Newsletter - #88 Rep. Raskin Remarks; Cooley Steps Up; House Hearing; White Paper; UTK; Week of Action #88 Rep. Raskin Remarks; Cooley Steps Up; House Hearing; White Paper; UTK; Week of Action Back View PDF October 11, 2021 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #26 SupChina Video; Professor Ning Xi; UCA And APAPA On Newsweek; Chinese Student Visas #26 SupChina Video; Professor Ning Xi; UCA And APAPA On Newsweek; Chinese Student Visas Back View PDF November 6, 2020 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

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Newsletter - #348 Special Edition: Shutdown of Corporation of Public Broadcasting #348 Special Edition: Shutdown of Corporation of Public Broadcasting In This Issue #348 Special Edition: Shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Author: Madeleine Gable, APA Justice Communications Associate On July 24, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the GOP-backed Rescissions Act of 2025, cutting about $1.1 billion in previously approved funding allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) over the next two years. A week later, CPB President Patricia Harrison announced the organization would shut down, with most of its 100 employees leaving by the end of September. Despite widespread public opposition, including letters and petitions, the shutdown advances, threatening the future of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the National Public Radio (NPR), and hundreds of local stations nationwide, significantly impacting Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. What is the CPB? Established in 1967 under the Public Broadcasting Act, the CPB is a private nonprofit corporation supporting noncommercial, educational, and accessible broadcasting. Beyond funding PBS and NPR, the CPB provides support to over 1,500 local radio and TV stations. Many of the rural networks are the only broadcasting stations in the area.Former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act as part of Great Society legislation , initiatives intended to reduce poverty and promote social equity. Early broadcasters, often based at universities and land-grant schools, provided continuing education programs, which eventually expanded to include children’s programming, documentary films, and feature stories.The CPB allocates more than $400 million to over 500 public-media organizations nationwide. In particular, its funding has a much greater impact on stations that serve local communities than it does on PBS and NPR. In fact, the CPB funds 15% of the budget for PBS and only 1% of the budget for NPR. The vast majority of the CPB’s funds are allocated directly to local TV and radio stations, and 31% of the CPB’s grants were allocated directly to rural networks in 2023. According to CPB analysis, more than half of the rural stations it supported relied on federal funding for at least 25% of their budget. Consequences of the Shutdown At its inception, the CPB was designed to ensure nonpartisanship by creating a degree of separation between its operations and the lawmakers responsible for approving the annual federal budget. Recently, the CPB, and especially NPR and PBS, have garnered criticism for alleged liberal bias. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene vehemently called for the defunding of the CPB because NPR and PBS had become “echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy white urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America.” On Truth Social in April, President Donald Trump referred to NPR and PBS as “radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country.” 1. Loss of Local/Rural Representation and Voice Both Rep. Greene and President Trump’s statements underscore the irony of shuttering the CPB. The shutdown would hit rural, low-income areas hardest, places where local stations are often the sole source of essential information, leaving these communities at a significant disadvantage. With the loss of funding, smaller, public radio stations will be forced to rely more heavily on national programming, thereby reducing the diversity of perspectives on the air. As Emily Cohen , station manager of KHOL in Jackson, Wyoming, observed , “If you take away the funding that’s supporting local coverage, it could potentially make polarization worse.”Such smaller, rural broadcasting stations include Allegheny Mountain Radio (AMR), a network of three radio stations in West Virginia and Virginia that serve as the area’s only broadcasters. Located within the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000 square-mile region where airwaves are restricted due to a nearby radio telescope, AMR operates at a frequency low enough to avoid interference. More than 60% of its annual budget is funded by the CPB; any reduction in this funding would seriously harm residents who may otherwise lose access to local broadcasting. Josh Shepperd , associate professor at the University of Colorado, suggests “20% of the country is effectively going to lose any concept of itself as a place within the next 10 years without public media.” He added local communities are “all going to have national ideology on the local level, and no local memory and no local experience.” 2. Reduced Access to Critical Information and Services Importantly, the shutdown of the CPB will severely dampen the efficacy of local alert systems, endangering the lives of those who rely on local broadcasting systems for emergency messages. In rural communities that lack reliable internet, radio is often a more effective means of disseminating emergency alerts. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has the ability to send emergency messages directly to people’s cellphones, radio stations can cover a larger geographical area and are more reliable than cell towers.In the Permian Basin in southwest Texas, radio is often the only outlet available to provide residents with emergency information in times of natural disaster. Marfa Public Radio and KPBT-TV (also known as Basin PBS) are two of the stations that primarily serve this area. 30% of Marfa Public Radio’s budget is funded by the CPB, while 48% of KPBT-TV’s comes from the CPB. Directors of both of these stations have expressed their concerns about continuing to operate as their budgets must now be fully funded by donors.Mendocino-based NPR member station KZYX in California serves roughly 130,000 listeners. Andre de Channes , KZYX’s general manager and director of operations, worried about fire safety as the station provides service to many off-the-grid rural areas without access to internet or cell service. Residents of those areas rely primarily on KZYX for emergency information. KZYX has lost 25% of its operating budget. 