Alien Land Bills WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME Prev Next Overview Alien land laws were a series of laws enacted in the United States, primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the intent of restricting land ownership and leasing rights for non-citizens, particularly targeting Asian immigrants who were ineligible for citizenship, such as Chinese immigrants due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Alien Land Laws varied from state to state but generally prohibited non-citizens, or aliens, from owning or leasing land directly in their own names. In some cases, they also restricted the ability of non-citizen corporations in which aliens were major shareholders from owning land. These laws were often discriminatory and aimed to discourage Asian immigrants from establishing permanent roots and economic stability in the United States. The Alien Land Laws were part of a broader context of anti-immigrant sentiment and racism prevalent during that time period. They contributed to the marginalization and economic disadvantage faced by Asian immigrants, particularly those of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino descent, who were significant contributors to the agricultural industry in states like California and Hawaii. Alien land laws were justified by politicians of the time as "national security" measures, yet they fueled economic hardship, violence, and discrimination against Asian immigrants. Over the decades, courts struck down or repealed most of these laws as unconstitutional, recognizing the equal protection rights of immigrant communities. However, similar patterns and justifications re-emerged with recent legislation, like Florida’s state law known as SB 264, echoing these historical discriminatory practices under new pretexts. References and Links Equal Justice Initiative: California Law Prohibits Asian Immigrants from Owning Land Immigration History: Alien Land Laws in California (1913 & 1920) Smithsonian Institution: A More Perfect Union - Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution Wikipedia: Alien Land Laws 2023/02/18 Racism.org: The End of California's Anti-Asian Alien Land Law: A Case Study in Reparations and Transitional Justice History of Alien Land Laws Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Timeline Contents Go Go Select Title

Newsletter - #173 04/03 Meeting; Science on NIH; Stanford Statement; Foreign Affairs; State Department #173 04/03 Meeting; Science on NIH; Stanford Statement; Foreign Affairs; State Department In This Issue #173 2023/04/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting Science Editorial and Report on NIH’s “China Initiative” Stanford University Statement on Foreign Engagement and Support for University Researchers Foreign Affairs on "Don't Panic Over Taiwan" State Department Ends Discriminatory "Assignment Restrictions" Policy 2023/04/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held on Monday, April 3, 2023, starting at 1:55 pm ET. 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 . Updates will be provided in the meeting by: Nisha Ramachandran , Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) John Yang 杨重远 , President and Executive Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC Gisela Kusakawa , Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum In addition, we welcome three new distinguished speakers. Dr. Robert Underwood Dr. Robert Underwood is a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI). He is a former Member of Congress representing Guam for 10 years. He is also President Emeritus of the University of Guam and has the distinction of being the longest serving President of the university. He has served the nation as Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the founding Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Scholarship Fund. As a scholar and activist, he has served his region and his people as a passionate advocate for the respect and maintenance of the Chamorro language and the empowerment of the peoples of Micronesia. Dr. Underwood is also Co-Chair of the United States Institute of Peace China-Freely Associated States Senior Study Group. On March 10, 2023, APA Justice submitted comments titled " Pursuing a More Perfect Union and an Equitable Society " to the Commission. John Liu 刘醇逸 New York State Senator John Liu 刘醇逸 represents a broad area of northeast Queens. He is chairperson of the Senate’s committee on New York City Education and also serves on the committees of Education, Finance, Higher Education, Judiciary, Rules and Transportation. State Senator Liu will speak on the relevance and importance of New York Police Department Officer Baimadajie Angwang 昂旺 's story and racial profiling of Asian American scientists to his bill requiring K-12 schools to provide instruction in Asian American history and civic impact, as well as the revival of Alien Land Laws and similar discriminatory bills in Texas and other states. Paula Williams Madison Paula Williams Madison is a 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. She will expand on her thoughts on holding a conversation with a number of national organizations to form a task force on a media watchdog or a similar purpose for the foreseeable future. UCA, C.A.C.A., Committee of 100, AAAJ, etc., could form such an entity. Named one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2005 and included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Power 100," she has been honored by Asian organizations as well, having been recognized in 2014 as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business and in 2015, she was honored by the East West Players and AARP with their Visionary Award and by the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles with the Historymaker Award. She authored and produced FINDING SAMUEL LOWE - from Harlem to China 寻找罗定朝 , which tells her successful search to locate her Chinese grandfather's descendants in China. She is a dual citizen of both the US and Jamaica, grew up in Harlem, and lives with her husband in Los Angeles. Science Editorial and Report on NIH’s “China Initiative” According to an editorial by the Editor-in-Chief of Science, H. Holden Thorp , on March 23, 2023, it wasn’t that long ago when scientific collaboration between the United States and China was enthusiastically encouraged as a means to accomplish the best science. That all changed in 2018, when then-President Trump launched the China Initiative to rid US academia of Chinese spies. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the largest federal funder of biomedical research—vigorously responded to this charge. The agency’s allegations and investigations have not only destroyed careers but also eroded trust in the agency and federal government across the scientific community.This is probably not how Michael Lauer , deputy director for extramural research at NIH, wants to be remembered. But history is not always kind. Lauer has been heavy-handed with regard to policing foreign influence from China, allowing the agency to engage in secretive hardball to target researchers who receive NIH support and who are affiliated with Chinese collaborators.When pressed publicly for details, the NIH and the institutions have given legalistic responses that provide little reassurance.It ’s hard not to conclude that the answer to what changed is Donald Trump’s term as president along with the rise in power of conservative members of Congress bent on reviving the dark spirit of McCarthyism, with China substituted for the Soviet Union.The result was threatening letters from Lauer and a complete change in tone from the institutions. Since 2018, 100 institutions have received letters concerning 246 faculty members, most of them Asian and most working with Chinese collaborators. Altogether, 103 have been forced out, and many more have been enjoined from receiving NIH funds, which is almost always a career killer. Because the letters contain language portraying these scientists as being “unwelcome in the NIH ecosystem,” very few institutions in the United States will hire them. If the implied nefarious activities were real now, it’s been real for a while. The NIH has not given adequate answers as to why this all started so abruptly.Given the statements that Lauer has made in his letters, it’s no wonder the institutions have clammed up. But they owe their faculty, students, trainees, and staff an explanation as well. Has the national security apparatus demanded administrators’ silence? Or is it the need for institutions to maintain their good standing with NIH? The institutions and the NIH need to resolve this. Given the information available in the public domain, the scientific community could easily conclude that this is a xenophobic program to harm Chinese scientists and cut off international scientific cooperation. The federal government needs to figure out a way to let the NIH and the institutions reassure the community that this is all worth it. Read the Science editorial: https://bit.ly/3z24z40 PALL OF SUSPICION - The National Institutes of Health’s “China initiative” has upended hundreds of lives and destroyed scores of academic careers. According to an investigative report by Science reporter Jeff Mervis , in contrast to the very public criminal prosecutions of academic scientists under the "China Initiative" launched in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump to thwart Chinese espionage, NIH’s version has been conducted behind closed doors. Michael Lauer , head of NIH’s extramural research, says that secrecy is necessary to protect the privacy of individual scientists, who are not government employees. Universities consider the NIH-prompted investigations to be a personnel matter, and thus off-limits to queries from reporters. And the targeted scientists have been extremely reticent to talk about their ordeal.Only one of the five scientists whose cases are described in this article has previously gone public with their story. And only one has pushed back successfully, winning a large settlement against her university for terminating her.But a running tally kept by the agency shows the staggering human toll of NIH’s campaign. NIH’s data also make clear who has been most affected. Some 81% of the scientists cited in the NIH letters identify as Asian, and 91% of the collaborations under scrutiny were with colleagues in China.In only 14 of the 246 cases—a scant 6%—did the institution fail to find any evidence to back up NIH’s suspicions. Lauer, who oversees NIH’s $30 billion grants portfolio, regards that high success rate as proof NIH only contacted institutions when there were compelling reasons to believe the targeted scientists were guilty of “scientific, budgetary, or commitment overlap” with NIH-funded projects. But others, including some of the scientists targeted and the university administrators involved in investigating them, say the tremendous power differential between NIH and its grantees may be a better explanation for why so many scientists have been axed.NIH is by far the largest funder of academic biomedical research in the United States, and some medical centers receive hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the agency. So when senior administrators heard Lauer say a targeted scientist “was not welcome in the NIH ecosystem,” they understood immediately what he meant—and that he was expecting action.