DOJ: 'We are no longer going to have a China Initiative'

Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen

Under growing pressure from AAPI civil rights organizations, political leaders and academic circles, the Department of Justice is scrapping the controversial Trump-era China Initiative.

“We are no longer going to have a China Initiative,” Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen. "‘I have concluded that this initiative is not the right approach’ and that it is ‘not wise to focus on one country."

The DOJ is dropping the name but will continue to investigate China's aggressive espionage strategy as part of an overall campaign addressing the global security challenges facing the US without singling out China and promoting anti-Asian xenophobia and violence. 

“The China Initiative is a failed program that has fueled racial animosity, xenophobia, and suspicion towards the AAPI community and Chinese Americans in particular,” said Zhengyu Huang, President of the Committee of 100, a group of Chinese and Chinese American academics, researchers and business people. 

“The China Initiative has ruined the lives of innocent Americans and hurts America’s ability to lead in scientific research and innovation. Even when cases are dismissed, many Chinese and Asian Americans have their lives, careers, and health greatly affected," the Committee stated in an earlier press release.

Prior to the DOJ announcement Wednesday, Olsen met with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific America Caucus (CAPAC) to hear concerns about the China Initiative, its use of racial profiling, and the harm it has caused the Asian American community. 

Acknowledging that the China Initiative’s deep flaws, Olsen said the DOJ will no longer use this program’s framework in their investigations of economic espionage. 

"By starting with a focus on researchers and scientists who are ethnically Chinese, the China Initiative not only engaged in blatant racial profiling, but also reinforced harmful stereotypes that Asian Americans are ‘perpetual others’ who cannot be trusted, ruining numerous lives in the process," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the CAPAC.

With only one conviction since its creation in 2018, the China Initiative will be remembered not for any success at curbing espionage, but rather for ruining careers and discouraging many Asian Americans from pursuing careers in STEM fields out of fear that they too will be targeted, said Chu. 

Many of the cases involved errors in the complicated paperwork and have typically involved allegations that the targets lied or omitted information on disclosure forms accompanying grant applications.

Last month, the DOJ dropped all charges against an MIT professor, Gang Chen, because paperwork was misinterpreted by investigators.

A CBS investigation found that the DOJ has dropped charges against eight other Chinese or Chinese Americans.

"By focusing solely on China despite ongoing threats from countries like Iran and Russia, this initiative painted China as a uniquely existential threat to the US, something we know has led to more violence," said Chu. "There are serious national security concerns facing our country from all across the world, but our response must be based on evidence, not racism and fear."

Rep. Judy Chu:"There are serious national security concerns facing our country from all across
 the world, but our response must be based on evidence, not racism and fear."

In his announcement, Olsen stressed that espionage and the theft of technology and intellectual property by the Peoples Republic of China is real and the FBI will continue to investigate those threats.

"I want to emphasize my belief that the department’s actions have been driven by genuine national security concerns," said Olsen. "But by grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric, we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently.

"This erosion of trust in the department can impair our national security by alienating us from the people we serve, including the very communities the PRC government targets as victims," he added.

Olsen's announcement was largely cautiously applauded by AAPI advocates, who wanted more than a "cosmetic" rebranding.

"While we are cautiously optimistic about the Justice Department's announcement, it cannot be a rebranding exercise and more needs to be done to combat racial profiling, especially when we continue to see academics step forward with stories about being targeted," OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates’ national president Linda Ng said in a statement.

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

U. of Pennsylvania professor's racist remarks stir up calls for her dismissal

SUN NGUYEN

University of Pennsylvania professor Amy Wax

Law professor Amy Wax is being rebuked by the University of Pennsylvania for anti-Asian racist remarks she made during an interview but that might not curb the calls for her immediate dismissal.

The dean of the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law said he would seek sanctions against tenured law professor Amy Wax over racist remarks she made about Asian Americans.

The UP professor said early this month that the U.S. is “better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.” Dean Ted Ruger said in a statement Tuesday that he had received multiple complaints since 2017 citing Wax’s behavior as disruptive to students and the school community.

“Professor Amy Wax has repeatedly made derogatory public statements about the characteristics, attitudes, and abilities of a majority of those who study, teach, and work here,” Ruger wrote. “The complaints assert that it is impossible for students to take classes from her without a reasonable belief that they are being treated with discriminatory animus.”

However, the law school's action may not satisfy community groups and UP students who asked for Wax's dismissal.

In a letter delivered to Penn President Amy Gutmann and Ruger, OCA called for the university to take “appropriate steps” to “ensure her immediate removal.” While Penn has cited Wax’s tenured status in the past as reason for her continued employment, the nonprofit argued that “to allow her to hide behind [tenure] without any repercussions is simply unacceptable.” 