3. Impact on Cultural Programming In addition to limited diversity of programming and reduced access to critical information and services, the shutdown of the CPB will also profoundly impact cultural programming, particularly because local stations broadcast the majority of such content. Jack Jones is the acting station manager of KGVA, a tribal radio station on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in northern Montana, which receives 85% of its funding from the CPB. Much of the rest of its funding is allocated by the reservation’s college, which also faces a severe funding crisis. According to Jones, KGVA daily broadcasts feature educational programming, words of the day in Aaniiih and Nakota languages, interviews with tribal elders, Native American drum groups, and local high school basketball games. Republican Senator from South Dakota Mike Rounds noted that tribal radio stations are crucial for "delivering critical emergency alerts and public safety information.” Jones remains concerned that the shutdown of the CPB will deprive listeners of both vital cultural programming and essential public safety information. Loris Taylor , President and CEO of Native Public Media, warned that the “cost of silence” from shuttering tribal radio stations also includes the loss of emergency alerting capabilities and the collapse of civic engagement coverage. Perhaps most importantly, Taylor says defunding tribal stations "turns off a pathway to participation, representation, and leadership for Native youth.” The CPB shutdown also threatens the more than 1,000 public radio stations that play independent music, as the CPB funding often covers all music licensing fees for public radio stations. Without that funding, public radio stations would have to renegotiate those deals individually. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher recently estimated that 96% of all classical music broadcast in the U.S. is on public radio stations. Impact on AANHPI Communities 1. Cultural Programming at Risk Beyond local stations, CPB funding also supports national and digital platforms that amplify AANHPI voices.To celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month in 2024, the CPB published a comprehensive guide to its programming exploring and celebrating the history and culture of AANHPI individuals and communities. Examples include PBS’s “ The Composer is Yoo ” and Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story , Dear Corky , WORLD’s “ Chinatown Auxiliary ” and In Search of Bengali Harlem , NPR’s Tiny Desk Japan and Tiny Desk Korea , and PBS’s five part documentary series Asian Americans .Other PBS stations offering extensive, culturally rich programming about Asian Americans include PBS Hawai’i , KQED , and PBS SoCal . The latter aired “ Snapshots of Confinement ,” a locally-produced documentary chronicling the experiences of Japanese Americans at internment camps during World War II.Other radio and online platforms uplifting AANHPI voices include NPR Live Sessions , Seattle’s KEXP , LAist Studios and NPR’s Inheriting , StoryCorps , and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting . 2. Arts and Story Telling The Serica Initiative , a nonprofit in New York City, raises awareness of the Asian diaspora in America through storytelling, dialogue, and the power of convening. According to CEO and founder Anla Cheng , a key partner of Serica's is The WNET Group in New York and a past recipient of CPB funds. Together, Serica and ALL ARTS — the arts and culture hub created by The WNET Group — have co-produced a series of short videos highlighting the impact of AAPIs; most recently, their series " Climate Artists " (which featured artists centering climate change and sustainability in their work, including architect and designer Maya Lin ) was nominated for three NY Emmy Awards; a fourth Emmy nomination was for their video " Voices Rising: What's Next for Asian Americans in the Arts? ", which was also co-produced with ALL ARTS and featured such speakers as playwright David Henry Hwang (Golden Child, Yellow Face) as well as actors Rosalind Chao (Three Body Problem) and BD Wong (Jurassic Park, Law & Order: SUV). Cheng highlighted that reductions in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) funding, academic research grants, and resources supporting AAPI communities will have far-reaching effects throughout the entire community. She also emphasized that the willingness to support one another remains stronger than ever, with emotional and creative contributions often being just as valuable as financial support, making the phrase “Collectively, We are Stronger” a reality. 3. Asian American Films and Festivals Two of the country’s largest Asian American Film Festivals, CAAMFest and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, also risk losing a significant portion of their funding. CAAM , the Center for Asian American Media, originated through the efforts of Loni Ding and others to secure funding from the CPB to create the National Asian American Telecommunications Association in 1980, later renamed CAAM. CAAMFest, an offshoot of CAAM, debuted in 1982 as the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival before adopting its current name in 2013. Since then, it has been held annually, except in 1985. According to Grace Yu of the 1990 Institute , CAAM remains the primary organization recognized by the CPB representing Asian Americans. CAAM’s Executive Director Don Young warned that the group faces a major financial crisis following President Trump’s funding cuts, which threaten 40% of its total budget. While the most severe restrictions were not applied directly to the film festival, they will significantly disrupt CAAM’s core work of funding, producing, distributing, and showcasing film, television, and other digital media. The festival itself is not the main target of the cuts, but it remains vulnerable to their ripple effects.Young underscored the importance of documentary filmmaking as a “fundamental influence to help the Asian American community discover our voice and to provide greater shared understanding of Asian America to the broader public.” Despite the financial strain, Young reaffirmed that “CAAM’s commitment to storytelling for the public good, and not corporate profits, will continue,” with an emphasis on public media, sustainability, and innovation. Similarly, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival forecasts it will lose 10-20% of its funding, much of which stems from the National Endowment of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the CPB. Francis Cuillado , executive director at Visual Communications, noted that their archive will bear the greatest impact. The archive works to “preserve and digitize film, photographs and other media” in order to create a freely accessible library. Presented by Visual Communications, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival first debuted in 1983 and has presented over 5,000 films, videos, and digital mediaworks by Asian and Pacific Islander artists. The festival also features seminars, panels, and in-person guest