“If NIH says there’s a conflict, then there’s a conflict, because NIH is always right,” says David Brenner , who was vice chancellor for health sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in November 2018 when the institution received a letter from Lauer asking it to investigate five medical school faculty members, all born in China. “We were told we have a problem and that it was up to us to fix it.”The five scientists who came forward in the Science report are: Wuyuan Lu , a tenured professor at University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology. In August 2020, Lu resigned his tenured position. He is now a professor at Fudan’s medical school in Shanghai. “NIH was acting like a bully,” he tells Science , “and I decided that I’m not going to waste any more time on this witch hunt.” Yue Xiong , a biochemist at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Xiong never saw a list of specific allegations, nor did UNC ever give him any report of its findings. Instead, on 27 May 2020, Xiong was told at a face-to-face meeting with the medical school’s head of human resources that he had 48 hours to decide whether to resign or be fired. Xiong retired quietly from UNC in July 2020 and is now chief scientific officer of Cullgene, a biotech startup in San Diego. Li Wang , a tenured professor of physiology and neurobiology at the University of Connecticut (UConn). Wang resigned on 19 September 2019, 1 day before her termination went into effect. She fought back. A collective bargaining agreement gives UConn faculty the right to seek outside, binding arbitration in employment disputes. Peter Adomeit , an arbitrator of the American Arbitration Association, ruled in November 2021 in Wang’s favor. In a 56-page decision, Peter Adomeit ordered UConn to pay Wang $1.4 million in compensation for being suspended and terminated “without just cause.” “[Interim Provost John ] Elliott ’s claim that the University ‘has lost confidence’ in Dr. Wang is true,” Adomeit wrote. “But it was their fault, not hers. They relied on false evidence. [Wang] tried to correct them, but they wouldn’t listen.” Xiang-Dong Fu , Distinguished Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In January 2022, Fu was given the choice of either resigning or accepting a 4-year, unpaid suspension from the university that would ban him from campus and his lab. Fu filed a grievance, contending that many of the report’s findings were incorrect and that the university had failed to follow its own procedures. More than 100 UCSD faculty members petitioned. UCSD officials never replied, nor did Fu get a response to his grievance. On 5 December 2022, Fu “reluctantly resigned” after being told his 2-year campus suspension would go into effect on 1 January 2023. Last month he accepted a position with the fledgling Westlake University, China’s first private research university. Kun-Liang Guan , Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center at UCSD. In 2019, the university concluded he had violated its code of conduct by failing to disclose research support from foreign sources and banned him from applying for NIH funding for 2 years. Guan says he never received a letter describing the allegations he was facing or a report on the outcome of the university’s investigation. He was able to win new NIH awards once the suspension ended in 2021. Even so, his lab has shrunk dramatically, and he’s no longer taking on new graduate students. His love of science has also suffered. “I used to work very hard,” he says. “Now, sometimes, I wonder what was the point of all the effort I made.” “And I’m one of the lucky ones,” he continues. “I don’t know how many people that NIH wanted to stop are able to start again. Maybe none.” Read the Science report: https://bit.ly/3ZbJL4B Stanford University Statement on Foreign Engagement and Support for University Researchers According to a Statement on Foreign Engagement and Support for University Researchers on February 8, 2023, Stanford University pursues its research and education missions drawing on the talents and contributions of its diverse international community of students and scholars. Likewise, engagement and collaboration with international partners are essential to Stanford’s efforts to develop the knowledge and innovations required to address some of the world’s most pressing problems.One challenge to this work in recent years has emerged from the geopolitical tension between the U.S. and China and resulting concerns about U.S. national security. Stanford takes seriously the threats from foreign governments that seek to undermine U.S. national security as well as the security and integrity of the research environment. These concerns and the issues they pose for research universities have been articulated in reports including the 2022 MIT report as well as the 2022 report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine . As a leading research institution, Stanford has an important role to play in safeguarding the research ecosystem and preventing U.S. national security from being jeopardized while continuing to advance universal scientific values of reciprocity, objectivity and fairness. Unfortunately, the articulation of concerns about the integrity and security of the research environment, and efforts to address those concerns, have caused fear, distress and, in some cases, professional and personal harm to some researchers. This is particularly true for members of our Asian and Asian American communities – especially those of Chinese origin. Inflammatory rhetoric and generalized accusations have caused some researchers to feel targeted and vulnerable purely because they have relationships and collaborations in and with China. This is unacceptable and contrary to the university’s commitment to nondiscrimination and maintaining an open and welcoming environment. Furthermore, discrimination and xenophobia threaten to deprive the U.S. of valuable talent and collaborations, delegitimize serious security concerns, and divert attention and resources from promoting the security of the research enterprise. All international students, faculty, staff, postdocs and alumni are valued members of the Stanford community and should always feel welcome, safe, respected and valued. No one should ever be considered suspect based on their national origin or heritage. Stanford is committed to providing support to researchers engaging in cross-border collaborations, including in China or with Chinese partners, in ways that protect the security and integrity of the research ecosystem and comply with federal laws. For example: Stanford is committed to providing guidance and support to researchers. Stanford is committed to sharing information with the research community. Stanford is committed to defending researchers and protecting the individual’s right to due process. Read the Stanford University statement: https://stanford.io/40xK3Un Foreign Affairs on "Don't Panic Over Taiwan" According to Foreign Affairs on March 21, 2023, fears that China will soon invade Taiwan are overblown. There is little evidence that Chinese leaders see a closing window for action. Such fears appear to be driven more by Washington’s assessments of its own military vulnerabilities than by Beijing’s risk-reward calculus. Historically, Chinese leaders have not started wars to divert attention from domestic challenges, and they continue to favor using measures short of conflict to achieve their objectives. If anything, problems at home have moderated Chinese foreign policy, and Chinese popular opinion has tended to reward government bluster and displays of resolve that do not lead to open conflict.If Western policymakers exaggerate the risk of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, they might inadvertently create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of worrying that Beijing will gin up a foreign crisis to bolster its standing at home or assuming that Beijing feels pressured to invade in the near term, the United States should focus on arresting—or at least decelerating—the action-reaction spiral that has steadily ratcheted up tensions and made a crisis more likely. That does not mean halting efforts to bolster Taiwan’s resilience to Chinese coercion or to diversify the United States’ defense posture in the region. But it does mean avoiding needless confrontation and identifying reciprocal steps that Washington and Beijing could take to lower the temperature.The hard but crucial task for U.S. policymakers is to thread the needle between deterrence and provocation. Symbolic displays of resolve, unconditional commitments to defend Taiwan, and pledges of a surge in U.S. military power in the region could stray too far toward the latter, inadvertently provoking the very conflict U.S. policymakers seek to deter.Read the Foreign Affairs article at https://bit.ly/3LFyoi9 State Department Ends "Assignment Restrictions" Policy According to reports by Politico and CNN on March 22, 2023, the State Department is ending its controversial policy of issuing assignment restrictions for diplomats as a condition of security clearance. The change comes after an intensive review of the practice, which was perceived as discriminatory by diplomats and Democratic lawmakers, particularly because the limits appeared to fall disproportionately on employees with Asian American and Pacific Islander backgrounds.The assignment restrictions were applied by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, sometimes to employees who otherwise hold top-secret clearances, to prevent them from serving in particular countries or even, while they’re in Washington, from working on issues related to those countries.In 2021, Reps. Ted Lieu , Joaquin Castro , Andy Kim and Chrissy Houlahan introduced a bill to reform such restrictions, calling them "discriminatory" and that the restriction policy “disproportionately impacts federal employees who can’t trace their heritage to the Mayflower and directly undermines the department’s goal of promoting diversity and inclusion.”The bill cited State Department data that about 1,800 employees were subject to assignment restrictions. The top four countries with such restrictions were China (196), Russia (184), Taiwan (84) and Israel (70). 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 March 27, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

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Newsletter - #175 4/3 Meeting Takeaways; CCS Letter to President; Franklin Tao Appeals; NY Hate Crimes + #175 4/3 Meeting Takeaways; CCS Letter to President; Franklin Tao Appeals; NY Hate Crimes + In This Issue #175 2023/04/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting - Quick Takeaways from Three Invited Speakers Committee of Concerned Scientists Letter to President Biden on Cross Border Profiling Professor Franklin Tao To File Appeal to Reverse Lone Conviction 22-Year Sentence for Man Guilty in Hate-Crime Killing of Asian Immigrant News and Activities for the Communities 2023/04/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting - Quick Takeaways from Three Invited Speakers 2023/04/17 Roundtable on a National Media Alert Network and Strike Teams. High level of interest was expressed following Paula Madison's thought- provoking and informative suggestion of a proactive national media alert network. As follow-up action, a virtual roundtable of about 90 minutes will be convened on Monday, April 17, 2023. An agenda for the event is being prepared at this time. Additional details will be coming soon. Please mark your calendar. 2. Let the President's Advisory Commission Know Your Issues and Concerns. Commissioner Dr. Robert Underwood joined the meeting from Guam whose Chamorro Time Zone is 14 hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Time Zone. On March 10, 2023, APA Justice submitted its comments to the Commission, expressing concerns about government-instigated racial profiling that has been repeatedly explained away and justified under the cover of national security that sacrifices the civil and human rights of the Asian American and immigrant communities. Dr. Underwood encourages the communities and individuals to send their issues and concerns to him at anacletus2010@gmail.com and to the Commission at AANHPICommission@hhs.gov . 3. Educate, Educate, and Educate; Reinstate NYPD Officer Angwang. Despite his busy schedule that included a special session of the New York State Senate, Senator John Liu joined the meeting and spoke passionately about the need for education to counter anti-Asian hate. Senator Liu is in touch with New York Mayor Eric Adams' office regarding the reinstatement of Officer Angwang to the New York Police Department and an apology to Officer Angwang. Committee of Concerned Scientists Letter to President Biden on Cross Border Profiling 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. The letter was signed by Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer, Co-Chairs of CCS. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken were copied. CCS referenced a report by the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 1, 2023, which describes instances where professors and scientists have been subjected to harassment and interrogations at the US border. The letter said in part "In this [Chronicle of Higher Education] article, advocates for Asian American academics describe several instances of harassment and interrogations, which have been rising over the past few months. The situation is worrisome since Chinese American researchers should feel free from the China Initiative policy of a few years ago. This policy disproportionately focused on Chinese American researchers in the U.S. Department of Justice’s sometimes overzealous efforts to uncover academic and economic espionage, and in our opinion often constituted ethnic profiling. The climate for Chinese American researchers needs to be made more welcoming. Indeed Gisela Kusakawa (Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum) commented poignantly “Although the China Initiative has ended — and that was a very important and critical step — for many Chinese Americans, it is clear that they still live in a climate that’s less welcoming.” While the Asian American Scholar Forum is aiming to collect more exact data on the number of these border stops, we are aware of a few specific cases: (1) Zhigang Suo, a professor of mechanics and materials at Harvard University; (2) Hong Qi, a visiting scholar of mathematical sciences at Louisiana State University and lecturer at Queen Mary University, London; and (3) a young daughter of a Chinese American scholar traveling alone who was stopped and interrogated about the nature of her father’s research. We ask for border officials to receive further anti-bias training and be encouraged to not focus selectively on Chinese American researchers in stopping them for secondary screening. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter and we look forward to a response from you shortly." Read the CCS letter: http://bit.ly/3Mwsdxx Professor Franklin Tao To File Appeal to Reverse Lone Conviction Attorney Peter Zeidenberg representing Professor Feng "Franklin"; Tao is in the process of filing a brief in the 10th Circuit Court seeking the reversal of the sole count of conviction against Professor Tao. He was the first academic indicted under the now-defunct "China Initiative."; The brief concludes: "The conviction on Count 9 should be reversed because the KU Institutional Responsibilities form—which Dr. Tao submitted only to KU and which KU never shared with NSF or DOE—and which neither agency considered when making funding or other decisions, was not within the Executive Branch’s jurisdiction. There is no legal basis for a felony false statement conviction in these circumstances. The Court’s affirmance would not only be unjust, but it would also open the floodgates to federal prosecutions of employees accused of making misrepresentations to employers that receive federal funding. It would subordinate the decisions of university department chairs, tenure committees, and Human Resources to the whims of federal prosecutors and jurors. An affirmance would also frustrate the ideals of our system of limited government. The Department of Justice is not the Ministry of Truth, and it should have no role regulating routine employee-employer interactions. The Court should reverse." Read the Franklin Tao story: https://bit.ly/3fZWJvK 22-Year Sentence for Man Guilty in Hate-Crime Killing of Asian Immigrant According to a report by the New York Times on March 31, 2023, a man who admitted to brutally, and fatally, attacking a 61-year-old immigrant in East Harlem two years ago because 5 the victim was Asian was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The sentencing of the man, Jarrod Powell, came several months after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter as a hate crime in the killing of the immigrant, Yao Pan Ma. Mr. Powell had suddenly shoved Mr. Ma from behind while the older man was pushing a grocery cart full of bottles and cans near 125th Street and Third Avenue. Video footage released by the police showed that after Mr. Ma collapsed to the ground, Mr. Powell had stomped on his head and kicked him several times in the face. Mr. Ma spent about eight months in a coma before dying as a result of the injuries he sustained in the attack. In entering his plea, according to prosecutors, Mr. Powell, 51, said he had targeted the older man because he was Asian. “New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world,” Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said in a statement announcing the sentence. “And no one should have to fear that they may be in danger because of their background.” Mr. Bragg’s office said that it had 39 open cases of anti-Asian hate crime. People of Asian descent have been the victims in several high-profile crimes in the past few years. In November 2021, GuiYing Ma, a 61-year-old Chinese immigrant, was fatally beaten as she swept a Queens sidewalk. In January, the man who admitted attacking her was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In January 2022, Michelle Alyssa Go was pushed to her death by a mentally ill man at the Times Square subway station. The next month, Christina Yuna Lee was fatally stabbed by a man who followed her from the street into her apartment. In March 2022, a 28-year-old man was charged with seven counts of assault and attempted assault in connection with a two- hour spree of attacks on women of Asian decent in Manhattan. Read the New York Times report: https://nyti.ms/3zstXjw News and Activities for the Communities 1. Harvard admits record number of Asian American applicants According to a report by NextShark on March 31, 2023, amid allegations of bias against Asian students in its admissions process, Harvard University welcomed its largest proportion of Asian American first-year students in its history.¶ From a pool of 56,937 applicants, the 6 Ivy League university admitted a total of 1,942 students — its second-lowest admissions rate on record — to its Class of 2027. Of this batch, 722 were accepted through an early action process in December 2022, while 1,220 were notified of the regular decision on March 30, 2023.¶ Asian American students composed 29.9% of the new admissions, marking a 2.1% increase from last year’s 27.8%. This, according to Harvard, is the group’s largest-ever acceptance rate.¶ Starting with the Class of 2027, the costs to attend the university — including tuition, housing, food and other fees — will be free for families with annual incomes of less than $85,000, up from last year’s $75,000 threshold.¶ Read the NextShark report: http://bit.ly/3TYEz34 2. The Silence of Florida’s Presidents According to a report on March 31, 2023, Inside Higher Ed asked 40 public college presidents in Florida to weigh in on state higher education reforms. None were willing to speak, even when offered anonymity.¶ As Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, seeks to enact sweeping reforms to dramatically reshape higher education in the Sunshine State, students and faculty alike have protested legislation that would ban teaching certain topics, limit institutional authority and undermine tenure protections.¶ But one group has remained conspicuously silent: Florida’s college presidents.¶ Of the 40 presidents at Florida’s public colleges and universities, none have publicly challenged DeSantis as he has gone after diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; sought data on health care for transgender students; and pushed HB 999—legislation to remake Florida higher education.¶ Given their shared silence, Inside Higher Ed asked all 40 presidents that lead the institutions that comprise the State University System of Florida and Florida College System for comment. None of the presidents agreed to discuss attacks on higher education from the DeSantis administration, even when offered anonymity, and multiple institutions did not respond to a request for comment.¶ Florida’s college presidents remain silent as constituents demand they speak up with HB 999 advancing through the state Legislature. Observers suggest presidents are in a no-win scenario, where silence equals compliance but speaking out carries personal and institutional risks.¶ Read the Inside Higher Ed report: http://bit.ly/40yLh2a 3. In the war against history, Los Angeles and Asian American history offer hope According to an opinion by Erika Lee, Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota and the president of the Organization of American Historians, published by The Hill on April 1, 2023, since January 2021, 44 states have introduced bills or taken other steps to restrict discussions of race, gender, and sexuality in U.S. history. In 2022, proposed educational gag orders attempting to restrict teaching about race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities in K-12 and higher education increased by 250 percent compared to the previous year. Further, according to a new report by Pen America, more than 2,500 different book bans were enacted in schools across 32 states during the 2021-2022 school year. A few months ago Florida rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement course on African American Studies in the state’s high schools, claiming that it “lack[ed] educational value.”¶ There is a war being waged against American history by those hostile to an honest portrayal of our country’s history—and who seek to stamp out the expansive, inclusive, and complicated understanding of America’s past that recent scholarship has revealed.¶ As more than 1,000 U.S. historians gather in Los Angeles on March 30 to April 2, 2023, for the annual Organization of American Historians meeting, the question of how educators, scholars, officials, and activists can work together in this war will be front and center. We will be discussing how current community, civic, and historian-led efforts are confronting our past in ways that should all give us hope for the future. And how Los Angeles may serve as a model for other cities and states to follow in developing approaches that openly and inclusively tackle our country’s difficult racial history.¶ The stakes could not be greater.¶ Read The Hill opinion: http://bit.ly/3MxIAKf 4. Interim Executive Director for MOCA On March 30, 2023, the Museum of Chinese Americans (MOCA) announced the selection of arts and cultural leader Nina Curley as its Interim Executive Director to succeed outgoing President, Nancy Yao, who has been named the founding director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, effective June 5. Read the MOCA announcement: https://bit.ly/3ZEJ8AE 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 4, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Congressional Actions Track Congress's statements and actions for the AAPI community. Our watchlist contains all of the most pertinent issues and legislations to the Asian American community. Check it out Our Watchlist See organizations', scientists', and community groups' statements and responses to AAPI issues. Explore Community Responses Texas House Bill 1075 and Senate Bill 552 Read More CAPAC Issues Messaging Guidance on Anti-Asian Hate Read More Teaching Asian Pacific American History Act Introduced Read More House Resolution Condemns All Forms of Anti-Asian Sentiment Related to COVID-19 Read More Senator Warner Letter to FBI Director Wray Read More House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff Statement on Racial Profiling Read More

