Asian Americans in the U.S. State Department questioned about their loyalties

Rep. Andy Kim recalls the bias he faced in the Department of State.

A cloud of suspicion apparently still hangs over the U.S. State Department's Asian American and Pacific Islander foreign service corps.

When New Jersey Congressmember Andy Kim -- born in Boston -- had top secret security clearance as a State Department advisor to Gen. David Petraeus in Afghanistan, he believes he was barred from working on Korea-related issues because he was  perceived to be vulnerable to the influence of foreign governments.

"It felt like a very clear signal from the government and my workplace that they didn't trust me fully," Kim told CNN. It was, he said, "a painful and hurtful experience."

West Point graduate and Army officer Thomas Wong served his country in foreign conflicts. After his military service, the New Jersey native joined the State Department, only to his a wall.  "I felt like my loyalties were being questioned," he said, when he expressed his desire to serve in China. "I'm convinced race was a factor in that decision."

A number of AAPI State Department diplomats believe their bilingual proficiency and cultural sensitivities are being underused to the detriment of the U.S. and that despite their service records, they are still being perceived as foreigners

According to the policy manual of the Department of State, assignment restrictions are used "to prevent potential targeting and harassment by foreign intelligence services as well as to lessen foreign influence and/or foreign preference security concerns."

"I certainly knew people who were born in Brazil and worked on Brazil issues," says Kim, who serves in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "I know people who have German ancestry and German immigrants that are working on Germany issues."

CNN was able to secure an unclassified 2018 letter to House lawmakers that said the assignment restrictions had affected 166 State Department employees in 2015 and 168 in 2016. In 2017, Donald Trump's first year in office, that number nearly doubled to 307.

A 2020 survey by the State Department's Asian American Foreign Affairs Association found 70% of respondents believed the assignment restriction process was biased, and 41% believed there were outright errors in the process.

One's last name appears to be one of the anomalies of the assignment process. A diplomat with a Chinese surname was denied assignment to China. However, another diplomat with an almost identical resume, but who had the Western-sounding  surname of her spouse, was approved the China assignment.

"It helps immensely to change one's last name," joked one diplomat.

The diplomats, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear that their careers would be harmed, were interviewed by CNN. 

However there is a growing awareness among the foreign service corps, in the context of the anti-Asian racist sentiment the country is currently experiencing. 

 

An open letter to lawmakers in March and signed by over a hundred AAPI foreign service and homeland security personnel, expressed their condemnation of the wave of anti-Asian sentiment resulting in verbal and physical attacks  and the frustration they face while trying to serve their country. The statement reads, in part:

"As a community, it has been heart-wrenching to hear--and personally experience--the latest surge of hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans across our beloved country, the same country for which thousands of Asian-Americans have fought and died. The perpetuation of this prejudice has only intensified under the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical and economic strains and racial polarization it has surfaced.

"Simultaneously, the xenophobia that is spreading as U.S. policy concentrates on great power competition has exacerbated suspicions, microaggressions, discrimination, and blatant accusations of disloyalty simply because of the way we look. Many of us have been targeted because we are either ethnically Chinese or simply look Asian. This is not to dismiss credible counterintelligence concerns as evidenced through indictments of U.S. citizens—some of whom are White—spying for China.

"Treating all Asian Americans working in national security with a broad stroke of suspicion, rather than seeing us as valuable contributors, is counterproductive to the greater mission of securing the homeland ..

"Pertaining specifically to the current state of affairs, Chinese-Americans are America’s greatest asset in promoting improved understanding and providing a unique bulwark to counter malign Chinese economic, military and political aggression. ... In an environment where most security-cleared professionals are prevented from travel, cultural exchange, and research with China, diaspora community members have the perspectives and sophistication vital to crafting creative policy solutions to complex, interdisciplinary challenges.

"...we can leverage our diverse backgrounds to increase the U.S.’s strategic advantage. ... No American should be asked to prove their loyalty, absent evidence to the contrary. We as Asian-Americans are integral in combatting and securing America’s collective cognitive security."

In an interview with NPR, Kim said the foreign service has a "structural, systemic problem."

Kim is co-authoring a bill, "Department of State Authorization Act of 2021," that would address diversity at the State Department improving recruitment of a more diverse workforce and reassess the department's anti-discrimination policies.

According to the State Department's own data, more than 74% of foreign service specialists and more than 80% of foreign service generalists were White, according to department data. Men accounted for 58% of the generalists and a full 71% of foreign service specialists. Whites make up around 87% of the most senior ranks of the foreign service. Almost 68% of the senior foreign service and nearly 60% of the executive leadership is male.

There are hopeful signs that change might occur under newly appointed Secretary of State  John Blinken, who is keenly aware that the State Department is not representative of America.

STATE DEPARTMENT

U.S. Secretary of State John Blinken, background, introduced the State Department's first
diversity officer, Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley.

In a March meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Biinken called the lack of diversity a problem that "is as old as the department itself. It's systemic. It goes much deeper than any one institution, or any one administration. And it's perpetuated by policies, practices, and people, to this day."

From the start of his administration, President Biden issued an order to ensure equity and equal opportunity throughout out the federal government "to look like America."

To meet this order, Blinken has appointed the State Department's first-ever diversity officer, career diplomat Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley.

Blinken said that he "will consider it a mark of my success or not during my tenure as Secretary whether we've been able to put in place a much more sustainable foundation for advancing true diversity at the State Department, to make sure that we have a Foreign Service and foreign policy workforce that looks like the country that it represents." 

Blinken's statement might ease the sting still felt by Kim. "I'll never forget the feeling when I learned that my own government questioned my loyalty," said Kim.

The core issue, the New Jersey congressmember told CNN, revolves around some of America's oldest questions that are very familiar to AAPI: "What does it mean to be an American, and whether or not they're forever going to see people of color, and especially of AAPI descent, as fully American."

"I was always told diversity is our strength and that's what we want to push forward to the world, but it doesn't feel that way from my experience," Kim continued. "Instead, we come at it from a place where my diversity is a threat or potential threat first, and only when that is as clearly resolved as it can be, then it can be seen as an asset."

A current diplomat serving in a foreign post put it more bluntly to CNN, in terms most Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders can relate to:  "We're starting to wake up and think, wait a minute, should we be putting up with this anymore, this 'Where are you really from?' attitude. We're Americans."