appearances.With the imminent shutdown, all of the above programming faces significant disruption or cancellation. Even organizations not directly affected will feel the loss of a broader network, frequent collaborators, and reliable source material, further hindering the production and dissemination of Asian American programming. Economic and Employment Impact The CPB shutdown will also significantly impact employment and local economies. The CPB estimates nearly 6,000 people are employed by rural stations that it supports. All of those employees face the risk of severe pay cuts due to the shutdown, in addition to the threat of losing their jobs.As Montana’s KGVA stands to lose $100,000 in funding, station manager Jack Jones plans to phase out all programming that requires someone in the studio, cutting the station’s budget down to just $30,000 for licensing fees and station upkeep. Jones says he plans to “start letting people go” as salaries are their largest expense. KGVA only employs one part-time worker, a summer disc jockey. When The New Yorker journalist Oliver Whang noted that Jones himself was the only other employee who could be let go, Jones paused, then quipped “yeah.” "The Race to Rescue PBS and NPR Stations" According to the New York Times on August 19, 2025, philanthropists from the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced they have committed $26.5 million to support the most at-risk public radio and TV stations. In their definition, these stations include those who have historically received more than 30% of their support from the CPB. They hope to reach $50 million for the Public Media Bridge Fund by the end of this year through additional fundraising. According to Maribel Pérez Wadsworth , president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, philanthropy could not provide a substitute for the federal funding in the long term. A broad overhaul of the public radio system is needed, and many stations will need to merge or pool their resources to save costs. Additional Resources 2025/08/07 The New Yorker: What Happens to Public Media Now? https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/what-happens-to-public-media-now 2025/08/06 Christian Science Monitor: As Corporation for Public Broadcasting shuts down, what will that mean on airwaves? https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2025/0806/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-npr-pbs 2025/08/05 Forbes: Will NPR And PBS Go Away? How CPB Shutting Down Affects Them https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/2025/08/05/will-npr-and-pbs-go-away-how-cpb-shutting-down-affects-them/ About the author: Madeleine Gable is a junior at New York University, studying International Relations, Economics, and Chinese. She will spend the upcoming fall semester at NYU Shanghai and has been working with APA Justice since October 2024. News and Activities for the Communities 1. APA Justice Community Calendar Upcoming Events: 2025/09/06 The 2025 Asian American Youth Symposium2025/09/08 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2025/09/08 Committee of 100 Conversations – “Recollections, Pioneers and Heroes” with Janet Yang2025/09/09 China Connections — Chinese Encounters with America: Profiles of Changemakers Who Shaped China2025/09/16-17 2025 AANHPI Unity Summit2025/09/23 Committee of 100: Is Deglobalization Inevitable?Visit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details. 2. C100: Is Deglobalization Inevitable? On September 23, 2025, the Committee of 100 and the Foreign Policy Association will co-host a keynote fireside chat and debate on the topic of "Is Deglobalization Inevitable?" Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia University will open with a fireside chat on the evening’s central issue, followed by a lively debate between two leading experts: Walden Bello , Professor, State University of New York at Binghamton and Kyoto University (and credited with coining the term “deglobalization”), and Professor Edward Ashbee, Professor, Copenhagen Business School. They will present opposing views in a traditional debate format—opening statements, rebuttals, and closing remarks. Peter Young, Committee of 100 Member and Board Member, CEO of Young & Partners, will serve as moderator. The in-person event at the Yale Club of New York City is by invitation only. The virtual invitation is open to the public; register to attend at https://bit.ly/3Jnwi7z Contact events@committee100.org for more information. # # # 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 August 21, 2025 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

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

August 26, 2018 On August 26, 2018, CBS 60 Minutes rebroadcast " Collateral Damage " nationwide with updates on the stories of Sherry Chen and Professor Xiaoxing Xi. Bill Whitaker reported on these and other innocent Chinese Americans wrongly accused of espionage-related crimes as the U.S. steps up the fight against Chinese theft of U.S. trade secrets and intellectual property. 60 Minutes Overtime, titled " The Spy Who Wasn't, " further describes that "[a]s innocent Chinese Americans are being accused as spies, the impact on them and their families lasts far beyond the legal fees and dropped charges." Sherry Chen and Professor Xiaoxing Xi are not the only Asian American victims of racial discrimination in U.S. history . Collateral damage for Chinese American scientists is also not a recent occurrence by chance. The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers beginning in 1882. Subsequent amendments expanded the exclusion to all Asians. It was one of the most explicitly discriminatory laws based on race and national origin in U.S. history. The Chinese Exclusion Act and its amendments were not repealed until 1943. More on the Chinese Exclusion Act is available here . During the Second World War, about 120,000 Japanese were interned under Executive Order 9066, about two thirds of them were native-born American citizens. Most of them were uprooted from their homes in the West Coast and sent to relocation centers for suspicion of disloyalty to the United States. Previous Next The Profiling of Asian Americans

Senator Mark Warner, Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has urged FBI Director Christopher Wray to "hold biannual meetings with national leaders of Chinese American and Asian American organizations." April 2, 2020 On April 2, 2020, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and urged him to "hold biannual meetings with national leaders of Chinese American and Asian American organizations regarding issues of importance to those communities as you work to counter the foreign intelligence threat from the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC)." On May 29, 2020, the Assistant Director of the FBI Office of Congressional Affairs replied with this letter to Senator Warner. A previous meeting between the Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division and Asian American leaders was cited as productive in the letter. The background and context of the December 7, 2018 meeting is available here . Senator Mark Warner, Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has urged FBI Director Christopher Wray to "hold biannual meetings with national leaders of Chinese American and Asian American organizations." Previous Next Senator Warner Letter to FBI Director Wray

