Chock-Bates: Ice dancing champions; Emily Chan and Ellie Kam make US skating team

SKATE AMERICA

Madison Chock and Evan Bates win US ice dancing title.

 It looks like ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates will be on the US Winter Olympics team in 2026 ... if they want to go.

That's a question the pair will have to ask themselves when the Olympic qualifying competitions begin in the next few years.

After their triumph by placing first at US Figure Skating Championships last weekend in San Jose, California, they are the favorites to represent the US at the Winter Games.

Chock and Bates, fourth at the Olympics and third at last March’s world championships, totaled 229.75 points between the rhythm dance and free dance. They prevailed by 22.29 over Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, the largest margin of victory in a U.S. ice dance since it was shortened from three programs to two in 2011.

“This is probably the best we’ve ever skated in our careers,” Bates said on NBC. “I think that’s the statement that we wanted to make.”

“I don’t know what the next four years will hold,” said Chock, whose full name is Madison La'akea Te-Lan Hall Chock, reflecting her mixed racial heritage. “But we’re committed to each other and our goals, and we’ll decide when the time comes.”

Chock was born in Redondo Beach, California where she went to high school. She is of Chinese-Hawaiian descent on her father's side and European descent on her mother's side. La'akea means "sacred light from heaven" and Te-Lan (德蘭) means "virtuous orchid."

When the 2026 Winter Games come around Chock, 34, and Bates, 37, competing against young athletes. They have been competing for a long time. And their trophy case is packed to the gills, with the only gaps a world title and an individual Olympic medal. And, most importantly, they are engaged to be married in the summer of 2024.

Bates, who last year became the oldest U.S. champion in any discipline in decades, has made 13 career senior nationals podiums with Chock and former partner Emily Samuelson. It is believed that breaks the US record for a single discipline that he shared with Michelle Kwan, Nathaniel Niles and Theresa Weld Blanchard.

In their career as an ice dancing team, they earned silver or bronze a total of three times.

Until this year, Chock and Bates had faced formidable rivals on the national scene – 2014 Olympic champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White; 2018 Olympic bronze medalists Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani; and 2022 Olympic bronze medalists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, with whom Chock and Bates traded gold medals over the previous four seasons. All have retired from competition.

After last weekend's competition, they've shown they are at the top of their game.

Those records matter less to Chock and Bates than what they’re hoping is a career first in March: a world championships gold medal.

“If we don’t win gold at worlds, we’ll be disappointed,” Bates, whose first senior nationals in 2008 came when new US women’s newly crowned singles champion Isabeau Levito was 10 months old, said earlier this month. “We’ve set the goal for ourselves in the past and haven’t met it yet.”

Where are the Asian Americans?

The US figure skating team heading to World's will look very different from  recent years. At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, five of the 12 skaters were Asian American. This season, there are only three.

Besides Chock, There will be two relatively new faces for the AANHPI figure skating fans to cheer on: The paires team of Emily Chan from Texas and  Spencer Howe finished second; Ellie Kam and her partner Danny O'Shea finished third in pairs.

Olympian Nathan Chen, who won gold in men's figure skating last year, is deep into his studies at Yale and didn't compete this year. Two-time Olympian Vincent Zhou is busy at Brown University. Two-time US champion Alysa Liu retired. Karen Chen, the third US  woman in Beijing and a student at Cornell University, has not formally ended her competitive career but is not competing this season. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

New Jersey joins list of states honoring civil rights hero Fred Korematsu

RAFU SHIMPO GRAPHIC

A true civil rights icon who refused to accept an injustice was honored today as New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy today signed a joint resolution (AJR98) designating January 30 of each year as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution in New Jersey.

The day of recognition honors the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an American civil rights activist of Japanese heritage who fought against the wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

“In setting aside a day permanently recognizing the contributions of Fred Korematsu, we are recommitting ourselves to our nation’s ideal of protecting civil liberties,” said Murphy. “While we can never rectify the injustices woven into the fabric of our nation’s history, we can ensure that the stories of those who fought against injustice are never forgotten. History must be our guide for creating a better tomorrow. I am honored to sign this resolution and to put New Jersey firmly, and forever, on the side of Fred Korematsu and all who keep his legacy alive.”

