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| China President Xi and Donald Trump met in early December to try calm trade war anxiety. |
IF PAST HISTORY is any indication, Asian Americans could be victims of the growing anti-China sentiment emanating from the White House as the world powers play a game of chicken in the trade wars and tit-for-tat detentions of citizens of the other's countries.
The growing incidents of "go-back-to-your-country" verbal and physical attacks on Asian Americans riding subways, or going about their ordinary humdrum business could just be the beginning of renewed anti-Asian assaults
Assaults while driving, buying groceries or simply purchasing a cup of coffee could just be the beginning of new anti-Asian sentiment hasn't been seen since the last time the U.S. felt its economic prominence was challenged in 1982 when two Detroit auto workers beat Chinese American Vincent Chin to death because they thought he was Japanese.
The ongoing Trump-instigated trade wars between the U.S. and China is at the heart of the matter but China's alleged attempts to steal U.S. industrial secrets, alleged hacking into American business and government computer systems and it's aggressive PR campaign targeting U.S. Asians are adding fuel to the fire.
From China's perspective, the U.S. started the trade war and they would be right. Trump added a 25% tariff on $34 millions of Chinese goods last summer. In retaliation, China added a 25% tariff on U.S. products. The two countries went back and forth and to date, the U.S. has already put tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods, and could slap duties on an additional $267 billion in imports. Beijing has responded with tariffs on $110 billion in U.S. goods targeting politically important industries such as agriculture.
In apparent retaliation, China arrests three Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, Michael Spavor, a China-based business consultant, on December 10, along with teacher Sarah McIver. The latter was released Saturday (Dec. 28) but Spavor and Kovrig remain detained on allegations of “engaging in activities that endanger the national security” of China.
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| Sabrina Meng Wanzhou is out on bail. |
The U.S. and Canada have demanded the release of Spavor and Kovrig, callling their detention arbitrary and compared their arrests to Meng's whose arrest is transparent and who will retain the rights of a person who is innocent until proven guilty.
China spokeswoman Hua Chunying shot back, according to the South China Morning Post, blasting the involvement of the U.S. Britain and the EU weighing on behalf of Canada:
“I wonder how they are involved in this case? Where were their voices when the senior manager of the Chinese company was illegally detained by the Canadian side at the behest of the US?” asked Hua, in comments published in English on the ministry’s website.
“It is quite obvious that the human rights they are talking about have different standards when it comes to citizens of different countries.”
“I wonder how they are involved in this case? Where were their voices when the senior manager of the Chinese company was illegally detained by the Canadian side at the behest of the US?” asked Hua, in comments published in English on the ministry’s website.
“It is quite obvious that the human rights they are talking about have different standards when it comes to citizens of different countries.”
As the report's warnings are disseminated, the Department of Justice appears to have stepped up its surveillance and indictments against Chinese and Chinese American students, scientists and employees of American companies.
Disputes between China and the U.S. include market access, intellectual property, industrial policies and cybersecurity.
In the past month, U.S. authorities arrested or indicted several Chinese Americans allegedly stealing trade secrets and accusing Chinese hackers for breaking into the Marriott Hotel computers to gather information on 50 million guests.
Earlier this month, the U.S. indicted Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong with conspiracy to commit computer "intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud" and identity theft.
“The indictment alleges that the defendants were part of a group that hacked computers in at least a dozen countries and gave China’s intelligence service access to sensitive business information,” said Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein.
"More than 90 percent of the Department’s cases alleging economic espionage over the past seven years involve China," Rosenstein stated. "More than two-thirds of the Department’s cases involving thefts of trade secrets are connected to China."
It's not surprising that the Republican dominated Congress got into the act. Consider the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act, a bill introduced by Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., to help colleges protect against malicious foreign actors. The bill would ask the FBI to designate a list of “foreign intelligence threats to higher education,” which would be subject to heightened scrutiny and transparency.
In a statement, Rooney claimed the Confucius Institutes, a program funded by the Chinese government that partners with U.S. universities to promote Chinese language and culture was part of China's "Infiltration" strategy. Rooney labeled the institutes as “a front by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate American campuses to gather information and steal American technologies.”
Cruz and Rooney cite Chinese-government programs as a source of potential threats to the integrity of American colleges and universities,. Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, objects to their bill as an “irresponsible” attempt to “categorize an entire country of people en masse as spies.”
Civil rights advocates have said the bill is just an attempt to whip up fear and animosity towards Chinese and Chinese Americans. The suspicions and fear raised by that mindset the bill perpetuates has led to several baseless and dismissed charges against Chinese academics and scientists.
Rooney was just repeating comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray’s remarks in a February hearing that drew a backlash from Asian-American civil rights organizations. Wray had labeled China a “whole-of-society threat” and accused Chinese individuals in academia of “taking advantage” of the American universities open environment.
