Sept. 9, 2024 marks the centennial anniversary of the Hanapepe Massacre where 16 Filipino strikers killed

 

Hundreds of Filipino workers were arrested after the Hanapepe Massacre.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published on the 95th anniversary of the Hanapepe Massacre. It has been updated with new findings.

One hundred years ago on Sept. 9, 1924 in Hawaii, the bloodiest labor confrontation known as the Hanapepe Massacre claimed the lives of 20 people, 16 of whom were Filipino striking farm workers. 

You wouldn't know it now. The Hanapepe River still slowly flows through the sleepy little town on its way to the ocean. If you blink you might miss the turnoff to Hanapepe on the island of Kauai. Most tourists zip past Hanapepe Town, the site of a labor riot 95 years ago when 16  striking Filipino sugar workers and four lawmen were killed.

No one is left alive who survived the deadly events e of Sept. 9, 1924 that became known as the Hanapepe Massacre.

The sugar workers were on strike for better working conditions and an increase in pay, from $1 a day to $2 a day.

Filipinos were the last group of immigrant laborers to arrive to the Islands after the Chinese and the Japanese. Plantation owners pitted the ethnic groups against each other to thwart any labor organizing.

The victims of the massacre were among the 37,019 Filipinos who immigrated to Hawaii between 1907 and 1924.

Tiffany Hill writes in a magazine article in the Honolulu Advertiser:

"Filipinos working on sugar plantations were given the worst housing and the lowest paying jobs. On Kauai, Filipino laborers worked and lived on the Koloa, Makaweli, Kekaha, Lihue and McBryde Sugar Co. plantations. The majority of the workers were young men, single and uneducated. They came from three regions of the Philippines: Visayans arrived first, followed by Ilocanos and, in much smaller numbers, Tagalogs, each group speaking a different language. In addition, there were significantly fewer Filipino women than men. “A lack of women in the Filipino community meant many fewer families, a totally different view of life and really no sense of community,” says Andy Bushnell, a retired Kauai Community College history professor who gives talks on the Hanapēpē Massacre."

The sugar strike covered the plantation workers on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai but it did not involve the majority of the workers. Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese workers didn't support the Filipino-led labor organizing effort. The strikers in Hanapepe were from the Visayan islands of the Philippines. Plantation owners used the Ilocanos to try and break the strike. Two Ilocanos were viewed as scabs by the Visayans and were forcibly detained by the strikers.

A plaque commemorating the Hanapepe Massacre was dedicated in 2006.

The Sheriff and his deputies went to the strike HQ to seek the released of the Ilocanos. The lawmen were armed with guns and the strikers also had a few guns and the machetes they used to cut the sugar cane. No one knows who made the first aggressive move but in minutes 16 strikers were shot dead by sharpshooters who were hiding in the hill above the scene. The strikers fatally injured four of the law enforcement task force, which included deputized civilians.

After the violent confrontation, at the Sheriff's request, Hawaii National Guard were called in to maintain order between the strikers and plantation owners.

Though there are no speeches from dignitaries and proclamations from politicians today,  the sugar worker strikes launched a history of labor organizing that should be taught in our classrooms. Asian Americans were not bystanders in the making of America. 

The sugarcane workers who died that day 100 years ago were buried in an unmarked trench. Until October, 2019, the location of the mass grave was unknown. Using new technology, researchers using underground radar determined that there were 12 "anomalies" buried in the mass grave in the Hanapepe Filipino Cementary.  A simple concrete marker nearby simply says: "Born 1886, Died Sept 9, 1924."

This marker is over a mass grave believed to the burial site of 12 Filipino strikers.

The "anomalies" are believed to be the bodies of 12 slain strikers, according to members of Hawaii chapter of the FANHS The burial sites of the other four victims still remain unknown.

Out of respect for the interred, the mass grave has not been dug up but their is an effort to raise funds for a permanent memorial to the strikers killed in the bloodiest confrontation in Hawaii's labor history.

After the Hanapepe incident, plantation owners stayed away from the Visayas province and concentrated their recruitment efforts in the Ilocos provinces, which explains why the largest Filipino subgroup in Hawaii today is Ilocano.

Because of the hazy details of the massacre, amazing as it may seem to us today, there was no hue and cry from the public and the violence and resulting mass arrests stunted any momentum the strike had generated. 

Hundreds of the sugar strikers were arrested. The Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters Association gave $500 to the families of each of the sheriffs killed, while the slain workers’ families had to split $75. Many of the strikers were deported to the Philippines. 