“AAPI stories often go unknown, unrecognized, and can slip through the cracks of history into the forgotten. New Jersey is doing a great thing by honoring Fred Korematsu and his courageous activism for civil rights – not only to celebrate his service and perseverance, but for recognizing a true AAPI civil rights champion,” said New Jersey Congressmember Andy Kim.

“Fred always stood for what was right and offered his life and story to combat discriminatory policies and xenophobia in our country. May ‘Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution’ be a lasting recognition of his impact and the many contributions of the AAPI community to our nation’s story,” Kim said.

New Jersey is the 11th state to establish Jan. 30 honoring Korematsu since New York first established the day in 2008.

“With the increasing need for mutual understanding among different communities, it is more important than ever to remember, recognize, and honor Fred Korematsu’s legacy of civil rights and liberties,” said Ambassador Mikio Mori, Consul General of Japan in New York. “His legacy continues to inspire people of all backgrounds and demonstrates the importance of speaking up to fight injustice. Let us remember and celebrate this day to learn from history and commit to never letting hatred and racism dictate our actions again.”

““This demonstrates how one person’s brave stance can change the lives of many others. Let us always remember and honor the memory of my father so that honor and justice will shine forever,” said Dr. Karen Korematsu, daughter of Fred Korematsu and Founder and Executive Director, Fred T. Korematsu Institute.

Fred T. Korematsu was an American civil rights activist. In 1942, at the age of 23, he refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In 1944, a divided Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.

In 1983, with new evidence, a pro-bono legal team re-opened Korematsu’s 40-year-old case on the basis of government misconduct. On November 10, 1983, Korematsu’s conviction was overturned in a federal court in San Francisco. In 1998, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton. And in 2018, the Supreme Court formally repudiated its 1944 decision, which today is widely regarded as one of the most unjust decisions in the history of the Court.

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declares Jan. 30 Fred Korematsu Day

Primary sponsors of the legislation include Senator Joseph Lagana, and Assemblymembers Raj Mukerji, Anthony Verrelli, and Brandon Umba.

“Today, Jan. 30, 2023, is a great day for State of NJ—it is a great day for HUMAN KIND!” said Takeshi Furumoto, internment camp survivor and human right activist. “To not only recognize the wrongs of the past, but by recognizing this through legislation, vows to not repeat it. As a survivor, by testifying and passing this bill, and getting unanimous vote of approval by the State Senate and Assembly, gives me a hope for future of America!”

“I grew up in Maywood and attended Hackensack High School several decades ago. But despite an otherwise excellent education, I was never taught about the internment camps where Japanese Americans like my mom, Fred Korematsu, and 120,000 others were detained. Fred Korematsu had the courage to stand up to the country that he loved and challenge it to be better.,"said Phil Tajitsu Nash, board co-president of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).

“We applaud New Jersey for recognizing Fred Korematsu Day. This recognition is about understanding how vitally important, but also how fragile our rights as Americans can be,” stated David Inoue, Executive Director for the Japanese American Citizens League. 

“At a time when there are threats to a woman’s right to health care and other states are proposing to reinstitute Alien Land Laws," Inoue continued, "it is important that we remember Fred Korematsu and the stand he took against the racist incarceration of Japanese Americans and that despite him fighting in the courts, the Supreme Court ultimately denied his rights as an American.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Census: Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese are among top five languages spoken in US homes

Although English is far and away the dominant language spoken in the US, the number of people in the United States who spoke a language other than English at home nearly tripled from 23.1 million (about 1 in 10) in 1980 to 67.8 million (almost 1 in 5) in 2019, according to a recently released US Census Bureau report.

The Hispanic (Latino) population is the largest minority group in the United States. So it is not surprising Spanish was the most common non-English language spoken in U.S. homes (62%) in 2019.

What is surprising are the next four frequently languages spoken at home are, in descending order, are Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic, a reflection of the fastest growing demographic and immigration rate in the US.