Newsletter - #139 Special Edition on the Campaign to Oppose the Nomination of Mr. Casey Arrowood #139 Special Edition on the Campaign to Oppose the Nomination of Mr. Casey Arrowood Back View PDF August 24, 2022 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

On January 5, 2021, a coalition of organizations and individuals wrote to President-elect Joe Biden, requesting him to end the China Initiative and take steps to combat racial profiling. Two weeks later, the indictment of MIT Professor Gang Chen ignited the “We Are All Gang Chen” movement. Between September 2020 and June 2021, five organizations partnered to produce a series of five educational webinars to raise nationwide awareness about the China Initiative. January 5, 2021 Table of Contents Overview “We are All Gang Chen” AAJC Delivered 30,000 Signatures to The White House Education Webinar Series to Raise Awareness Partners of the Webinar Series Links and References Overview On January 5, 2021, a group of community organizations, advocacy groups, science associations, and individuals sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging the incoming administration to end the Justice Department’s “China Initiative” and take further steps to combat the pervasive racial bias and targeting of Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists, researchers, and students by the federal government. Among the signatories are people who have been directly impacted by the government’s unjust prosecutions of Asian Americans. The letter, spearheaded by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliation, Brennan Center for Justice, and APA Justice Task Force, denounces the “China Initiative” for discriminatory investigations and prosecutions of Asian Americans and Asian immigrants, particularly those of Chinese descent working in fields of science. Many of the investigations and prosecutions under this initiative target people with any “nexus to China” rather than on evidence of economic espionage as it purports to do, which has revealed a sharp rise in the profiling and targeting of Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists and researchers. Even after not finding any evidence of espionage, federal prosecutors are charging many Asian Americans and Asian immigrants with federal crimes based on administrative errors or minor offenses such as failing to disclose information to universities or research institutions and other activities under the pretext of combating economic espionage. As a result, Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists, researchers, and scholars are ensnared by overzealous prosecutions riddled with racial bias that are ruining careers and leaving lives in shambles. The letter includes a set of recommendations, which first calls for an immediate end to the “China Initiative” and a complete review of all prosecutions and investigations closed prior to prosecution under the initiative. It also urges the incoming administration to review and take measures throughout the Federal Government’s law enforcement, intelligence, and scientific research funding agencies to combat other patterns of racial bias against Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists and federal employees. The letter and list of organizations and individuals that signed on can be found here . “This latest wave of xenophobia against Asian Americans and Asian immigrants follows a long history of Asian Americans and immigrants being stereotyped as “perpetual foreigners,” scapegoated, and profiled as spies disloyal to the United States,” said John C. Yang, Advancing Justice – AAJC’s president and executive director. “Individual cases of wrongful arrests and prosecutions of Asian American scientists and researchers along with racial rhetoric from public officials reveal that racial bias exists and has translated into real harm for the Asian American community.” "Basing criminal investigations on national origin and Chinese ancestry is unconstitutional and a waste of resources," said Glenn Katon, Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus Director of Litigation. "When the government prosecutes scientists and researchers simply so public officials can look tough, no one is made safer. The Biden administration has the chance to protect Asian Americans and Asian immigrants across this country - they should take it." "Racial profiling has proven to be an ineffective, divisive, and counterproductive law enforcement tactic, and yet the Justice Department inexplicably still promotes its use through programs like the ‘China Initiative'," said Brennan Center fellow Michael German, a former FBI agent. "Pressuring all U.S. Attorneys' Offices to initiate 'China Initiative' cases compels racial, ethnic, and national origin profiling, which undermines our security and the rule of law by targeting investigations based on a person's 'nexus to China' rather than evidence of serious wrongdoing." "Foreign-born scientists of Chinese origin have been an integral part of American innovation and global leadership. Our nation can protect our scientific and research security and successfully compete in the global marketplace for international scientific talent, but not by overzealous, xenophobic targeting of top talents that ruins lives and drives them to foreign countries that have been trying to recruit them unsuccessfully," said Professor Steven Pei, a leader for the APA Justice Task Force. “We Are All Gang Chen” On January 20, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the indictment of renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Gang Chen 陈刚 for failing to disclose contracts, appointments and awards from various entities in the People’s Republic of China to the U.S. Department of Energy. The case stirred controversy from the start, when then-U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling unveiled the charges at a news conference in Boston on the last full day of the Trump administration. “It is not illegal to collaborate with foreign researchers. It’s illegal to lie about it,” Lelling said. “The allegations in the complaint imply that this was not just about greed, but about loyalty to China.” The indictment of Professor Gang Chen galvanized the Asian American and scientific communities and started the “We Are All Gang Chen” movement. Exactly one year later on January 20, 2022, Judge Patti Saris approved the government's motion to dismiss all charges against Professor Chen. Continuing