional rights. A key forced-sale provision was removed, but the bill still faces widespread opposition and potential legal challenges. Read the Ohio Capital Journal report: https://bit.ly/4mh5m7J We thank Ohio State Representative Juanita Brent for bringing these pending bills to our attention during the APA Justice monthly meeting on June 2, 2025. Rep. Brent, the daughter of an immigrant, provided a comprehensive overview of six pending legislative bills in Ohio that raise serious concerns about discrimination against immigrants—particularly those from countries such as China and Korea. These bills reflect a broader national trend and illustrate the state's overreach into matters that should fall under federal jurisdiction. · House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 88 have drawn significant attention. They would prohibit individuals from countries the U.S. designates as adversaries from owning homes or businesses, especially near critical infrastructure. Similar legislation has been introduced in 31 other states. · Senate Bill 281 would require hospitals to allow federal immigration enforcement officers entry. Hospitals that fail to comply could lose grant funding and have their Medicaid provider agreements affected. · Senate Bill 282 proposes that courts consider a person’s immigration status when determining sentencing and bail. · House Bill 200 would create criminal penalties for unlawful presence, including fines and a 72-hour window for voluntary departure. It is currently facing opposition in the Public Safety Committee. · House Bill 42 mandates that certain agencies collect and report data on individuals’ citizenship or immigration status. It has received one hearing in the Government Oversight Committee. · House Bill 26 would require law enforcement to share information about arrestees with federal immigration authorities. It would also prohibit Ohio municipalities from providing benefits to undocumented immigrants. Municipalities that fail to comply could risk losing their Local Government Fund allocations. State Rep. Brent emphasized that these bills effectively legalize discrimination and hate—an alarming development. As a country, we have witnessed the consequences of such discrimination in the past. These proposed laws open the door to legalized bias based solely on a person’s country of origin or immigration status.State Rep. Brent stressed that immigration is a federal issue and not the responsibility of individual states. By pursuing these bills, Ohio is overstepping its authority. None of these proposals address legitimate state-level concerns, and many are likely unconstitutional. Nonetheless, they must be challenged at the state level. Revival of China Initiative Harms US Science and Security According to the South China Morning Post , the US House of Representatives is poised to advance a key spending bill that could revive the controversial “China Initiative” – a program that unfairly targeted Chinese American researchers, derailed careers and devastated lives long after it was ended in 2022. The Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill does not name the program directly, but language in the accompanying report calls for its re-establishment to “maintain America’s competitive edge” and “counter China’s malign ambitions to steal American research”.A scheduled committee meeting to debate the bill was cancelled on July 23, but experts said the provision was likely to remain as the legislation moved towards the Senate.“As a victim of the past China Initiative, I am disheartened by ongoing efforts in Congress to reinstate the misguided programme,” said Gang Chen 陈刚 , a mechanical engineer at MIT who was arrested in 2021 before all charges were dropped.“It is not only discriminatory, but also harms America’s ability to attract top global talent – ultimately weakening, not strengthening, our national security,” he said in a statement released by the Asian American Scholar Forum, a US-based non-profit organization that advocates for academic belonging and equity in Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.Professor Chen is among more than 1,000 US researchers and university staff led by Stanford physicists Steven Kivelson and Peter Michelson in signing a letter that urged lawmakers to remove the provision. The letter, dated July 22, warned that reviving the initiative would deter talent, damage innovation and inadvertently advance China’s own recruitment efforts.Read the South China Morning Post report: https://bit.ly/4omPcvo Over 50 civil society organizations inclduing Defending Rights & Dissent have also sent a joint letter urging the full Appropriations committee to strike the provision. Dr. Gee-Kung Chang: "From Injustice to Integrity: A Journey Through Fire" Robert Fisher , Partner at Nixon Peabody, was the attorney who successfully defended MIT Professor Gang Chen 陈刚 . He spoke at the APA Justice monthly meeting on May 5, 2025, and introduced Professor Gee-Kung (GK) Chang 張繼昆 , whom Robert also represented with colleague Brian Kelly .Rob said this is a critical time for the country and for the Asian American community. Although the China Initiative was officially ended, similar prosecutions are still occurring—particularly targeting professors, scientists, and professionals with ties to China.Rob explained that GK was accused of wire fraud based on allegations that he and a colleague from ZTE conspired to misuse J-1 visa students, supposedly having them work at ZTE while being paid by Georgia Tech.However, the defense pointed out that, even according to the government’s own account, the students were working at Georgia Tech. The indictment was fundamentally flawed—it failed to allege that the financial component was the actual object of the fraud. As a result, the court dismissed most of the charges, leaving only one remaining.That final charge—visa fraud—was also challenged. GK had no role in the visa application process, and Georgia Tech had never provided training on compliance or rules regarding foreign collaboration. Without knowledge or training, there could not have been intent to defraud. Eventually, the government dropped the last remaining charge. GK was fully exonerated after a four-year ordeal under the China Initiative.GK's case highlights a broader issue: many professors were once encouraged to collaborate with China, only to later face prosecution as political attitudes shifted. These retroactive investigations have damaged careers and chilled academic collaboration, especially within the Asian American community.Professor GK Chang shared his personal account of a harrowing legal ordeal during the May 2025 APA Justice monthly meeting. Quoting his written statement titled " From Injustice to Integrity: A Journey Through Fire ," GK told his story that "I stand before you today, not as a victim of injustice, but as a witness to the power of integrity, forged in the fiercest fires of adversity. My journey was never just about reclaiming my freedom — it was about turning pain into a higher purpose, one that lights the way for those still suffering injustice."GK was born in China in 1947, moved to Taiwan as a baby during the Chinese Civil War, and came to the U.S. in 1970 for graduate studies in physics. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside in 1976 and became a U.S. citizen in 1981.With 23 years of experience in industry—including leadership roles at Bell Labs, Bellcore, Telcordia, and OpNext—GK became a pioneer in optoelectronic integration and fiber-optic communications, holding over 50 patents. He received multiple awards, including the R&D 100 Award and the Bellcore President’s Award.In 2002, he joined Georgia Tech as an Eminent Scholar Chair Professor. There, he led major NSF-sponsored research on fiber-wireless networks that laid the foundation for 5G and 6G technologies. He advised 30 Ph.D. students, published over 500 papers, and earned Fellow honors from IEEE and the Optical Society of America. He was recognized as a distinguished alumnus of National Tsing Hua University and received Georgia Tech’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award.On March 24, 2021, GK’s life was changed forever when nine federal agents arrested him at home without warning, accusing him of conspiracy and wire fraud under the now-defunct “China Initiative.” Despite his clean record and decades of academic and industry contributions, he was publicly indicted without prior notice. Though released on a low bail, the arrest devastated his personal and professional life. The media portrayed him as guilty, his reputation collapsed, and colleagues and friends distanced themselves, leaving him isolated and emotionally shattered.Despite being wrongfully indicted, GK stood firm, relying on his values, family, and a few loyal allies. Through careful review of over a million pages of documents with his legal team of Rob Fisher and Brian Kelly, he uncovered major flaws in the case against him: factual inaccuracies, missing evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. The charges lacked legal grounding and were based partly on the testimony of a disgruntled former student. The government misunderstood academic norms and pursued the case without proof of intent, fraud, or personal gain—revealing a deeply flawed and unjust prosecution.Faced with multiple plea offers, including one to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor, GK refused to admit guilt for a crime he did not commit. He chose to fight on despite financial strain. A pivotal moment came in August 2023, when a prosecutor admitted in court that GK had not gained any money from the alleged offenses—contradicting the indictment’s claims. This crucial fact had been withheld from the grand jury, exposing serious prosecutorial misconduct and strengthening his case for vindication.The case shifted dramatically after the court dismissed 9 of the 10 charges on March 1, 2024. Empowered by this decision, GK demanded a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment, confident of full vindication. However, the emotional strain took a serious toll: he suffered a heart attack in May 2024 and underwent emergency surgery. As he recovered, his focus turned not just to clearing his name, but reclaiming his dignity. The ordeal was nearing its end, but had already come at a profound personal cost.The final charge was dismissed on April 14, 2025, through a motion filed by the prosecutor and approved by the judge, fully exonerating GK without a trial. Yet, the long-awaited freedom brought no joy. After four years of legal battles, he was left emotionally scarred, physically worn, and financially depleted. Professionally, the damage was irreversible—four crucial years of innovation and contribution at the peak of his career were lost forever. Despite the pain, the ordeal brought GK clarity and a renewed sense of purpose. He emerged not only as a survivor but as a seeker of truth, justice, and understanding. His faith in the justice system was shaken, as he came to see its vulnerability to error, bias, and ambition. He now believes that justice does not automatically protect the innocent and must be actively pursued with courage and conviction. Upholding what is right requires strength, even in the face of overwhelming adversity—because justice is never guaranteed, only earned. Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , GK concluded his statement by stating: "I share my testimony, 'A Journey Through Fire,' not for sympathy, but as a warning—and as a beacon."To those suffering similar injustice:"You are not alone."And by standing together,"we can help ensure that no one else must endure this tribulation again." Read the story of Professor GK Chang: https://bit.ly/GeeKungChang . Read his statement " From Injustice to Integrity: A Journey Through Fire ." Watch the video of Robert Fisher and GK Chang at the APA Justice monthly meeting on May 5, 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbh1EkabX6I (19:00). Third District Court Blocks Trump's Birthright Citizenship Restrictions According to AP , Newsweek , The Hill , and multiple media reports, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented or temporary immigrants. This marks the third court ruling to do so, despite a recent Supreme Court decision limiting nationwide injunctions.Judge Sorokin found the executive order unconstitutional in a 23-page ruling . He said a patchwork approach to the birthright order would not protect the states in part because a substantial number of people move between states. He also blasted the Trump administration, saying it had failed to explain how a narrower injunction would work. “That is, they have never addressed what renders a proposal feasible or workable, how the defendant agencies might implement it without imposing material administrative or financial burdens on the plaintiffs, or how it squares with other relevant federal statutes,” the judge wrote. “In fact, they have characterized such questions as irrelevant to the task the Court is now undertaking. The defendants’ position in this regard defies both law and logic.”Sorokin acknowledged his order would not be the last word on birthright citizenship. Trump and his administration “are entitled to pursue their interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and no doubt the Supreme Court will ultimately settle the question,” Sorokin wrote. “But in the meantime, for purposes of this lawsuit at this juncture, the Executive Order is unconstitutional.” For now, Trump's order remains blocked.Judge Sorokin's ruling aligned with the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals covering the western states inclduing California. The issue will likely be decided by the Supreme Court. News and Activities for the Communities 1. APA Justice Community Calendar Upcoming Events: 2025/07/28 (Digital) Travel Safety and Security Training2025/07/29 C100 Conversations – “Recollections, Pioneers and Heroes” with Linda Chao Yang2025/07/29 From Heartland to Mainland: 2025 Future Ag Leaders Delegation2025/07/29 Bridging Generations of U.S.