The Census report, Language Use in the United States: 2019, uses American Community Survey (ACS) data to highlight trends and characteristics of the different languages spoken in the United States over the past four decades.

The Census Bureau release refers to foreign-language “speakers” as those who report speaking a language other than English (LOTE) at home, not necessarily all those who can speak that language. 

Educational Attainment and Employment

In 2019, 51% of Tagalog and 54% of Chinese speakers had a bachelor’s degree or higher (these two groups were not statistically different from each other) compared to only 17% of Spanish speakers. Figure 3 shows educational attainment for the U.S. population ages 25 years and older by language spoken at home.

About a third (33%) of Spanish speakers did not graduate from high school, the largest share of speakers of the five most common languages other than English.

Employment status of speakers ages 16 and over did not vary much across the five languages (Figure 3). Less than 4% were unemployed in 2019 – not significantly different than the national average.

English Proficiency by Language

The federal government relies on data on language use and English proficiency to provide language services under the Voting Rights Act, as well as to allocate educational funds to state English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.

Based on the 2019 data, 52% of people who spoke Chinese and 57% of those who spoke Vietnamese at home in the United States spoke English “less than very well,” compared to the other three common languages: Spanish 39%, Tagalog 30%, and Arabic 35%. This may have resulted from a recent increase in immigration from Asia and newcomers who have not had enough time to assimilate and master

 English yet.

Household Characteristics by Language

In addition to individual differences, there were also differences in the US households that spoke the five most frequently spoken non-English languages.

A limited English-speaking household is one in which no members ages14 and over speak only English or speak English “very well.” About a third of Chinese (33%) and Vietnamese (31%) households were limited English-speaking households – four times greater than Tagalog households.

In contrast, Tagalog-speaking households were more likely to be “non-limited” English speaking. About 92% of Tagalog-speaking households were non-limited English speaking and only 8% were limited English speaking.

The majority of households across all five languages were family households, defined as having at least two members (including the householder) related by birth, marriage or adoption. On average, these households each had zero to one child under age 18 and three to four persons in the family.

Among nonfamily households, defined either as a person living alone or one who shares the housing unit with nonrelatives such as boarders or roommates, a greater proportion (30%) of Chinese-speaking households were nonfamily compared to households speaking the other four languages. Half as many Tagalog-speaking households (17%) were nonfamily households.

FYI: For a comprehensive review at the individual languages and languages groups spoken in the United States by statisticians Sandy Dietrich Erik Hernandez, refer to the Language Use in the United States: 2019 report.

Stop Asian Hate, a community group tracking the recent surge of attacks against AANHPI in the US and Canada, lists several incidents reported where Asian Americans were attacked for speaking an Asian language.

Several other studies should put the minds of English-only advocates to rest. By the third generation after immigrating to the US, English becomes the primary language spoken at home.

Some of the ifirst-generation immigrants learned English, but preferred to speak their native languages, especially at home. Their children largely grew up bilingual, but many chose to speak English, even to their immigrant parents. When this bilingual generation established their own homes, they usually spoke English at home. “Consequently, by the third generation, the prevalent pattern is English monolingualism, and knowledge of the mother tongue for most ethnics is fragmentary at best,” according to a Pew report.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter. 

Lunar New Year celebrated at the White House

President Biden greeted guests at the first White House observance of Lunar New Year.

Before celebrating the Lunar New Year in the White House, President Biden asked Congressmember Judy Chu, who represents Monterey Park, if it would be appropriate to continue the event so soon after the mass shootings in California.

“Judy, what should I do? Should I continue to — should I be in California or should I still have this celebration?” said Biden. "And she felt very strongly. She said, 'We have to move forward.'”

"Her message was: Don’t give into fear and sorrow. Don’t do that. Stand in solidarity in the spirit of toughness that this holiday is all about."

For the first time ever, the White House celebrated Lunar New Year last Thursday.

