#229 Rep. Judy Chu New Year Message; APA Justice Thanks You; Carter Center Forum; More

In This Issue #229

·       Congresswoman Judy Chu's New Year Message at APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·       APA Justice Thanks You and Pledges More Community Services in 2024

·       Carter Center Forum in Honor of President Jimmy Carter and 45th Anniversary of US-China Diplomatic Ties

·       News and Activities for the Communities

Congresswoman Judy Chu's New Year Message at APA Justice Monthly Meeting

We thank Congresswoman Judy Chu 赵美心, Chair of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), for the following remarks at the APA Justice monthly meeting on January 8, 2024, to kick off the new year:"It is so great to be here speaking to all of you because it was back in 2015 while we were hearing reports of racial bias and profiling of Asian Americans, often specifically Chinese scientists, researchers, and engineers, I put out a call to the community to mobilize and organize around this issue as the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus or what we call CAPAC.  I am proud to see the result of that call for community support is The APA Justice Task Force."There has never been a more important time for you to be in existence. When this community began to form in 2015 back as Sherry Chen 陈霞芬 and Dr. Xiaoxing Xi's 郗小星 cases became public, we never knew how large of a problem targeting our communities would become, and what new struggles we would face."But thanks to your leadership, the Asian American scientific and academic community's voices are louder than ever before.  And more people are aware of the blatant racial profiling that our communities have faced at the hands of our own government."I want to thank each of you for your engagement on such important issues like this because together we have accomplished some major wins in the last year."So today it is my honor to join you and share what we have been able to do thanks to your dedicated advocacy and to the work of APA Justice's leaders, including Jeremy Wu 胡善庆, Steven Pei 白先慎, and Vincent Wang 王文奎."One of the most pressing issues last year was the surge in legislation seeking to restrict land ownership for Chinese and other immigrant communities across various states and in Congress.  When APA Justice, AAPI advocates and CAPAC member representatives, Lizzie Fletcher and Al Green, brought attention to such a bill in Texas early last year, I was immediately alarmed. Texas Senate Bill 147 would ban citizens and companies from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from buying land in Texas.  But because of Texas State Representative Gene Wu 吳元之 and so many AAPI groups and activists working tirelessly on the ground in Texas to speak out against this legislation, this bill did not move forward into law."But in other states like Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, these types of bills were signed into law.

"Already, realtors have reported experiencing business losses and feeling compelled to comply with the new alien land laws in unrealistic, uncomfortable ways, forcing them to act like proxy ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and question people's nationalities. "And families are being hurt. Long time Florida resident Christian Zhang was thrilled when after being separated during the pandemic, her parents decided to buy a home in Florida.  Those plans have been cancelled simply because her parents are from China. Or how about Mr. Jie Manju, a political asylee living in Florida who was persecuted by the Chinese government and had to flee to the US where he has lived for the past 4 years. Because of the new Florida land law, Mr. Shu is forced to cancel the contract for the purchase of what was supposed to be his new home.  As a result he lost both this property and his $30,000 deposit.  And in Florida, Chinese nationals who own property are now required to register their properties with the state. "In fact, last month I joined AAPI advocates in Miami, Florida, to speak out strongly and loudly against these discriminatory and racist attacks, which certainly do nothing to help in national security.  This is why I recently joined Congress member Al Green to introduce a bill, the Preemption of Real Property Discrimination Act, prohibiting such state laws from taking effect.  We have to do everything we can to push this bill forward."Now, at the federal level, we have seen these measures introduced and attached to legislative vehicles."When the Senate considered the National Defense Authorization Act, such an amendment had passed [the House].  Immediately afterwards, CAPAC and a coalition of AAPI organizations, including many of you on this call, reached out to congressional leadership and committees to express our grave concerns and demanded that it be kept out of the final text."I am thrilled to share that with your help, we successfully push to remove the harmful language from the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which the president ultimately signed.  Not only that, we also work to strike provisions that parroted xenophobic COVID conspiracy theories.  And we successfully push back measures that would harm the Asian American research community and hinder international collaboration and US innovation such as a house provision that would have established problematic disclosure requirements for university researchers to have, including their personal information, their date of birth, immigration status, and that all this be published publicly online.