-China Education Exchange: American Scholars to China2025/07/31 (Digital) Travel Safety and Security Training2025/07/31-08/10 Asian American International Film Festival2025/08/02-07 2025 Joint Statistical Meetings2025/08/04 APA Justice Monthly MeetingVisit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details. # # # APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem that addresses racial profiling concerns and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American community. For more information, please refer to the new APA Justice website under development at www.apajusticetaskforce.org . We value your feedback. Please send your comments to contact@apajustice.org . Back View PDF July 28, 2025 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #330 Fears of the Revival of the China Initiative #330 Fears of the Revival of the China Initiative In This Issue #330 · Indiana University Professor Raided by the FBI, Dismissed without Explanation · New College of Florida Professor Terminated under Controversial State Law · “China Initiative” Webinar Hosted at Michigan State University · Fighting Racial Profiling and the Criminalization of Academia in North America The recent FBI raids on Indiana University professor Xiaofeng Wang , along with the dismissal of another Chinese American professor, Kevin Wang , by the New College of Florida, have stirred deep anxiety among Chinese American scientists and researchers. In this special issue, we take a closer look at the possible revival of the China Initiative - a controversial program launched during the first Trump administration to combat economic espionage but widely criticized for disproportionately targeting Chinese American scientists. The renewed effort has been dubbed by some as “China Initiative 2.0.” APA Justice will continue to monitor these developments and provide updates through our newsletters , social media and monthly meetings . The goal of this issue is to raise awareness and draw attention to this important topic. We invite you to stay engaged and follow our ongoing coverage . Indiana University Professor Raided by the FBI, Dismissed without Explanation On March 28, 2025, based on multiple media reports, the FBI carried out court-authorized searches at two residences belonging to Professor Xiaofeng Wang and his wife, Nianli Ma , located in Bloomington and Carmel, Indiana. While the exact details of the investigation remain unclear, Wang had reportedly come under scrutiny for allegedly failing to disclose a 2017–2018 grant in China that listed him as a researcher. Professor Wang, a Chinese American computer scientist, has been a respected faculty member at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering since 2004. A graduate of two Chinese universities in the 1990s, Wang worked as a software engineer and IT specialist before earning his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University. Over the years, he built a strong reputation as one of the nation’s leading experts in systems security and privacy, overseeing nearly $23 million in grant funding by 2022.Following the FBI raids, Wang’s profile was abruptly removed from Indiana University’s website. The university terminated both Wang and his wife, Ma — who worked as a systems analyst at the university library — four days apart. The university has yet to publicly explain the reasons for their dismissal.Attorney James Covert , representing the couple, confirmed that neither Wang nor Ma has been arrested or charged. “Professor Wang and Ms. Ma are grateful for the support of colleagues at Indiana University and in the academic community,” Covert said in a statement. “They look forward to clearing their names and resuming their careers once the investigation concludes.” Ma spoke about her family situation at the State of Play Town Hall hosted by the Asian American Scholar Forum on April 14. · APA Justice Impacted Person page: Xiaofeng Wang · Professor Abruptly Fired Amid FBI Raid · Fired prof accused of research misconduct, FBI involvement unclear · Wife, son of cybersecurity professor Xiaofeng Wang make first comments since FBI raid · A Cybersecurity Professor Disappeared Amid an FBI Search. His Family Is ‘Determined to Fight’ New College of Florida Professor Terminated under Controversial State Law Meanwhile, in Florida, Professor Kevin Wang, a Chinese national holding valid U.S. work authorization, was abruptly dismissed from his position at the New College of Florida in March. His termination came under Florida’s Senate Bill 846 (SB 846) — a 2023 state law that bars public universities and colleges from employing individuals from so-called “countries of concern,” including China. Wang’s firing has become a flashpoint in a broader legal and civil rights battle challenging Florida’s crackdown on hiring foreign nationals in public higher education. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida criticized the law, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory. “The Florida law cited in the firing of this Chinese professor codifies anti-Asian discrimination,” the group wrote in a recent Facebook post. “It’s why we’re fighting it in court.”On March 27, just two weeks after Wang’s dismissal, a federal judge in Miami issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the law’s hiring restrictions, specifically as they apply to international students. Florida has since appealed the ruling and filed a motion seeking to pause the injunction while the case proceeds. Although the ruling addressed students, civil rights advocates believe it could lay the groundwork for broader challenges on behalf of faculty members.The renewed scrutiny of Chinese academics and scientists has stirred memories of the now-defunct China Initiative, which was criticized for disproportionately targeting Chinese and Asian American researchers, often without clear evidence of wrongdoing. · APA Justice Impacted Person page: Kevin Wang · New College fires Chinese professor under controversial Florida ‘countries of concern’ law · Firing of Chinese asylum seeker under SB 846 raises alarm in Florida and beyond · Report: New College of Florida Fires Chinese Adjunct, Citing Regulations · Asian American Scholar Forum Alarmed by Termination of New College of Florida Professor Under Florida’s SB 846 “China Initiative” Webinar Hosted at Michigan State University In a webinar on China Initiative hosted by Michigan State University's Asian Pacific American Studies Program on March 12, Dr. Jeremy Wu , Founder of APA Justice , was a panelist along with Dr. Lok Siu of UC Berkeley. The event was moderated by Dr. Kent Weber of Michigan State University. Dr. Wu provided an in-depth overview of the initiative’s history and impact. Launched in November 2018, the China Initiative aimed to address economic espionage but quickly shifted focus to Asian American academics, particularly those of Chinese descent. Over its 1,210-day duration, it led to 77 known cases and affected 162 individuals. More than two dozen scientists faced prosecution, none for espionage or trade secret theft. The initiative harmed not just individuals but also academic freedom, open science, and U.S. leadership in research.Even before the DOJ’s involvement, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had already initiated investigations in 2018, sending 10,000 letters to research institutions about alleged foreign ties. In response, advocacy groups and professional networks mobilized, providing support and pushing for policy change. Their efforts ultimately led to the initiative’s termination in February 2022.However, challenges remain. As of now, the U.S. Congress has not officially revived the “China Initiative” in name, but there are signs of similar efforts resurfacing under different guises. Within the current political climate, these types of laws and investigations will likely expand, even if the “China Initiative” name is not used. · China Initiative - Timeline of Major Events · Impacted Persons List · Attempts to Revive China Initiative Fighting Racial Profiling and the Criminalization of Academia in North America On March 21, 2025, the Chinese Canadian Faculty Project at Simon Fraser University, Canada, invited Dr. Anming Hu for an event named Fighting Racial Profiling and the Criminalization of Academia in North America, both in-person and online. The event was moderated by Dr. Xinying Hu of Simon Fraser University. Dr. Jane Wang of University of British Columbia, and Dr. Jie Yang of Simon Fraser University participated as discussants.This event was one of the Chinese Canadian Faculty Project’s ongoing series of Academic Freedom, Anti-racial profiling and Labour Rights. The series is sponsored by the Labour Studies Program and the Simon Fraser University Morgan Centre for Labour Research , Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) and Canada-China Focus (CCF). The purpose of the Chinese Canadian Faculty Project is to engage and support researchers, scholars, as well as graduate students of Chinese descent and other minority groups to fight against racial profiling and defend academic freedom in the increasingly restrictive national security measures adopted by the Canadian government through its Named Research Organizations in Sensitive Technology Research Areas, and legalized control of academic freedom under the newly passed Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act. Through organizing open conversations, the Chinese Canadian Faculty Project hopes to foster an inclusive and open academic environment.At the event, Dr. Hu shared his powerful story as the first academic wrongfully charged and went on trial under the China Initiative. He spoke about what he experienced, the impacts on his academic career, his life and his family. He spoke out against racial profiling, and warned about the dangers of overreach in national security measures targeting academia. Immediate impact of the event: As a Chinese Canadian, Dr. Anming Hu’s story was known to the Chinese Canadian academic community. The event attracted attention nationwide in Canada. Scholars in sensitive technology areas have a wide fear of racial profiling and being wrongfully treated by their own government. Therefore, university professors, scholars and students participated widely. There were more than seventy attendees across North America. The participants addressed their concerns during the panel discussion. They consulted Dr. Hu regarding legal concerns and sought advice on how to protect themselves. In response, Dr. Hu shared insights from his own experience. Political impact: Beyond attracting academia attention, the event has also drawn interest from politicians. Senator Yuen Pau Woo participated in person. He was concerned about whether the Canadian government provided adequate support to Dr. Hu when he encountered injustice. He asked whether the Canadian government took any action to help Dr. Hu during his investigation and trial, and if any Canadian diplomats, government agencies or parliamentarians stood up to support him. In addition, Senator Yuen Pau Woo also asked if the Canadian government would provide similar advice and support when a Canadian citizen encountered similar legal problems in China. Dr. Hu responded how the Canadian government instructed him to “follow the U.S. law” and provided no help. In comparison, Dr. Hu addressed how U.S. congressional members provided assistance in his case. He hopes that the Canadian government will be more proactive in protecting its citizens in the future, especially when handling similar legal issues, and can act more forcefully and effectively. Social impact: A local Vancouver social activist Ally Wang participated in the event in person. The Stop Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Advocacy Group , which she co-founded, helped promote the event. She writes articles for Chinese language media. She has translated Dr. Anming Hu’s story into Chinese and will publish in a Chinese language magazine.In conclusion, the event raised attention to racial profiling against Chinese professors in the academy in both Canada and America. It called wide attention to academic independence and impartiality, firmly oppose political interference, and encourage everyone to actively participate in discussions among universities, policymakers and the public to jointly promote the construction of an inclusive and fair higher education environment. # # # APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem that addresses racial profiling concerns and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American community. For more information, please refer to the new APA Justice website under development at www.apajusticetaskforce.org . We value your feedback. Please send your comments to contact@apajustice.org . Back View PDF April 30, 2025 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #73 Qing Wang Case Dropped; Feds Transparency; CAPAC in Action; 07/12 Meeting Summary #73 Qing Wang Case Dropped; Feds Transparency; CAPAC in Action; 07/12 Meeting Summary Back View PDF July 19, 2021 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