“For all the progress, this community has experienced profound hate, pain, and violence and loss,” Biden said. “As I’ve said before, hate can have no safe harbor in America. No person deserves to be treated in a hateful way.”

The President also made notice of Brandon Tsay, 26, who was at a second dance studio a few miles from the scene of the tragedy in Monterey Park when the same gunman entered his dance studio, holding his weapon. Tsay was able to wrestle the weapon away from the gunman, who then fled.

Biden said he spoke to Tsay and called him a "genuine hero."

Biden was introduced by Elaine Tso, CEO of Asian Services in Action in Ohio.

"It means so much to the Asian American community that the White House is hosting this first-ever Lunar New Year event," said Tso. "You know, and because of it, you know, we feel seen, we feel heard. (Applause.) And more importantly — more importantly, we feel valued and — and acknowledged as members of this amazing country that — that welcomes and supports a vibrant community from — from diverse origins."

The President also pointed to the diversity in his administration, stressing to the AAPI audience that more than 13% of his administration is of Asian and Pacific Islander background.

Biden noted that from Day One, the administration has taken steps and introduced policies to improve recognition and support for Asian Americans, including legislation to study the creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture, as well as a bill to combat the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans stemming from the pandemic.

“We cannot be silent,” Biden said Thursday. “I will not be silent.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

In the aftermath of California shootings, prayers and calls for national gun control laws

WHITE HOUSE

Vice President Kamala Harris lays flowers at a memorial for the 11 Monterey Park shooting victims.

The first Asian American Vice President of the US, Kamala Harris, visits Monterey Park to pay respect to the victims killed at a Lunar New Year celebration. 

"I am here and have arrived in Monterey Park today to express our deepest condolences and sorrow for the violent and tragic and useless thing that happened here," said Harris, a native Californian. 

"You know, we’ve already had, in our country, this year already — we’re in January — it’s estimated over 40 mass killings already," Harris said in a statement."

As the Asian American community is struggles through these tragedies with candlelight vigils and makeshift memorials, Harris took the opportunity to advocate for action after the mourning and prayers.

"California has been courageous as a leader on the issue of smart gun safety laws. But we also need Congress to act, because, truly, if we are to have a uniform approach that is a statement of where we, as a nation, I think — where we are on these issues, then Congress must act so that we can get at least one step closer to what is right and what is reasonable, understanding that to do so is to fully support the Second Amendment, but to understand we need reasonable gun safety laws in our country," said Harris.

Meanwhile, authorities released the names of the dance hall victims, all Asian American elderly. They had gathered at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio to celebrate the start of Lunar New Year festivities. The female victims were named as Xiujuan Yu, 57; Hongying Jian, 62; Lilan Li, 63; Mymy Nhan, 65; Muoi Dai Ung, 67; and Diana Man Ling Tom, 70. The male victims were identified as Wen-Tau Yu, 64; Valentino Marcos Alvero, 68; Ming Wei Ma, 72; Yu-Lun Kao, 72; and Chia Ling Yau, 76.

CHINESE FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Candles were lit in a San Francisco Chinatown memorial for the shooting victims.

All of the victims were of Chinese descent, two Taiwanese and one, Alvero, was a Filipino American.

The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco confirmed that five of the victims in Half Moon Bay shooting, which occurred Monday, are Chinese as well as the alleged shooter, Chunli Zhao, who surrendered to authorities hours after the shootings.

The Half Moon Bay victims have been identified as Yetao Bing, 43, Qizhong Cheng, 66, Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, Aixiang Zhang, 74, Jingzhi Lu, 64, and Zhishen Liu, 73, according to the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office.

In an interview conducted in Mandarin, Zhao told NBC Bay Area’s Janelle Wang that he was bullied at work and had issues with the victims. He has been in the US for 11 years and has a green card.

Despite having some of the nation's toughest gun control laws which has resulted in a lower rate of gun death than the national average, it’s been impossible to insulate it from tragedies like the ones seen this week. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom have been looking to Washington to place protections in areas that state policies simply can’t cover.