Newsletter - #200 8/7 Monthly Meeting; US-China Science Agreement; Maui Need Help; March on Washington #200 8/7 Monthly Meeting; US-China Science Agreement; Maui Need Help; March on Washington In This Issue #200 2023/08/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting Future of 44-year-old Science Agreement Caught in Middle of U.S.-China Tensions Maui Inferno - The Communities Need Help 2023/08/26 March on Washington 2023/08/07 APA Justice Monthly Meeting APA Justice held its monthly meeting on August 7, 2023. Speakers included Nisha Ramachandran , Joanna Derman , Gisela Perez Kusakawa , Clay Zhu 朱可亮 , Echo King 金美声 , Shuang Zhao 赵爽 , Andy Wong , Shanti Prasad , and Christine Chen . A written summary of the monthly meeting is being prepared at this time. Presentation by Clay Zhu on Florida Chinese Radio Television (FCRTV) On July 22, Clay Zhu 朱可亮 , Founder of Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA) and a lead attorney in the lawsuit against Florida discriminatory alien land bill, gave a webinar "从微信案到佛州案：在美华人的维权之路和启发" to describe the road from the WeChat Ban to the Florida lawsuit and the inspiration of Chinese people in the United States to defend their rights. The webinar in Chinese was broadcast by FCRTV 佛州华语广播电视台. Watch the video at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqobsVDX_A (2:05:26). Clay's 61-slide presentation is posted by the Florida Asian American Justice Alliance (FAAJA) at https://bit.ly/3OWbYdy Chinese for Affirmative Action 华人权益促进会 During the August 7 monthly meeting, Andy Wong andywong@caasf.org , Managing Director of Advocacy, and Shanti Prasad sprasad@caasf.org , Advocacy Manager, Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), gave an introduction of CAA and described its recent roles and activities. CAA was founded in 1969 to protect the civil and political rights of Chinese Americans and to advance multiracial democracy. Today, CAA is a progressive voice in and on behalf of the broader Asian American and Pacific Islander community. It is also a co-founding partner of Stop AAPI Hate - the national coalition to address anti-AAPI racism in the U.S. Their 6-slide presentation is located here: https://bit.ly/3QBqQPQ APIA Vote During the August 7 monthly meeting, Christine Chen , Executive Director, APIAVote, gave an introduction of APIAVote and a report on "The Growing AAPI Electorate and What is at Stake." APIAVote’s work revolves around collaborating with national, regional, and local partners in order to equip advocates with the training, tools, resources, and best practices they need to do their best work as “trusted messengers” in their communities. Together, APIAVote’s Alliance for Civic Empowerment (ACE) envisions a world that is inclusive, fair, and collaborative, and where Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities are self-determined, empowered, and engaged. ACE is missing partners in some states in the Mid-West, South, and Northeast. Christine's presentation included the trend and historic AAPI turnout in 2020, a presidential election year, with 64% registered and 60% turnout. Christine also gave an outline of activities and training in 2023 and 2024. Her 18-slide presentation is located here: https://bit.ly/3DZBKY4 Future of 44-year-old Science Agreement Caught in Middle of U.S.-China Tensions According to Axios , the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and the South China Morning Post , one of the most foundational agreements between the United States and China, the Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement (STA), will expire on August 27, 2023.Originally signed in 1979, STA has been renewed about every five years with the last time being in 2018. The agreement laid out the terms for government-to-government cooperation in science, opening the way for academic and corporate interactions. It opened the door for scientists to collaborate in physics, chemistry, health and other areas. Cooperation between the countries helped China to transition from ozone-depleting CFCs and enabled the sharing of influenza data used to devise yearly vaccines.The STA signing gave "a form of permission for lab-to-lab, university-to-university, scientist-to-scientist cooperation," says John Holdren , former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) during the Obama administration. "It legitimized the whole notion that collaboration was respectable."More than four decades into the agreement that included a pandemic and several administrations of fiery rhetoric, the broader nature of that cooperation is being scrutinized over concerns about Beijing-backed intellectual property theft and the Chinese military benefitting from knowledge about U.S. scientific advances.Making a case for renewal, Deborah Seligsohn of CSIS, a think tank in Washington, said that as the first deal signed between Washington and Beijing after the normalization of ties, the agreement was of “enormous historic significance”.Seligsohn said the agreement had resulted in “many specific science and technology outcomes” that had greatly benefited the US and the rest of the world, from cooperation on the study of birth defects and influenza to fighting air pollution and HIV/Aids prevention.Over the years scientists on both sides had also worked together on almost 100 protocols and annexes under the agreement, “specifically, a number of changes to intellectual property protections”, she said. Seligsohn said non-renewal could complicate recent attempts to find areas of cooperation, including the “the types of people-to-people connections and educational exchanges” that Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed to promote during his visit to Beijing in June.“There is a real risk that any such improvements, including access to key health information and the ability to train the United States’ next generation of China experts, will be put at risk if the agreement lapses,” she said. Richard Suttmeier , a US-China science and tech cooperation expert at the University of Oregon, said letting the agreement lapse would not be “productive for finding the right terms for the larger relationship with China”.Suttmeier said it would probably be a mistake to let the deal lapse and the two countries needed to come up with an agreement that reflected the “realities of the third decade of the 21st century”. Suttmeier acknowledged that China had been the biggest beneficiary of the agreement – “largely because the US had been so far ahead of China in science and technology; there was less to learn from China than China could learn from the US”. “Nevertheless, the US benefited in a variety of ways,” he said. “Now, however, with China emerging as a scientific superpower, the flow of knowledge is going in both directions, so, in principle, the benefits to the US could be greater.” 2023/08/12 South China Morning Post : Clock ticks down for China-US science deal amid tech theft fears 2023/08/05 Axios : Future of 44-year-old science agreement caught in middle of U.S.-China tensions 2023/08/04 CSIS: The Case for Renewing the U.S.-China S&T Cooperation Agreement Maui Inferno - The Communities Need Help According to multiple media reports, Maui's wildfires have killed at least 96 people, a toll expected to rise. The fast-moving inferno, which started on August 8, 2023, spread from the brush outside of town and ravaged the historic city of Lahaina that was once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It was one of three major wildfires on Maui.According to AP News on August 12, 2023, in the hours before a wildfire engulfed the town of Lahaina, Maui County officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames and instead relied on a series of sometimes confusing social media posts that reached a much smaller audience.Governor Josh Green said the inferno that reduced much of Lahaina to smoldering ruins was the worst natural disaster in the state's history, making thousands of people homeless and leveling at least 2,700 buildings and “an estimated value of $5.6 billion has gone away.” Crews with cadaver dogs have covered just 3% of the search area,A potent mix of high winds from Hurricane Dora, low humidity levels and a high pressure system over the North Pacific created deadly fire conditions in Hawaii. The fate of some of Lahaina's cultural treasures remains unclear. The historic 60-foot-tall banyan tree marking the spot where Hawaiian King Kamehameha III's 19th-century palace stood was still standing, though some of its boughs appeared charred.The fire that destroyed the historic town of Lahaina in West Maui is now the deadliest US blaze in over 100 years, according to US Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell . Thomas Leonard , a 74-year-old retired mailman from Lahaina, didn’t know about the fire until he smelled smoke. Power and cellphone service had both gone out earlier, leaving the town with no real-time information about the danger. He tried to leave in his Jeep, but had to abandon the vehicle and run to the shore when cars nearby began exploding. He hid behind a seawall for hours, the wind blowing hot ash and cinders over him. Firefighters eventually arrived and escorted Leonard and other survivors through the flames to safety.President Joe Biden signed a Major Disaster Declaration to deliver additional federal resources and support for the emergency response. The action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Maui and provides aid on top of the actions already underway by federal agencies to help state and local search-and-recovery efforts. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement is partnering with Native Hawaiian and community organizations and businesses to match up to $1,500,000 in donations for ʻohana (Hawaiian term meaning "family") impacted by the devastating wildfires on Maui. 2023/08/13 Maui Now: Here’s what critical aid FEMA, federal partners are providing for Maui fire response, recovery 2023/08/12 The Hill: Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez pledge $100 million to help Maui wildfire recovery 2023/08/26 March on Washington On August 26, 2023, a 2023 March on Washington will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in 1963, to continue the fight for democracy, social justice and civil rights. Join the King family at the Lincoln Memorial to honor the past, acknowledge the present and march toward a future of progress and equality.Advancing Justice | AAJC is co-chairing this momentous event along with ADL, Human Rights Commission, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Legal Defense Fund, NAACP, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Urban League and UNIDOS.Advancing Justice | AAJC is working on a common gathering place for the AANHPI community place while at the same time making sure that we are well integrated into the March.Advocate Qian Huang 黄倩 reported that the National Action Network (NAN) is looking for hospitality volunteers on Friday, August 25, at 6:30 pm with a walk-through of all the volunteers. The set up work (stage, chairs, booth, flyer, t-shirts...) will be done by NAN. On August 8, 2023, ADL East hosted a webinar titled "The March on Washington: Together Towards Justice." It featured Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway and NAACP New Jersey State Conference President Richard T. Smith . The discussion focused on the historic 1963 March on Washington, the civil rights movement today, the importance of allyship, as well as how to register for this year's March on August 26. Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1MlImhhgbk (57:56) Back View PDF August 15, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #179 05/01 Meeting; Florida Rallies; CALDA; Indiana Hate Crime; Economic Peace Terms; News #179 05/01 Meeting; Florida Rallies; CALDA; Indiana Hate Crime; Economic Peace Terms; News In This Issue #179 2023/05/01 APA Justice Monthly Meeting 2023/04/29 Florida Rallies; CALDA Issues Statement Indiana Woman Charged with Federal Hate Crime in Bus Attack America Has Dictated Its Economic Peace Terms to China Activities and News for the Communities 2023/05/01 APA Justice Monthly Meeting The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held on Monday, May 1, 2023, starting at 1:55 pm ET. Erika L. Moritsugu , Deputy Assistant to the President and Asian American and Pacific Islander Senior Liaison, will deliver a special message from the White House to start the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Brenna Isman , Director of Academy Studies, National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), will provide a brief description of the history, mission, and purpose of NAPA, its "Grand Challenges" campaign for public administration, and its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) efforts and commissioned studies. Paula Williams Madison , Paula Williams Madison, 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, will provide a recap of the April 17 Roundtable and share the possible next steps for this important work that may have long-lasting impact to the AAPI community and the American society overall.Updates will be provided in the meeting 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 Kusakawa , Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum.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 . 2023/04/29 Florida Rallies; CALDA Issues Statement 1. 2023/04/29 Florida Rallies A 6-city rally is being organized by The Florida Asian American Justice Alliance to oppose the unfair and discriminatory Florida Senate Bill 264 and House Bill 1355 on Saturday, April 29, 2023, starting at 11:00 am ET. Tallahassee . 400 South Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399 Jacksonville . Memorial Park, 1620 Riverside Ave, Jacksonville, FL 32204 Miami . Torch of Friendship, 301 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, FL 33126 Other cities are Gainesville, Orlando, and Tampa. For more information about the rally and how to get involved, please contact Jin at faaja.org@gmail.com . 