3 scientists were ousted by MD Anderson Cancer Center over concerns about Chinese conflicts of interest. April 19, 2019 On April 19, 2019, the Houston Chronicle and Science jointly reported that 3 scientists were ousted by MD Anderson Cancer Center over concerns about Chinese conflicts of interest, the first such publicly disclosed punishments since federal officials directed some institutions to investigate specific professors in violation of granting agency policies. MD Anderson took the actions after receiving e-mails last year from the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s largest public funder of biomedical research, describing conflicts of interest or unreported foreign income by five faculty members. The agency, which has been assisted by the FBI, gave the cancer center 30 days to respond. The departures follow an unprecedented Houston gathering last summer at which FBI officials warned Texas academic and medical institution leaders of the threat, particularly from insiders, and called on them to share with the agency any and all suspicious behavior and information. On April 25, 2019, the United Chinese Americans (UCA), a nationwide nonprofit and nonpartisan federation and a community civic movement, released a statement to raise concerns for Chinese American scientists as collateral damage in the crossfire between the United States and China due to deteriorating relations, including five appeals to address the current situartion. This was reported by the Houston Chronicle on April 29, 2019, expressing "grave concern" that ethnically Chinese scientists have become "collateral damage in the crossfire" of deteriorating U.S.-China relations. 3 scientists were ousted by MD Anderson Cancer Center over concerns about Chinese conflicts of interest. Previous Next Chinese Scientists Ousted from MD Anderson Cancer Center

Newsletter - #17 "China Initiative" Webinar Opens; "Black Eye" Of DOJ; Who Is Sirous Asgari; WeChat #17 "China Initiative" Webinar Opens; "Black Eye" Of DOJ; Who Is Sirous Asgari; WeChat Back View PDF September 25, 2020 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Xiao-jiang Li 李晓江 Docket ID: 1:20-cr-00164 District Court, N.D. Georgia Date filed: May 8, 2020 Date ended: May 8, 2020 Docket ID: 1:19-mj-01007 District Court: N.D. Georgia Date filed: Nov. 21, 2019 Date ended: May 8, 2020 Table of Content Overview 2019/05/16 Emory University Termination 2019/11/21 DOJ Complaint 2020/05/08 Plea Agreement Overview On May 16, 2019, Emory University informed Dr. Li Xiao-Jiang and his wife Dr. Shihua Li that both neuroscientists had been terminated while they were traveling in China. They were accused of failing to disclose research fundings from China and their work for Chinese universities while receiving federal grants from the U.S. government. Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li moved to the U.S. from China to obtain a doctoral degree in the late 1980s and became a naturalized American citizen in 2000. He and his wife, also a U.S. citizen, joined Emory University in 1995 and were co-leader of the Li Laboratory. “They treated us like criminals,” Dr. Li said in an interview in November 2019 near Jinan University in southern China, where he and his wife now work. He disputed the suggestion that they had failed to report ties to China. “Our work is for humanity,” Dr. Li Shihua added. “You can’t say if I worked in China, I’m not loyal to the U.S.” On November 21, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an unannounced complaint against Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li, accusing him of theft of federal grant funds and failing to disclose income from China. Dr. Shihua Li was not named in the complaint. On May 8, 2020, Dr. Li pleaded guilty to underreporting his income on federal tax returns. He agreed to pay $35,089 and any penalties stemming from refiling amended returns from 2012–18. The sentence includes 1 year of probation. DOJ then listed Dr. Li’s case as part of the China Initiative in its online report although it did not involve economic espionage or trade secret theft. 2019/05/16 Emory University Termination On May 16, 2019, Emory University informed Dr. Li Xiao-Jiang Li and his wife Dr. Shihua Li that both neuroscientists had been terminated when they were travelling in China. Both were professors of human genetics and co-led the Li Laboratory at the University. They are naturalized U.S. citizens. Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li obtained his doctor degree from Oregon Health & Science University in 1991. He joined the faculty of Emory University in January 1996, was promoted to full professor in 2005, and had been Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics at Emory University from 2007 to 2019. The simultaneous dismissals were for allegedly failing to disclose their sources of overseas financing and research ties in China. Dr. Li claimed that they did not receive notice or opportunity for them to respond to unverified accusations. The university closed their joint laboratory immediately, which was part of the medical school. Their websites were disconnected. Four postdoctoral students working in the lab, who were Chinese nationals, were told to leave the United States within 30 days. None were given reasons for their terminations. Emory University said its action came after an internal investigation prompted by a letter from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which had been contacting U.S. universities with concerns about whether specific grantees have adhered to agency rules regarding the disclosure of foreign funding and affiliations. Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li disputed Emory University's claim that the two researchers "had failed to fully disclose foreign sources of research funding and the extent of their work for research institutions and universities in China." According to available records, Dr. Li and his wife published many papers in high-profile journals. They have disclosed funding and affiliations with Chinese institutions, as well as biographical information posted online. References and Links 2019/11/17 Liberation: Emory University professors fired in NIH’s anti-Chinese crackdown 2019/11/04 New York Times: Vast Dragnet Targets Theft of Biomedical Secrets for China 2019/07/19 Washington Post: Scrutiny of Chinese American scientists raises fears of ethnic profiling 2019/06/17 知识分子: 埃默里大学风波又起，另一华人学者或已离开 2019/06/14 South China Morning Post: Professor at Emory University seeks legal support amid US probe into academics’ ties to China 2019/06/13 Deep Tech深科技: 埃默里大学风波再起，华人科学家称“遭到史无前例的对待”丨独家对话旋涡中心于山平 2019/06/12 Science: Emory scientist was told to vacate his office. He says move is reprisal for activism on Asian ties 2019/05/28 Radio Free Asia: US Research University Fires Two Chinese Scientists Over 'Failure to Disclose' Funding 2019/05/28 美国亚裔快讯: 华裔科学家夫妇遭开除,为埃默里大学工作23年的李晓江夫妇违规了吗？ 2019/05/28 South China Morning Post: Chinese college offers to hire two neuroscientists sacked by Emory University 2019/05/27 South China Morning Post: Scientist hits back at US university over ‘unusual and abrupt’ sacking in China funding ties case 2019/05/24 iNature (Chinese translation): Science | 首度发声！李晓江强力驳斥埃默里大学指控 2019/05/24 South China Morning Post: Emory University in US fires scientists over undisclosed funding ties to China 2019/05/24 Science: Terminated Emory researcher disputes university’s allegations about China ties 2019/05/23 Yahoo Finance: Professors fired from Emory University for hiding grants from China 2019/11/21 DOJ Complaint On November 21, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an unannounced criminal complaint against Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li, charging him with one count of theft of federal grant funds and failure to disclose income from China. Dr. Shihua Li was not named in the complaint. The complaint became public through an NBC News report in February 2020. According to the complaint, Emory University provided the FBI with a letter, dated 12/15/2011, addressed to Li from Xue Yongbao of the Institute of Genetics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (“CAS”). The letter notified Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li that his application for a “Thousand Talents Program” position was approved. According to the letter, Dr. Li would be appointed the position of Research Team Leader at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of CAS. The institute agreed that Li would work in China for six months or more before 01/01/2014 as part of a transition period. The purpose of the transition period was so Li would have “sufficient time to build a large animal experimental platform and team and undertake important national issues.” Li was to assume his position full-time (9 months each year) before 01/01/2014. Emory University also provided the FBI with a “High-level Talent (Transition Period) Employment Contract” between the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of CAS (Party A) and Li (Party B), executed on 12/20/2011. The term of the contract was two years, from 12/30/2011 to 12/30/2013. On or about February 10, 2015, Dr. Li began pursuing part-time status at Emory University to work at CAS. Dr. Li and the Emory University Department of Human Genetics Chairman entered into a “A letter of understanding.” Dr. Li’s stated purpose was “to spend more time to lead research projects on neurological diseases at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology at Chinese Academy of Sciences.” According to Emory University, Dr, Li did not complete the process and started to work at CAS in 2015. In or about October 2018, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) notified Emory University that NIH had become aware that applications submitted to NIH for Li may have failed to comply with NIH policies regarding other support, disclosing foreign financial interests, and/or obtaining prior approval from NIH for the use of foreign components on NIH research grants. In response, Emory University discussed the matter with Dr. Li between October 2018 and May 2019. Additionally, in or about January 2019, Emory University initiated an internal review of Dr. Li’s Emory University email account. Dr. Li’s emails revealed his association with the Chinese government’s “Thousand Talents Program.” On November 22, 2019, Dr. Li was arrested, and an initial appearance was held at which time Dr. Li moved for a preliminary hearing, which was originally set for December 13, 2019, but it was delayed several times. On May 8, 2020, DOJ made a motion to dismiss the original complaint and refiled with a different complaint based on a plea agreement the same day. References and Links 2020/05/08 US v Li 1:19-mj-01007: (Doc 19) Government’s Motion for Leave to File Dismissal 2020/05/06 US v Li 1:20-cr-00164: (Doc 10) Judgment in a Criminal Case 2020/05/06 US v Li 1:20-cr-00164: (Doc 4) Minute Sheet for proceedings held on 05/06/2020 2020/02/04 NBC News: Emory professor hit with criminal charge, linked to Chinese government program 2019/11/21 US v Li 1:19-mj-01007: (Doc 1) Criminal Complaint 2020/05/08 Plea Agreement On May 6, 2024, a telephone conference regarding plea and sentencing was held between Assistant United States Attorney Samir Kaushal and Peter Zeidenberg, attorney representing Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li, in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. On May 8, 2020, Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li pleaded guilty to underreporting his income on federal tax returns. He agreed to pay $35,089 and any penalties stemming from refiling amended returns from 2012–18. The sentence includes 1 year of probation. Dr. Li's attorney, Peter Zeidenberg, says his client "admits that he should have reported the income on his taxes. And he's embarrassed by it." The judge's actions, Zeidenberg says, will allow Dr. Li "to get back to his research" on Huntington disease, which was halted when the couple's lab was abruptly shut down. But Zeidenberg thinks the case wound up having the opposite effect of what federal authorities claimed was their goal in prosecuting Dr. Li. "He would have preferred to do it in the United States, at Emory," Zeidenberg says. "He's had a successful career here, and this is where his life is. But now he is being forced to work in China. And I think that's incredibly ironic." References and Links 2020/05/20 ASBMB: Ex-Emory neuroscientist pleads guilty; fired Cleveland Clinic geneticist arrested 2020/05/17 Emory Wheel: Former Emory Biomedical Professor Pleads Guilty to Filing False Tax Returns, Sentenced to 1 Year of Probation 2020/05/13 The College Fix: Former Emory U. professor pleads guilty of hiding ties to Chinese government 2020/05/12 Science: Fired Emory University neuroscientist with ties to China sentenced on tax charge 2020/05/11 Department of Justice: Former Emory University professor and Chinese “Thousand Talents” participant convicted and sentenced for filing a false tax return 2020/05/06 US v Li 1:20-cr-00164: (Doc 10) Judgment in a Criminal Case 2020/05/06 US v Li 1:20-cr-00164: (Doc 4) Minute Sheet for proceedings held on 05/06/2020 Previous Item Next Item

