Lawsuit filed against Florida's anti-Chinese law

A lawsuit filed yesterday, May 22, against Florida's new questionable law restricting land purchases by Chinese citizens was not unexpected.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the law May 8 citing security concerns. “Florida is taking action to stand against the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat – the Chinese Communist party,” said DeSantis, who is expected to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination for US President.

“Xenophobic policies and rhetoric toward China stoke racial bias,” said Bethany Li, AALDEF legal director. “We have repeatedly seen how policies in the name of national security have harmed Asian Americans — from immigration restrictions, to the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans in camps, and post-9/11 surveillance. Failing to call out the discriminatory impacts means our community will continue to experience racism, violence, and the erosion of rights.”

The plaintiffs include Chinese Floridians Yifan Shen, Zhiming Xu, Xinxi Wang and Yongxin Liu, all citizens of China who are lawfully living in Florida. They are joined by Multi-Choice Realty, LLC, a state real estate brokerage firm with a large Chinese clientele.

FYI: Download a copy of the complaint in Shen v. Simpson here.

Filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the lawsuit alleges they "will be forced to cancel purchases of new homes, register their existing properties with the State under threat of severe penalties and face the loss of significant business."

The legislation, due to go into effect on July 1, unfairly restricts most Chinese citizens — and most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea — from purchasing homes in the state. 

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, DeHeng Law Offices PC, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), in coordination with the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA).

The lawsuit argues that SB 264 will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent in violation of the Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. It will also cast an undue burden of suspicion on anyone seeking to buy property whose name sounds remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian. 

DeSantis has argued that this law is necessary to protect Florida from the Chinese Communist Party and its activities. But this misguided rationale unfairly equates Chinese people with the actions of their government, and there is no evidence of national security harm resulting from real estate ownership by Chinese people in Florida.

Florida’s dangerous new law recalls similar efforts over the past century to weaponize false claims of “national security” against Asian immigrants and other marginalized communities. In the early 1900s, politicians across the country used similar justifications to pass “alien land laws” prohibiting Chinese and Japanese immigrants from becoming landowners. 

These racist policies not only hurt immigrants financially, but also severely exacerbated violence and discrimination against Asian communities living in the United States. Over time, these laws were struck down by the courts or were repealed by state legislatures because they violated the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees.

“All Asian Americans will feel the stigma and the chilling effect created by this Florida law, just like the discriminatory laws did to our ancestors more than a hundred years ago,” said Clay Zhu, attorney with DeHeng Law Offices PC and co-founder of CALDA. “We shall not go back.”

Over a dozen state legislatures have recently introduced similar legislation, and many of these bills likewise target people from China. Florida’s bill was the first of this wave of legislation to be enacted into law.

“Asian immigrants are part of Florida’s fabric. For hundreds of years, they have contributed to our communities and have made this state their home,” said Daniel Tilley, legal director for the ACLU of Florida. “The discriminatory policies pushed by the DeSantis administration will not go unchecked. The Constitution protects us all.”

“Florida’s discriminatory property law is unfair, unjustified, and unconstitutional,” said Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “Everyone in the United States is entitled to equal protection under our laws, including citizens of other countries. If SB 264 goes into effect, it will profoundly harm our clients and countless other immigrants in Florida.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

Conference focuses on impact of US crackdown on Chinese spying

As the US steps up its campaign against Chinese spying and theft of US trade secrets, the spillover effect is a rising suspicion and fear targeting Chinese Americans and a drop in Chinese scientists and students coming to the US to further their research and studies.

A group of leading policy makers, legal experts, educators, business leaders, scientists, and community leaders convened Saturday (Sept. 28) in Silicon Valley to tackle the impact of rising US-China tensions on the Chinese American community and American society as a whole. 

Brought together by the Committee of 100 (C100), an American nonprofit organization of prominent Chinese Americans, the group detailed a heightened rise in scrutiny of Chinese Americans and people of Chinese descent, especially those who work in science and technology, and the chilling effect on civil liberties, as well as American science, technology and research initiatives.