“We can figure this out — we can,” said Newsom said in an emotional statement after visiting Half Moon Bay. “We know what to do. It’s not complicated. We do. And we don’t have to do this again and again and again.”

However, California laws can't keep the transport of weapons across state lines. “We can’t do this alone,” Newsom said. “And with all due respect, we feel like we are.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Republican Elaine Chao speaks out against Trump racist insults

Republican stalwart Elaine Chao and her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

It took a long time, but finally, Elaine Chao publicly responded to Donald Trump's racist taunts.

Chao, who was Secretary of Transportation on Trump's Cabinet, resigned from her post after the Jan. 6 insurrection, which deeply troubled her. At the time, she said, "it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside." 

Not surprisingly, that didn't sit well with Trump. It opened the door for Trump's not-so-subtle slurs, insulting Chao as “Coco Chow” or Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell’s “China-loving wife.”

“When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation,” Chao told Politico in a statement.

“He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”

Until this week, Chao, a loyal Republican, refused to criticize Trump.

The last straw apparently was Trump's suggestion that his former Transportation Secretary may have been responsible for President Joe Biden bringing classified documents with him to his post-vice presidency office in D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Chao's response comes after 11 Asian American elderly were killed in a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California and another 66-year old Asian American man fatally shot seven agricultural workers in Half Moon Bay. The deadly tragedies occur in a seemingly never-ending attacks against Asian Americans, which many have partially attributed to Trump's anti-Chinese slurs in blaming China for COVID-19 and reinforced his beliefs by calling the pandemic the "Kung Flu" or "China Flu."

Trump's spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Insider: "People should stop feigning outrage and engaging in controversies that exist only in their heads."

Cheung also repeated Trump's rhetoric about Chao.

"What's actually concerning is her family's deeply troubling ties to Communist China, which has undermined American economic and national security," Cheung told Politico.

Chao immigrated to the US when she was a child from Taiwan. Her family founded the Foremost Group, a large shipping company based in New York. She went on to graduate from Harvard Business School and served in multiple Republican administrations, and was the first Asian American woman in a presidential Cabinet as Labor secretary for George W. Bush and Transportation secretary for Trump.

Trump's anti-China rhetoric also makes it difficult for the Republican Party trying to woo increasingly influential Asian American voters from the Democrats. The two Asian American Republicans in Congress, Young Kim and Michelle Steel, both representing Southern California districts, remain silent on Trump's slurs.  In the 2020 Presidential election, the AAPI Republican PAC did not endorse Trump. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

11 Oscar nominations for 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' tops all movies

 

The Asian American universe-switching science fiction film Everything Everywhere All At Once is poised to make history after receiving  11 Oscar nomination Tuesday morning.

After each nomination, the cast and crew, united by Zoom, let out cheers and applause. The movie was picked for Best Picture. The directors and writers, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert were nominated Best Director and for Best Original Screenplay.

As expected, still basking from their Golden Globe wins, Michelle Yeoh was nominated for Best Actress and Ke Huy Quan landed a Best Supporting Actor. Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis were both nominated for Best Actress.

Should she win, Yeoh would become the first woman of Asian descent to win a Best Actress Oscar.

"Of course, I’m over the moon, but I feel a little sad because I know we know there have been amazing actresses from Asia that come before me, and I stand on their shoulders,” reports the New York Times interviewing Yeoh, who was in France. “I hope this will shatter that frigging glass ceiling to no end, that this will continue, and we will see more of our faces up there.”

“I was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of my voice, exactly the same way that I did when I got the phone call from my agent that the Daniels wanted me to play Waymond,” Quan told the NYTimes. He described his Oscar nomination, “It’s so surreal. I am ecstatic.”

The film's nominations also included behind-the-camera Asian Americans for Best Original Score by Son Lux, Best Costume Design by Shirley Kurata, Best Original Song "This Is A Life" which was co-written by Japanese American singer-songwriter Mitski. The movie also won Oscar nods for Best Editing.

The 11 Academy Award nominations is the most by an Asian or Asian American production.

AANHPI REPRESENTATION

With EEAAO earning the most Academy Award nominations, the AANHPI presence will be stronger than usual this year.