Newsletter - #198 8/7 Meeting; Fear Over New US Laws Banning Property Ownership; China Initiative Legacy #198 8/7 Meeting; Fear Over New US Laws Banning Property Ownership; China Initiative Legacy In This Issue #198 2023/08/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting "Can we move?" - Chinese Residents Fearful Over New US Laws Banning Property Ownership Axed China Initiative’s Racial Profiling Legacy Haunts Scientists in US 2023/08/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, August 7, 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), speakers will include: Clay Zhu 朱可亮 , 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 Echo King 金美声 , President, Florida Asian American Justice Alliance (FAAJA), to provide on-the-ground reports about the July 18 court hearing, press conference, and protests in Tallahassee; and a report by Jenny Liu 刘洁 , President, Yick Wo Institution 益和学会 Cynthia Choi , Co-Executive Director, and Shanti Prasad , Advocacy Manager, Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), to give a brief introduction of CAA and its recent roles and activities in alien land laws, warrantless surveillance/reauthorization of Section 702, anti-Asian hate, and related topics Christine Chen , Executive Director, APIAVote, to give a brief introduction of APIAVote, observations on the communities' reaction to the alien land bills/laws, introduction of laws in some states criminalizing those who assist voters (AP report: https://bit.ly/3NM9z3s ), and APIAVote plans for the upcoming 2024 elections 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 "Can we move?" - Chinese Residents Fearful Over New US Laws Banning Property Ownership According to the Guardian on July 26, 2023, a Florida law barring certain foreign nationals from buying property has brought confusion, thoughts of moving and protests. Earlier this year, Fort Lauderdale resident Yulin Wu ’s white co-workers told her not to worry about a Florida bill that would prohibit some Chinese people and entities from acquiring real estate. She had heard about the proposed legislation on Chinese-language social media.On May 8, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill (SB) 264 into law, a measure that bars almost all property ownership for people or entities from various “countries of concern” including China, Cuba, North Korea and Russia. Under the law, they cannot buy property with some exceptions; individuals who hold a non-tourist visa or have been granted asylum can buy a residence of less than 2 acres (0.8 hectares) if it is at least 5 miles (8 km) away from a military base or “critical infrastructure”. The law singles out Chinese people with higher penalties for violation, but it does not apply to those who are naturalized US citizens or who have legal permanent “green card” residency.Wu said: “I don’t understand why this law passed. It definitely changed my feelings about Florida and the United States. I’m not welcome here.”That sentiment is echoed by many Chinese residents in the US as laws banning foreign property purchases, most targeting Chinese people, have proliferated around the nation. According to the advocacy group APA Justice , 33 states have proposed or enacted similar bans against ownership of real estate by people of specific national origins. As legislators have revised their bills to address arguments that they are bigoted, some have added exceptions for lawful permanent residents who hold green cards.Many Chinese residents in the United States, like Wu, are alarmed by this latest anti-Chinese development, and some are becoming activists.Wu, the first in her family to attend college, spoke to the Guardian via phone while visiting New York City. She’s now mulling a move there. Wu settled in Florida just two years ago, passed the bar exam and landed a job. Wu bought a townhome as an investment property just before Florida’s SB 264 was passed, and she wonders now whether she will be forced to sell it. The land of anyone who buys or sells property in violation of the law could be seized by the government. Wu’s townhome is located near an airport, and she’s unsure whether such an area is off-limits under the law. Gabriel Chin , a law professor at the University of California, Davis, said this latest trend follows a long history of “alien land laws”. Florida’s alien land law was only repealed in 2018, making it the last state to do so. Chin led his students in an effort to undo similar laws that remained on the books.At a July 18 court hearing in which a judge considered blocking the law, Chinese Americans demonstrated , some traveling from around the country. Zhengfei Guan is a University of Florida professor who has organized protests against the new law. He immigrated to the US in 2006. He noted that recently, “My daughter was asking, ‘Can we move?’” The 17-year-old, who is a US citizen, fears the increasingly hostile environment for people of Asian descent.He and Wu, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer, see the Florida measure as one component of the Chinese-US conflict, along with a trade war, accusations about the origins of Covid and violent attacks on Asian people. According to Guan, he and fellow Chinese academics have been adversely affected by China-fighting rhetoric and professional discrimination through the US justice department’s “China Initiative”. Discontinued last year, that federal effort investigated researchers under the theory that spies in unconventional places were sharing valuable intelligence data with Beijing. Even though Florida would allow Guan’s children, as citizens, to buy a house there, he perceives the property ban as part of a pattern of bias.This new batch of alien land laws has sparked confusion and thoughts of relocation, but also coalition building across the nation. Steven Pei , a Taiwanese immigrant and electrical engineering professor in Houston, flew to Tallahassee for last week’s court proceeding. Although naturalized, he observed: “Nobody can tell if I am a citizen or not. I have to prove it?”Pei credited Black politicians, especially US Representative Al Green of Texas, for key support in defeating that state’s version of an alien land law in May. Pei said: “He organized the major rallies here … and what really touched me is he has been meeting [ethnic] leaders every Saturday since March.” Green encouraged the formation of a new non-partisan Multicultural Advocacy Coalition that Pei said includes African Americans and Latinos alongside Asian Americans. Green himself said: “I’m concerned we not discriminate based on where you are from.” Recalling segregated facilities and having to step off the sidewalk if a white person were approaching during Jim Crow, he added: “I was unfortunate enough to be born a son of the segregated south. I know what discrimination is like. There are many things I lived through I would not want us to return to.”Read The Guardian report: https://bit.ly/3qf8itW . U.S. Senate Approves Amendment to FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act. According to Forbes and other media reports, the Senate voted 91-7 on July 25, 2023, to prevent China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from purchasing U.S. farmland—part of a bipartisan push to scrutinize adversaries’ business dealings in the United States. The proposed rule—passed as an amendment to the annual defense budget bill—would require the president to review farmland transactions from those four countries, and block any deals that would give a foreign entity from any of the countries “control” of U.S. farmland and waive those that don’t.The measure would also give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, commonly known as CFIUS, the power to evaluate land deals, using data from the Department of Agriculture, and block those deals if it sees fit (CFIUS already evaluates other transactions with foreign actors).Prior to this amendment being attached, the bill was narrowly passed by the Republican-led House earlier this month, but that version included a number of conservative priorities related to abortion, transgender care and other hot-button issues that are unlikely to be accepted by the Democrat-controlled Senate. The Senate bill will return to the House for debate and a vote with the new amendments.Read the Forbes report: https://bit.ly/3DwWoPn After the Senate vote, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) provided a v ote explanation , which says in part: "As written, the language [of Rounds amendment No. 813 to S. 2226, the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act] seems to equate individuals from the specified countries as synonymous with their governments. Under this provision, if an individual with a valid visa, who has no connection to one of the governments listed, seeks to buy agricultural property above a certain threshold, the U.S. Government would deny them the ability to proceed with the purchase simply because of their national origin. While the national security concerns this amendment seeks to address are real, we must not discriminate on individuals based on national origin, race, or ethnicity. I voted in favor of my colleagues' amendment in order to continue the conversation on this important issue, but will not support any final provision that does not resolve these civil liberties concerns." Axed China Initiative’s Racial Profiling Legacy Haunts Scientists in US According to the South China Morning Post on July 25, 2023, physicist Xiaoxing Xi ’s life changed forever when a team of armed FBI agents burst into his home in Philadelphia and rounded up his family at gunpoint.Xi was arrested and charged with sharing sensitive US company technology on May 21, 2015 – three years before the Donald Trump administration launched its controversial China Initiative targeting scientists in the US for perceived connections with Beijing.The charges against Xi – who was accused of trying to transfer information to China about the design of a pocket heater – were dropped four months later, but not before he lost his position as chairman of the physics department at the Philadelphia-based Temple University. During the FBI’s investigation, Xi was also not allowed to appear on campus, apply for research grants or talk to his students, even privately.“That’s a very traumatic experience,” Xi said the US government’s case was based on four emails sent from his Temple University address that had nothing to do with the pocket heater.Xi’s ordeal took place under former president Barack Obama , but the Trump administration’s initiative vastly broadened the scope of later investigations into scientists of Chinese heritage in the US.About 150 academic scientists were openly investigated and two dozen hit with criminal charges before the initiative was eliminated by the justice department in February 2022. But the scrutiny has never stopped and there is little sign that the Joe Biden administration is doing enough to repair the damage, scientists of Chinese heritage have told researchers.The China Initiative, touted as a response to “economic espionage” by Beijing, was heavily criticized at the time as “unconstitutional” by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it was based on racial profiling because it “singled out scientists based on their race, ethnicity or national origin”.A lasting impact of the initiative is the widespread fear still reported by many scientists with Chinese heritage, according to a study by researchers from Princeton University, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).The study, published last month in the National Academy of Sciences peer-reviewed journal PNAS, found general feelings of fear and anxiety had led many of the scientists to consider leaving the US or refrain from applying for federal grants. Before he became a target for the FBI, Xi’s research was funded by nine federal grants and he had 15 people on his team. Today, Xi receives one grant for a much smaller focus of study, with just one researcher to help him.MIT mechanical engineering professor Gang Chen – who was arrested in January 2021 under the China Initiative and had his charges dismissed one year later – said he was afraid to apply for federal grants because of anxieties around being racially profiled.