"With growing US-China tensions and fears of Chinese espionage, we hear clearly from our members that Asian Americans, especially those who work in the STEM fields, are facing an increasingly hostile environment where our loyalty is being consistently and unfairly challenged," said H. Roger Wang, C100 chairman.

One of the Chinese Americans greatly harmed by the US crackdown is Xiaoxing Xi, who told his story at the Palo Alto event. Until May 2015, he was the respected chairman of Temple University’s physics department. FBI agents burst into his home outside Philadelphia with guns drawn and accused him of being a spy.

Four months later, federal prosecutors dropped the charges after experts provided affidavits that the information Xi sent to scientists in China was widely known and publicly available on the internet.

But the damage was done, says Xi, who grew emotional as he continued his story about suffering the great shame, the mounting legal expenses and the loss of his university chairmanship and most of his federal research grants and contracts.

"We are a nation built on immigrants, and we must not allow our fears to create an environment that erodes America's talent pool nor America's values of equal opportunity for all, freedom of inquiry, scientific integrity, and openness," said Wang.

C100 research from 2017 shows that the percentage of people of Chinese heritage charged under the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) tripled from 2009 to 2017, and that defendants of Asian heritage convicted of espionage received sentences over twice as severe as those of other ethnicities.

At the conference, speakers detailed the negative impact of a climate of fear and suspicion on individual scientists and researchers, as well as on a wide range of industries, universities, research institutions and businesses critical to U.S. innovation and economic leadership.

This is a hot topic in Silicon Valley, the center of new tech innovation in the US, where about 60% of its employees in the “innovation industries” are foreign born — primarily from China and India" — said Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy organization representing 350 of the region’s employers. Restricting that flow of talent would be “catastrophic for our economy,” he said.

Dr. David D. Ho, one of world's top researchers for HIV for which he was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 2014: "There's a chill in the air for Chinese and Chinese-American scientists. Over 250 scientists are being investigated in over 60 institutions, many of whom are Chinese or Chinese American. 

"Science depends on open and free exchange. Science has no borders. Science by definition is global. The real threat is not from occasional cases of espionage; the real threat is not believing in science, and the creation of a toxic environment that drives away talented Chinese and Chinese-American scientists."

A survey last year by the American Physical Society found that Chinese applicants to U.S. PhD programs in physics dropped by 16.4% from 2017 to 2018 — larger than an overall decline of nearly 12% among all international applicants.

There are widespread reports that Chinese students are facing visa delays and rejections, which many universities fear will cause a sharp decline in their numbers, research talent and tuition revenue, according to the L.A. Times.

"The US-China relationship is the world's most consequential bi-lateral relationship. We must be concerned about security concerns and condemn illegal activity, but in recent years there have been many cases of wrongful prosecution. Our pride in our heritage does not mean we are any less loyal or patriotic to America," said Gary Locke, former US Ambassador to China and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

A survey last year by the American Physical Society found that Chinese applicants to U.S. PhD programs in physics dropped by 16.4% from 2017 to 2018 — larger than an overall decline of nearly 12% among all international applicants.

There are widespread reports that Chinese students are facing visa delays and rejections, which many universities fear will cause a sharp decline in their numbers, research talent and tuition revenue, according to the L.A. Times.

Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics who served as energy secretary under Obama and now teaches at Stanford University, said the US has richly benefited from immigrants who have helped the nation make sizable leaps in science and technology — including those fleeing Nazi Germany who advanced the field of atomic energy and many Chinese scientists who came or stayed here during the Cultural Revolution," reports the LA Times. He said if not for Chinese “stars,” Standord is leading the battery storage research today — and questioned whether the Trump administration’s more restrictive immigration policies would alter that.

Federal officials tried to assure the C100 gathering that the  government is innocent of racial profiling. The US is targeting illegal conduct, not particular groups of people, said David Stilwell, assistant secretary of State and an East Asia expert, said in a live video linkup.

“Our concern is not focused on any ethnic groups or nationalities,” said Stillwell.