It wasn't until 1937 that a labor union combining all of the ethnic groups was successful in gaining any concessions from Hawaii Sugar Planters' Association. The white elite families that ruled over Hawaii since 1893 when they overthrew the islands' Queen Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha retaliated by moving their sugar and pineapple operations to other countries in Asia and Latin America. 

The point is: Asian workers were never the uncomplaining, compliant, quiet, subservient stereotype that society has imposed on all Asian Americans. They were far from being the "model minority."  From the sugar workers, the Alaskeros working on the boats and canneries of Alaska to the farmworkers on the West Coast to the nurses, teachers, hotel workers and domestic workers of today, Asian Americans fought -- and are still fighting -- for their rights, justice and equality.

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

Hanapepe Massacre and the Delano Grape Strike anniversaries fit theme for FilAm Hhistory Month

On September 8 in 1965, Filipino agricultural workers in California began the strike that became known as the Delano Grape Strike.

September 9, marks the 100-year anniversary when16 Filipino sugar cane striking workers were killed in Hawaii in the Hanapepe Massacre.  

The Filipino American National History Society (FANHS) is urging that this October, emphasis be put on the long history of resistance, struggle, solidarity and relisiance exhibited by Filipino Americans throughout US history.

FANHS statement:

"Throughout Filipino American history, there have been instances of struggle, resistance, solidarity, and resilience. Struggle and resistance are defined as the ways that the Filipino American community has persisted through various types of systemic oppression and violence - ranging from discriminatory laws that treated Filipino Americans as second-class citizens to the hate violence Filipino Americans endured because of their race, ethnicity, and other identities.

"Solidarity includes the ways that Filipino Americans have organized to fight against injustice - either within their own communities or alongside other racial and ethnic groups. Resilience involves the ways in which Filipino Americans have successfully overcome adversity throughout history - despite the systemic and interpersonal obstacles they have endured.

"From the painful to the triumphant, all of these moments contribute to a cumulative Filipino American history. We encourage our communities to reflect on our history and celebrate our collective love and joy."

If the plantation owners in Hawaii and the big business owners of the California vineyards thought by importing workers from the Philippines tthey were bringing in a bunch of docile workers, they were mistaken.

On September 9, 1924, 16 Filipino sugar workers and four civilian deputies were killed in the Hanapepe Massacre. The next day the National Guard came in to oversee the arrest of 76 more workers, effectively breaking the Filipino-led strike in Hanapepe, Kauai,i Hawaii. 

Filipino and Mexican farm workers joined together to form the United Farm Workers.

On September 8, 1965, over 800 Filipino farmworkers affiliated with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) struck ten grape vineyards around Delano, California.

Filipino strike leaders, led by Larry Itliong, were able to convince the prdominantly Mexican and Mexican American union, National Farm Workers Association (NFWA)) led by Cesar Chavez, to join the Delano Grape Strike the following week. The joining of the two unions gave birth to the United Farm Workers.

Perhaps the earliest example of Filipinos offering resistance, organizing and resliance occurred cmore than a century earlier.

During the Galleon trade bringing goods from the Philippines to Mexico and onward to Spain, Filipino sailors, either as slaves or crew were used extensively. Many of the Filipino sailors left their cruel masters and integrated themselves with local communities in Mexico. 

Some of the sailors, known as Manilamen,  escaped the Spanish ships in New Orleans and formed communities in the Louisiana bayous ias early as 1763 according to some historians. Communities such as Manila Village and St. Malo were among the two earliest known Asian American communities in the United States. 

October 1992 was the first time that Filipino American History Month (FAHM) was celebrated in the United States initiated by the Filipino American National History Society. The month was chosen because the first recorded Filipino to set foot in North America occurred on Oct. 18, 1587 when two Filipino crewmen from the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza, part of the busy galleon trade, were sent on a scouting expedition in what is now Morro Bay, California.

In Spanish records, they were called "Indios Luzones," natives of Luzon, one of the  main islands of the Philippines, then under Spanish rule. The scouting party met with resistance from indigenous people during which one of the Filipinos was killed.

Since the the first observance of FAHM, several states have declared October as Filipino American History Month and occasionally, there is a proclamation from the White House noting the role of Filiipino Americans in the US. Last year, the month was noted in a social media post from President Biden.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Breast cancer rises among Asian American and Pacific Islander women

KFF HEALTH NEWS

Breast cancer survivor Christina Kashiwada

Breast cancer rates may be dropping in the US, but rising among AANHPI women

By Phillip Reese

Kaiser Foundation Family Health News

Christina Kashiwada was traveling for work during the summer of 2018 when she noticed a small, itchy lump in her left breast.

She thought little of it at first. She did routine self-checks and kept up with medical appointments. But a relative urged her to get a mammogram. She took the advice and learned she had stage 3 breast cancer, a revelation that stunned her.