“Basically, I’m done with federal funding,” Chen told NBC Asian America in August. He has also shifted from nanotechnologies with obvious commercial applications to more fundamental research, according to the February edition of Nature .Another study, published in March by The Review of Higher Education , found a “consistent and statistically significant pattern” of racial profiling of Chinese and other Asian scientists.The researchers – from the University of Arizona and Committee of 100, a Chinese-American non-profit – surveyed about 2,000 scientists from the top US research universities and concluded that concerns about racial profiling remained, despite the end of the China Initiative.Lead author Jenny Lee said there was no sign of “any governmental action to undo the harmful effects” of the China Initiative.One Chinese-American scientist who recently returned to China, because of the initiative’s impact, said the aim of the initiative had been to create fear among scientists, as part of a US effort to contain China’s scientific progress.“[The US] has achieved its purpose. US-based scientists are coming back to China and those in China are afraid to go back to the US,” said the scientist, who requested anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity. “It’s happening every day.”But some experts argue that cutting off relations with Chinese academia undermines Washington’s intention of competing and winning a technology race against Beijing. Junming Huang , an associate research scholar at Princeton University and co-author of the PNAS study, said the US should “continue to welcome and attract Chinese scientists to maintain [its] global leadership in science and technology in the long run”.“A key lesson we can learn from the China Initiative is we cannot apply a broad brush to solve problems and apply policies. We need surgical precision and data-based solutions that offer genuine steps moving forward to tackle specific problems,” he said.Despite the challenges reported by scientists of Chinese heritage in the US, not everyone is returning to China.Meanwhile, Xi’s efforts to seek redress from the courts for his experience continues. A lawsuit filed against the lead FBI agent and others in 2017, alleging that they “made knowingly or recklessly false statements” to support their investigation and prosecution was dismissed by a district court in 2021.Xi appealed the decision last year and in May the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled his case had been wrongfully dismissed. Xi and his family are waiting to see if the US government will appeal the ruling and move the case forward, he said. In written testimony presented in 2021, Xi said that “whether the US and China are in a cold war or hot war, it is wrong for law enforcement to profile Chinese scientists based on where they come from”.“All Chinese professors, scientists and students are not non-traditional collectors, or spies, for China,” he said.Speaking to the South China Morning Post last week, Xi said the China Initiative had been based on the assumption that Chinese scientists were “suspected of spying for China”. “That’s the fundamental reason for all these cases and all the investigations that have happened … In a sense, ‘presumed guilty until proven innocent’. This condition has not changed,” he said. Read the South China Morning Post report: https://bit.ly/3rCJixk Back View PDF July 31, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #123 NBC Report; Summary to OSTP; Jury Verdict on Tao; CI Cases Update; COMPETES Conference #123 NBC Report; Summary to OSTP; Jury Verdict on Tao; CI Cases Update; COMPETES Conference Back View PDF April 8, 2022 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #178 4/17 Roundtable Highlights; Students Denied Visas; A Crisis of Trust; Community News #178 4/17 Roundtable Highlights; Students Denied Visas; A Crisis of Trust; Community News In This Issue #178 2023/04/17 Roundtable on a National Media Alert Network Chinese Students Still Denied Visas Under Trump Immigration Order NYT Opinion: America, China and a Crisis of Trust Activities and News for the Communities 2023/04/17 Roundtable on a National Media Alert Network Asian American and immigrant communities are in turbulent times again, facing enormous cross-cutting challenges, including but not limited to: Legalizing discrimination at the state and federal levels Return of the Red Scare and McCarthyism Warrantless surveillance Mini "China Initiative" conducted by the National Institutes of Health Cross-border profiling, interrogation, harassment, and denial of entry Continuing fallout from the now-defunct "China Initiative" Collateral damage from the deteriorating U.S.-China relations Anti-Asian hate and violence On April 17, 2023, the Inaugural Roundtable continued the conversation to survey the landscape and established the purpose and functions of a national media alert network and strike teams to (a) assertively address immediate xenophobic challenges to our freedoms and (b) longer-term proactive actions to ensure fairness and justice for all, including the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and immigrant communities. As moderator, Jeremy Wu outlined the ground rules, logistics, and the purpose and goals of a dynamic process to start the Roundtable. Paula Madison , adviser and affectionately called the "conductor of the symphony," opened with remarks about her fear and concern of Texas Senate Bill 147 that would cease the constitutional rights of Chinese and other nationalities to own land in the states of Texas. It reminded her of the Chinese exclusion Act, but it did not appear in national media.As a U.S. citizen born in Jamaica, raised in Harlem, and her maternal grandfather was a Hakka from Southern China, Paula became a very successful media journalist and editor, executive, and businesswoman. Paula straddles both cultures and races. She brings to the Roundtable her perspectives of how and why the AAPI communities can better make use of the news media and similar institutions for us to tell our stories effectively, for us to assertively create our own narrative, and for us to proactively challenge the untruths that are told about us.The concept of a Roundtable is to bring together national and local community leaders to regularly and frequently have conversations with various media to build a trustworthy relationship so that we are seen as American citizens and residents who contribute to the American society, not to be targeted or discriminated. The second prong is to develop local, regional, and national strike teams to appear in print media, television, and digital platforms and speak with knowledge and conviction about the AAPI communities and matters. About 100 organizations and individuals spoke or participated in the Roundtable. A written summary is being prepared at this time. Town Hall Meeting on Media Training and Strike Teams On April 16, 2023, Paula Madison spoke at Town Hall Meeting #6 with Texas State Representative Gene Wu , leading the discussions and providing guidance for media training and strike teams with Florida AAPI leaders in short time. Watch the video: https://bit.ly/41qzNyh (1:24:26) Discriminatory Land Bills in Florida and Texas 2023/04/22 WE WON'T GO BACK! Statewide Civil Rights Protest WHAT : Protest against the Texas Legislature quietly taking away the CIVIL RIGHTS that our communities have fought so hard to earn WHEN : Saturday, April 22, 2023, 12 pm ET WHERE: Antioch Park, 554 Clay St, Houston, TX 77002 DESCRIPTIOON: Join members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, local elected officials, and community leaders for a march against efforts to turn back the clock on decades of progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion & roll back civil rights of minority communities across the State of Texas. Meet at Antioch Park (554 Clay) and march to Hermann Square at City Hall. Choose your transportation (rail, bus, carpool, Uber, walk, bike, park and walk, etc.) and bring your signs, and march safely and legally along sidewalks, obeying traffic signs, etc., to reach City Hall for a free speech rally.2023/04/20 Herald-Tribune : 'Terrified': Chinese protesters tell Florida lawmakers bill threatens their 'American dream' . There were tears. There were yells. There were more than 100 people who signed up to testify against a bill they say will discriminate against Florida’s Chinese community. Most of them, a mix of Chinese Americans and visa and green card holders, came from around the state to protest at the Capitol Wednesday, driving, bussing and even flying in. Echo King , from China herself and an Orlando immigration attorney, says such public demonstrations within her community are rare. It’s a testament, she said, to how worried they are over the legislation. 2023/04/20 Florida Phoenix : Chinese-Americans fear hate crimes and discrimination as FL legislation heads for final vote . Zheng Dauble says she has lived in the United States for 25 years and loves the country, but recently, when she was shopping with her 10-year-old boy, she heard someone yelling at her: “Go back to China.” “I never meet this person,” she says. “The only reason is because I am Asian.”¶ Zheng Dauble was one of dozens of Chinese-Americans who came to the state Capitol this week to testify against a legislative proposal (HB 1355) that would ban the sale of agriculture land and property within 20 miles of military bases and other critical infrastructure facilities to interests tied to the Chinese government and six other “countries of concern.”¶ The Chinese-Americans who signed up to speak against the measure said it could lead to more hate crimes and discrimination against their community. “I’m 8 years old,” said Manman Chen . “I want to ask a question: Did Chinese people do something bad to Florida? Why does the government not allow them to purchase property. I only get punishment when I do something wrong.”2023/04/19 AsAmNews : Florida moving to ban Chinese from owning land . A coalition of Asian American groups rallied outside the Florida state capitol today to oppose bills that would place restrictions on Chinese buying land in the state.¶ The proposal which has already passed the state senate unanimously is now moving its way through the assembly where it has already won the support of the Appropriations Committee, reports Florida Politics.¶ The protest held outside the House State Affairs Committee this morning declared the bills discriminatory and compared it to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Alien Land Laws of 1913, 1920 and 1923.¶ “These two bills, revived out of the coffins of the notorious “Alien Land Laws” and “Chinese Exclusion Act” in American history are unconstitutional and pose significant threats to the livelihoods of the AAPI community,” said the coalition in a statement.¶ It compared SB264 and HB1355 to “what has happened during World War II to Japanese Americans and at the time of the McCarthyism.” ¶ The coalition said the legislators failed to remember that many immigrants fled China to get away from communism. They suggested the bills will fuel more anti-Asian hate and lead to more violence against Asian Americans.2023/04/19 KERA News : Bills aimed at foreign nationals reminiscent of US' racist past, critics say . A bill headed to the Texas Senate floor would bar citizens from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia — and businesses with ties to those countries — from buying property in Texas. Senate Bill 147 is just one of several bills filed this legislative session aimed at immigrants and foreign nationals. And that has members of these communities worried.¶ Lily Trieu , executive director of Asian Texans for Justice, says bills aimed at Chinese nationals, or any nationality for that matter, are discriminatory and could cause irreversible harm. “Here's the reality. The reality is the average Texan cannot look at an Asian American and know without a doubt whether they're Chinese or Korean or Vietnamese or Japanese, etc.,” Trieu said.¶ Trieu’s concerned about what could happen if this bill ultimately becomes law. Even if it doesn’t, she and others in the Asian American community believe the damage has already been done.2023/04/18 Spectrum News 13 : Asian-American group rallies against bill regulating foreign control of land . An Orlando group is making their way to Tallahassee to protest House Bill 1355, which would prohibit foreign countries, specifically China, from purchasing agricultural land.