#232 2/5 Monthly Meeting; AI Safety Cooperation; Carter Legacy; China Initiative 2.0; +

In This Issue #232

·       2024/02/05 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·       White House OSTP Director on US-China AI Safety Cooperation

·       Invited Report - A Speech by David Lampton: The Carter Legacy and Beyond

·       Possible Reinstatement of the China Initiative Denounced

·       News and Activities for the Communities

2024/02/05 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, February 5, 2024, starting at 1:55 pm ET.  In addition to updates by Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC); Joanna YangQing Derman, Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC; and Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), invited and confirmed speakers are:

·       Erika Moritsugu (invited), Deputy Assistant to the President and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Senior Liaison, The White House, will kick off the Lunar New Year by reviewing the Year of the Rabbit (2023) and looking forward to the Year of the Dragon (2024).

·       Lora Lumpe, Chief Executive Officer, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, will tell us about the Quincy Institute and its plans and activities.  The Quincy Institute promotes ideas that move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war, toward military restraint and diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace in a world where peace is the norm and war is the exception.  On November 13, 2023, it led a coalition of diverse organizations in a letter to Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping calling for more stable and productive bilateral ties.

·       Min Fan 范敏, Executive Director, US Heartland China Association (USHCA) will introduce USHCA and describe its mission and activities.  USHCA covers 20 states that stretch from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. 430 Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in 84 of the cities within the Heartland region. Mayors of the region lead 37 of the 100 largest cities in the United States. The original organization was founded in 2003 as the Midwest China Association by U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson (IL); John Rogers, lawyer and professor; and Governor Bob Holden (MO), former Chairman of the Midwest Governors Association. USHCA led a bipartisan delegation of six U.S. mayors representing communities along the Mississippi River Basin to visit their counterparts in China in 2023 - the first since the pandemic. 

·       Sandy Shan, Executive Director, Justice is Global, will share how individuals and organizations can help support grassroot rollout of a US-China climate cooperation bill this spring.  In 2020 and 2022, Justice is Global conducted two community canvassing projects that engaged swing state voters susceptible to anti-immigrant sentiments in conversations about the future of US-China cooperation. The positive outcomes from these two projects informed Justice is Global’s current work in supporting the rollout of a climate cooperation bill.

The virtual monthly meeting is by invitation only. It is closed to the press. If you wish to join, either one time or for future meetings, please contact one of the co-organizers of APA Justice - Steven Pei 白先慎, Vincent Wang 王文奎, and Jeremy Wu 胡善庆 - or send a message to contact@apajustice.org

White House OSTP Director on US-China AI Safety Cooperation

According to the Financial Times, Arati Prabhakar, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), said the US will work with China on the safety of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the coming months.  The two countries are committed to working together to lessen the risks of AI and assess its capabilities.“Steps have been taken to engage in that process,” Prabhakar said of future collaboration with China on AI. “We have to try to work [with Beijing].”  “We are at a moment where everyone understands that AI is the most powerful technology . . . every country is bracing to use it to build a future that reflects their values,” said Prabhakar, who advises President Joe Biden on issues including AI regulation.  “But I think the one place we can all really agree is we want to have a technology base that is safe and effective,” she added. “So I think that is a good place for collaboration.”The regulatory frameworks for AI vary between the two nations.  China, for instance, has issued comprehensive guidelines for AI development, with a particular emphasis on content control.  By contrast, in October last year, Biden issued a sweeping executive order with a specific focus on addressing threats related to national security and consumer privacy.Read the Financial Times report: https://on.ft.com/3UfwlWmIn an editorial published online on January 25, 2024, Science reported that "the power and accuracy of computational protein design have been increasing rapidly with the incorporation of AI approaches. This promises to transform biotechnology, enabling advances across sustainability and medicine.  However, as with all major revolutionary changes, this technology is vulnerable to misuse and the production of dangerous biological agents." 