“I’m 36 years old, right?” said Kashiwada, a civil engineer in Sacramento, California. “No one’s thinking about cancer.”

About 11,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and about 1,500 died. The latest federal data shows the rate of new breast cancer diagnoses in Asian American and Pacific Islander women — a group that once had relatively low rates of diagnosis — is rising much faster than that of many other racial and ethnic groups. The trend is especially sharp among young women such as Kashiwada.

About 55 of every 100,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50 were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, surpassing the rate for Black and Hispanic women and on par with the rate for white women, according to age-adjusted data from the National Institutes of Health. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races but are grouped separately in this data.)

The rate of new breast cancer cases among Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50 grew by about 52% from 2000 through 2021. Rates for AAPI women 50 to 64 grew 33% and rates for AAPI women 65 and older grew by 43% during that period. By comparison, the rate for women of all ages, races, and ethnicities grew by 3%.

Researchers have picked up on this trend and are racing to find out why it is occuring within this ethnically diverse group. They suspect the answer is complex, ranging from cultural shifts to pressure-filled lifestyles — yet they concede it remains a mystery and difficult for patients and their families to discuss because of cultural differences.

Helen Chew, director of the Clinical Breast Cancer Program at UC Davis Health, said the Asian American diaspora is so broad and diverse that simple explanations for the increase in breast cancer aren’t obvious.

“It’s a real trend,” Chew said, adding that “it is just difficult to tease out exactly why it is. Is it because we’re seeing an influx of people who have less access to care? Is it because of many things culturally where they may not want to come in if they see something on their breast?”

There’s urgency to solve this mystery because it’s costing lives. While women in most ethnic and racial groups are experiencing sharp declines in breast cancer death rates, about 12 of every 100,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women of any age died from breast cancer in 2023, essentially the same death rate as in 2000, according to age-adjusted, provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The breast cancer death rate among all women during that period dropped 30%.

The CDC does not break out breast cancer death rates for many different groups of Asian American women, such as those of Chinese or Korean descent. It has, though, begun distinguishing between Asian American women and Pacific Islander women.

Nearly 9,000 Asian American women died from breast cancer from 2018 through 2023, compared with about 500 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women. However, breast cancer death rates were 116% higher among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women than among Asian American women during that period.

Rates of pancreatic, thyroid, colon, and endometrial cancer, along with non-Hodgkin lymphoma rates, have also recently risen significantly among Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50, NIH data show. Yet breast cancer is much more common among young AAPI women than any of those other types of cancer — especially concerning because young women are more likely to face more aggressive forms of the disease, with high mortality rates.

“We’re seeing somewhere almost around a 4% per-year increase,” said Scarlett Gomez, a professor and epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We’re seeing even more than the 4% per-year increase in Asian/Pacific Islander women less than age 50.”

Gomez is a lead investigator on a large study exploring the causes of cancer in Asian Americans. She said there is not yet enough research to know what is causing the recent spike in breast cancer. The answer may involve multiple risk factors over a long period of time.

“One of the hypotheses that we're exploring there is the role of stress,” she said. “We're asking all sorts of questions about different sources of stress, different coping styles throughout the lifetime.”

It’s likely not just that there’s more screening. “We looked at trends by stage at diagnosis and we are seeing similar rates of increase across all stages of disease,” Gomez said.

Veronica Setiawan, a professor and epidemiologist at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said the trend may be related to Asian immigrants adopting some lifestyles that put them at higher risk. Setiawan is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed a few years ago at the age of 49.

“Asian women, American women, they become more westernized so they have their puberty younger now — having earlier age at [the first menstrual cycle] is associated with increased risk,” said Setiawan, who is working with Gomez on the cancer study. “Maybe giving birth later, we delay childbearing, we don't breastfeed — those are all associated with breast cancer risks.”

Moon Chen, a professor at the University of California-Davis and an expert on cancer health disparities, added that only a tiny fraction of NIH funding is devoted to researching cancer among Asian Americans.

Whatever its cause, the trend has created years of anguish for many patients.

Kashiwada underwent a mastectomy following her breast cancer diagnosis. During surgery, doctors at UC Davis Health discovered the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in her underarm. She underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and 20 sessions of radiation treatment.

Throughout her treatments, Kashiwada kept her ordeal a secret from her grandmother, who had helped raise her. Her grandmother never knew about the diagnosis. “I didn't want her to worry about me or add stress to her,” Kashiwada said. “She just would probably never sleep if she knew that was happening. It was very important to me to protect her.”

Kashiwada moved in with her parents. Her mom took a leave from work to help take care of her.