¶ The Orlando Chinese Professionals Association is opposing the bill, stating it is harmful to their community and the Florida economy. Echo King , an immigration lawyer who immigrated from China 20 years ago, said the bill is discriminatory and could result in more hate crimes against Asians,¶ "I’ve helped hundreds of immigrants become U.S. citizens. I know their story. They are real, they are nice people, and they all contribute to this country," said King. King expressed concern that good businesses and people could be penalized for the actions of bad actors, and she hopes that by speaking out, her voice and those in her community will be heard. "We think it’s extremely discriminatory. It’ll affect all Asian communities," said King.2023/04/18 Press Release: NAEH Media Group Announces The Coming Public Protest Against The Florida SB264/HB 1355 On April 19, 2023 . On April 19, 2023, a public protest is set to take place in Tallahassee against the Florida SB 264/HB 1355, a bill that has caused widespread concern and outrage among Floridians.¶ The bill targets Chinese residents in the state, singling them out for exclusion and depriving them of their property rights. Representatives of Floridian chambers and business organizations, as well as Florida residents from all walks of life, are expected to participate in the protest.¶ The event is likely to be a significant demonstration of opposition to the bill and a powerful statement against discrimination and xenophobia. 3. CALDA Plans of Legal Action.Clay Zhu , Founder of Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), spoke during the Roundtable on its single role to sue the Government for its systemic discrimination against Chinese Americans. CALDA is currently working on two issues.¶ The first is the alien land bills that have been discussed in Texas, Florida, and South Carolina. A legal team is being assembled. A lawsuit will be filled as soon the bills are passed, seeking permanent injunctions against these bills.¶ The second is related to the "Chinese Initiative," specifically a class action lawsuit on behalf of the Chinese American scientists affected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as reported by the Science Magazine . A survey questionnaire has been to the affected professors to get a better understanding of the possible plaintiffs, claims, and damages.¶ CALDA has also started a lawsuit in Washington DC based on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which is expected to provide behind-the-scene information from the Department of Justice and in need of media attention and legal actions. 4. Asian American Journalists Association Media Institute. According to the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the media needs more diverse sources and stories. AAJA Media Institute coaches underrepresented voices to tell their stories and share their expertise with the media. Since the inaugural workshop in 2014, AAJA Media Institute alumni have gone on to appear on local and national television, including C-SPAN, MSNBC and NBC’s Today Show. They have published op-eds. They have been featured as thought leaders and expert sources in major news publications. Chinese Students Still Denied Visas Under Trump Immigration Order According to a report by Forbes on April 11, 2023, U.S. consular officers are still denying visas for Chinese graduate students based on the Chinese university they attended. The Biden administration has continued the denials under a proclamation issued by Donald Trump in May 2020. Research and experience have shown the proclamation is costly to the United States and those affected by the student visa denials. The proclamation has upended the lives of Tian Su and her longtime partner John Murray . Tian is a fifth-year Ph.D. student focusing on artificial intelligence in transportation. She had been in America since 2018. After not returning to the country for several years, Tian decided to visit family in China and renew her visa. She left the United States on March 2, 2023. Shortly after, the U.S. embassy in Beijing denied her visa back to the United States. She cannot return to complete her Ph.D. The stated reason for the denial was presidential proclamation 10043 (PP10043) on the “Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China.” The proclamation does not apply to undergraduate students. The proclamation denies a visa to someone who studied at a particular university whether or not any negative information exists about the individual. To put the proclamation in perspective: If another country had a similar policy, it might deny visas to Americans who studied at U.S. universities that “support” a strategy or actions the foreign government finds objectionable or that received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. More than 900 U.S. universities received DOD funding in 2006, according to a 2007 report, but U.S. students attending those universities rarely have a connection to the U.S. military.In 2021, U.S. consular officers refused 1,964 visas for Chinese nationals due to the presidential proclamation, according to the State Department. Statistics are not yet available for FY 2022 or FY 2023, but any number would underestimate the proclamation’s impact since students and researchers who expect to be refused a visa would be unlikely to apply in the first place.A university official said the Trump administration hoped to punish Chinese institutions, even though it is clear the primary impact is on individual students and researchers. The official said one scholar denied a visa under the policy earned a Ph.D. from a U.S. university and returned to China to teach, but was denied a visa back to the United States because his master’s degree was from the Harbin Institute of Technology. That school is listed as “very high risk/top secret” on the Australia-based China Defense Universities Tracker , a source the U.S. government has used to deny visas.John Murray believes Tian may have been refused a visa to return to America because she attended Beihang University, which, it appears, is also on the list of schools the State Department uses to ban students and researchers under the proclamation.On June 27, 2022, a lawsuit Baryshnikov v. Mayorkas (2:22-cv-02140) was filed in the District Court of the Central District of Illinois. Led by a professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a group of students affected by the PP10043 ban, the lawsuit challenges the U.S. Government's continuing efforts to ban the entry of Chinese nationals who seek to study at U.S. universities. On March 20, 2023, the Committee of Concerned Scientist (CCS) wrote a letter to President Joe Biden , expressing concerns about Chinese American researchers being profiled, harassed, and interrogated without just cause at the border. It included the case of Hong Qi , a visiting scholar of mathematical sciences at Louisiana State University and lecturer at Queen Mary University, London. She was denied re-entry to the U.S. and separated from her 6-year old son in Louisiana. Read more about PP10043 at https://bit.ly/41s9Luu NYT Opinion: America, China and a Crisis of Trust According to an opinion by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times on April 14, 2023, relations between the United States and China have soured so badly, so quickly, and have so reduced our points of contact that we’re now like two giant gorillas looking at each other through a pinhole. Nothing good will come from this. The smallest misstep by either side could ignite a U.S.-China war that would make Ukraine look like a neighborhood dust-up.That’s one of the many reasons Thomas Friedman found it helpful to be back in Beijing and to be able to observe China again through a larger aperture than a pinhole. Attending the China Development Forum — Beijing’s very useful annual gathering of local and global business leaders, senior Chinese officials, retired diplomats and a few local and Western journalists — reminded him of some powerful old truths and exposed him to some eye-popping new realities about what’s really eating away at U.S.-China relations.The new, new thing Thomas Friedman found has a lot to do with the increasingly important role that trust, and its absence, plays in international relations, now that so many goods and services that the United States and China sell to one another are digital, and therefore dual use — meaning they can be both a weapon and a tool. Just when trust has become more important than ever between the U.S. and China, it also has become scarcer than ever. There’s something of a competition today between Democrats and Republicans over who can speak most harshly about China. Truth be told, both countries have so demonized the other of late that it is easy to forget how much we have in common as people. Thomas Friedman cannot think of any major nation after the United States with more of a Protestant work ethic and naturally capitalist population than China.China has built formidable weight and strength since opening to the world in the 1970s, and even since Covid hit in 2019. China’s Communist Party government has a stronger grip than ever on its society, thanks to its police state surveillance and digital tracking systems: Facial recognition cameras are everywhere. The party crushes any challenge to its rule or to President Xi Jinping . These days, it is extremely difficult for a visiting columnist to get anyone — a senior official or a Starbucks barista — to speak on the record. It was not that way a decade ago.That said, one should have no illusions: The Communist Party’s hold is also a product of all the hard work and savings of the Chinese people, which have enabled the party and the state to build world-class infrastructure and public goods that make life for China’s middle and lower classes steadily better.Beijing and Shanghai, in particular, have become very livable cities, with the air pollution largely erased and lots of new, walkable green spaces. Shanghai had recently built 55 new parks, bringing its total to 406, and had plans for nearly 600 more.Some 900 cities and towns in China are now served by high-speed rail, which makes travel to even remote communities incredibly cheap, easy and comfortable. In the last 23 years America has built exactly one sort-of-high-speed rail line, the Acela, serving 15 stops between Washington, D.C., and Boston. Think about that: 900 to 15.Thomas Friedman did not argue that high-speed trains are better than freedom, but to explain that China’s stability is a product of both an increasingly pervasive police state and a government that has steadily raised standards of living. It’s a regime that takes both absolute control and relentless nation-building seriously.For an American to fly from New York’s Kennedy Airport into Beijing Capital International Airport today is to fly from an overcrowded bus terminal to a Disney-like Tomorrowland. It makes Thomas Friedman weep for all the time we have wasted these past eight years talking about a faux nation builder named Donald Trump .What exactly are America and China fighting about?A lot of people hesitated when Thomas Friedman asked. Indeed, many would answer with some version of “I’m not sure, I just know that it’s THEIR fault.” He is pretty sure he would get the same answer in Washington. The best part of Thomas Friedman's trip was uncovering the real answer to that question and why it stumps so many people. It’s because the real answer is so much deeper and more complex than just the usual one-word response — “Taiwan” — or the usual three-word response — “autocracy versus democracy.”In modern times, China, like America, has never had to deal with a true economic and military peer with which it was also totally intertwined through trade and investment.This is a byproduct of our new technological ecosystem in which more and more devices and services that we both use and trade are driven by microchips and software, and connected through data centers in the cloud and high-speed internet. When so many more products or services became digitized and connected, so many more things became “dual use.” That is, technologies that can easily be converted from civilian tools to military weapons, or vice versa.So today, the country or countries that can make the fastest, most powerful and most energy efficient microchips can make the biggest A.I. computers and dominate in economics and military affairs.Thomas Friedman has no problem saying that he would like to live in a world where the Chinese people are thriving, alongside all others. He does not buy the argument that we are destined for war. He believes that we are doomed to compete with each other, doomed to cooperate with each other and doomed to find some way to balance the two. Otherwise we are both going