Joining EEAAO's Hsu and Curtis in the Best Supporting Actress category is Thai-born actress Hong Chau from The Whale.  

Other Asian and AAPI nominated for the Academy Award include: 

• Chinese Canadian Turning Red filmmaker Domee Shi in Best Animated Film;  
• Judy Chin for Make-up/hairstyling for The Whale, 
• Japanese born-UK scribe Kazuo Ishiguro for Living in Adapted Screenplay, 
• Indian producer Aman Mann and filmmaker Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes  in Best Documentary Feature, 
• Indian film producer Guneet Monga and Kartiki Gonsalves in Best Documentary Short for The Elephant Whisperers,
• “Naatu Naatu,” from RRR, for Best Song with music by M.M. Keeravaani and lyric by Chandrabose.
• Judy Chin, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, The Whale.

ACTORS & MONTEREY PARK

The day before the announcement of Oscar nominations, the cast of EEAAO gathered for dinner at a restaurant in Monterey Park a city still reeling from the mass shooting that killed 11 Lunar New Year celebrants.

The event for the EEAAO cast and crew was planned weeks earlier but it was decided to go ahead with the dinner.

“It was so sad when we saw the streets were empty. We walked into the restaurant, and it was empty,” said Quan, who lived in Monterey Park for many years. “I’m so glad we went. We didn’t shy away from it. We didn’t cancel. We went there, we showed them our love, we supported the business, and I think that’s what people should do. That’s what I hope.”

"This is not the time to stay away from Monterey Park," quan told the LA Times. "Instead we should go there and support them and show them our love. The local businesses need us.”

Yeoh expressed hope to the LA Times that the EEAAO's message of intergenerational healing will offer a “beacon of light.”

“We must hold hands, hold each other and have hope in our hearts that we can step forth and make things better,” she said. “Hopefully this will be a little beacon of light, that we can collectively embrace each other and say, ‘Let us lift each other out of this grief and sadness.’ We have to usher in hope, love and forgiveness."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

California's second mass shooting targets farm workers

SCREEN CAPTURE

Zhao Chunli, the suspected gunman in the Half Moon Bay shootings, was taken into custody. 

UPDATED, 2:15 a.m., Jan. 25 with more details

Still reeling from the mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, where 11 people were killed, when Asian Americans received another punch in the gut with a second mass shooting in Half Moon Bay in northern California Monday morning.

Seven people, who news reports identified as Asian American and Latino agricultural workers, were killed and one critically wounded in a shooting spree at two separate mushroom farms.

Deputies were dispatched to the Magic Mushroom Farm at 2:22 p.m. Monday and found four people dead from gunshot wounds as well as another person with life-threatening injuries. 

Deputies then discovered three more bodies at a separate scene about a mile away. San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpuz. She told reporters they were both nurseries.

The suspected shooter then drove himself to the Sheriff's substation where he turned himself in. Police handcuffed him in the parking lot without incident and was taken indoors. He was identified as 67-year old Zhao Chunli, said Corpuz at a press conference.

"We can tell you we know he acted alone at this time. And we are working with our district attorney's office at this time to interview the suspect. And as soon we have further updates, we will be able to provide them to you," added Corpuz.

Zhao apparently worked and lived at the Magic Mushroom farm for several years. Authorities are categorizing the incident as a case of "workplace violence."

No possible motive for the deadly act was cited. Victims were not identified until family members could be notified. Some of the slain victims are migrant workers and family might not be in the United States.

"There is no ongoing threat to the community at this time," authorities tweeted Monday afternoon.

The Half Moon Bay shooting occurred two days after a shooting spree in Monterey Park that thus far has claimed the lives of 11 lives at a dance studio attending a Lunar New Year's celebration.

The motive for the Monterey Park may never be known. The suspected gunman in that incident, 72-year old Huu Can Tran, was found dead Sunday from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Asian Americans across the nation, already feeling vulnerable because of the surge of anti-Asian attacks for the past two years, were further rocked by the shootings in California.