Kashiwada’s two young children, who were 3 and 6 at the time, stayed with their dad so she could focus on her recovery.

“The kids would come over after school,” she said. “My dad would pick them up and bring them over to see me almost every day while their dad was at work.”

Kashiwada spent months regaining strength after the radiation treatments. She returned to work but with a doctor’s instruction to avoid lifting heavy objects.

Kashiwada had her final reconstructive surgery a few weeks before covid lockdowns began in 2020. But her treatment was not finished.

Her doctors had told her that estrogen fed her cancer, so they gave her medicine to put her through early menopause. The treatment was not as effective as they had hoped. Her doctor performed surgery in 2021 to remove her ovaries.

More recently, she was diagnosed with osteopenia and will start injections to stop bone loss.

Kashiwada said she has moved past many of the negative emotions she felt about her illness and wants other young women, including Asian American women like her, to be aware of their elevated risk.

“No matter how healthy you think you are, or you're exercising, or whatever you're doing, eating well, which is all the things I was doing — I would say it does not make you invincible or immune,” she said. “Not to say that you should be afraid of everything, but just be very in tune with your body and what your body's telling you.”

About the author: Phillip Reese is a data reporting specialist and an associate professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento.

FYI: This article was produced by KFF Health News, Supplemental support comes from the Asian American Journalists Association-Los Angeles through The California Endowment.

Korean American woman reaches US Open Tennis finals

 

Jessica Pegula with her mother, Kim Pegula.

Surprising almost everybody but herself and her family, Korean American Jessica Pegula  is playing in the finals of the US Open Tennis Tournament.

Ranked No.6 in the world, Pegula  advanced to her first Grand Slam final after mounting a rousing comeback to defeat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the US Open semifinals on Thursday. The 30-year-old Buffalo native trailed 6-1, 2-0 before storming back to notch her 15th win in her last 16 matches

"It's a childhood dream," Pegula said. "It's what I wanted when I was a kid. It's a lot of work, a lot of hard work put in. You couldn't even imagine how much goes into it.

"So to be able to overcome all those challenges and say that I get a chance at the title Saturday is what we play for as players, let alone being able to do that in my home country here, in my home Slam. It's perfect, really."

Pegula is the oldest American woman in the Open Era to make a maiden Grand Slam final. She is the third American woman aged 30 or over to make a US Open final, joining Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova.

FYI: Watch the US Open's Women's finals Saturday (Sept. 7) on ESPN at 4 p.m. EDT; 1 p.m. PDT

Jessica Pegula is in her first Grand Slam final.

Jessica Pegula's mother

Pegula is the daughter of Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills and the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres.

Jessica Pegula's father, is a self-made billionaire, making his fortune through his independent oil and gas company East Resources. He sold the bulk of his businness in 2010 for $4.7 billion. He used that money to buy the Sabres in 2011 and the Bills in 2014.

Jessica Pegula's mother, Kim, was born in Seoul, South Korea. At age 5, she was adopted by Ralph and Marilyn Kerr, and grew up in Fairport, New York. Kim and Terry met in 1991 and married in 1993.

While Terry Pegula built his fortune, Kim was an active partner in the day-to-day operation of the family's various businesses interests, including the professional sports teams.

In June 2022, Kim went into cardiac arrest, changing the lives of the Pegula family. She suffered significant brain damage and memory issues and is still undergoing therapy. Kim has rarely made any public appearances since.

"My mom is the president and owner of both the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills," Jessica wrote in the Player's Tribune in February 2023. "She loved to work. She did everything and our family constantly told her how she needs to slow down and take time for herself. She was the woman behind my dad’s success and my dad would happily admit that.

"She jumped into this journey with him and learned many lessons along the way, breaking a lot of barriers. She was the shift in culture, positivity, and the heartbeat of many of the employees. She gave everyone so much of her time and effort. She lived it and loved it, and it was felt by everyone she met," Jessica wrote. "Now we come to the realization that all of that is most likely gone. That she won’t be able to be that person anymore."

Representation Matters 

Because of her personal history, Kim Pegula didn't grow up exposed to her Korean heritage.

"I don't know a lot of my heritage because she really didn't want to know that much and she didn't really grow up in it," admitted Jessica Pegula .

Jessica Pegula's first trip to Korea to compete in the Hana Bank Korea in 2019 changed her perspective. It was also her mother's first trip back to Seoul. The family used the tournamet to build a family trip around the tournament. The mother and daughter even visited the orphanage where her mother was taken in.

"I think that experience made me realize the importance of my heritage," Jessica Pegula said. "Asian people love other Asian people and Koreans loved her. She doesn't speak Korean, but they were so proud."