2. CALDA Issues Statement Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against systematic racial discrimination for Chinese Americans. According to statement released by CALDA on April 23, 2023,"Our specialty is filing legal actions to invalidate laws, policies, or practices that are racially biased against Chinese Americans. Two years ago our founders successfully obtained a preliminary injunction in court against President Trump for his WeChat ban, and forced the federal government to pay nearly one million dollars for our attorney fees in the lawsuit. Recently we have filed legal actions to expose the racial bias behind several federal agencies’ unfair investigation of Chinese American scientists. In the last several months, we have been monitoring the situation in Texas, Florida, South Carolina and other southern states for their bills banning Chinese Americans from acquiring or owning real estates.These bills are racist, no matter what 'legitimate' purposes that the state legislators claim to serve. They are no different from the so-called 'alien land laws' that many states passed more than a hundred years ago to ban Asian people from owning land. All of the alien land laws were struck down by courts or repealed by the states subsequently. CALDA has decided to take on the same legal challenge in court if the current bills are passed.These bills are a blatant violation of the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by singling out Chinese Americans for unequal treatment. They also violate the federal Fair Housing Act for discriminatory practices. CALDA has already started the preparation of the legal challenges, and is now working with ACLU and several major law firms to join forces. Our plan is to file lawsuits as soon as any of these bills are passed, and we will not stop fighting until all of these laws are overturned."Read the CALDA statement: https://bit.ly/3oHzyAj Sunday Strategy Town Hall Meetings Opposing Alien Land and Other Discriminatory Bills For the past two months, a strategic town hall meeting has been held every Sunday under the organization and leadership of Professor Steven Pei , Inaugural Chair of United Chinese Americans and Co-Organizer of APA Justice. Frequent participants include community organizers of protests in not only all four major cities in Texas, but also Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee as well as supporters from California and other states. Paula Madison , retired media executive, and Gene Wu , Texas state representative, led recent discussions in very productive meetings with Florida community leaders and organizers. A media training by Gene Wu and Helen Shih of Texas followed just before the Florida hearing on April 19, 2023, despite the short notice and allowed speaking time (30 seconds per testifying person). Organizations and individuals interested in participating in future town hall meetings should contact Steven Pei at peiuh8@gmail.com . Indiana Woman Charged with Federal Hate Crime in Bus Attack According to a report by AP on April 21, 2023, Billie R. Davis , 56, of Bloomington, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Evansville on a charge of willfully causing injuries to the victim due to her race and national origin.” Davis, who is white, is accused of repeatedly stabbing the 18-year-old woman about seven times with a folding knife on January 11 as the victim, from Carmel, Indiana, waited to get off a bus in downtown Bloomington. WRTV-TV has reported that Davis told police she stabbed the woman multiple times in the head because it “would be one less person to blow up our country.” Asian Americans have increasingly been the target of racially motivated harassment and assaults in recent years, particularly since the coronavirus pandemic began, with many worrying that anti-Asian rhetoric linked to fraught relations between the U.S. and China could lead to more violence. Read the AP report: https://bit.ly/3V8st7Z In early January, local prosecutors told NPR that Davis was not charged with a hate crime because Indiana is one of four states that lack a comprehensive law. David Goldenberg , the Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the lack of comprehensive hate crime laws in the state has major consequences. "Prosecutors need to prosecute these incidents as hate crimes when they are," Goldenberg told NPR in January. "The thing about hate crimes is it affects not only the individual victim but it affects the entire community." Read the NPR report: https://bit.ly/3Lrtsx2 America Has Dictated Its Economic Peace Terms to China According to an opinion in Foreign Policy by Adam Tooze , the Director of the European Institute at Columbia University, on April 24, 2023, after a rash of sanctions and overtly discriminatory legislation, with action on U.S. investment in China pending, and with talk of war increasingly commonplace in the United States, the Biden administration knows that it needs to clarify its economic relations with the country that is the largest U.S. trading partner outside North America. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has made her first major statement on economic relations with China since 2021. Judged by the tone, her message is intended to clarify and calm the waters of speculation and debate about motives and intentions. In the current situation, however, it is far from clear whether clarity actually contributes to calm.“The United States remains the most dynamic and prosperous economy in the world.” So, Yellen insists, America has no reason to seek to “stifle China’s economic and technological modernization” or to pursue a deep decoupling. Even when the Biden administration professes to be confident about America’s economic prospects, Yellen insists: “As in all of our foreign relations, national security is of paramount importance in our relationship with China.”At one level, this is obvious. No public official will ever say anything else. Security is the basic function of states. But everything depends on the scope of your vision of national security and the level of trust. And if you have to state the priority of national security in foreign relations out loud, you know you have a problem.So a strong and self-confident America has no reason to stand in the way of China’s economic and technological modernization except in every area that America’s national security establishment, the most gigantic in the world, defines as being of essential national interest. For this to be anything other than hypocrisy, you have to imagine that we live in a goldilocks world in which the technology, industrial capacity, and trade that are relevant to national security are incidental to economic and technological modernization more broadly speaking.Yellen pays lip service to that goldilocks vision, by insisting that U.S. measures against China will be tightly targeted. But, as everyone knows, those targeted measures have so far included massive efforts to hobble the world leader in 5G technology, Huawei, sanctions against the entire chip supply chain, and the inclusion of most major research universities in China on America’s entities list that strictly limits trade. The upshot is that America welcomes China’s economic modernization and will refuse the lure of the Thucydides trap so long as China’s development proceeds along lines that do not infringe on American leadership and national security. And America’s attitude will be all the more benign the more successful it is in pursuing its own national prosperity and preeminence precisely in those areas.Read the Foreign Policy opinion: https://bit.ly/41CwSlW Activities and News for the Communities 1. Xenophobia in America WHAT: Xenophobia in America with historian and author, Erika LeeWHEN: April 26, 2023, starting at 7:30 pm WHERE: In Person at Temple Emanu-El at 756 East Broad Street, Westfield, NJ 07090 and livestreaming WHO: Kol Tzedek Speaker: Erika Lee, Regents Professor, the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History, the Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, and the President of the Organization of American Historians. Beginning July 1, 2023, Lee will join the History Department at Harvard University as the the inaugural Bae Family Professor of History. REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/3AqMyNh DESCRIPTION : The Kol Tzedek Speakers Series is an annual program addressing various topics of critical importance to the betterment of our world and how we can move forward with hope and action. This year, we are thrilled to present this program in person for the very first time. The lecturers we consider will be acclaimed authorities from their respective fields of specialization. The Hebrew term Kol Tzedek means righteous voice. 2. Bill to Teach Hmong and Asian American History in Wisconsin According to AsAmNews on April 22, 2023, a new bill in Wisconsin would require schools to teach Asian American, and specifically Hmong American history. Senate Bill 240 was introduced by Republican Senator Jesse James of Altoona and other lawmakers in early April. The bill was referred to the Committee on Education on April 14. It has received bi-partisan support so far. A total of 19 states now require Asian American studies to be taught in public schools. Wisconsin could be the next state to mandate an AAPI studies curriculum. Read the AsAmNews report: https://bit.ly/41MD3Um 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 25, 2023 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #31 Registration For 12/02 Webinar; EEOC Webinar #31 Registration For 12/02 Webinar; EEOC Webinar Back View PDF November 28, 2020 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

The University of North Texas has suddenly ended its relationship with visiting scholars receiving funding from China. August 26, 2020 On August 26, 2020, the University of North Texas (UNT) announced that it has ended "its relationship with visiting scholars who receive funding from the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC, also known as the Chinese Scholarship Fund)." Access to UNT email, servers, and other materials, as well as the J-1 program under the U.S. Exchange Visit Program, were terminated immediately. In essence, the action expelled these scholars from the United States. On August 31, 2020, Ling-Chi Wang, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley, wrote a letter to UNT to express "shock and profound concern" over the sudden expulsion of students from the university and the U.S. "In the absence of any legitimate explanation, the expulsion appears to be national origin-based and possibly racially and politically motivated, an action explicitly prohibited by Title VI of the Civil Right Act of 1964," Professor Wang wrote in the letter. On the same day, retired Julie Tang also wrote to UNT to protest the expulsion of Chinese students . "Their summary removal from the College appears to be a serious violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process of the law under the 14th Amendment," Judge Tang said in the letter. UNT President Neal Smatresk had issued a statement on " Moving Forward and Living Our Values as a Diverse, Inclusive Community " on June 17, 2020. "I am steadfastly committed to celebrating our diversity and working toward the changes necessary for our university to lead in the fight against racism and bias so that each and every individual feels like a valued member of our Mean Green family," the statement said. A concerned individual has also sent a protest message to UNT President Smatresk, pointing out that the purge of Chinese scholars is not based on misbehavior but on the source of their funding assistance. The UNT letter is a "get-out-of-Dodge" letter from the "Sheriff" with no pretense of due process. " It is a resurrection of the shameful Chinese Exclusion Acts of the past." On September 3, 2020, the petition to " Take back the decision to end the relationship with the Chinese scholars who fund by CSC " has gathered morfe than 6,000 signatures. It has been reported that UNT expelled 15 Chinese government-backed scholars. It is unknown at this time whether the expulsion is a unilateral decision made by UNT, how many other higher education institutions have taken similar action on their own, or an implemenation of a government policy. Available evidence suggests that it may be related to a 2020/08/18 letter from a State Department official. The University of North Texas has suddenly ended its relationship with visiting scholars receiving funding from China. Previous Next Another Purge of Scholars from China?