"We are incredibly saddened by yet another mass shooting affecting Asian American communities so soon after the Lunar New Year attack in Monterey Park this past weekend," said Margaret Fung, executive director of Asian Americans Legal Education Fund. "Guns have become far too prevalent and and mass shootings have become all too common in America. Our hearts are with the families of the slain victims and with the community of Half Moon Bay.” 

"My heart is broken by the tragedy in #MontereyPark & it is now completely shattered by the tragedy in #HalfMoonBay. I am in touch w/ local leaders standing by w/offers of support," tweeted Cynthia Choi, one of the founders of Stop AAPI Hate. "We need to make sure those impacted receive holistic support."

Mental health experts say that hate crimes affect everyone and the emotions shouldn't be pushed under the rug. They encourage people to seek counseling for support.

"This is an enormous tragedy. When any of us think of Half Moon Bay, it's always a happy, pleasant thought. It's the home of the pumpkin festival. It's the Mavericks surfing competition. But today it's murder. Seven precious lives lost," Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, said in an interview with CBS News Bay Area.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

11 killed in Monterey Park shooting spree, shooting suspect found dead

Rep. Judy Chu was celebrating Lunar New Year just hours before the deadly shooting.

UPDATED 1 p.m., Jan. 23 to include additional fatality.

The Lunar New Year celebration Saturday night turned into a nightmare when a gunman opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, killing 11 and wounding at least nine more.

The shooting occurred a few minutes at 10:22 p.m. and police swarmed to the Chinese-owned dance studio minutes later. Police began a manhunt for the shooter. Ten victims were pronounced dead at the scene and one of the wounded brought to a local hospital died Monday morning.

"Monterey Park should have had a night of joyful celebration of the Lunar New Year. Instead, they were the victims of a horrific and heartless act of gun violence," tweeted California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna at a Sunday evening news conference identified the suspect as Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old man whose body he said was found inside a white van with self-inflicted gunshot wounds following a standoff with police in Torrance,about 30-minutes south.

Police don't have a motive for the senseless carnage. Authorities have not released the names of the victims until their families could be identified. The studio, popular with the elderly, was just completed celebrating the Lunar New Year kickoff so most if not all of the victims may be Asian Americans.

Officials said 20 to 30 minutes after the Monterey Park shooting spree, Tran drove to nearby Alhambra where he entered the Lai Lai Ballroom which was another Lunar New Year celebration was being held There, Luna said Tran "was disarmed by two community members who I consider to be heroes because they saved lives. This could have been much worse."

Tran was able to get away. Tran's white van was spotted in a Torrance parking lot Sunday morning where police cordoned off the area and surrounded the van. Around 1 p.m., swat team members approached the van and found Tran already dead from a gunshot.

Police released these pictures of the shooting suspect Huu Can Tran during the manhunt.

"I want to assure the community of Monterey Park and the broader area that we will support you in every way we can," said President Biden. "Even as we continue searching for answers about this attack, we know how deeply this attack has impacted the AAPI community." Biden ordered flags be flown at half-mast at government installations and military bases across the nation. He asked the the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to extend any help local authorities might need.

Monterey Park is one of the first suburban Asian American communities as Asian immigrants began leaving the urban centers in the late 20th century. About 65% of the population in the city east of Los Angeles is of Asian descent.

The city's Lunar New Year's festivities have been known to attract 100,000 celebrants. At a Sunday news conference, Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo said: "It is important that we be there for (the victims' families), to provide services and support they need in what will be a time of healing in the next weeks, months, if not years."

Saturday’s mass shooting joins a staggering 32 others from just the first three weeks of 2023, per the Gun Violence Archive.

A number of community agencies, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL), in partnership with The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), Asian Pacific Community Fund (APCF), Stop AAPI Hate, Gold House, Stand with Asian Americans and Chinatown Service Center, have organized a campaign on GoFundMe for the benefit of the victims.