"Around that time is when I started to realize how important it was," said Pegula.

Jessica Pegula's own leadership decisions have followed her mother's example. She has been a member of the WTA Player's Council since 2020 and recently joined the Asian American Pacific Islander Tennis Association as a founding member of the board of directors.

"Even though I didn't exactly grow up fully Korean," Pegula said, "it's something that now I think me and my family and my sister have also wanted to learn more about because we realize how important it is for those that come over here and those that are in Asia, they see us in these different lights representing them when there's not a lot of us."

Jessica Pegula will be on the biggest stage of her career when she faces  World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka for the US Open title on Saturday. The match is a rematch of last month's Cincinnati Open jard fought final, which Sabalenka won 6-3, 7-5.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

DOJ alleges former anti-PRC activist turned out to be a spy for China

Yuanjun Tang,may have been a spy for the government he protested against.

A United States citizen who was a pro-democracy activist in China and was granted asylum by the US was charged as being an unregistered agent of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Yuanjun Tang, 67, who became a US  citizen was charged by criminal complaint with acting and conspiring to act in the PRC) and making materially false statements to the FBI. Tang was arrested earlier this week in Flushing, Queens.

Tang allegedly used his personal history as a pro-democracy activist to infiltrate anti-PRC groups in the United States.

According to court documents, Tang is a former PRC citizen who was imprisoned in the PRC for his activities as a dissident opposing the one-party authoritarian political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the PRC’s sole ruling party. 

In or about 2002, Tang defected to Taiwan; he was subsequently granted political asylum in the United States and has since resided in Queens, New York City, where he has regularly participated in events with fellow PRC dissidents and leads a nonprofit dedicated to promoting democracy in China.

Spying on anti-PRC dissidents

Between at least in or about 2018 and in or about June 2023, Tang acted in the United States as an agent of the PRC by completing tasks at the direction of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), which is the PRC’s principal civilian intelligence agency. The MSS is responsible for, among other things, the PRC’s foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, espionage and political security functions.

Specifically, through a particular email account, encrypted chats, text messages and audio and video calls, Tang regularly received instructions from and reported to an MSS intelligence officer regarding individuals and groups viewed by the PRC as potentially adverse to the PRC’s interests, including prominent US-based Chinese democracy activists and dissidents. 

He also traveled at least three times for face-to-face meetings with MSS intelligence officers and helped the MSS infiltrate a group chat on an encrypted messaging application used by numerous PRC dissidents and pro-democracy activists to communicate about pro-democracy issues and express criticism of the PRC government. 

US authorities recovered instructions Tang received from the MSS and photographs, videos and documents that he collected or created for transmission to the MSS from numerous electronic devices and accounts belonging to Tang.

Tang also made materially false statements to the FBI. He falsely claimed that he was no longer able to access an email account through which he had communicated with his MSS handler through draft emails.

Tang is charged with one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. 

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy to the US said he was unaware of the details of the case.

Before fleeing China, Yuanjun, a native of China’s northeastern Jilin province, had been sentenced by the Chinese authorities to 20 years in prison for taking part in the 1989 democracy movement that resulted in the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, serving eight years before being released.

He remained active in advocating for democracy in China and was repeatedly detained, questioned and harassed by the authorities before fleeing to Taiwan, according to a Taipei-based rights group that helped with his asylum bid in 2002.

PRC infiltratration of America

Tang's alleged activities is part of the PRC's aggressive strategy to harass and intimidate US citizens and US residents and influence US policy towards the PRC. 

The Justice Department has charged numerous individuals tied to transnational repression cases in recent years.

Communities of dissidents and pro-democracy activists living in the US have long been targets of China's intelligence agency, which uses the families of the activists still living in the mainland as a form of coercion as prosecutors alleged occurred in Tang's case.

On Wednesday, the DOJ filed charges agains Linda Sun, who used to be a top-ranked aid of New York Gov. Linda Horchul. In her influential position, she put the PRC in highly visible situations to receive honors for good promote that country in the public's eye. At the same time as the PRC was receiving praise, she blocked Taiwan from receiving similar honors and meetings with New York officials.

Earlier this month, a New York jury convicted a naturalized US citizen of Chinese dissent who led a pro-democracy group of secretly working with Chinese intelligence officers to surveille dissidents.

And last year, the FBI arrested two defendants on charges that they set up and operated an illegal Chinese police station in the middle of New York City in order to influence and intimidate critics of the Chinese government in the US.

The charges against Tang and the other alleged suspects has shaken the Chinese diaspora, especially those critical of the PRC. However, some were not surprised.