"Enhanced security need not threaten information sharing or transparent communication, the hallmarks of modern science; the use of biosecurity as an excuse to not share new methods and advances should be discouraged by science funders, publishers, and policy-makers. Rather, security in this fast-moving field should be framed as maximizing progress to address pressing societal concerns," the editorial concludes.Read the Science editorial: https://bit.ly/47UHcImThe Science editorial referred to a global AI Safety Summit in the United Kingdom in November, 2023.  The editorial emphasized that the "road to regulating AI is likely to be long and complicated." At the Summit, representatives from 28 countries worldwide including the United States, China, European Union, and other nations in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, endorsed The Bletchley Declaration on AI safety.  This declaration acknowledges the need to comprehend and collaboratively address potential risks associated with AI.  Its goal is to ensure the development and deployment of AI in a safe and responsible manner for the benefit of the international community.  At the conclusion of the Summit, South Korea committed to co-hosting a mini virtual summit within the next six months, followed by France hosting the subsequent in-person Summit half a year later.Read more about the AI Safety Summit: https://bit.ly/3SlWYqe

Invited Report - A Speech by David Lampton: The Carter Legacy and Beyond

Author: Juan Zhang, Editor, US-China Perception Monitor/中美印象, Carter Center, Juan.Zhang@cartercenter.org

Professor David Lampton is a towering figure in America's collective effort to understand China and to maintain a peaceful and productive relationship with China.

At the Inaugural Jimmy Carter Forum on U.S.-China Relations, Lampton offered an excellent description of President Jimmy Carter's remarkable contributions to global peace, with a particular emphasis on the normalization of relations between the United States and China. 

Lampton elaborated on how four leadership approaches of President Carter have all played a big role in his visionary China policy. These approaches "served our nation and the world well." Dr. Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor at the Carter Center’s China Focus, lauded Lampton's speech as the most comprehensive summary of President Carter's contributions to peace and prosperity in the U.S. China and the world. To read the full speech, please click here.  

To find Professor Lampton’s latest book Living US-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. Click here.  

Possible Reinstatement of the China Initiative Denounced

On January 26, 2024, the Committee of 100 (C100), an outspoken critic of the China Initiative, issued the following statement from Interim President and Executive Director Cindy Tsai:“The China Initiative was a failed program that fueled racial animosity, xenophobia, and suspicion towards the AAPI community and Chinese Americans in particular. Reimplementing this program would send shockwaves of fear across the AAPI community. We welcome the opportunity to work with Congressional leaders to recognize, address, and prevent future harms to the AAPI community and continue the dialogue towards a shared vision of a better, more secure and inclusive America.”  In October of 2021, C100 and researchers from the University of Arizona unveiled a joint research project focused on race and ethnicity in science and research. The survey data showed that the China Initiative was producing a wave of fear among scientists of Chinese descent, where scientists have described cutting ties with their collaborators in China, no longer hiring Chinese postdocs, and limiting communications with scholars in China, even at the expense of their own research projects. Additionally, research jointly led by C100 and legal scholar Andrew Chongseh Kim shed light on significant racial disparities in the implementation of the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) of 1996 and under the China initiative. Data from the research was drawn from nearly 300 defendants across nearly 200 separate cases. Half of the defendants with Western names (49%) convicted under the EEA were given sentences of probation only, with no incarceration. In contrast, the vast majority of defendants of Asian descent (75%) were sent to prison, in particular defendants of Chinese descent (80%). Additionally, Chinese and Asian defendants convicted of economic espionage received average sentences of 27 and 23 months respectively, roughly twice as long as the average sentence of 12 months for defendants with Western names.

Read the C100 press release: https://bit.ly/4bpO6siExcerpts from a Boston Globe opinion by Professor MIT Professor Gang Chen 陈刚 on January 16, 2024,"In January 2021, I was wrongfully indicted under the China Initiative launched in 2018 by the US Department of Justice. The indictment contained a laundry list of normal activities for a university professor, such as reviewing proposals and writing recommendation letters. Thankfully, MIT — where I’m a professor of mechanical engineering — and the scientific community came to my defense, with a rallying cry 'We are all Gang Chen.' After a year of grueling legal proceedings, the DOJ finally dropped my case."One month later, in February 2022, the DOJ terminated the Trump administration’s China Initiative, admitting that it created a 'harmful perception' of bias against people with 'racial, ethnic, or familial ties to China.'"Despite the harm the initiative created, the House Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations bill, H.R. 5893, seeks to mandate the DOJ to reinstate the China Initiative."The proposal is another stab at a deep wound in my heart that has yet to heal. Despite the warm welcome back to campus from colleagues at MIT, my wrongful prosecution has done irreversible damage to my family, my career, and the United States.