The full letter is available here.

“Penn Law has already acknowledged that Amy Wax’s xenophobic, racist views harm its Asian American students, faculty, and staff. Yet the school has offered little transparency around how students are being protected,” said Linda Ng, National President of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates. “It is stunning that in 2022, an openly white supremacist professor continues to teach at a prestigious American university, with the school claiming it is powerless to stop her.”

Ruger released a statement on the university’s website two weeks ago condemning Wax’s comments as “thoroughly anti-intellectual and racist.” A spokesperson for the university declined to comment further.

“At this time, as required by the University Handbook, and to preserve the integrity of the process, we will not make any public statements about the charges and proceedings until they have been completed,” the spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News.

Wax has a history of making increasingly bigoted remarks thinly disguised as academic speech, writing in a 2017 op-ed that “all cultures are not equal,” arguing without evidence in 2018 that Black law students “rarely” graduate at the top of their classes, and stating at a 2019 conference that the U.S. would be “better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites.”

In a December 2021 podcast, Wax stated: "As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.” Wax also baselessly claimed that people of South Asian descent “just love to bash America” and that Asian Americans possess “lack of thoughtful and audacious individualism.”

It was in an interview last month on the economist Glenn Loury’s website, Bloggingheads.tv, that Wax made her comments about Asians immigrating to the U.S.

“If you go into medical schools, you’ll see that Indians, South Asians are now rising stars. In medicine, they’re sort of the new Jews, I guess, but these diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are poisoning the scientific establishment and the medical establishment now,” said Wax.

While Wax was barred from teaching mandatory first-year law courses in 2018, she is scheduled to teach at least two courses during the spring 2022 semester and reportedly retains a vote for faculty hiring. Neither the University of Pennsylvania nor Penn Law have indicated that she will face further, meaningful disciplinary action—raising questions of whether students are being adequately protected.

"Free speech should no doubt be protected in all settings in America, and vigorous debate that stems from opposing viewpoints is the lifeblood of the academic experience," said Norman Chen, Chief Executive Officer of The Asian American Foundation. "But academic institutions should not be havens for hate. Dean Ruger was right when he said this week that Professor Wax’s comments were ‘anti-intellectual,’ ‘racist,’ and ‘denigrating.’ "

AAPI groups decry SCOTUS decision to weaken Voting Rights Act

ACLU

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld two electoral policies in Arizona that suppress voting rights for historically-marginalized communities.

"The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold anti-democratic, discriminatory voting laws in the state of Arizona are an affront to the ideals of American democracy," said Christine Chen, Executive Director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote.

"Laws, such as these, not only attempt to solve problems that do not exist, but intentionally target voters from historically-marginalized communities, making it harder for them to vote.” 

The Supreme Court’s decision July 1 in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee occurs at a time time in our nation’s history when the Republican Party is trying to narrow the right to vote and weaken the Voting Rights Act. More than a dozen states have already enacted 22 restrictive voting laws. There are 61 restrictive voting bills still pending in 18 states, according to NBC.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 sought to protect and prevent discrimination at the polls like this, and did for many decades," said Chen. "These protections were weakened in 2013 in the Shelby v. Holder decision, and the Brnovich v. DNC decision has further mangled the Voting Rights of 1965 beyond recognition.

Justice Elena Kagan stressed in her dissent, the court’s decision comes “at a perilous moment for the Nation’s commitment to equal citizenship … in an era of voting-rights retrenchment — when too many states and localities are restricting access to voting in ways that will predictably deprive members of minority groups of equal access to the ballot box.”

The court rejected a lower court decision that ruled that two of Arizona's laws could violate the federal Voting Rights Act by adversely affected the voting rights of some people, especially voters of color.

SCOTUS upheld two voting practices in Arizona: the state trashes ballots that are provisional, the ones cast in the wrong precincts on Election Day; and Arizona limits who can return early ballots on behalf of voters to family and household members, caregivers, mail carriers and election officials.

Justice Samuel Alito, --one of three activist conservatives Justices appointed by Donald Trump -- writing for the conservative majority arguing that the possible impact among racial or ethnic groups isn’t enough to make voting laws illegal. “The mere fact that there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that a system is not equally open or that it does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote,” he wrote in upholding the Arizona restrictions.

"We know that, as we speak, voters who are AAPI, Black, Latino, Native American, and voters with disabilities, in particular, face barriers to making their voices heard at the polls," Chen continued.