to have a very bad 21st century.China’s Communist Party is now convinced that America wants to bring it down, which some U.S. politicians are actually no longer shy about suggesting. So, Beijing is ready to crawl into bed with Putin, a war criminal, if that is what it takes to keep the Americans at bay.Americans are now worried that Communist China, which got rich by taking advantage of a global market shaped by American rules, will use its newfound market power to unilaterally change those rules entirely to its advantage. So we’ve decided to focus our waning strength vis-à-vis Beijing on ensuring the Chinese will always be a decade behind us on microchips.If it is not the goal of U.S. foreign policy to topple the Communist regime in China, the United States needs to make that crystal clear, because Thomas Friedman found a lot more people than ever before in Beijing think otherwise.The notion that China can economically collapse and America still thrive is utter fantasy. And the notion that the Europeans will always be with us in such an endeavor, given the size of China’s market, may also be fanciful. As for China, it will never realize its full potential — in a hyper-connected, digitized, deep, dual-use, semiconductor-powered world — unless it understands that establishing and maintaining trust is now the single most important competitive advantage any country or company can have. And Beijing is failing in that endeavor. Read more about the New York Times opinion: https://bit.ly/3UX2OiI Activities and News for the Communities 1. Nomination Hearing of Julie Su as Secretary of Labor On April 20, 2023, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Julie Su as the next Secretary of Labor. If confirmed, Julie Su will be the first Asian American to serve in the Cabinet at the secretary level. The Senate committee is expected to vote next week on whether to advance Su’s confirmation to a vote in the full Senate.The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus issued a statement endorsing Acting Secretary Su for the position of Labor Secretary and sent a letter to President Biden urging her nomination, The Asian American Scholar Forum sent a letter of support to the Senate Committee. 2. Managing United States–China University Relations and Risks According to an article by Science on April 20, 2023, the intensifying geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China is clouding the outlook for cross-border academic exchange and collaboration in science and technology. Technological competition is a principal focus of this rivalry, and pressures are building in both countries to erect higher barriers to academic research collaborations and to restrict the flow of students and scholars between the two countries. A major challenge for US universities is how to manage these pressures while preserving open scientific research, open intellectual exchange, and the free flow of ideas and people. New federal regulations designed to strengthen research security on US university campuses are now being introduced. Yet federal policies, no matter how well crafted, cannot be a substitute for actions by universities themselves. The article shares an approach developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to make clear the lines that should not be crossed and the principles that should govern academic relations with China. Read the Science article: https://bit.ly/3UXqXWn Subscribe to The APA Justice Newsletter Complete this simple form at https://bit.ly/2FJunJM to subscribe. Please share it with those who wish to be informed and join the fight. View past newsletters here: https://bit.ly/APAJ_Newsletters . Back View PDF April 22, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen announced the end of the China Initiative. The 1,210 days of the Initiative were extremely damaging to individuals and their families, as well as the Asian American and scientific communities. The end of the China Initiative is a welcomed start to correct the harms it caused. APA Justice is committed to continue its work to address racial profiling and seek justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American communities. February 23, 2022 Table of Contents Overview Caught in the Crossfire Request for Release of DOJ Review Report Community Town Hall Racial Profiling Before and After The China Initiative Links and References Overview On February 23, 2022, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Matthew G. Olsen, announced the end of the “China Initiative,” a program that was meant to address economic espionage but morphed into disproportionately targeting Asian Americans and academic communities for administrative errors and harming academic freedom and open science. While we disagree with Olsen’s self-assessment that the DOJ did not find racial bias in China Initiative cases, we welcome the end of the ill-conceived initiative and DOJ’s openness to listen and respond to community concerns. The work to address racial profiling against Asian Americans is far from over; in fact, it is just beginning. The flawed China Initiative has caused immeasurable damage to victims, and eroded the trust and confidence Asian American and academic communities placed in law enforcement. We urge transparency and accountability going forward. APA Justice is committed to continuing our work on these important issues. Moving forward, we urge the DOJ, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), and federal funding agencies to engage in dialogue with Asian American and academic community leaders, be responsive to public Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and inquiries, and provide facts and data to support their policies and practices. We hope this is the beginning of real change to reduce systemic prejudice and bias and focus on legitimate national security threats. We are encouraged by the progress made by OSTP to develop and implement fair and consistent reporting requirements that will not “diminish our superpower of attracting global scientific talent” and not “fuel xenophobia against Asian Americans.” More needs to be done for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to be fully engaged with the Asian American and scientific communities. In addition to transparency, APA Justice strongly believes that the federal government must be held accountable for its misconduct and abuse of power. Unfortunately, DOJ has not provided remedies for the impacted communities to heal and regain trust in the government, or offered an apology or support to the scientists who were falsely charged and suffered tremendous damage personally and professionally. The aggressive prosecutions and investigations by the DOJ and FBI have had devastating effects for families, friends, colleagues, and community members. Congress and the public must hold our institutions accountable for misconduct and misguided policies. DOJ must work to rebuild trust with the people it serves, particularly the Asian American and academic communities. They have been terrorized over the past three plus years under the China Initiative. We were encouraged that the DOJ acknowledged the chilling effect across academia, and believe that by advancing transparency and accountability, the U.S. government will send a signal that America is indeed the shining beacon of freedom and justice for all. APA Justice thanks the tremendous support from members of Congress and community partners in civil rights and academia who have worked tirelessly to support the victims and advocate for changes to the China Initiative. APA Justice is committed to fostering the ecosystem to effectively address racial profiling concerns and advocate for justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American communities. Caught in the Crossfire On March 30, 2022, WHYNOT | 歪脑 produced a video titled Caught in the Crossfire for the third and final episode of its "Caught in the Crossfire" series. It followed the case of MIT professor Gang Chen, one of the most prominent scholars being charged under the China Initiative, to show how the program had subjected scientists to loyalty tests. During the China Initiative’s lifespan of three plus years, the focus gradually shifted to academia, targeting a number of researchers and professors with grant fraud charges. Among those who were charged under the initiative, nearly 90% were of Chinese heritage, and many of the cases involving research integrity have been dropped after lengthy and costly legal battles. Concerns about racial profiling were repeatedly refuted by the FBI and the DOJ even as the China Initiative came to an end. The video has three chapters: "We Are All Gang Chen" 我们都是陈刚 The "China Initiative" "中国行动计划"的前生今世 A Scientist's Loyalty 科学家为谁而忠诚 2022/03/30 WHYNOT: How the DOJ's China Initiative subjected scientists to loyalty tests (video 16:39) 2022/03/30 歪脑: 大国夹缝中：“中国行动计划”下科学家面临的忠诚拷问 (video 16:39) Request for Release of DOJ Review Report On March 8, 2022, APA Justice sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, requesting the release of a report on the Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) review of the “China Initiative.” Release of a report on the findings of the review is critically important to ease the broad concerns that the end of “China Initiative” is just in name but does not reflect a change in fact and substance. It is common for the government to produce a written report to memorialize an important review and usually includes the defined scope, issues examined, process and methodology used, findings, recommended changes, decisions, and plans for implementation. Community Town Hall On March 17, 2022, a virtual town hall meeting was held for community members to ask a panel of experts questions about the recent announcement from the Department of Justice to end the China Initiative. The meeting was convened by a coalition led by Advancing Justice | AAJC. It was not recorded. APA Justice issued the following statement for the town hall meeting: “Thank you, Advancing Justice | AAJC, for organizing this town hall. “The APA Justice Task Force fully supports the end of the ‘China Initiative.’ We appreciate the Department of Justice’s openness and willingness to engage, listen, and respond to community concerns. “Ending the “China Initiative” is a promising start to correct the harms caused by the initiative, apply lessons learned, and rebuild community trust and confidence that were lost in our law enforcement and judicial system. “But we emphasize that this is just a start. “We, like many other organizations and individuals, have broad concerns that the end of the initiative is just in name but does not reflect a change in fact and substance. “On March 8, we wrote to Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen and requested the public release of a report memorializing the findings of his review. We raised five basic questions, including the scope of his review, the new role for the National Security Division, the re-start of implicit bias training, the thoroughness of the thousands of existing prosecutions and investigations, and whether the review covered allegations of DOJ and FBI misconduct. “Mr. Olsen’s response will go a long way to help us move forward. We will stay vigilant and continue to stand up and speak out. Our mission is not complete. “We need our government and our university administrations to be transparent, accountable, and operate with fairness and integrity. “APA Justice will focus on three main areas moving forward. “We call for Congress to exercise its oversight role to hold law enforcement and federal agencies accountable. We thank the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) for its continuing leadership. “We fully support the initiative started by the Office of Science and Technology Policy to ensure that the new policies related to research security will not fuel xenophobia or prejudice. “We will urge university administrations to inform, assist, and protect their faculty members. Apply fair and due process. Do not cave and do not throw your faculty members under the bus. “The 1,210 days of the ‘China Initiative’ have been extremely damaging to individuals and their families, as well as the Asian American and scientific communities. “We sincerely hope that the end of the ‘China Initiative’ will bring real change, start the healing process, and rebuild the lost trust. We look forward to work with many of you in this important journey. Thank you.” Racial Profiling Before and After The China Initiative The China Initiative was not the first, nor will it be the last, racial profiling faced by the Asian Pacific American communities in the history of the United States. We are not a perfect nation. Although some progress is made, we must never cease to pursue the ideals and principles of the United States through continuous awareness, education, civic engagement, and holding the government accountable. Visit our Racial Profiling page to learn more about some of the recent history before the China Initiative was launched and the continuing developments and attempts to revive the China Initiative since its end in February 2022. Jump to: Overview Caught in the Crossfire Request for Release of DOJ Review Report Community Town Hall Racial Profiling Before and After The China Initiative Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen announced the end of the China Initiative. The 1,210 days of the Initiative were extremely damaging to individuals and their families, as well as the Asian American and scientific communities. The end of the China Initiative is a welcomed start to correct the harms it caused. APA Justice is committed to continue its work to address racial profiling and seek justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American communities. Previous Next 12. China Initiative Ends