However, he admits, the FBI is investigating more than 1,000 cases of attempted theft of intellectual property, and “almost all lead back to China.”

One of the conference outcomes is that C100 will generate recommendations to share with congressional leaders, the scientific and educational communities, law-enforcement, businesses, and civic organizations and communities.

Conference Chair Charlie Woo noted, "It is our hope to come together and find balanced solutions that protect national security, uphold the civil liberties of all Americans, and continue to foster the welcoming environment for the development of science, technology and research that America has always been known for."

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Analysis: Campaign in Ohio whips up anti-Chinese hysteria

By Louis Chan

ASAM NEWS

A new ad running in Ohio just might be funny if it's anti-Chinese message weren't so frightening for Asian Americans.

The ad features ominous looking Chinese officials and a narrator warning of Chinese who “took over our manufacturing jobs, shuttered our factories, now they’re coming for our energy jobs.”

The ad is a preemptive strike against a petition circulating in the state calling for the overturn of a $1 billion bailout of two nuclear power plants in Ohio.

This may sound too incredulous to be true. You can see the add below.

Ohioans can expect to see the ad until it makes them nauseous. The campaign to defend the bailout is expected to spend a million dollars on TV and radio spots soon, according to CleveScene.com.

This is happening in Ohio. Its a state Donald Trump needs to win to be elected to a second term. Remember, no Republican has ever been elected president without winning Ohio. If this type of campaign can win in Ohio, it’s an indication Ohioans just might hand Trump another four years.

An analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer calls the ad’s claims weak.

The assumption here is that Ohio’s natural gas fired plants are trying to bury competition from nuclear power plants.

“They want to kill their Ohio-based competition so their companies gain market share and gain a majority of Ohio’s electrical grid,” Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for the group behind the ad, told The Enquirer.

Ohioans for Energy Security says three out of four of the natural gas fired plants in Ohio are backed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. What the ad leaves out is that those same plants are also financed by a total of ten banks including global banks from Switzerland, France, Australia and other countries. The ad also doesn’t mention that the Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp of Ohio which runs several nuclear power plants in the state also has been back by the Chinese bank.

The experts say that claims Chinese foreign interests can gain control of America’s energy grid are suspect.

“We have pretty strong regulation of utilities that would prevent foreign governments from controlling them,” David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Enquirer.

Those are the facts, but unfortunately as this country has learned, facts don’t always matter to uneducated voters who kept swept up by misguided emotions lead by unscrupulous demagogues.

At least one Asian American group in Ohio is discussing how to respond to the ad. As word makes its way across the country about this ad, hopefully groups in Ohio will also gain support from national Asian American groups.

This type of anti-Chinese hysteria is nothing new. National Asian American leaders have long warned of racial profiling against the Chinese community as tensions rise between the US and China. Innocent Chinese American lives have been ruined by false charges of spying-charges which were later dropped without apology or explanation.

This ad is just the latest chapter in the rising phobia against the Asian American community. National leaders in the community would be wise to join in speaking out against the latest racist attack.

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AANHPI Heritage Month:: The 8-year old Chinese American girl whose 1885 case led to the desegregation of U.S. schools

SMITH COLLECTION

The Tape family, including Mamie, second from left, circa 1884.

In September of 1884, 8-year-old Mamie Tape was ready to begin her studies at Spring Valley Primary School in San Francisco, but the principal refused to admit her because of her Chinese heritage. 

Little did the principle know the series of events that she started would lead to eventual desegregation of public schools. What is even more amazing is this drama was occurring when anti-Chinese sentiment was high. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882.

Mamie’s parents, who were affluent, fully assimilated middle-class immigrants, and well connected, decided to fight back in a suit against the Spring Valley School principal Jennie Hurley,  known as Tape v. Hurley.

The Tapes were well educated and not without political connections. They were part of household of Leland Stanford, one of the Big Four so-called  railroad "robber barons." The Stanfords, paid for the Tape's wedding, according to the obituary of Joseph Tape. By the time the Tapes filed their suit, Stanford, who was a U.S. Senator then, had endowed the university named after his son who died at age 15.