the “We Are Gang Chen” movement, the Asian American Scholar Forum was founded in 2022 as a nonprofit organization to represent a community of Asian Americans and scholars who are united to promote academic belonging, openness, freedom, and equality for all by bringing their unique perspective, expertise, and concerns of Asian American and immigrant scholars directly to courtrooms, newsrooms, universities, federal agencies, the halls of Congress, and the White House. This is a presentation in Professor Chen’s own words on his experience and lessons learned about the absurdity of the wrongful prosecution: 2022 GangChenSlides .pdf Download PDF • 1.59MB AAJC Delivered 30,000 Signatures to The White House On April 9, 2021, Asian American Advancing Justice | AAJC delivered a petition signed by 29,318 people to the White House, urging President Joe Biden to put an end to the racial profiling of Asian Americans and Asian immigrants and end the Justice Department’s “China Initiative.” Education Webinar Series to Raise Awareness From September 2020 to June 2021, five organizations partnered to produce a series of five educational webinars to raise awareness of a growing number of federal investigations and prosecutions targeting Chinese Americans, Chinese immigrants, and Chinese nationals in the U.S. particularly scientists and researchers under the umbrella of the China Initiative. The webinar series examined the ramifications of the "China Initiative" on the civil rights and security of Chinese Americans, Chinese immigrants, and Chinese Nationals working in the U.S., as well as the consequences for the broader American society. 2020/09/30 First Webinar: The Human and Scientific Costs of The "China Initiative ” (video 1:00:15) 2020/12/02 Second Webinar: Policy Needs for U.S. Science and Scientists (video 1:13:35) 2021/02/24 Third Webinar: Building Coalition Against “China Initiative” Discrimination: Fighting racial targeting of Asian Americans and communities of color, past & present (video 1:16:13) 2021/04/28 Fourth Webinar: Legal Resources and Policy Advocacy: How to Combat Racial Profiling Under the “China Initiative" (video 1:05:36) 2021/06/23 Fifth Webinar: The Mistrial of Professor Anming Hu under the "China Initiative" (video 1:12:52) Partners of the Webinar Series Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) advocates for an America which all Americans can benefit equally from, and contribute to, the American dream. Our mission is to advance the civil and human rights for Asian Americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all. Advancing Justice | AAJC is a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1991 in Washington, D.C. The APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem to address racial profiling issues and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian American community. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary, defend – our country's systems of democracy and justice. Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA) is a non-profit and non-partisan organization with a diverse membership representing all communities throughout the nation. It strives to inspire, engage, and empower the public about public policy and how to foster future leaders from minority communities to serve at federal, state, and local levels in the government. United Chinese Americans (UCA) has been a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization since 2017. It is a national federation with 12 chapters and over 30 community partners. The UCA is to enrich and empower Chinese American communities through civic participation, political engagement, youth education and development, preservation of heritage and culture, promoting a better understanding between the United States and China, for the well-being of our community, our country, and our world. Jump to: Overview “We are All Gang Chen” AAJC Delivered 30,000 Signatures to The White House Education Webinar Series to Raise Awareness Partners of the Webinar Series On January 5, 2021, a coalition of organizations and individuals wrote to President-elect Joe Biden, requesting him to end the China Initiative and take steps to combat racial profiling. Two weeks later, the indictment of MIT Professor Gang Chen ignited the “We Are All Gang Chen” movement. Between September 2020 and June 2021, five organizations partnered to produce a series of five educational webinars to raise nationwide awareness about the China Initiative. Previous Next 6. Letter to President-Elect Biden to End China Initiative

Chinese Americans are increasingly finding themselves targeted by the US in what has become the new "Red Scare." August 27, 2019 On August 27, 2019, the South China Morning Post reported on the current state of fear of a new "Red Scare" and the fight including APA Justice against the targeting of Chinese Americans. "As more Chinese Americans find themselves targeted in the increasingly bitter stand-off between Beijing and Washington, legislators, community groups and legal experts are pushing back in hopes of sending a message that enough is enough," the report said. "The US has arrested scientists of Chinese origin on industrial espionage and other charges, and multiple times the cases have been dropped for lack of evidence." "Chinese-Americans readily acknowledge that Beijing targets people of Chinese descent and that the US has every right to defend itself. But a disproportionate number of recent cases end up snaring innocent people targeted through racial profiling, eroding constitutional guarantees and wreaking havoc with individual lives and the community’s reputation." "Many scientists and academics of Chinese descent also end up accused of such violations as using pornography, cheating on expenses or making inaccurate disclosures to investigators when prosecutors fail to find evidence of links to China... There’s more collateral damage than protecting against espionage." "There are some legitimate concerns, but they are inflated, and Chinese Americans are being demonised. They’re collateral damage, like children caught in a broken marriage..." Ongoing efforts call for greater accountability over the security establishment, raising public awareness, continuing to promote understanding and dialogue, building community unity and coalitions, providing training, and taking legal actions against discrimination and wrongful arrest." Read the entire report here . Chinese Americans are increasingly finding themselves targeted by the US in what has become the new "Red Scare." Previous Next Activists Including APA Justice Resist New "Red Scare"