Newsletter - #218 GSRA Makes Sweeping Section 702 Reforms; APEC Summit; Proposed H1-B Rule Change; More #218 GSRA Makes Sweeping Section 702 Reforms; APEC Summit; Proposed H1-B Rule Change; More In This Issue #218 · GSRA Introduced to Make Sweeping Section 702 Reforms · APEC Summit in San Francisco on November 11-17 · DHS Issues Proposed Rule to Modernize the H-1B Specialty Occupation Worker Program · News and Activities for the Communities GSRA Introduced to Make Sweeping Section 702 Reforms According to multiple media reports and statements, a bipartisan, bicameral bill was introduced on November 7, 2023, by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) that would rein in the U.S. surveillance state and significantly reform the laws the government uses to warrantlessly spy on Americans — including Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Known as The Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA), the 206-page bill would reauthorize Section 702 for four years.The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Tammy Baldwin , D-Wisc., Steve Daines , R-Mont., Mazie Hirono , D-Hawaii, Cynthia Lummis , R-Wy., Jon Tester , D-Mont., Elizabeth Warren , D-Mass., and Edward Markey , D-Mass.In the House, the bill is cosponsored by Reps. Andy Biggs , R-Ariz., Rep. Pramila Jayapal , D-Wash., Thomas Massie , R-Ky., Rep. Sara Jacobs , D-Calif., Rep. Nancy Mace , R-S.C., Rep. Judy Chu , D-Calif., Rep. Lloyd Doggett , D-Texas, Rep. Barbara Lee , D-Calif., Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., and Rep. Ted Lieu , D-Calif. The bill’s reforms include: · Protecting Americans from warrantless backdoor searches, ensuring that foreigners aren’t targeted as a pretext for spying on the Americans with whom they are communicating, and prohibiting the collection of domestic communications. · Extending similar reforms to surveillance activities under Executive Order 12333, including by limiting warrantless searches of Americans’ communications and prohibiting the targeting of foreigners as a pretext for surveilling Americans. It also limits the acquisition of Americans’ information as part of large datasets. · Requiring warrants for surveillance of Americans’ location data, web browsing and search records, including AI assistants like Alexa and Siri, vehicle data and by prohibiting the government from purchasing Americans’ data from data brokers. · Exceptions to ensure the government can continue to use Section 702 for defensive cybersecurity purposes, to assist in locating and rescuing hostages overseas and emergency provisions in cases where there isn’t sufficient time to get a warrant in advance. The bill has been endorsed by dozens of civil society organizations including Advancing Justice | AAJC, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) which are leading a coalition of Asian American organizations to oppose the renewal of Section 702 of FISA unless significant revisions are put into place. In addition, APA Justice supports an open letter to Congress prepared by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that individuals are urged to sign on: https://bit.ly/3EFkg3R .Additional coalition activities will be coming soon after the introduction of GSRA. Read the press statement by Senator Ron Wyden: https://bit.ly/3SxLn8V and watch the press conference: https://bit.ly/3u04gqS Links to some media reports and statements: · ACLU: Applauds Introduction of Bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act to Rein in Warrantless Government Surveillance · Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC: Calls the Government Surveillance Reform Act Much-Needed Reform to Curb Warrantless Government Surveillance of Asian Americans · Axios : Lawmakers unveil first bill to renew controversial surveillance program · Just Security : The Year of Section 702 Reform, Part IV: The Government Surveillance Reform Act · The Record : Bipartisan bill aims to have wide impact on federal surveillance efforts APEC Summit in San Francisco on November 11-17 The 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, also known as APEC, will be held in San Francisco on November 11-17, 2023. It was founded in Canberra, Australia, in 1989 as an informal dialogue forum to promote regional economic integration . APEC's members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. They represent about 38% of the global population. Their economies account for about 62% of global GDP and almost half of global trade.The APEC Summit will host these 21 member economies from the Pacific Rim regions, including President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping . According to Reuters on November 8, 2023, Presidents Biden and Xi are expected to hold summit talks as they seek to stabilize tense ties by meeting in-person for just the second time in nearly three years. Exact timing and other logistical details have not yet been formally announced.Visit https://www.apec2023sf.org/ for more information about the APEC Summit. It includes an External Stakeholder Events web page on a number of concurrent side events for broader public or targeted audience engagement that are organized by a wide variety of leading business, civil society, or nonprofit groups unaffiliated with the official APEC 2023 program or the United States Government. DHS Issues Proposed Rule to Modernize the H-1B Specialty Occupation Worker Program On October 20, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would modernize the H-1B specialty occupation worker program by streamlining eligibility requirements, improving program efficiency, providing greater benefits and flexibilities for employers and workers, and strengthening integrity measures. The period to submit written comments closes December 22, 2023: https://bit.ly/49mYwYJ . News and Activities for the Communities 1. APA Justice Community Calendar Upcoming Events: 2023/11/09 Quincy Institute: East Meets West Event 2023/11/09-12 NAPABA Convention2023/11/11 Association of Chinese Professionals 2023 MetroCon2023/11/12 Rep. Gene Wu's Weekly Town Hall Meeting2023/11/15 1990 Institute Media Narratives - Evaluating U.S.-China HeadlinesVisit https://bit.ly/45KGyga for event details. 2. 2023/11/09 Quincy Institute: East Meets West Event WHAT: East Meets West WHEN: Thursday, November 9, 8:30 am - 11:15 am Eastern TimeWHERE: Hybrid event; Union Station, 50 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DCHOST: Quincy InstituteDESCRIPTION: Unpacking U.S.-China relations in the lead up to the Biden-Xi meeting at APEC REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/3QsCtqN 3. 2023/11/15 Media Narratives - Evaluating U.S.-China Headlines WHAT: Media Narratives - Evaluating U.S.-China Headlines WHEN: Wednesday, November 15, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Eastern TimeWHERE: Virtual Teachers Workshop via ZoomHOST: The 1990 Institute SPEAKERS: · Kaiser Kuo, The China Project · Amy Qin, The New York Times · Bochen Han, South China Morning Post DESCRIPTION: The panel will delve into their first-hand experiences of their careers as journalists to highlight some of the complexities of news reporting in the context of U.S.-China relations. REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/49kn1Wc 4. 2023/11/18 Inaugural Jimmy Carter Conversation on U.S.-China Relations WHAT: In-person event: Inaugural Jimmy Carter Conversation on U.S.-China Relations WHEN: Saturday, November 18, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Pacific Time, reception and dinner to follow (note: email confirmation required for dinner yawei.liu@cartercenter.org ) WHERE: Del Santo Reading Room, Lone Mountain Main Building 270, University of San Francisco, 2820 Turk Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94118HOSTS: The Carter Center; University of San FranciscoSPEAKERS: · Max Baucus, Former U.S. Senator and Ambassador to China · Zoe Zongyuan Liu, Council on Foreign Relations · Orville Schell, Asia Society · Amy Celico, Albright Stonebridge Group · Ker Gibbs, University of San Francisco DESCRIPTION: Speakers will debate and discuss the legacy of U.S.-China relations and how to peacefully manage the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world. REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/40wINlD Back View PDF November 9, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

COVID-19 During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents soared, reinforcing misconceptions about Asian Americans and endangering their communities. THE NUMBERS estimated AAPI essential workers 2 million daily reported anti-AAPI hate incidents 100 anti-Asian hate incidents reported in first few months of 2020 > 2300 Recent developments House Resolution Condemns All Forms of Anti-Asian Sentiment Related to COVID-19 This is your News article. It’s a great place to highlight press coverage, newsworthy stories, industry updates or useful resources for visitors. CAPAC Issues Messaging Guidance on Anti-Asian Hate This is your News article. It’s a great place to highlight press coverage, newsworthy stories, industry updates or useful resources for visitors. Texas man accused of attacking Asian family over racist coronavirus fears pleads guilty to hate-crime charges This is your News article. It’s a great place to highlight press coverage, newsworthy stories, industry updates or useful resources for visitors. 2020 Ends With A Positive Story This is your News article. It’s a great place to highlight press coverage, newsworthy stories, industry updates or useful resources for visitors. More News Johns Hopkins University Unofficial Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The COVID Tracking Project An unofficial project on U.S. testing data. 1point3acres An unofficial website built and maintained by first-generation Chinese immigrants in the U.S. World Health Organization Daily situation reports produced by the World Health Organization. U.S. CDC Updates by the U.S. Center for Decease and Control (CDC). Tracking COVID Cases Stop AAPI Hate The Stop AAPI Hate website was launched on March 19, 2020 by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) and Chinese for Affirmation Action . By April 23, 2020, over 1,500 incidents have been reported to the website. By the end of March 2021, the number increased to over 6,600. Periodic analytical reports are produced by Dr. Russell Jeung, and Kai Nham, San Francisco State University Asian American Studies. Reporting Anti-Asian Hate Crimes and Incidents Stop AAPI Hate NYC Human Rights Racism is Contagious Act to Change Stand Against Hatred Coronavirus and Racism "There are serious concerns of a global pandemic, but the coronavirus (now called COVID-19 by the World Health Organization) has also reawakened centuries-old prejudices against Chinese people," John Pompret wrote recently in an opinion for the Washington Post . He went on to cite several historical examples of how anti-Chinese racism in the U.S. always hinged on the belief that Asians harbor disease, dating back to the 19th century. The title of a Wall Street Journal opinion on February 3 included a term "Sick Man of Asia" which is a century-old derogatory reference to persons of Chinese origin. It sparked strong reactions from the Chinese American community nationwide. "Something's not right here folks," Mario Cavolo, an American living in China, wrote in his LinkedIn blog as he looked at the disparate treatment and reaction to the 2009 H1N1 virus that started in the U.S. compared to the 2020 coronavirus in China. "This vicious, political, xenophobic racist attacks and smearing of all things China needs to stop," Cavolo concluded. Virus knows no borders. It is not an excuse for division, prejudice, fearmongering, or xenophobia here or elsewhere in the world. The risk of COVID-19 should obviously not be under-estimated. However, hate messages, baseless rumors, prejudice, conspiracy theories, uncontrolled emotions, panic and uninformed behavior cause far more damage than the coronavirus itself. "Whether in a couple of weeks or months later, this nasty flu type Corona virus will begin declining and the joy of Spring will arrive," Cavolo optimistically observed.