According to a  History article, the Tape case was one of the most significant civil rights decisions of all time. Even American-born Chinese students were denied access to public schools in San Francisco despite a California law that entitled all children a right to public education.

Because Mamie’s parents had lived in predominantly white communities for so long, it seemed only natural to send their child to nearest primary school. Tape v. Hurley had made it to the Supreme Court in March 1885. Yet, the court ruled against Mamie’s parents, stating that the “separate but equal” doctrine justified the segregation taking place.

In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was not unconstitutional as long as the facilities were equivalent in nature. Since the court did not find any significant differences between schools, it did not find merit in the discriminatory claim.

Furious with the injustice, Mamie’s mother, Mary, wrote a letter to the Alta California newspaper. Highlighted in a San Francisco Chronicle article, Mary Tape’s letter furiously asks, “Is it a disgrace to be born a Chinese?”

READ the entire letter written by Mary Tape.

Tape’s letter did not help Mary’s daughter. Nonetheless, the outcome was still a triumph for the Chinese American community because of the public outcry at the injustice of the decision. 

Five days after her letter was published, the school district opened the Chinese Primary School in Chinatown. Later, more Chinese enrolled at other public schools and fewer complaints came from white parents.

The separate but equal doctrine would finally be repealed in 1947, seven years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that school segregation was unconstitutional.

Mamie and her siblings were among the first students to enroll in the Chinese Primary School in San Francisco's Chinatown. 

Ten years later, the Tapes moved across the Bay to Berkeley, where schools were integrated and, unlike San Francisco's racist real estate practices, Chinese were allowed to buy homes.

In the East Bay, the Tape family continued to make history. The Tape's immigrant story is a quintessential story of America. Mary gained a reputation as an outstanding photographer  and painter and Joseph, who worked for Southern Pacific Railroad, continued to engage in civic affairs and was one of the founders of the Knox Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, across the street where the Tapes lived.

Read more about the Tapes of Russell Steet here.

AsAm News contributed to this article. 

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

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Sunday Read: Chinese Americans warn of racial profiling in probes of scientists

Chinese Americans are increasingly being caught up in the crackdown on Chinese scientists, researchers and students  accused of spying and theft of U.S intellectual properties. The anti-Chinese policies of the Trump administration are  raising the specter of racial profiling, say two groups of Chinese Americans.

"Last week's news reports on what is likely the first wave of a crack down targeting primarily Chinese American scientists at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston are unsettling, because of the manner in which the investigations were carried out, and the fear they have generated," said the United Chinese Americans in an April 25 statement. 

"No scientist has been charged with a federal crime. Yet, reportedly, at least 10 scientists have retired, resigned, been fired or placed on administrative leave, with more parties affected. Fifty-five other NIH-funded institutions are currently carrying out similar investigations in response to U.S. government concerns."

The UCA statement reiterates the concerns of a strongly worded letter published in Science today (March 21), a group of Chinese-American scientists voice concern that recent proposals from the National Institutes of Health and FBI actions could lead to unjust targeting of ethnically Chinese scientists.

“The letter on behalf of Chinese scientists raises valid and important issues that have major implications, not only for the Chinese scientists directly affected, but also for the US’s standing as a global leader of scientific knowledge production and the US universities where they work,” said Jenny Lee, an educational policy and practice researcher at the University of Arizona who did not contribute to the letter, writes in an email to The Scientist.

The scientists' letter, signed by members of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America (SCBA), the Chinese American Hematologist and Oncologist Network (CAHON), and the Chinese Biological Investigators Society (CBIS), points to recent comments by FBI director Christopher Wray and an NIH report, which “single out students and scholars of Chinese descent working in the United States as threats to U.S. national interests.”

UCA blames the governments apparent crackdown on the growing deterioration in U.S.-China relations of recent years. It has endangered academic freedom in American universities and research institutions as well as scientific exchanges between the two countries. 

"At the same time, tighter scrutiny and growing distrust of Chinese Americans have had a profoundly adverse effect on this community, who historically has suffered profoundly from the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act and Red Scare. Once again, Chinese American scientists are caught in the crossfire between the two global powers, becoming collateral damage as a result of the charged atmosphere," continued the UCA statement.