The 2018 and 2020 elections showed the emergence of the fast-growing AAPI community in American politics, making an impact in local and national races. Voting advocates worry that the court's decision might dampen that movement.

“In the 2020 election, Asian American and Pacific Islander voters turned out in record numbers and made our voices heard, especially in states like Georgia and Texas," said Linda Ng, National President of the OCA -- Asian Pacific American Advocates. She added that the court's decision  "threatens our communities’ hard-earned progress and bolsters the coordinated assault on voting rights that we’re witnessing in state legislatures.

“Make no mistake: laws like the two Arizona provisions upheld by the Court today—which a lower court said were intentionally passed to harm voters of color—aim to erect new barriers and disenfranchise AAPIs,” Ng added.

Voting rights advocates believe the Arizona case may make it harder to halt the GOP's efforts in 17 other states to make it harder to vote.

In her dissent, Justice  Kagan wrote: “What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten—in order to weaken—a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses.” she was  joined by the court’s other two liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. 

"The need to pass comprehensive voting rights legislation at the federal level has never been more urgent," said APIAVote''s Chen. "We call on Congress to pass the For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act right now in order to protect and expand democracy, and ensure that those who have historically been excluded from the civic process have their voices heard. There is no more time to wait.”

Biden signs executive order against xenophobia and attacks against Asian Americans & NHPI

 

WHITE HOUSE

President Joe Biden signs the executive order against xenophobia and anti-Asian bias.

The universal praise coming from the Asian American & Pacific Islander communities was tempered by an equally strong call for next steps in order to turn President Joe Biden's welcomed condemnation of xenophobia and anti-Asian hate into tangible results.

On racial equity day, Tuesday, Jan. 26, Biden signed off on a presidential memorandum acknowledging the harm caused by harassment and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and condemning anti-Asian bias and discrimination. 

"Today, I’m directing federal agencies to combat resurgence of xenophobia, particularly against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, that we’ve seen skyrocket during this pandemic. This is unacceptable and it’s un-American," Biden remarked prior to signing the memo. "I’ve asked the Department of Justice to strengthen its partnership with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community to prevent those hate crimes."

This executive order also directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force to issue guidance on cultural competency, language access, and sensitivity in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring that federal agencies avoid discriminatory language. 

“This move by President Biden to recognize the extraordinary pain being felt in our communities as a result of racist attacks during the pandemic is a welcome action," said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC. "The last four years of divisive rhetoric and blatant use of derogatory terms have put a target on the Asian American community during COVID-19 and we plan to work with the administration to find solutions to these attacks and other inequities exposed by the global pandemic and previous administration.”

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, Asian Americans have been terrified by the alarming rise in anti-Asian bigotry and hate. In fact, long before stay at home orders were put in place, Asian-owned restaurants and businesses were among the very first to lose customers due to misinformation and xenophobia associating Asian Americans with the virus.," said Rep. Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

"As the pandemic surged across the nation, Asian Americans increasingly became the targets of violent hate crimes and incidents, with over 3,000 anti-Asian incidents reported last year alone.

Biden signed four executive actions Tuesday that he wants his administer to address in regards to xenophobia, racial inequity and justice.

Beside the memorandum affecting the AAPI communities, Biden signed three other presidential memos that would:

• direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development "to take steps necessary to redress racially discriminatory federal housing policies";
• direct the Department of Justice to end its use of private prisons;
• reaffirm the federal government's "commitment to tribal sovereignty and consultation"

Linda Ng, National President of OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates expressed hope because of Biden's memos. "However, AAPI small businesses and frontline workers have not received adequate COVID-19 resources and protections. We need to see tangible action targeting the physical, mental, and economic harm being done to our communities, and furthermore dismantle the fact that AAPIs are seen as one homogenous group,” she said.

Community leaders stressed the diversity of the AAPI communities. "AANHPIs are not a monolith – we are a multicultural group with diverse needs and backgrounds," said Brendan Flores, National Chair and President, National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA).

"The Filipino American community, in many areas across the country, has been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this past year has amplified pre-existing health disparities in our community," said Flores, who emphasized the role Filipino nurses play in caring for COVID patients and the disproportionate death rate -- almost a third of U.S. nurses deaths -- among those caregivers.

In 2020, a similar measure was introduced by Rep. Grace Meng, D- NY, which was passed in the House but never came to a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate.

"In signing his memorandum, the President said loud and clear that this intolerance against Asian Americans has no place anywhere in our country, and it underscores his commitment to lifting up and empowering those of Asian descent and tackling issues that have disproportionally impacted the Asian American community, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak," said Meng.