Newsletter - #236 Year of The Dragon; Alien Land Laws; Section 702; US Heartland China Association; More #236 Year of The Dragon; Alien Land Laws; Section 702; US Heartland China Association; More In This Issue #236 · The Year of The Dragon Has Arrived · Updates on Alien Land Laws in FL, GA, and More · New Warrantless Surveillance Bill Introduced in Congress · US Heartland China Association · News and Activities for the Communities The Year of The Dragon Has Arrived February 10 was New Year Day for the Year of the Dragon with celebrations across the U.S. and the world. The sighting of a dragon was reportedly captured in a video in Singapore, but locals later claimed with tongue in cheek that the dragon is around all year and stays at a hotel named after it. When did the Chinese calendar start? According to Wikipedia , it depends on when the origin of a particular calendar era is chosen. This is Year 4722 if you go by the first reign of the Yellow Emperor ( Huángdì 黄帝 ). Updates on Alien Land Laws in FL, GA, and More On February 1, 2024, The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted the enforcement of Florida’s alien land law, known as SB 264, against two Chinese immigrants who have challenged the statute in court. On very short notice, Clay Zhu (DeHeng Law Offices), Ashley Gorski (ACLU), and Patrick Toomey (ACLU) of the legal team spoke at the APA Justice monthly meeting on February 5, 2024. They provided updates on the ruling for the ongoing lawsuit which was filed after Florida passed SB 264 last May. The legal team, including the ACLU, ACLU of Florida, DeHeng Law Offices PC, AALDEF, and Quinn Emanuel, swiftly challenged the Florida state law in May. Despite the District Court judge initially rejecting their motion for a preliminary injunction, the legal team appealed to the Court of Appeals last August, seeking an expedited process due to the harm caused by the state law.The legal team is grateful for the decision that was issued. It prevents Florida from enforcing SB 264 against two of the plaintiffs. It is a very good sign because the court’s reasoning was that the plaintiffs are substantially likely to prevail on their argument that Florida's law is preempted by federal law.There is already a federal statute that regulates real estate purchases that potentially implicate national security, the court said. Under the Constitution, the federal law controls and for that reason the Florida law is very likely unconstitutional. The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in support of the preliminary injunction in the US District Court in June 2023. The adopted legal theory, if it is embraced ultimately by the Appeals Court, is one that could reach many other people who are contending with the hardships posed by SB 264. Oral arguments are scheduled in Miami the week of April 15. Florida Asian American Justice Alliance (FAAJA) has been leading a broad, diverse coalition to hold rallies against SB264. Concerned organizations have also submitted amicus briefs.The legal team's talk is included in this partial summary of the February 5 APA Justice monthly meeting: https://bit.ly/3uuhm0b . For more information about alien land bills, visit https://bit.ly/43epBcl Georgia Introduces Alien Land Bill HB 1093 According to LegiScan, House Bill (HB) 1093 , was introduced by six Republicans in the Georgia legislature on January 31, 2024.A hearing was held by the Georgia House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee on February 9, 2024. Ben Lynde , ACLU of Georgia Policy Counsel, testified on HB 1093, a bill that would exclude certain non-citizens from buying agricultural land in Georgia. He said, "HB 1093 represents a new law that recalls similar efforts over the past to weaponize false claims of National Security against Asian immigrants and other marginalized communities. It is very difficult for me now as a veteran and lover of History to recall the horrors I felt in high school when I learned about bills like the Chinese Exclusion laws and alien land acts to see my state government trying to do similar laws... In the early 1900s, politicians from across this country used similar justifications to pass alien land laws and prohibit Chinese and Japanese immigrants from becoming land owners. These racist policies not only hurt immigrant families financially at that time but also severely exasperated violence, discrimination against Asian communities living in the United States... Regardless of the concerns which I do understand about where we got to the bill today, I don't want to have a discriminatory practice of the past being codified in Georgia law... Property ownership by certain noncitizens as a threat to National Security is a baseless claim with no evidence that they are causing harm... Members of the Asian communities are experiencing historic highs in discrimination and hate crimes in the modern discourse now... The Florida law has been enjoined by the 11th Circuit Court that will also hear this law if it is passed by Georgia... We just hope that you will reject this bill today or when this bill comes up for a vote. Thank you very much for your time." Time was not adequate for all who wished to speak at the hearing. Those who spoke in opposition to the bill included Koreans, Vietnamese, Latinos, and whites. The bill was not advanced to the next step of the process, pending on further discussion and negotiation. Watch a video of Ben Lydne's testimony at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya9zGuzHOMg (2:57). The Committee of 100 tracks federal and state alien land bills and maintains an interactive map at: https://bit.ly/3Hxta4B USDA Status Report on Foreign Investments in US Land Micah R. Brown, Staff Attorney of the National Agricultural Law Center at the US Department of Agriculture, gave a presentation on the history and current developments in anti-foreign land ownership laws to the SB 147 Roundtable. The presentation covers: · Historical context on how state laws vary widely without a generalized or uniform approach and how they developed unevenly at five different “political flashpoints” over ensuing decades/centuries including the period of 2021 to the present, · Current proposals in Congress to seek to control, prohibit, restrict, or increase oversight on foreign investments in U.S. agriculture, · Enactment of alien land law SB 383 in Arkansas; preliminary injunction against SB 264 in Florida, and Missouri Governor John Ashcroft ’s Executive Order 24-01 Read the presentation: https://bit.ly/49ve4IX CAPAC Denounces Efforts to Ban Chinese Immigrants from Owning Land in the U.S. On February 8, 2024, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) held a virtual press conference about the recent resurgence of land laws that would prohibit Chinese immigrants from purchasing or owning property in the United States, following a federal appeals court's temporary injunction. In the ruling, a federal judge noted that it violates the 14th amendment’s protection against discrimination. CAPAC members denounced the Republican-led attempts to restrict land ownership that are being pushed in Congress and in state legislatures across the nation, and they will uplift legislation aimed at stopping these efforts from moving forward. CAPAC has cautioned