The vast majority of Chinese American scientists are law-abiding. Some who have been prosecuted with espionage related charges have turned out to be totally innocent. But to this day, their reputations, careers and lives remain in tatters. 

In many other cases, people have had multiple felony charges leveled against them but at the end, have been convicted of much lesser offenses, e.g., mishandling of data. 

Since 1996, altogether fewer than 200 defendants—about 31% or 58 of them ethnic Chinese or Chinese Americans — have been charged, not all convicted, for trade secret theft, under the Economic Espionage Act, claims UCA. Of those cases of conviction, most of the guilty parties were motivated by personal financial gains, not economic espionage carried out in collaboration with a foreign power or with the intent to benefit a foreign government, says UCA.

In their statement, UCA recommends

• Chinese Americans scientists and scholars to continue to advocate for strong U.S.-China exchange programs and increased sensitivity training for law enforcement agencies; 
• The Chinese government "earnestly" protect U.S. intellectual property rights;
• U.S. law enforcement agencies strengthen internal training and safeguards "to reduce implicit bias and discrimination, to enhance communication with Chinese American communities and to ensure that the freedom and civil rights of all Chinese Americans are rigorously protected."
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Bus company penalized for mocking Chinese students remains defiant

ASAM NEWS

A bus company in Illinois which just days ago agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to settle charges of discriminating against Asian American is now being accused of violating that settlement.

WTTW is reporting that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is asking the judge to impose an additional $10,000 fine for, among other things, penalizing customers who post negative reviews.

In 2017, Suburban Express faced heavy backlash for an ad which promised “You won’t feel like you’re in China” when riding their buses. The ad was a reference to the large number of Chinese students attending the University of Illinois.

Suburban Express operates many shuttles between campuses. According to the Chicago Tribune, a consent decree reached required Suburban Express to pay a six figure fine and implement new anti-discrimination policies.

Despite agreeing to the settlement, the company complained openly, posting on Facebook that it “felt it was being extorted by the state,” and continued to deny wrongdoing.

“Taken individually or together with the other page (on its website) Defendants have posted attacking a person of Asian origin, Defendants have circulated communications that Defendants know are to the effect that the individuals under attack are objectionable and unacceptable because of their race and national origin,” Raoul wrote in the motion, according to WTTW.

Suburban Express operates a “page of shame” on its website meant to call out customers who it accuses of writing bad checks or using counterfeit tickets.

City of Vancouver to apologize for its racist past

CITY OF VANCOUVER ARCHIVES

Elderly Chinese men in Vancouver's Chinatown in 1936.

ASAM NEWS

THE VANCOUVER City Council voted unanimously Wednesday, (Nov. 1) to apologize for the discrimination faced by Chinese in the Canadian city.

The Vancouver Courier reports the city will host a major event in April to acknowledge the city-sponsored racist policies instituted between 1886 and 1947.

“My mother, Vivian Jung, who was born in Merritt, B.C., was first full-time teacher of Chinese descent hired by VSB (Vancouver School Board), despite being, as a student teacher, told she was not allowed to swim in Crystal Pool because she was of Chinese descent, when she was taking lifesaving qualifications with the other student teachers,” Cynthia Kent said to the council before the vote, according to Metro News.

A council staff report outlines some of the institutionalized oppression faced by the Chinese.

In 1886, the city banned Chinese from voting nor could they run for public office or become a lawyer, doctor, nurse or banker.

The city also backed federal policies that banned Chinese from immigrating to Canada. A head tax passed against the Chinese went from $50 in 1885 to $100 in 1900 and $500 in 1903.

“You can never become a better society — a better place, a better city — unless you acknowledge what have been your errors, and what have been the wrongs,” said Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr.

Today, people of Chinese descent make up about 30 percent of Vancouver's population. Other Asians add another 12 percent, making the city the most Asian city outside of Asia.

(Views from the Edge contributed to this report._
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