In response, Wray noted that “in almost every field office” the FBI sees China’s “use of nontraditional collectors (of information), especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students.”
Disputes between China and the U.S. include market access, intellectual property, industrial policies and cybersecurity.
In the past month, U.S. authorities arrested or indicted several Chinese Americans allegedly stealing trade secrets and accusing Chinese hackers for breaking into the Marriott Hotel computers to gather information on 50 million guests.
Earlier this month, the U.S. indicted Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong with conspiracy to commit computer "intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud" and identity theft.
“The indictment alleges that the defendants were part of a group that hacked computers in at least a dozen countries and gave China’s intelligence service access to sensitive business information,” said Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein.
"More than 90 percent of the Department’s cases alleging economic espionage over the past seven years involve China," Rosenstein stated. "More than two-thirds of the Department’s cases involving thefts of trade secrets are connected to China."
In a statement, Rooney claimed the Confucius Institutes, a program funded by the Chinese government that partners with U.S. universities to promote Chinese language and culture was part of China's "Infiltration" strategy. Rooney labeled the institutes as “a front by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate American campuses to gather information and steal American technologies.”
Cruz and Rooney cite Chinese-government programs as a source of potential threats to the integrity of American colleges and universities,. Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, objects to their bill as an “irresponsible” attempt to “categorize an entire country of people en masse as spies.”
Civil rights advocates have said the bill is just an attempt to whip up fear and animosity towards Chinese and Chinese Americans. The suspicions and fear raised by that mindset the bill perpetuates has led to several baseless and dismissed charges against Chinese academics and scientists.
Rooney was just repeating comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray’s remarks in a February hearing that drew a backlash from Asian-American civil rights organizations. Wray had labeled China a “whole-of-society threat” and accused Chinese individuals in academia of “taking advantage” of the American universities open environment.
In response, Wray noted that “in almost every field office” the FBI sees China’s “use of nontraditional collectors (of information), especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students.”
Just a few days before Canada arrested Meng, a report was released that outlined China's propaganda campaign meant to gain support for the authoritarian government of the Peoples' Republic of China. The report titled “Chinese Influence & American Interests.” in which longtime China watchers warned of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to influence U.S. universities, media, think tanks and companies—but haven't included election-meddling—have become so pervasive that they are undermining democratic processes.
“The ambition of Chinese activity in terms of the breadth, depth of investment of financial resources, and intensity requires far greater scrutiny than it has been getting, because China is intervening more resourcefully and forcefully across a wider range of sectors than Russia,” said the report, published by the conservative think tank Hoover Institute out of Stanford University.
“The ambition of Chinese activity in terms of the breadth, depth of investment of financial resources, and intensity requires far greater scrutiny than it has been getting, because China is intervening more resourcefully and forcefully across a wider range of sectors than Russia,” said the report, published by the conservative think tank Hoover Institute out of Stanford University.
For example, WeChat, the immensely popular messaging app that connects Chinese Americans with each other and relatives in China, is owned by Ten-Cent, whose CEO, multi-billionaire Jack Ma, is a card-carrying member of China's Communisty Party. Relatively unknown outside of the Chinese American community, the app was successfully used to mobiliize Chinese Americans against the affirmative action programs at elite Ivy League collleges, which its users believe discriminate against qualified Chinese American applicants.
WeChat was the megaphone and bulletin board for a small, but organized group of Chinese Americans to make it appear that it had widespread support among the Asian American community even though the AAPI community backs the goals of affirmative action. Eventually get their claims heard in a U.S. court that will most likely make its way up to the Supreme Court.
The Hoover report goes on to say that Beijing targets the Chinese American community, viewing them as members of a Chinese diaspora with an “allegiance to the so-called Motherland.”China's media strategy creates the risk that Chinese Americans will be caught up in anti-China rhetoric considering the inability of most non-Asians to distinguish between Chinese Americans and citizens of China. Chinese Americans already suffer from being viewed as perpetual foreigners no matter how many generations their families have been in the U.S.
Chinese Americans have historically been viewed suspiciously within the U.S. even though few may accept Beijing’s directives, the report says. The report urges against demonizing any group of Americans or visitors to the U.S.
Susan Shirk, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and the lone dissenter to the report's conclusions of her fellow academics, said she took no issue with the evidence gathered but felt the report’s conclusions overstated the threats.
“Especially during this moment in American political history, overstating the threat of subversion from China risks causing overreactions reminiscent of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, including an anti-Chinese version of the Red Scare that would put all ethnic Chinese under a cloud of suspicion,” she said.
CORRECTION: Earlier versions of this post misidentified FBI director Christopher Wray.
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