#231 Prevent Relaunch; Memories and Hopes; Combat Disinformation; Year of The Dragon; More

In This Issue #231

·       CAPAC Members Lead Effort to Prevent the Relaunch of China Initiative

·       January Brings Memories and Hope

·       Combat Disinformation Targeting Asian Americans

·       Lunar New Year Celebrations Underway 

·       News and Activities for the Communities

CAPAC Members Lead Effort to Prevent the Relaunch of China Initiative

According to NBC News and a press statement by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers led by CAPAC Members Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), Rep. Grace Meng (NY-06), and Senator Mazie Hirono (HI) wrote a letter to House and Senate leaders leading an effort to stop Republican Members of Congress from reinstating the China Initiative, a Trump-era program created in 2018 that purported to combat espionage but in effect targeted and profiled those of Chinese descent.The Department of Justice ended the program in 2022, after several of the alleged espionage and national security cases ended in acquittal, dismissal or were dropped altogether. But Republicans in Congress are now attempting to restart the program using a provision in a key House spending bill—at the same time that they are reviving racially motivated rhetoric against Chinese Americans. Republicans are attempting to relaunch the China Initiative in the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 5893) which funds the Departments of Commerce, Justice and other science-related programs.Others who signed the letter include: Senators Tammy Duckworth (IL), Raphael Warnock (GA) and Peter Welch (VT) and Reps. Jake Auchincloss (MA-04), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Andy Kim (NJ-03), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Katie Porter (CA-47), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Adam Schiff (CA-30), Brad Sherman (CA-32) and Jill Tokuda (HI-02).Read the NBC News report: https://nbcnews.to/3S9zPXJ.  Read the CAPAC press statement: https://bit.ly/3UcOLHhJanuary 19, 2024, marked the one-year anniversary when all charges against Baimadajie Angwang 昂旺, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer accused of spying on behalf of China, were formally dropped.  His arrest in September 2020 was one of the sensationalized cases under the now-defunct China Initiative.  U.S. prosecutors said they uncovered "new information" that warranted the dismissal but did not provide further explanation.  For the past year, NYPD did not reinstate Officer Angwang, but has instead started proceedings to terminate his employment.  Read Officer Angwang's case at https://bit.ly/3RIqXId

January Brings Memories and Hope 

According to a Ding Ding TV report by Helen Zia 谢汉兰, she has been tracking hate incidents for 41 years. 

Among the prominent January incidents are:

·       January 6, 2020: 89-year-old Yik Oi Huang died after injuries from a severe beating as she walked in a neighborhood park near her San Francisco Visitacion Valley home;

·       January 11, 2023: a public bus rider in Bloomington, Indiana vowed to rid the country of Chinese while repeatedly stabbing a 17-year-old student;

·       January 15, 2022: 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go was fatally pushed in front of an oncoming subway train in New York’s Times Square;

·       January 17, 1989: a white nationalist with a semiautomatic rifle killed five children at a Stockton California elementary school yard and injured about 30 others;

·       January 21, 2023: an elderly Asian man with a semi-automatic pistol killed 11 people and injured 9 as they celebrated the Lunar New Year at a ballroom in Monterey Park, California;

·       January 23, 2023: in Half Moon Bay, California, a 66-year-old male farmworker killed five fellow Chinese and two Latino coworkers;

·       January 28, 2021: Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thai American grandfather, died after being violently shoved as he went for a walk near his San Francisco home.

Turning tragic events into action and change has been a continuing legacy in Asian American communities.  Asian American activism in the wake of violence has been critical because many other families and communities have also encountered systemic refusal to acknowledge anti-Asian racism.Memorials this month in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay also stand as recognitions of cross-sector, pan-Asian and multi-racial efforts to advance the community healing process through solidarity.

On January 28, Monthanus Ratanapakdee has planned a remembrance of her father, Vicha, to be joined by Justin Go, Michelle’s father. The national “Remember Vicha” organizing efforts have succeeded in getting streets named “Vicha Ratanapakdee Way” in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The park where Yik Oi Huang was fatally attacked has also been renamed in her honor through the efforts of her granddaughter Sasanna Yee, who has worked with Asian and Black communities to keep the attack from inflaming racial tension.While January brings remembrances of lives lost to violence, the efforts of Asian Americans and others also show how healing can come when people act together in solidarity to build a beloved community of equity and justice, where violence and hate towards any people has no place.Helen Zia is a writer and the founder of the Vincent Chin Institute, Vincentchin.org, which aims to build solidarity against hate and anti-Asian bigotry through education, narrative and advocacy.  Read her Ding Ding TV report: https://bit.ly/48IFpaNOn January 21, 2024, the Guardian reported that survivors of the Monterey Park mass shooting are still searching for healing from therapy to qigong.  The January 21, 2023, attack was the worst mass shooting in Los Angeles County history, hitting the heart of Monterey Park’s large Asian immigrant community.  For many Asians, therapy is taboo – but some elders in the community are embracing it.  For the past 50 years, Shally Ung hadn’t spent much time thinking about the carnage she had seen growing up in her native Cambodia. But those scenes of bombs raining down on Phnom Penh came roaring back on Lunar New Year last year, when a gunman opened fire at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park and killed 11 people. Ung’s dance partner for nearly two decades, Andy Kao, was shot in the chest and died beside her under a table.