Mike Gao, a Chinese American lawyer who said he has known Tang for 20 years, told Radio Free Asia that Tang’s attitudes toward the Communist government in China appeared to soften as he grew older.

“He’s changed somewhat in recent years, often criticizing the student movement for being too aggressive during the Tiananmen protests,” Gao told RFA in an interview. “I had many face-to-face debates with him about this, and I confronted him, ‘Why don’t you condemn the Chinese government instead for the massacre?’”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

NY governor's former aide charged for being an unregistered agent for China

Christopher Hu and Linda Sun.

A former top aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was charged for being a secret agent for the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

An indictment was unsealed Sept. 3 charging Linda Sun, 41, with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bringing in aliens, and money laundering conspiracy. 

Although Sun had been fired last year, the allegations were just made public on Tuesday. Hochul is furious, outraged and “absolutely shocked at how brazen” Sun’s behavior is alleged to have been, the governor told WNYC radio.

“It was a betrayal of trust,” Hochul told WNYC.

The governor's office said Linda Sun had been originally employed by the previous administration of Andrew Cuomo, who quit in August 2021 amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

"This individual was hired by the executive chamber more than a decade ago," the governor's spokesperson told the BBC.

"We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process." said the govrernor's press secretary, Avi Small,

Sun’s husband and co-defendant, Chris Hu, 40, was also charged with money laundering conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification. Sun and Hu were arrested earlier this morning and were arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn.

“As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as Deputy Chief of Staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP,” said US Attorney Breon Peace for Eastern District of New York. 

For allegedly acting  on behalf of the CCP, the Peace said, “The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars."

According to court documents, among Sun's alleged activities in the interests of the PRC and the CCP, included: blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level New York State officers; changing high-level New York State officers’ messaging regarding issues of importance to the PRC and the CCP and blocking similar messaging in regards to Taiwan; obtaining official New York State proclamations for PRC government representatives without proper authorization; attempted to facilitate a trip to the PRC by a high-level New York State politician and arranged meetings for visiting delegations from the PRC government with NYS government officials.

Additionally, Sun repeatedly violated internal rules and protocols within the New York State government to provide improper benefits to PRC and CCP representatives, including by providing unauthorized invitation letters from the office of high-level New York State officers that were used to facilitate travel by PRC government officials into the United States for meetings with New York State government officials. Sun’s unauthorized invitation letters for the PRC government delegation constituted false statements made in connection with immigration documents and induced the foreign citizens into unlawfully entering the United States.

Sun never registered as a foreign agent with the Attorney General, and in fact actively concealed that she took actions at the order, request or direction of PRC government and CCP representatives.

In return for these alleged actions, say the court documents, Sun also received substantial economic and other benefits from representatives of the PRC government and the CCP, including the facilitation of millions of dollars in transactions for the PRC-based business activities of Sun’s husband and co-defendant Chris Hu.

For allegedly acting on behalf the PRC, Sun and Hu received travel benefits; tickets to events; promotion of a close family friend’s business; employment for Sun’s cousin in the PRC; and Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by a PRC government official’s personal chef that were delivered to the residence of Sun’s parents. 

Sun and Hu laundered the monetary proceeds of this scheme to purchase, among other items, real estate property in Manhasset, New York, currently valued at $4.1 million, a condominium in Honolulu, currently valued at $2.1 million, and various luxury automobiles, including a 2024 Ferrari. Sun never disclosed any benefits she received from representatives of the PRC government and the CCP to the New York State government, as she was required to do as a New York State government employee.

As alleged, Hu also laundered unlawful proceeds through bank accounts opened in the name of a close relative but that were actually for Hu’s exclusive use. To open these accounts, Hu unlawfully used an image of the relative’s driver’s license.

Sun and Hu pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a Brooklyn federal court to all the charges.

“We’re looking forward to addressing these charges in court. Our client is understandably upset that these charges have been brought,” Sun's attorney lawyer, Jarrod Schaeffer, told the Associated Press.

A judge released the pair on bail, limiting their travel to three US states and ordering Ms Sun to avoid any contact with representatives from the Chinese consulate or mission in New York.

“These indictments demonstrate, yet again, the brazen attempts of the PRC to corrupt our political processes,” said Assistant Director Kevin Vorndran of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Race Matters: Kamala Harris' multi-racial background reflects a changing America

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

OPINION
(Updated to include the Aug. 29 CNN interview.)

On the subject of race, Donald Trump just doesn't get it. He's not alone in his ignorance. Most of his followers don't understand why race matters to people of color.

“She was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said in an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.”

The grumbling in the audience grew louder but Trump continued: “Is she Indian or is she Black?”