Rep. Judy Chu, who represents the area in Congress and who served as Monterey Park mayor issued a a statement, saying, "It is horrific to think that only hours before, and only one block away, I joined with thousands of people and many elected officials at the opening of the Lunar New Year Festival. But now, Asian Americans in the Monterey Park community and nationwide are in mourning and are terrified instead of celebrating.

“I have lived in Monterey Park for 37 years. I served on the city council, and as Mayor 3 times in this city. If there is one thing I know, it is that Monterey Park is resilient. Our community is strong, and we will get through this terrible event together.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a developing story. Follow up stories will be posted as authorities release more information. For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

China Initiative whiffs, again; 'This is not an espionage case,' says judge

Feng "Franklin" Tao victimized by China Initiative

A Chinese-born professor who was accused of hiding work he did in China has avoided prison in the latest setback to the Trump-instigated China Initiative.

United States District Judge Julie Robinson on Wednesday sentenced Feng “Franklin” Tao to time served after earlier throwing out his conviction on three counts of wire fraud.

"This is not an espionage case," Robinson said. "Maybe that's what the Department of Justice thought what was going on, but that's not what was going on."

Federal prosecutors said Tao, who worked on renewable energy projects, concealed his affiliation with China’s Fuzhou University from the University of Kansas where he taught and from two federal agencies that provided grant funding for the professor’s research.

Robinson, appointed by then-President George W. Bush, sentenced Tao to time served, saying there was no evidence he shared proprietary information with anyone in China and that the chemical engineering professor did research that was "freely shared in the scientific community."

Robinson noted that Tao published 16 papers and a book since his arrest, work done from his home after KU banned him from campus. That high level of productivity is an indicator of his continued value to society, she said. She dismissed the government’s claim that Tao’s entire body of research is unreliable simply because he omitted relevant information on the required disclosure forms at KU.

In her ruling, Robinson said prosecutors had presented no evidence during the trial that Tao received any money for his work in China, which is required for a wire fraud conviction.

The judge said when the trial started, she expected to hear evidence that Tao’s alleged deceptions caused financial loss and that he shared research with China at the expense of US taxpayers and the three institutions.

Rather, the evidence showed that Tao continued fulfilling his duties to the University of Kansas while in China by working 70-hour weeks and pushing his students at Kansas to do the same.

“Dr. Tao is immensely relieved that Judge Robinson agreed that a sentence of time served was appropriate,” his lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, said in a statement. (Tao spent one week in jail after his arrest.) “We were also gratified to hear the judge say, once again, that neither the government nor KU was defrauded or harmed, and that Dr. Tao did all of the work required of him to the complete satisfaction of these entities.”

“Our lives will never be the same as before [his arrest],” said Tao's wife, Hong Peng. “It’s hard to find the words to describe what we have been through.” 

Tao, who was born in China but immigrated to the United States in 2002, was one of several researchers, most of whom were of Chinese descent, charged under the controversial China Initiative. The initiative was widely criticized as promoting anti-Asian racism and racial profiling

Frank Wu, a legal expert and president of Queens College at the City University of New York, told Nature that he calls the China Initiative “an abysmal failure.”

Although the DOJ usually wins the vast majority of cases it brings to court, the China Initiative produced few results, with several cases dismissed for lack of evidence and other researchers who had been charged reaching plea agreements with prosecutors.

The China Initiative was terminated in February 2022 because of complaints of racial profiling and its relative ineffectiveness. “They really spent years and a lot of effort ruining a bunch of people’s lives, and they did not win very many cases,” Wu says.

“I don’t know if racism was the reason for the China Initiative, but race was part of it, and the effects are real,” he adds. “Respected scientists of Chinese background, including American citizens, feel targeted.”

Gisela Perez Kusakawa, executive director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, said Tao’s case raised concerns among Asian-American researchers that they would be targeted, particularly in an era of increasing bias against them.

She said the disclosure form Tao was convicted of filling out improperly is vague and that there should be a system to allow researchers to fix such mistakes, rather than subjecting them to federal prosecution.

“We want the public to know that Asian American scientists are contributing to this country,” Kusakawa said. “They are the very people this county needs right now for the research to continue to advance.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.