against history repeating itself through laws that ban land or property ownership based on an individual’s country of origin. For more information, contact Graeme Crews , (202) 597-2923 (Rep. Judy Chu) or Jordan Goldes , (202) 308-9691 (Rep. Grace Meng) New Warrantless Surveillance Bill Introduced in Congress According to The Hill on February 12, House Republicans unveiled a new package for reauthorizing and reforming the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on noncitizens located abroad, is set to expire in April after a short-term extension.Monday’s text more closely aligns with the original proposal from the House Intelligence Committee over that of its Judiciary competitor, focusing on more reforms at the FBI to address misuse of the powerful spy tool. It does not include Judiciary’s hope for a warrant requirement — something deemed a red line for the intelligence community but nonetheless a top priority for privacy advocates in Congress.Though FISA 702 only allows the government to surveil foreigners, their communications with Americans are often swept up in the process, creating a database found to be misused by the FBI, which has already undertaken a number of reforms amid criticism.To privacy champions and advocates, a warrant is the only way to protect Americans’ rights. Complicating the bill’s consideration further are reports from Politico it may be partially considered during a closed session. “Make no mistake: a secret session is completely unnecessary. National security legislation is openly debated in every Congress. There have only been 6 secret sessions in the House since 1812,” Elizabeth Goitein , co-director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice, wrote on X. “Secret law is anathema to democracies, and making law in secret is the next worst thing. Open debate is a core feature of our democratic system. But intelligence committee leaders prefer to work in the shadows because it gives them a strategic advantage.”Read The Hill report: https://bit.ly/3SYnvuU . US Heartland China Association Min Fan 范敏 , Executive Director of the US Heartland China Association (USHCA), introduced USHCA and described its mission and activities during the APA Justice monthly meeting on February 5, 2024.USHCA was started by the late Senator Adlai Stevenson , Illinois; it is almost 20 years old originally under the name of Midwest-US China Association. Bob Holden , former Governor of Missouri, is current Chair of USHCA. USHCA is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization. It does not lobby.USHCA is funded by American sources including membership dues, Heartland community supporters, private donations, grants from private foundations, corporate sponsors, and contributions from state governmental agencies.Through organizing people-to-people exchanges in culture, education, and business, USHCA promotes a stable and productive US-China relationship to protect and advance the interests of the American Heartland so that: · Farmers in the Heartland can continue to expand our exports to China. · Educational institutions in the Heartland can remain competitive and continue to attract the best talent from around the world, including China, · Companies headquartered in the Heartland can remain competitive in the global economy by continuing to do business in and sell products to China. · The Heartland community and leaders have the resources to better understand and engage with China. · Heartland students can have the opportunities to develop a global mindset through learning about the Chinese language and culture. There are a lot of bridges to the world. Where bridges exist, communities flourish. USHCA has a bi-partisan network of many former governors, ambassadors, and local officials. USHCA works with them to build community connections. In 2020, in the depth of the pandemic, USHCA was one of the first NGOs that brought people from the US and China together via Zoom to talk about education, public health, and development programs that are in the best interest of the Heartland community. Min sees some hesitation on both sides. The Chinese side is worried about being locked up in a small black room in the customs office. The US side is worried about being held hostage in China. There is fear and the other side looks strange after no exchanges for three years.USHCA believes that bringing back exchanges is very important. It received support from the Ford Foundation and the Luce Foundation to promote Yangtze River and Mississippi River city-to-city exchange on energy transition, climate change, and green economy. Six mayors coming from five different states in the Heartland visited Hong Kong, Wuhan, Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai.Min said there are politicians whose mindset is shut. There are also elected officials who are curious and interested in learning. The communities have a role to play.Her presentation is available here: https://bit.ly/3HTc5Cu . Her talk is included in this partial summary of the February APA Justice monthly meeting: https://bit.ly/3uuhm0b Muscatine, Iowa, Celebrates Lunar New Year According to several local reports , Muscatine and China celebrate almost four decades of friendship with Lunar New Year Celebration on February 9, 2024.The events featured performances from Chinese students, videos documenting Muscatine and China’s shared history, and speeches from local, national, and international ambassadors.“There’s probably not all positive rapport with China from some leaders. But we just want to get more people here so they can see the people and see the traditions,” said Sarah Lande, one of the local diplomats on the state of current Chinese-American diplomatic relations. Terry Branstad , former Iowa Governor and US Ambassador to China, commented in the event, "I think the more people get to know each other... the more they gain friendship and trust in each other and that can be good for both of our countries... We are the two largest economies in the world... if we can find ways to get along and work together... it benefits the whole world." People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping visited Iowa and stayed with Sarah Lande's home in Muscatine back in 1985. He has remained friends with several Iowans since. News and Activities for the Communities 1. APA Justice Community Calendar Upcoming Events: 2024/02/13-15 Senior Executives Association Senior Executive Leadership Summit2024/02/13 WHI: Advancing Educational Equity for AA and NHPI Students2024/02/13 Committee of 100: The Career Ceiling Challenges in Journalism 2024/02/27 President's Advisory Commission on AA and NHPIs Meeting and Solicitation for Oral and Written Comments2024/02/28 WHI: Community Engagement EventVisit https://bit.ly/45KGyga for event details. 2. Asian American Identity: At the Intersection of Perpetual Foreigner and Pop Culture Trendsetter WHAT: Asian American Identity: At the Intersection of Perpetual Foreigner and Pop Culture Trendsetter WHEN: March 6, 2024, 4:00 pm Pacific Time/7:00 pm Eastern Time (90 minutes) WHERE: Virtual Workshop HOST: 1990 Institute SPEAKERS: · Neil Ruiz, Head of New Research Initiatives, Pew Research Center · Ziyao Tian, Research Associate, Pew Research Center · Jeff Yang, author, journalist, businessman (Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now) · Margaret Yee, education consultant DESCRIPTION: This virtual Workshop aims to foster dialogue for better understanding of different cultures and contribute to a more inclusive representation of our communities as Americans. While prepared for middle and secondary school educators who teach Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies and/or Ethnic Studies in mind, this Workshop is open to all. REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/48lGsw1 Back View PDF February 14, 2024 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