Trump's choice for running mate, JD Vance, ftrying to defend what Trump said in a recent interview with CNN : “I believe that Kamala Harris is whatever she says she is. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience. She pretends to be something different in front of another audience.”

Truth is: she is both ... and more. What Vance and Trump can never understand is Harris is Black; and she is South Asian, more specifically, Indian American. She is not half of either.

Americans have a hard time with race. They stumble around trying to avoid the subject which comes across to people of color as ignoring the topic. 

To make things worse, most Americans of any color tend to cling to the antiquated "melting pot" theory thrust upon children in elementary school that somehow, people of different races, nationalities and ethnicities must shed their physical differences, beliefs and values to become this unique individual -- an American.

That piece of propaganda never actually existed. It was a myth created to make white people more comfortable with themselves. Ask any person of color and they'll tell you a story of racist slurs, intended or unintended. In reality, there were segregated neighborhoods, schools and in most cases, segregated houses of worship.

From a very young age, people of color are o believe that their funny-smelling lunches, the accents and skin color is somehow inferior to the standard of whiteness of "real" Americans.

In reality, this land of immigrants, under the melting pot myth, people were expected to become more like white Americans, popularized by the make-believe neighborhoods depicted in television shows like "Leave It to Beather," "Father Knows Best" and "Ozzie and Harriet" broadcast into the living rooms and hearts and minds of America. Those TV shows helped strengthen the underlying belief that to be American is to be white.

New immigrants often fall prey to the relentless bombardment of propaganda  coming from media, schools and our leaders when they refer to their white friends, coworkers or fellow students as "Americans," but denying that label to themselves and their ethnic social circles.

In contrast, Kamala Harris spent her formative years  in the multi-racial and multi-cultural  communities of Oakland and Berkeley. Like other multi-race individuals, she does not have to choose one over the other. She can accept the heritage of her Indian mother and Jamaican father. She can also accept the Black American culture of the Oakland-Berkeley community and her peers at Howard University, an  historically Black educational institution that sharpened and honed the values that helped shape her career all the way to the White House.

What many people who grew up with a single perspective that was reinforced by the educational system and meida-driven culture dominated by  Whites, cannot fully comprehend is that a single individual can be many things, all at once.

She can cook Indian dishes or her famous roast chicken. She's as comfortable dancing the Electric Slide as she is wearing a sari. She can relate to an audience of Howard University alumni or an audience made up of Asian American community leaders.

When she spoke in front of the very diverse delegates at the Democratic National Convention, she was able to relate her complicated life journey and make it more like the all-American story touching upon race, being made to feel like an outsider, standing up to bullies, going against the odds, fighting for David-versus-Goliath battles for justice and equality.

The 2020 United States Census reported that 33.8 million people, or 10.2% of the population, identified as multiracial, which is a 276% increase from 2010. Multiracial Americans is one of the fastest-growing population groups of the US.

It shouldn't be an either/or choice for Harris and for the millions of people of mixed racial heritage and multiple cultures. To place one over the other is to not see the rest of her and the totality of  Kamala Harris. Her multi-racial background may make Trump and people who think like him uncomfortable but for most Americans, it is what we see every day in our communities, in school and on the job. We learn to go beyond tolerating the differences, but to appreciate them.

In her first interview after becoming the Democratic frontrunner, when questioned about her racial background, Harris' answered, with a smile: "Next question, please," as if there is nothing else to add to her previous responses was enough. "Same old, tired  playbook," she added.

Indeed,  her acceptance speech at the DNC, her race was not an emphasis, but it was always present in her life and referced in her answers. After her speech, amid the colorful balloons and confetti, her extended family gathered around her showing off the multi-cultural, multi-hued, multi-racial, multi-religious relatives that still surrounds her.

To paraphrase a popular movie with a decidedly Asian vibe, Harris is "everything, everywhere, all at once."

She is the sum total of all those different aspects that shaped her and helped her become Vice President Harris, running to become the first woman, first Black woman, first South Asian President of the United States. In more ways than her critics will care to admit, Kamala Harris' story is an American story. Her story is our story.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Filipino nurses win settlement from employers

Three Filipino nurses won a major  settlement  with four health care companies to rescind the “stay or pay” provisions in employment contract.

“I feel relieved that the settlement will enable immigrant nurses like me to leave onerous working conditions. Eliminating breach of contract fees gives us the freedom to seek better opportunities while ensuring we’re treated with the dignity and respect we deserve. This fosters a more inclusive and fairer workplace where nurses can focus more on providing quality care without the looming threat of financial penalties,” said Kathleen Landazabal, one of the nurses who filed charges against Premier, her former employer.

The other plaintiffs are Gerarlyn Sept Docot and Edmon Calizon. 