Newsletter - #334 6/2 Monthly Meeting; Influence of Hate & Extremism; CAPAC Concerns in U.S. Revoking Visas for Chinese Students; Wu Chien-Shiung #334 6/2 Monthly Meeting; Influence of Hate & Extremism; CAPAC Concerns in U.S. Revoking Visas for Chinese Students; Wu Chien-Shiung In This Issue #334 · 2025/06/02 APA Justice Monthly Meeting · Influence of Hate and Extremism Grow; Attacked Asian Professor Speaks Out · CAPAC Expressed Concerns in the U.S. Revoking Visas for Chinese Students · Chinese Students at Harvard Cancel Flights, Scramble for Legal Help After Trump Ban · U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Plans for Expanded Social Media Screening · Federal Judge Halts Trump’s Harvard Foreign Student Ban Amid Escalating Clash · Wu Chien-Shiung: The Chinese-American Physicist Who Changed Science But Was Denied the Nobel · News and Activities for the Communities 2025/06/02 APA Justice Monthly Meeting The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, June 2, 2025 , starting at 1:55 pm ET . In addition to updates by Judith Teruya , Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Joanna YangQing Derman , Program Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC, and Gisela Perez Kusakawa , Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), invited speakers are: · Judy Chu , Member, U.S. House of Representative · Aki Maehara , Professor, Historian, East Los Angeles College · Ya Liu , Member, North Carolina House of Representatives · Juanita Brent , Member, Ohio House of Representative · Christina Ku and Gerald Ohn, Co-Founders, Asian American Civil Rights League · Brian Sun , Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright · Edgar Chen , Special Policy Advisor, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) 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 . Influence of Hate and Extremism Grow Despite Numbers Decline; Attacked Asian Professor Speaks Out The Associated Press recently reported that the number of hate and extremist groups in the United States slightly declined in 2024, but not because their influence is waning—in fact, the opposite may be true. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), whose annual Year in Hate and Extremism report was released Thursday, many white nationalist, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-government ideologies have become increasingly mainstream, infiltrating politics, education, and public discourse. The SPLC counted 1,371 hate and extremist groups in 2024, down 5% from the previous year. Of these, 533 were active hate groups, a continued decline from the 1,021 peak in 2018. But researchers cautioned against reading this as progress. “The trends have slightly sort of gone up and down but let’s just say generally, since our tracking, have increased,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “And that’s not just on a total numbers level but also on a per capita.” One reason for the drop, the SPLC says, is that extremist views are being adopted more widely, reducing the need for formal group structures. These include calls for bans on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, opposition to LGBTQ+ visibility, and the rise in book bans. Anti-government groups rose to 838, with many believing the federal government is “tyrannical.” The SPLC also noted a rise in male supremacist hate groups, growing from nine to 16 in 2024. These groups promote strict gender roles and misogyny. Their emergence coincides with Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the first woman of color to win a major party’s presidential nomination. “We saw intense vilification, the claiming of demonization of Harris,” Rivas said, adding that far-right online spaces falsely portrayed women as unqualified to lead. The report’s release coincided with the public appearance of Aki Maehara , a 71-year-old Japanese American professor at East Los Angeles College who survived a violent hate crime in April. Maehara held a press conference on May 22 at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles to speak publicly about this violent incident he experienced, which is being investigated as a possible hate crime. On April 29, while riding his electric bicycle home in Montebello, Maehara was struck from behind by a car. The driver reportedly shouted anti-Asian slurs, including “Go back to Ch—k-land,” before fleeing the scene. Maehara sustained multiple injuries, including a concussion, fractured cheekbone, neck injury, and extensive bruising. “I am wanting to add my voice to efforts to address fascist, racist violence,” Maehara said during this press conference. A GoFundMe campaign was launched to assist with Maehara's medical expenses and recovery, raising over $82,000 as of May 27. A change.org page was also set up with the title “Demand Justice for Professor Aki Maehara: Fully Investigate This Hate Crime.” Despite being injured, Maehara has returned to teaching his course on racism in the U.S. and is considering donating part of the nearly money raised for his recovery to other victims of hate violence. “All of your support, concern and care has helped to speed up my healing,” he told supporters. Watch the full YouTube interview with Professor Maehara: Decolonizing Academia: An interview with Professor Aki Maehara, Historian, Activist In this interview, Maehara shared his experiences growing up in East LA, intergenerational trauma, Vietnam and more. CAPAC Expressed Concerns in the U.S. Revoking Visas for Chinese Students In response to Secretary Rubio saying that the U.S. will “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) issued a statement pressing concerns: “The wholesale revocation of student visas based on national origin — and without an investigation — is xenophobic and wrong. “Turning these students away —many of whom simply wish to learn in a free and democratic society — is not just shortsighted but a betrayal of our values.” According to New York Times , Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the students who will have their visas canceled include people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party and those studying in “critical fields.” He added that the State Department was revising visa criteria to “enhance scrutiny” of all future applications from China, including Hong Kong. The move was certain to send ripples of anxiety across university campuses in the United States. China is the country of origin for the second-largest group of international students in the United States. Chinese Students at Harvard Cancel Trips, Scramble for Legal Help After Trump Ban According to Reuters , Chinese students at Harvard University were left reeling on Friday after the Trump administration blocked the school from enrolling international students, triggering panic, canceled flights, and widespread legal uncertainty. The administration’s order—citing allegations that Harvard had coordinated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), among other claims—would force current foreign students to transfer to other institutions or risk losing their legal status. The policy could potentially be expanded to include other universities as well. Zhang , a 24-year-old PhD student in physics, said the Chinese student community felt particularly vulnerable. “I think the Chinese community definitely feels like a more targeted entity compared to other groups,” he said. Fearing escalation, friends even advised him to avoid staying at his apartment in case of immigration enforcement action. “They think it’s possible that an ICE agent can take you from your apartment,” he said, requesting anonymity for safety reasons. The uncertainty caused immediate disruptions. Zhang Kaiqi , a 21-year-old master’s student in public health, had packed his bags for a flight back to China when the order hit. “I was sad and irritated. For a moment I thought it was fake news,” he said. He canceled the flight—losing both money and a summer internship with a U.S. NGO in China. Many students were especially concerned about losing visa-linked internships vital for future graduate school applications. Others scrambled for legal advice. Two Chinese students said they were added to WhatsApp groups where panicked peers shared updates and legal tips. One transcript showed a lawyer advising students not to travel domestically or leave the country until official school guidance was issued. A federal judge issued a two-week restraining order, temporarily freezing the ban. The Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the action, warning it would damage the U.S.’s international credibility and pledging to protect the rights of Chinese students abroad. “It will only damage the image and international credibility of the United States,” the ministry said. Some Chinese families are now reconsidering the U.S. as an education destination. “It’s likely to be a final nudge toward other destinations,” said Pippa Ebel, an education consultant based in Guangzhou. Incoming Harvard master’s student Zhao , 23, said she may defer or transfer if the situation doesn’t improve. “It’s really disturbed my life plans. I had planned to apply for my U.S. visa in early June, and now I’m not sure what to do,” she said. U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Plans for Expanded Social Media Screening According to Politico , Associated Press , NPR , and others, the U.S. State Department has temporarily halted the scheduling of new visa interviews for foreign students, signaling a further tightening of the Trump administration’s approach toward international students. The pause, which does not affect applicants with already scheduled interviews, comes as the government prepares to implement more stringent screening of applicants' social media activity. According to a diplomatic cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by The Associated Press, consular sections have been instructed not to add "any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity" until new guidance on expanded vetting is issued. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce defended the move during a Tuesday briefing, saying, “We will continue to use every tool we can to assess who it is that’s coming here, whether they are students or otherwise.” The suspension, first reported by Politico , adds to a growing list of measures targeting foreign students. Just last week, the Trump administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, a decision that was swiftly challenged in court and is now temporarily blocked. Earlier this year, the administration also revoked the legal status of thousands of international students, prompting legal battles and widespread concern. Critics argue these measures risk disrupting academic plans and damaging U.S. higher education institutions that rely heavily on international students for both diversity and revenue. Many foreign students pay full tuition, helping universities offset declining federal funding. An anonymous U.S. official told the Associated Press that the current halt is temporary, but uncertainty looms. “This kind of broad suspension without clarity creates a chilling effect on applicants and institutions alike,” the official noted. With the summer and fall terms approaching, the prolonged visa delays could significantly impact enrollment and campus life across the country. Federal Judge Halts Trump’s Harvard Foreign Student Ban Amid Escalating Clash According to Associated Press , CNN , Reuters , New York Times , and others, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from barring Harvard University from enrolling international students—a move the university called unconstitutional retaliation for resisting federal demands. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs temporarily halted the policy, which threatened to strip Harvard of its ability to host international students, who make up roughly a quarter of its student body. In its lawsuit, Harvard argued that the administration’s actions violated the First Amendment and would have an “immediate and devastating effect,” warning that the measure could force thousands of students to transfer or lose legal immigration status while damaging the university’s global standing. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the school said in its filing. A New York Times report sheds light on the escalating conflict between Harvard and the Trump administration. According to the report, the conflict escalated after the Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, demanded extensive data on international students, including coursework, disciplinary records, and even video footage of student protests. While Harvard provided data it was legally required to share, it pushed back on the broader demands, calling them vague, politically motivated, and beyond the scope of federal law. The administration accused Harvard of fostering an unsafe campus environment and alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party—claims the university firmly denied. Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers condemned the government’s actions on X (formerly Twitter), calling them “madness” that risks alienating future global leaders. This confrontation reflects a broader campaign by the Trump administration to reshape the U.S. higher education, with elite universities accused of promoting "woke" ideologies, tolerating antisemitism, and resisting conservative values. Multiple federal agencies—including the Departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—have launched investigations into Harvard, focusing on admissions practices, compliance with the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, and foreign funding disclosures. Harvard’s legal team contends that universities have a constitutionally protected right to manage their academic communities free from government interference, citing case law that protects not just students and faculty, but institutions themselves. Wu Chien-Shiung: The Chinese-American Physicist Who Changed Science But Was Denied the Nobel In May, during AAPI Heritage Month, the South China Morning Post published a feature story on Wu Chien-Shiung , the legendary Chinese American physicist whose groundbreaking work helped shape modern science—despite a lifetime of discrimination and under-recognition. Born in 1912 in a small village near Shanghai, Wu rose to become one of the most influential experimental physicists of the 20th century. Known as the "Queen of Physics," she played a critical role in the Manhattan Project, helping solve complex problems in uranium enrichment. Her expertise was so well regarded that when Enrico Fermi encountered a technical obstacle, the advice he received was simply: “Ask Miss Wu.” Yet, despite her pivotal contributions, Wu was excluded from the 1957 Nobel Prize awarded to Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang for their theory of parity violation—an idea her meticulous experiments had confirmed. Many scientists and historians have since argued that Wu deserved a share of that honor, if not a Nobel Prize of her own. As an Asian woman in a white male-dominated field, Wu endured systemic discrimination throughout her career. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover even referred to her as “he” in vetting documents, reflecting both racial and gender bias. She was routinely paid less than her male counterparts and had to fight for basic professional respect. Still, she persisted. Later in her life, Wu became a fierce advocate for women in science. “The traditional role of wife and mother and dedicated scientist are compatible,” she once declared, challenging both cultural and institutional barriers. She urged young girls to pursue science and questioned the belief that physics was only for men. Beyond her scientific achievements, Wu also played a quiet diplomatic role. She advised against Taiwan’s nuclear weapons ambitions and helped foster China’s scientific development during a time of strained U.S.-China relations. Though she was omitted from the recent film Oppenheimer and denied the Nobel recognition she deserved, Wu Chien-Shiung’s legacy has only grown. She has been honored with a U.S. postage stamp and a towering statue in her hometown. Wu passed away in 1997, but today she is remembered as one of the greatest experimental physicists of her era—a pioneer whose brilliance and resilience continue to inspire new generations. News and Activities for the Communities APA Justice Community Calendar Upcoming Events: 2025/05/29 U.S. v. Wen Ho Lee - 25 Years Later2025/06/01 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/06/02 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2025/06/03 The Second Annual State of the Science Address2025/06/15 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/06/15-18 2025 Applied Statistics Symposium2025/06/16-24 Discover China 2025: Summer Youth Exchange to the Greater Bay Area2025/06/29-30 2025 ICSA China ConferenceVisit 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 May 29, 2025 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #280 Xenophobic Legislation; 9/9 Meeting; Mixed Enrollment; USSTA; AA History in States; + #280 Xenophobic Legislation; 9/9 Meeting; Mixed Enrollment; USSTA; AA History in States; + In This Issue #280 · CAPAC and Community Condemn U.S.-China Legislation Rooted in Xenophobia · 2024/09/09 APA Justice Monthly Meeting/APIAVote · Mixed Results In Enrollment After End of Affirmative Action · US-China Science and Technology Agreement · Asian American History Entering States · News and Activities for the Communities CAPAC and Community Condemn U.S.-China Legislation Rooted in Xenophobia On September 11, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed on a vote of 237-180, H.R. 1398 Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act of 2024, a bill to reinstate the Trump-era China Initiative program. It also passed H.R. 9456, Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, a bill to require the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review agricultural land purchases solely by immigrants from China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran.Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28) issued the following statement:“With precious little time remaining to fund our government, House Republicans could have worked on a bipartisan basis this week to do so—supporting our veterans and protecting our homeland. Instead, they launched a partisan ‘China week’ that does nothing to improve our competitive advantages to the Chinese Community Party or seriously address national security interests. I am outraged by today’s passage of deceptively-named bills that would undermine our nation’s security and racially profile immigrants and Americans of Chinese and Asian descent. “The devastating H.R. 1398 would revive the Trump-era China Initiative, a program that purported to prosecute and curb cases of economic espionage but instead targeted innocent Asian American scientists for investigation and arrest because of their Chinese descent. This McCarthy-esque witch hunt, carried out by our own government, irreversibly ruined so many lives and careers while casting a chilling effect on our academic community that continues to damage our country’s global competitive edge and ability to stay on the cutting edge of scientific advancements. Ripped out of Trump’s Project 2025, this bill is an egregious outcome of xenophobic and fear-mongering rhetoric from Republicans who so prioritize the appearance of being ‘tough on China’ that they fail—or willfully ignore—to see or care about the havoc the China Initiative has wreaked on Asian American communities. So let me be clear: while we all want to stop American secrets from being stolen, investigations should be based on evidence of criminal activity, not race, ethnicity, or national origin.“H.R. 9456 is a call-back to the alien land laws of ugly parts of American history, and its dangerously broad language means that every legal immigrant and refugee from targeted countries, including China, Iran, and Russia, who want to pursue an American dream of owning a farm are treated as national security threats. It’s that kind of reasoning that directly led to the deprival of property rights for Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, and eventually the unjust incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II—none of whom were ever found to be spies for Japan.“I vehemently condemn the passage of these bills today, and commit to stopping any further consideration of them in Congress. We should always aim to pass legislation based on evidence it will lift us up—not tear us down based on our race, ethnicity, or national origin.” The fight is not over... On September 9, 2024, a coalition of over 70 organizations sent a joint letter to Congressional leaders, urging them not to revive the China Initiative. On September 10, 2024, the White House issued a policy statement strongly opposing H.R. 1398, warning that the bill would undermine the Department of Justice's ability to investigate and prosecute trade secret theft and economic espionage, especially by making it harder to secure cooperation from victims and witnesses. "The bill also could give rise to incorrect and harmful public perceptions that DOJ applies a different standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to the Chinese people or to American citizens of Chinese descent," the statement said.On September 11, 2024, at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Professors Gang Chen , Anming Hu , and Franklin Tao —targeted victims of the China Initiative who had their charges dismissed or were acquitted—called on lawmakers to stop efforts to relaunch the program.Community organizations, including Advancing Justice | AAJC, the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), the Committee of 100 (C100), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), and Stop AAPI Hate, issued strong condemnations of U.S.-China legislation rooted in xenophobia. These groups noted that the China Initiative had been dismantled due to its discriminatory practices and ineffectiveness, which destroyed the lives and careers of many scholars and researchers. It also contributed to a chilling effect on academic research and hindered the U.S. from attracting diverse talent. A joint statement called on the Senate to reject its further advancement.The community organizations condemned both H.R. 1398 and H.R. 9456, stating in a joint statement that, “The U.S. has a long history of anti-Asian scapegoating — of blaming everyday Asian people for the actions of foreign governments via inflammatory rhetoric and discriminatory policies. It’s a long-standing political tactic used by those in power to unfairly ‘other’ Asian people, manufacture suspicion and fear against them, and leverage that fear to manipulate Americans into supporting their agenda. Anti-Asian scapegoating has led to devastating consequences, as we saw with the Immigration Act of 1924 that banned all immigrants from Asia, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and more recently, the backlash against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Most Americans can agree that national security and economic security are important issues, and there are indeed responsible ways for our elected leaders to tackle them. However, we believe ‘China Week’ is being executed in bad faith and goes against our shared American values of freedom and equality for all. Rather than focusing solely on the actions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, multiple pieces of legislation also seek to target everyday Americans and immigrant families who have done nothing wrong, simply because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin. “Today, we are once again witnessing an alarming rise in anti-Asian political rhetoric and legislation that is threatening the safety and rights of millions of Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S. As the policies of ‘China Week’ and the harmful rhetoric surrounding it have demonstrated, it is clearly part of the anti-Asian scapegoating playbook. ‘China Week’ is rooted in xenophobia and unless we hold our leaders accountable for it, our nation is bound to repeat the same horrific mistakes of the past.” Related Media Reports and Statements 2024/09/13 NBC News: During ‘China Week,’ House GOP revived surveillance program. Asian Americans are slamming it 2024/09/13 Northwest Asian Weekly: Civil rights groups criticize recent House votes on China legislation 2024/09/12 C100: Committee of 100 Strongly Condemns the Passing of China Initiative and Alien Land Law Bills by the U.S. House of Representatives 2024/09/12 NAPABA: NAPABA Condemns Passage of Bills That Would Reinstate the “China Initiative” 2024/09/12 AsAmNews: Asian American groups condemn house passage of China Initiative 2024/09/12 AAJC: Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Asian American Scholar Forum Condemn U.S.