Fearing a new ‘red scare’ atmosphere, activists and lawmakers fight targeting of Chinese-Americans
- The US has arrested scientists of Chinese origin on industrial espionage and other charges, and multiple times the cases have been dropped for lack of evidence
- ‘There are some legitimate concerns, but these are inflated, and Chinese-Americans are being demonised,’ the leader of an anti-discrimination group says
As more Chinese-Americans find themselves targeted in the increasingly bitter stand-off between Beijing and Washington, legislators, community groups and legal experts are pushing back in hopes of sending a message that enough is enough.
Prime objects of their frustration is the US government’s justice and intelligence communities, which have investigated and filed a slew of cases against scientists of Chinese origin on industrial espionage, theft of trade secrets and other charges.
Chinese-Americans readily acknowledge that Beijing targets people of Chinese descent and that the US has every right to defend itself. But a disproportionate number of recent cases end up snaring innocent people targeted through racial profiling, they argue, eroding constitutional guarantees and wreaking havoc with individual lives and the community’s reputation.
“We are at an adversarial reset of US-China relationship 40 years after the opening of relations,” said Jeremy Wu, a founding member of Asian Pacific American Justice, a group fighting against discrimination. “There are some legitimate concerns, but these are inflated, and Chinese-Americans are being demonised. They’re collateral damage, like children caught in a broken marriage.”
“Are we repeating history or in danger of doing so?” Representative Ed Case, a Democrat from Hawaii, said in introducing the amendment, citing the 120,000 Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. “This resolution is a flashing red light to our intelligence community: stop, look and listen.”