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) along with co-counsel Murphy Anderson PLLC, on July 22 announced the settlement with four health care companies to rescind the “stay or pay” provisions in employment contracts for current and former employees, including three Filipino immigrant nurses who resigned citing unsafe working conditions.

In May, the nurses filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), resulting in the settlement with Premier Members, LLC, a New York-based company with health care facilities in Pennsylvania, Priority Healthcare Group, LLC, a health care staffing company, the Gardens at West Shore, and the Gardens at Wyoming Valley. On Friday, the NLRB approved the settlement.

In the settlement, Premier agreed to communicate to staff that illegal work rules have been rescinded and agreed to institute a training for managers and other staff who have any responsibility for nurses recruited outside the United States to ensure employment practices conform to the National Labor Relations Act.

”’Stay or pay’ contracts and other training repayment agreement provisions (TRAPs) are coercive tactics that employers use to take advantage of the vulnerable workers they recruit outside the country,” said Elizabeth Koo, Senior Counsel at AALDEF. “We will continue to fight for other immigrant nurses subjected to similarly poor working conditions and illegal contracts.”

The Philippines has been a major source of health care professionals, especially nurses, because their education ad training is similar to Western standards. Filipino nurses are in demand around the world but especially in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the US because they are fluent in English. 

There is a shortage of nurses in the United States because of the retirement of baby boomers and the burnout factor caused by the demands of the healthcare systems that employ them. The Philippine-trained nurses are issued special work visas that bypass traditional immigration quotas.

Because of their non-citizen status, they are vulnerable to become victims of exploitation amid threats of deportation.

“Stay or pay” provisions are repayment agreement provisions that penalize workers for leaving their jobs. Last year, five Filipino immigrant nurses filed charges with the NLRB against their former employer, CommuniCare Family of Companies, to challenge the company’s use of “stay or pay” provisions in the nurses’ employment contracts. These nurses similarly resigned from their jobs, citing intolerable working conditions.

“Immigrants are often too terrified to voice concerns even when facing unsafe working conditions. This settlement is proof that suffering in silence is not an option, but resisting is. We are fighting back, not just for our own, but also for those who cannot speak for themselves. Through this settlement, we could finally regain our dignity and be treated with respect,” said Docot, another nurse and former employee of Premier.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Kamala Harris accepts Democrat's nomination for President of the United States

Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention.

From this point on, just about everything Vice President Kamala Harris does will be historic after accepting the Democrats' nomination Thursday night to be US President.

'On behalf of the people, on behalf of every American regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America," Harris said on the last night of the Democratic National Conventnion in Chicago.

In accepting the nomination, along with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris becomes the first person of mixed Asian and Black descent to be the Presidential nominee of a major political party in the US. 

RELATED: AANHPI feel seen at the Democratic convention

In her 38-minute acceptance speech, the Vice President used the occasion to reintroduce herself to American voters including a heavy emphasis of the life lessons learned from her late mother, Shyamala Goplan Harris, who immigrated from India in 1968 to study at the University of California, Berkeley and her Jamaican father, Donald J. Harris, a professor who did not attend the DNC.

"They instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated. With kindness. Respect. And compassion.

"She taught us to never complain about injustice. But…do something about it. She also taught us—Never do anything half-assed. That’s a direct quote," continued Harris.

Harris contrasted herself and her policies from Donald Trump and the Republican's draconian plans outlined in the document "Project 2025," which in summary would reduce Social Security, reduce the taxes for the super-rich, eliminate the Department of Education, implement a plan to deport 10 million immigrants, and implement a national ban on a woman's right to determine her health needs, re abortion, among a host of other extreme right policies.

“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States, not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client that he has ever had: himself,” Harris warned

FYI: Read Kamala Harris' speech here.

Nevertheless, she promised to be President for all the people, even those who don't vote for her.

“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past,” she said. “A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”

She announced her candidacy only last month after President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection campaign and endorsed her to succeed him. The Democratic Party moved quickly to rally behind Harris.

Harris' seemingly meteoric rise to be her party's nominee actually has been four years in the making after President Joe Biden chose her to become his Vice President. During that time, she worked closely with Biden, who made sure that she was fully versed on on international and domestic issues.

Her speech, like many other speeches during the DNC, used the word "joy" to contrast the dark images of the country stressed during the Republican National Convention.

In conclusion, Harris again drew on the wisdom of her immigrant mother: “You know, our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America, talking about how terrible everything is. Well, my mother had another lesson. She used to teach. Never let anyone tell you who you are, you show them who you are,” Harris said.

“America, let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities. We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in history of the world, and on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth, the privilege and pride of being an American.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.