On December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published two investigative reports on the China Initiative as newly appointed Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen was conducting a review of the initiative. December 2, 2021 Table of Contents Overview DOJ Changed Its Online Records Matt Olsen to Conduct DOJ Review APA Justice Reported DOJ Change of Records Links and References Overview On December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published the first of two investigative reports titled The US crackdown on Chinese economic espionage is a mess. We have the data to show it . According to the report, the US government’s China Initiative sought to protect national security. MIT Technology Review reveals how far it has strayed from its goals. Among its major findings are: The DOJ has neither officially defined the China Initiative nor explained what leads it to label a case as part of the initiative The initiative’s focus increasingly has moved away from economic espionage and hacking cases to “research integrity” issues, such as failures to fully disclose foreign affiliations on forms A significant number of research integrity cases have been dropped or dismissed Only about a quarter of people and institutions charged under the China Initiative have been convicted Many cases have little or no obvious connection to national security or the theft of trade secrets Nearly 90% of the defendants charged under the initiative are of Chinese heritage Although new activity appears to have slowed since Donald Trump lost the 2020 US presidential election, prosecutions and new cases continue under the Biden administration The Department of Justice does not list all cases believed to be part of the China Initiative on its webpage and has deleted others linked to the project. DOJ Changed Its Online Records Also on December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published the second of its two investigative reports titled We built a database to understand the China Initiative. Then the government changed its records . Since the US government launched the China Initiative in 2018, the main source of information about it has been press releases on the Department of Justice’s China Initiative webpage announcing arrests, charges, and indictments. But the record is incomplete. APA Justice and other civil rights groups have been tracking the reported cases and changes made to the initiative’s webpage out of concerns about its potential for racial profiling. They have seen gaps and inconsistencies in the DOJ’s messaging. “I’d like to see a balance sheet,” said Jeremy Wu, who held senior civil rights and ethics positions in the US government before co-founding the APA Justice Task Force, one of the groups that is independently tracking the China Initiative. “What did we gain? How many spies did we catch, compared to how much damage that has [been] done not only to individuals, but also to the future of American science and technology?” The MIT Technology Review database is not that balance sheet. But it is an important step toward answering some of the questions Wu poses—questions that the US government has not answered. Rather, it has added to the confusion: two days after MIT Technology Review reached out with a request for comment, DOJ made major updates to its webpage, removing cases that do not support its narrative of a successful counterintelligence effort. A link to the MIT Technology Review database is located here: https://bit.ly/3xYhp5T Matt Olsen to Conduct DOJ Review During a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the Department of Justice on October 21, 2021, Rep. Ted raised the concerns of racial profiling by citing the acquitted case of Professor Anming Hu as an example and requested Attorney General Merrick Garland to review the China Initiative. In response, Garland committed Matt Olsen to conduct a review upon Olsen’s confirmation as the next Assistant Attorney General for National Security. Watch Rep. Ted Lieu’s questions during the hearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BcwIK269zs (video from 2:52:28 to 2:57:53) Matthew Olsen was sworn in on November 1, 2021. He filled the position vacated by John Demers. APA Justice Reported DOJ Change of Records On November 24, 2021, APA Justice sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland , making two requests on the pending review of the China Initiative: To ensure credibility and integrity for the review process, we request the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the official scope and boundaries of the “China Initiative” and a complete list and a formal count of the “China Initiative” cases since the program was launched in November 2018. An unannounced and unexplained update of the DOJ online "China Initiative" report on November 19, 2021 shows the removal of about 20 cases from previous record, including the dismissed or acquitted cases of 7 scientists and researchers - Anming Hu, Qing Wang, Chen Song, Xin Wang, Juan Tang, Kaikai Zhao, and Guan Lei. We request the DOJ to include letters and comments from almost 2,000 faculty members, scholars, and administrators nationwide as part of the thorough review of the “China Initiative.” As of November 23, 2021, a total of 1,959 faculty members from 223 institutions nationwide have endorsed the Stanford letter and joined the call to end the "China Initiative." The nationwide campaign is continuing until the "China Initiative" has ended. The latest counts and comments are posted publicly online at https://bit.ly/3wwrD8A . Jump to: Overview DOJ Changed Its Online Records Matt Olsen to Conduct DOJ Review APA Justice Reported DOJ Change of Records On December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published two investigative reports on the China Initiative as newly appointed Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen was conducting a review of the initiative. Previous Next 11. MIT Technology Review Investigative Reports