"Politically motivated, racially biased criminal justice initiatives lead to wrongful prosecutions. The China Initiative led to numerous wrongful prosecutions of scientists of Chinese origin. When catching real spies proved to be difficult and time-consuming, federal agents turned their attention to straw man targets — university professors. Espionage is the antithesis of open science — one operates in the shadows, shrouded in secrecy, and the other seeks truth and consensus through exploration and collaboration. Researchers at universities in the United States do not conduct classified research on campus. We carry out basic research and publish our findings for all to see."Some initiatives by the government, such as the China Initiative and the National Institutes of Health’s investigation into academics’ collaborations with China, weaken rather than strengthen US national security. American scientific prowess has been built on the United States’ ability to attract the best and the brightest minds from around the world."Passage of the House’s appropriation bill as it’s currently written would once again push out talent and human capital at the expense of scientific advancement and national security. The China Initiative harmed Americans and failed our national interests miserably. Let us not repeat history with the same mistakes."

News and Activities for the Communities

1.  APA Justice Community Calendar

Upcoming Events:2024/02/01 CAMDC Deadline for Essay Contest2024/02/04 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/02/05 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2024/02/10 New Year's Day of the Year of the Dragon2024/03/03 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/03/04 APA Justice Monthly MeetingVisit https://bit.ly/45KGyga for event details.

2. AAGEN 2024 Leadership Workshop

WHAT: In-person event - AAGEN 2024 Leadership Workshop: “Identity, Integrity, and Influence - How to Lead in Uncertain Times”WHEN: Thursday, May 2, 2024, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm ETWHERE: Partnership For Public Service - 600 14th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005HOST: Asian American Government Executives Network (AAGEN)DESCRIPTION: Join other professionals and leaders from across government for a professional development training event with interactive panel discussions focused on developing leadership resiliency to build a strong and healthy workforce.  Come for individual advice from Senior Executives in the Coaching/Resume Review sessions and hear inspiring AANHPI leaders from the White House and other federal agencies share their leadership stories and career advice.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: https://bit.ly/3UiHMwrREGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/47MG2yB

3. Lunar New Year is a Holiday in Some States

According to Denverite, on June 2, 2023, Lunar New Year became an official state holiday after Governor Jared Polis signed a bill and will be celebrated by Coloradans the first Friday of every February.  Vương-Sandoval, chair of the Lunar New Year Allies Advisory Group, spearheaded the bill, continuing her efforts to bolster and display Denver’s large Vietnamese and Asian community.  The City of Denver recently apologized for its role in an anti-Chinese/Asian riot of 1880 that resulted in the death of Look Young, a Chinese laundry worker, and the destruction of historic Chinatown, a once-thriving community of Chinese-owned properties; The area is now LoDo. Colorado is the second state, after California, to recognize Lunar New Year as an observed holiday. 

According to NBC News on September 12, 2023, the Lunar New Year will now be observed in all public schools in the state of New York, following legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul.  “It is not just a day off from school — it is an opportunity for our children to learn about and celebrate their own or different cultures and traditions,” Hochul said in a news release.  New York is home to the second largest Asian population in the U.S., which is the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group nationwide, with 1.9 million residents,  The new legislation comes months after New York City Mayor Eric Adams added Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, to its list of public school holidays.On January 12, 2024, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a joint resolution AJR201/SJR111, designating the first new moon of the first month of the lunar calendar as Lunar New Year in New Jersey. The holiday has been recognized and celebrated internationally for thousands of years by Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders to welcome good fortune in the new year.

4. Asian American Mayor of Wichita

Lily Wu was sworn in as Wichita’s 103rd mayor on January 8, 2024.  She is the first woman elected to a full term and the first Asian-American mayor of the largest city in Kansas.  Mayor Lily speaks Cantonese and Spanish, was born in Guatemala, and immigrated to Wichita, Kansas with her family in 1993. On her 30th anniversary of coming to America, she announced her candidacy for mayor. She champions an inclusive vision for the entire city focused on ensuring public safety, strengthening the economy, restoring trust in City Hall and building a united community.  Prior to being elected, Mayor Lily spent 12 years as a journalist, serving as an anchor and reporter for Wichita television stations KAKE and KWCH 12 News.  Read the NextShark report:  https://yhoo.it/3Omi3iO