Some survivors and longtime Monterey Park residents said they remain deeply proud of their hometown and its reputation as an early haven for immigrants from China and Taiwan. A city with a population of 60,000 that is two-thirds Asian, Monterey Park is known widely as the country’s first suburban Chinatown, and as the place that elected Judy Chu as the first Chinese American woman to US Congress.Read the Guardian report: https://bit.ly/47SuGsN.On January 21, 2024, NBC News reported that on the first anniversary of the Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay mass shootings, President Joe Biden issued a statement remembering the survivors and victims and highlighting efforts to curtail gun violence.  Read the NBC News report: https://nbcnews.to/3ubE9h5

Combat Disinformation Targeting Asian Americans

According to International Journalists' Network, disinformation runs rampant in immigrant communities in the U.S. It is only increasing, too, due in large part to language barriers, social media and bad actors’ weaponization of entrenched fears.  Many outlets, meanwhile, lack fact-checking resources for non-English speakers.  Today, Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the U.S. electorate. Almost six in 10 are immigrants, while just over half of recent arrivals say they are proficient in English.Mis- and disinformation within Asian American communities spreads widely on the radio, YouTube and popular apps such as WeChat and WhatsApp. WeChat, which is used by about 60% of the Chinese American community, is particularly vulnerable to misinformation, due to a hyper-partisan, conservative ecosystem that rewards sensationalist content. Nick Nguyen, the co-founder and research lead of Viet Fact Check, and Kyle Van Fleet, a strategic communications associate for APIA Vote and head of APIA Vote’s disinformation monitoring program, provided their insights about disinformation’s impact on Asian American communities and how to combat it in effective, culturally conscious ways, including APIAVote's guide on "Dis- and Misinformation Monitoring."  According to its website, APIAVote publishes a bi-weekly disinformation report to provide its network, ethnic media contacts, and other national partners for research and analysis to conduct actions and promote good information.Read the International Journalists' Network report: https://bit.ly/3S8sjwl.  Read the APIAVote web page: https://bit.ly/493dS3s.On January 18, 2024, NBC News reported that disinformation poses an unprecedented threat to democracy in the United States in 2024, according to researchers, technologists and political scientists.  As the presidential election approaches, experts warn that a convergence of events at home and abroad, on traditional and social media — and amid an environment of rising authoritarianism, deep distrust, and political and social unrest — makes the dangers from propaganda, falsehoods and conspiracy theories more dire than ever.

An increasing number of voters have proven susceptible to disinformation from former President Donald Trump and his allies; artificial intelligence technology is ubiquitous; social media companies have slashed efforts to rein in misinformation on their platforms; and attacks on the work and reputation of academics tracking disinformation have chilled research.Read the NBC News report: https://nbcnews.to/3u8v8FO

Lunar New Year Celebrations Underway

According to the Washington Post on January 22, 2024, Lunar New Year does not actually arrive until February 10, but for Vietnamese Americans in Virginia, there was no time like the present to start celebrating Tet, their most important holiday.  More than 20,000 people were expected to attend this weekend’s festival to listen to Vietnamese folk and new music, purchase traditional clothing and New Year’s gifts and eat everything from shrimp and crab soup, pho and banh mi to bubble tea, spring rolls and a Lunar New Year specialty: sticky rice with pork and mung beans wrapped in banana leaves.  At the opening ceremony, a dozen men and women stood side by side wearing traditional tunics called ao dai — the men in midnight blue, the women in bright fuchsia. They walked to the stage accompanied by solemn drumming and the slow beat of a gong. There, they paid respects and gave thanks to their ancestors, an integral moment of Lunar New Year festivities.Celebrations of Lunar New Year in the United States take on extra meaning for Asian American communities and their families because it is a way of maintaining traditions and passing them to the next generation, said Xinqian Allison Qiu, a doctoral candidate in American Studies at the University of Maryland. Her research includes a focus on Lunar New Year celebrations.Read the Washington Post report: https://wapo.st/48LJISvFind out about Lunar New Year activities in  Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Boise, Boston, Brooklyn, Cape Cod, Chattanooga, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Disney California, Elk Grove, Fremont, Honolulu, Houston, Irvine, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, McLean, Miami, Milpitas, Montclair, Monterey Park, New York City, New Orleans, Newark, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Seattle, Spokane, Triangle, Twin Cities, Washington DC, and more.  Of course there is always home.

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 Meeting2024/04/07 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2024/04/19 Committee of 100 Annual Conference & GalaVisit https://bit.ly/45KGyga for event details.

2. Chinese American Museum Essay Contest

To promote intergenerational communication, Chinese American Museum DC (CAMDC), with the support of the Calvin J. Li Memorial Foundation, will host a new essay contest entitled “Dreams of My Parent(s).” Through this essay contest, CAMDC hopes to foster positive family dialogues and cultivate understanding and appreciation of our shared cultural heritage and immigrant experience.  Titled "Dreams of My Parent(s)," current high school students of Chinese descent living in the US are encouraged to showcase the strength, resilience, and determination of their parents, and celebrate their life’s triumphs through the essays.Submission deadline is February 1, 2024.  For more information, visit: https://bit.ly/3vKHXXk