Professor Kenneth Hammond: I heard an unexpectedly good report on NPR this afternoon, concerning the 6th Plenum meeting in Beijing this week.
It was a calm and clear analysis of Xi Jinping’s program, with a bit of a retrospective commentary on the history of the PRC. It was by John Ruwitch. The interviewer kept trying to push him to say negative things about China and Xi, but he kept it very straightforward and basically tried to make Xi’s program sound like a good thing for China. It was strange to hear it on NPR, but good to have at least one reasonable voice out there on a significant media outlet.
The San Francisco Chronicle: Asian American electoral wins don’t erase anti-Asian hate by Harry Mok, Nov. 8, 2021
Elaine Qi marches against anti-Asian hate during a March rally in San Francisco for Vicha Ratanapakdee, who died after being pushed to the pavement as he walked through his neighborhood in the city.
Last week was a good one for Asian America, as it celebrated a prominent array of political firsts across the country: the election wins last week of mayors Michelle Wu in Boston, Aftab Pureval in Cincinnati and Bruce Harrell in Seattle.
In San Francisco, David Chiu was sworn in as city attorney. It’s fitting that the Edwin M. Lee Asian Pacific Democratic Club hosted a party for him afterward; Lee was the city’s first Asian American mayor, and Chiu is the first Asian American to serve in his new role.
After watching a video feed of Chiu’s swearing in ceremony, I hustled downtown for the party that featured a who’s who from the city’s Asian American political circles. It’s heartening to be in a room with so many Asian Americans who are engaged in political process and are in high-profile positions, like Chiu. (Full disclosure: My wife went to graduate school with Chiu and has been a volunteer for his election campaigns.)
But in between my bites of small bites, I thought of the wave of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic and the FBI’s release of revised hate crime data a few days earlier that is a reminder the American part of that dual identity is still not accepted by many no matter how many Asians are elected mayor. Anti-Asian hate crimes rose 73% to 279 in 2020 compared with 161 in 2019, according to the FBI. And those are just cases that are reported to police.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 9,000 incidents of verbal harassment, shunning, physical violence and other discriminatory acts have been self-reported to the group Stop AAPI Hate, which formed to track attacks inflamed by the idea that China, and anyone Chinese or who looked Chinese, is to blame for the coronavirus. This sentiment isn’t new. The U.S. has a long history of xenophobia against immigrants and racism fueled by the “othering” of enemies, real or perceived.
The first big wave of non-Europeans entering the country came during the Gold Rush from China, and these fortune seekers were competition for white miners and workers on the West Coast. Rather than outwork the newcomers, it was easier to foment fears that foreigners were sullying the country and taking jobs from Americans.
Sound familiar?
This ultimately led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first law that barred most of an entire ethnic group from the U.S.
During World War II, Japan became the bogeyman, resulting in widespread racism that led to a presidential order to send 120,000 Japanese Americans, many of them citizens, to prison camps over fears they were a threat to national security. And because China was now a U.S. ally, the Chinese Exclusion Act was rescinded (over intense opposition) in 1943 partly as a sign of friendship.
Relations froze with Communist China in the 1950s during the Cold War and the Korean War, making it the enemy again and fueling suspicions about Chinese people or anyone who looks Chinese. Just ask Wen Ho Lee, who was accused of spying, or Chinese and Chinese American scientists at American universities who are now being surveilled by the Justice Department’s China Initiative, which was created to deter China’s threat to U.S. national security.
Sound familiar?
In the 1960s, the Vietnam War created a new enemy, and in its aftermath, the U.S. admirably took in hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees. Many, however, encountered racism driven by fearmongering over how foreigners are ruining the country and taking jobs from Americans.
More recently, the fear of terrorism has made people from the Middle East and anyone who might seem Middle Eastern, including Indians, Pakistanis and other South Asians in America, targets for harassment, physical attacks and other discriminatory acts.
Sound familiar?
After hundreds of years in America, Asians haven’t shed their foreignness. This “otherness” can create a mind-set among some Asian Americans that they don’t belong in the mainstream, so they purposely stay on the margins.
Last week’s elections show that’s changing, but we’re still counting too many firsts.
“So many of us (have known) our whole lives what it feels like to be both invisible and also always sticking out, but not seen for the person you are … judged and discriminated against simply because of appearance,” Wu, who is also the first female mayor of Boston, told the NBC Asian America news site, recounting the racism her Chinese American family experienced when she was growing up in Chicago.
Chiu, a former San Francisco supervisor and Assembly member, grew up in Boston. His family never talked about being the rare Chinese family in their neighborhood or the racial slurs and slights they endured, he said in a speech after being sworn in.
He said his attitude changed in college after a group of Asian American students from another university near his were accosted and had racial insults hurled at them and were spat on.
“The most disturbing aspect of what happened is that those attackers were not brought to justice,” Chiu said.
Soon after, Chiu said he became a student activist, changed majors from biochemistry to government and decided to be a lawyer to fight injustice.
“That moment changed me,” Chiu said. “I was incredibly upset because those students could have been me.”
It could still be Chiu. Or me. It has been someone more than 9,000 times during the past year and half — and we’re still counting.
We’re still counting because no matter how many mayors or rooms full of Asian American politicians there are, it hasn’t been enough to overcome the legacy of racism that’s built into the DNA of the country.