-China Legislation Rooted in Xenophobia 2024/09/11 AASF: Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Asian American Scholar Forum Condemn U.S.-China Legislation Rooted in Xenophobia 2024/09/11 CAPAC: CAPAC Chair Condemns House Votes Undermining National Security, Violating Civil Rights of Asian American Communities 2024/09/10 Executive Office of The President: State of Administration Policy 2024/09/09 Coalition Letter to Congress: Do Not Revive the China Initiative Watch the video recording of the proceedings: https://live.house.gov/?date=2024-09-11 (10:05:54) 2024/09/09 APA Justice Monthly Meeting/APIAVote We thank the following speakers for sharing their thoughts and insights at the APA Justice monthly meeting held on September 9, 2024: · Nisha Ramachandran , Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) · Joanna YangQing Derman , Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC · Gisela Perez Kusakawa , Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) · Christine Chen , Co-Founder and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Vote · Jane Shim , Director, Stop Asian Hate Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) · Tori Bateman , Director of Advocacy, Quincy Institute · Sandy Shan , Director, Justice Is Global A meeting summary is being prepared and will be posted at https://www.apajustice.org/ after review by the speakers. Past monthly meeting summaries are available at https://bit.ly/3kxkqxP During the monthly meeting, Christine Chen emphasized the importance of voter turnout to demonstrate the political power of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and influence legislation. September 17 is National Voter Registration Day, APIAVote has released the 2024 Civic Holidays Toolkit as a guide to helping to promote voting in our community through any and all social media platforms. APIAVote has also put out a call for volunteers with Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi, or Bengali language speaking abilities to help answer voters' calls for assistance with their ballots, voting rights, and more. APIAVote is also looking for phone bankers and text bankers to help communicate directly with millions of AAPIs across the country to get them educated, prepared and motivated to vote, participate in the political process, and get vaccinated. Mixed Results In Enrollment After End of Affirmative Action According to NBC News and multiple media reports, in the first college admissions process since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action last year, Asian American enrollment at the most prestigious U.S. schools paints a mixed, uneven picture. Some Ivy League schools, including Columbia and Brown universities, showed an increase in Asian Americans for the class of 2028, while others, like Yale and Princeton, showed a decrease. Harvard, the most selective of the group, did not see a change at all. Experts said that it may take years to see the definitive impact of the decision, which restricted the consideration of race in college admissions. But it did not have the effect that many who opposed the policy had expected, they said. “The big takeaway is that folks who supported the lawsuit were saying, this would be such a big win for Asian Americans, that race-based admissions was some type of barrier to our upward mobility,” said OiYan Poon , faculty affiliate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign office of community college research and leadership. “What we’re seeing is that that’s not really bearing out,” Poon added.Columbia University — which, unlike the other Ivies, groups Pacific Islanders with Asian Americans — saw an increase of nine percentage points in its enrollment of Asian American applicants, while Brown saw an increase of four percentage points. At Yale, the racial group dropped by six points. And at Princeton, it decreased by 2.2 percentage points. Asian Americans remained 37% of Harvard’s freshman class. Read the NBC News report: https://nbcnews.to/4d931GX . According to the New York Times on September 13, 2024, a tracker of about 50 selective schools developed by the organization Education Reform Now showed that the percentage of Black enrollment is down at three-quarters of the schools, with some campuses more affected than others. The list of schools that have experienced declines in Black enrollment ranges from prestigious smaller colleges such as Amherst College, in Massachusetts, to highly selective Ivy League schools, like Brown and Columbia.Even as some schools saw big changes, others saw little change, or the numbers went in the opposite direction than was expected. Many of the schools are reporting stagnation or decline in Asian American enrollment, which may be attributed to the increase in students not reporting their race or ethnicity. “Asian Americans know they’re the target.”Read the New York Times report: https://nyti.ms/3Xu9beO . AsAmNews also reported on Asian Am enrollment drops at Yale & Princeton and No change in Asian American enrollment at Harvard US-China Science and Technology Agreement According to Nature on September 10, 2024, the United States and China have missed the deadline to renew a pact that governs their cooperation in science and technology. But they are close to agreeing on a way forwards. Over the past year, the two nations have been negotiating the terms and conditions of a decades-old pact, normally renewed every five years, that expired on 27 August 2023. The pact is symbolic in that it doesn’t provide any funding. But researchers in the United States and China say it is crucial because it lays the groundwork for building strong research collaborations between the two nations , which have so far announced two 6-month extensions to complete negotiations. But the latest deadline, August 27, has come and gone without them taking any action. A spokesperson for the US Department of State said in a statement to Nature that the agency is negotiating on behalf of the US government to “modernize” the agreement “to reflect the current status of the bilateral relationship”. “An agreement is getting near. They are working out the final language,” says Denis Simon , a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a foreign policy think-tank in Washington DC.“China is willing to renew the US–China pact to facilitate bilateral collaboration,” says Tang Li , a science- and innovation-policy researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.Sources who spoke to Nature think that any announcement about the pact probably will not come until after the upcoming US presidential election in November.Read the Nature report: https://go.nature.com/47ooNFc Asian American History Entering States According to the Christian Science Monitor on September 4, 2024, as students return to classrooms in the United States, a quiet revolution is underway. More states nationwide have passed laws to teach Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history in public schools. In July, Delaware became the latest state to pass such a mandate, joining Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Florida, and Wisconsin. In Connecticut, where the AAPI population has surged by more than 31% in the past decade, the push to include Asian American history is not just about education – it’s also about being neighborly. “These changes bring us all together to create and foster more understanding,” says Swaranjit Singh Khalsa a Norwich, Connecticut, councilman who contributed to the passage of his state’s mandate. “The curriculum is not only going to educate our kids but our teachers, our professors, and our parents. So I think we are creating a much more educated society. It’s not just limited to schools.” Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up one of the fastest-growing populations in the U.S. Yet their longstanding history in America is largely omitted from the classroom, says Jason Chang , director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut and a co-founder of the state’s first Make Us Visible chapter.Some 18 states had no content on Asians in their K-12 history curriculum standards, a national study published in 2022 found. When textbooks did include parts of AAPI history, according to the study, by Kennesaw State University Professor Sohyun An , it was mainly about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, or the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 19th century. Yet 22 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries. Read the Christian Science Monitor report: https://bit.ly/3MDmdlq News and Activities for the Communities 1. APA Justice Community Calendar Upcoming Events:2024/09/19 1990 Teachers Workshop: Asian American Identity2024/09/19 AASF Public Forum with the National Institutes of Health2024/09/19-20 AANHPI Unity Summit2024/09/22 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/09/25 C100: State of Chinese American Survey 2024 2024/09/26 White House Initiative AA& NHPI Policy Summit2024/09/27 The War for Chinese Talent in America: The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations2024/09/29 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/10/02 C100: Asian American Career Ceiling Initiative2024/10/06 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/10/07 APA Justice Monthly MeetingThe Community Calendar has moved. Visit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details. 2. APA Justice is Looking for a Communications Intern We are looking for a Communications Intern who has strong concerns about the challenges faced by Chinese Americans and Chinese in America today. The candidate should demonstrate an interest in learning more about the history and struggles of Chinese Americans in the U.S., and is familiar with social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X. Knowledge of WeChat and ability to read Chinese are desired, but not required Strong writing, oral communication, and modern digital communication skills are highly desired.The Communications Intern is responsible for management and expansion of APA Justice's social media presence and to curate and extract relevant content from APA Justice Newsletters and other sources to share across social media and the APA Justice website, in collaboration with one or more partner organizations. Working hours are flexible, averaging about 5-10 hours per week. Compensation is $15-20 per hour depending on qualifications. No additional benefits are provided.Qualified candidates should contact Professor Steven Pei at peiuh8@gmail.com or contact@apajustice.org . Back View PDF September 17, 2024 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter

Newsletter - #63 Rallies With Yellow Whistle Continue; Racial Profiling At DOC; Congrats To Krystal! #63 Rallies With Yellow Whistle Continue; Racial Profiling At DOC; Congrats To Krystal! Back View PDF May 30, 2021 Previous Newsletter Next Newsletter