Harry Mok is The San Francisco Chronicle’s assistant opinion editor. Email: hmok@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @harrymok
Harry Mok is an assistant editor in the opinion section of The San Francisco Chronicle. Previously, he was a copy editor at The Chronicle. Harry has also worked as an online producer for the Bay Area News Group, as an editor at Newsday in New York and is a former editor in chief of Hyphen magazine. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Jose State University and a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Video: A road model for the Children of overseas Chinese. 她是海外華人子女的好榜樣 Born September 3, 2003 谷愛玲(Eileen Gu), Chinese parents. Born in the San Francisco California USA, migrated back to China, China granted her Chinese Citizenship 中國父母。 生於美國加利福尼亞州舊金山，移居回中國，中國授予她中國國籍 https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3251544d35457a6333566d54/index.html and representing China in Winter Olympics Games in Beijing 並代表中國參加北京冬季奧運會 👍👍 Gu is the first naturalized skiing athlete in China. According to Tencent Sports, though she was born in the U.S., Gu loves Chinese culture and is able to recite Chinese ancient poems. 谷愛玲是中國第一位歸化中國滑雪運動員。 根據騰訊體育的說法，儘管谷氏出生於美國，但她熱愛中國文化並能夠背誦中國古代詩歌。When she introduced herself to others, she preferred to call herself a Chinese girl. In her daily life, Gu can speak Chinese with authentic Beijing accent. 當她向別人介紹自己時，她更喜歡稱自己為中國姑娘。 在她的日常生活中，谷小姐會說中文，帶有北京的真實口音。她的父母家教什佳，讓她從小便知道自己是中國人，不要忘了自己的根.
A delegation of US lawmakers on Tuesday in a surprise visit to Taiwan Province organised by Washington’s de facto embassy on the island. In return each will receive US$10-50,000 tax free for the show and photo opportunities.
If IRS or shall I say US customs caught them or shall I say if they landed in US Airforce base, or shall I say if any Federal Agencies dared to expose them unless they could stripped their Senator or Congressman titles, they will come back to cut their budgets in the name of freedom democracy human rights and rules of laws. They are above the law!
When Taiwan purchased 100s of millions of dollars of military hardware from US, historically there is always kicked back. The politicians who pushed the military equipment sales in US will get something back in return. It comes in many forms, cash, unspecified perks, girls and etc. The sellers of military equipments also will give perks to Taiwan Provincial Government officials based on rankings. Remembered US is charging Taiwan 2-3x more for outdated equipments. Part of it as protection money for US, part of it is to make sure everyone happy.
An American exercises his freedom democracy human rights and rules of laws at US Capital force to leave / Huge irony for US as American man flees ‘Beacon of Democracy’ to Belarus by Lin Lan Nov 09 2021
“Every year people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution… due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion,” according to the official website of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. For a long time, the US has become a “paradise” for so-called “dissidents” who go against their own countries’ systems.
But now, an American man has escaped this “paradise,” heading for a country long regarded as a “dictatorship” by the US. According to a state TV report from Belarus, a US citizen charged with participating in the January 6 Capitol riot and wanted by the FBI is seeking asylum in Belarus. The man claimed that he is being politically persecuted by the US.
Why did a person from a so-called free country choose to seek asylum in an “authoritarian regime” Washington regards? This is a huge irony for the “democratic” US.
If the same thing happened in China or Russia, it is not difficult to imagine the US’ reaction. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken may quickly make an announcement to “stand with” this man and condemn the government of the country concerned. But the incident actually happened in the US, and of course, Blinken has remained silent.
The US has been playing double standards, which shows that it does not care about democracy, liberty or the civil rights it claims at all. What it cares is geopolitical interests.
“The US is not a sanctuary where it protects human rights and freedom. Just the opposite, it is a perpetrator to a large extent. The US has tried to position itself on the global moral high ground, which is completely untenable. There will definitely be voices in the US that accuse the man of being a traitor. This incident is a stain on the US image,” Zhang Tengjun, deputy director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times.
During the Tokyo Olympics, Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya expressed her dissatisfaction with her coaches and she was then persuaded to recant and go home. She refused to return to Belarus and went to Poland where she was offered a “safe haven away from Belarus,” according to the New York Times. She was hyped as “a symbol of the repression in her native Belarus.”
Now, can we say that the American man is “a symbol of the repression in his native US”? Washington has widely criticized countries with different ideologies, but there has always been an inerasable stain on the US itself.
Like what it did in Hong Kong of China, Washington has also tried to instigate a “color revolution” in Belarus. The National Endowment for Democracy, funded by the US Congress, contributed to the outbreak of protests in Belarus last year. By fostering pro-Western forces in the country, the US has intervened in Belarus’ internal affairs and created chaos.
Now, the situation has turned ironic – some Hong Kong rioters have fled to the US to seek political asylum, while this US citizen who participated in the Capitol riot went to Belarus. What a backlash for the US.
“This shows that some American people vote with their feet. They do not agree with the US government’s acts, and believe they are more likely to find justice and security in Belarus and other countries. From this point of view, it is a huge slap on the face of Washington. If the US wants to further promote its ‘democracy’ on a global scale, the effect will be greatly reduced,” Zhang said.
“Lady Liberty stands as a beacon, welcoming you to begin a new chapter of your life,” the Political Asylum USA website says. As some people are fleeing the US shrouded by the torchlight of Lady Liberty, more countries will understand that what Washington claims as “dictatorship” is not really dictatorship, and “freedom” is not freedom. The US’ true face has been exposed to the world.
Singapore cancels free Covid healthcare for those ‘unvaccinated by choice’. Much respect for Singapore Government. Make your choice and take the responsibility.
50%+ never left the country, 16% never cross state lines, frogs sat at bottom of the wells, don’t get to see the world, Americans easily brainwashed by News Medias controlled US military industrial complex & US Govt. World Journal SF 11-9-21
Johnson Choi Biz 