"So as we continue this work to protect the civil rights of our community, we must also ensure that our communities' resilient history is recognized, celebrated, and preserved.  In 2010 just after I was elected to Congress, Chinese American community organizations began reaching out to me about ways we could work to promote equality and justice.  Many advocates started with addressing the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This act is among the most discriminatory laws ever passed by Congress. It remains the only law to name an ethnic group for exclusion from immigration and prohibited Chinese Americans from becoming naturalized citizens so that they could not vote."It required Chinese people to carry papers on them at all times or else be subject to deportation, and only the testimony of a white person could save them.  "This law deprived the Chinese community of their civil rights for 60 years. Yet the US had never apologized for it.  So for 2 years, together we work to build support for for a formal apology including educating many of my colleagues in Congress, most of whom had never even heard of this law.  Finally, in 2011 and 2012, the US Senate and then the House unanimously passed my bill officially expressing regret for the Chinese Exclusion Act."Last month I introduced the official congressional resolution to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act.  "As the first Chinese American woman ever elected to Congress. It is critical that I use my seat at that table to ensure that our history is remembered and that nothing like this could ever happen to our communities again."In closing, I want to underscore how important groups like APA justice are in making all of these achievements happen over the past year."The year ahead, we know the work continues to proactively engage with our partners in the administration across federal agencies and my fellow members of Congress and to ensure that our communities are not facing anti-Asian discrimination and racial profiling."To that end, CAPAC will continue to prioritize calling out blatantly xenophobic anti-China rhetoric, pushing back on policies that unfairly target Chinese American and other AANHPI communities, and advocating for common sense measures that would address racial discrimination and profiling like FISA section 702 reform that will stop this warrantless surveillance that has been going on since 9/11.

"So thank you again for inviting me today to join your monthly call. I appreciate the leadership this group has taken when the need arose for our community to mobilize years ago and while it is unfortunate that those needs have continued to grow, I am so grateful to know that a group like APA Justice Task Force is leading the way in bringing our community and our allies together to stand up for our civil rights. I appreciate your inclusion of CAPAC in your monthly calls and your long standing partnership with us."I am thrilled to start this year by congratulating you all on the hard work that you have done on behalf of our community. I encourage you to stay strong on the road ahead as we work together this year, speaking out for those being targeted just for being Chinese or Asian American and continue building this diverse coalition of leaders across the country."I look forward to working with you to make this nation more inclusive of all people where no one should be made to feel unsafe or un-American because of who they are.  And I will continue to strive for an America where everybody is treated equally. Thank you."Watch Congresswoman Judy Chu's message: https://bit.ly/3tUixpp (video 11:56).

APA Justice Thanks You and Pledges More Community Services in 2024

APA Justice sent almost 300,000 emails between January 1 and December 15 in 2023.  Each email was also forwarded by subscribers to additional family members, friends, and colleagues.  APA Justice thanks you for making us a trusted platform and a strong voice for the Asian Pacific American communities as we enter the 9th year of operation.  

The APA Justice Task Force was formed in 2015 in response to Rep. Judy Chu's call for a platform to connect elected officials with concerned individuals and organizations to address racial profiling and related justice and fairness issues for the Asian Pacific American communities.  We facilitate, inform, and advocate for a sustainable ecosystem to support our mission.APA Justice has distributed 226 issues of the APA Justice Newsletter since July 2020, 69 in 2023 alone.  All of them are preserved and available for public access here: https://bit.ly/APAJ_Newsletters.  Free subscription is open to all at https://bit.ly/2FJunJM. APA Justice holds monthly meetings where the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Advancing Justice | AAJC, and the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) provide regular updates on their activities and plans.  Prominent speakers are invited to speak on various topics of interest to the communities each month.  The monthly meetings are closed to reporters, but a reviewed meeting summary is posted at the APA Justice website.  Videos of the meetings are also made public when speakers give their permission.  Summaries and videos of the monthly meetings since January 2020 are posted at: https://bit.ly/3kxkqxP.  Send us a message at contact@apajustice.org if you wish to be invited to the monthly meetings.     The APA Justice website located at https://www.apajustice.org/ is a repository of its activities and information since 2015.  In response to recent attempts to revive the discriminatory "China Initiative," APA Justice is compiling the chronological facts and events from the launch of the initiative in November 2018 to its end in February 2022.  We plan to seek assistance from community organizations and individuals to ensure its accuracy and completeness.Looking forward to 2024, we plan to stay on top of important issues and engage with elected officials and partner with organizations and individuals to combat racial profiling and strive for just and fair treatment of the AANHPI communities.  We are in discussions to launch a short series of webinars on the past and current lessons learned from the Chinese Exclusion Act, as well as to help change xenophobic and fearmongering narratives that provoke anti-Asian hostility.Please send your comments and thoughts on how we can do better in 2024 to contact@apajustice.org.  Note: when you forward the APA Justice newsletters, please remove this footer information to avoid being accidentally unsubscribed by your recipients:

Carter Center Forum in Honor of President Jimmy Carter and 45th Anniversary of US-China Diplomatic Ties

Although Dr. Henry Kissinger opened the door in 1971 and President Richard Nixon made the first presidential visit to China in 1972, it was President Jimmy Carter who normalized US-China diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979. 

The Carter Center hosted a forum in honor of President Carter and the 45th anniversary of US-China ties in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 9, 2024.  The event was co-hosted by the National Committee on US-China Relations, the US-China Business Council, and the Fudan University Center for American Studies.  About 200 people attended the forum in person.President Carter has long considered the normalization of diplomatic relations one of his most important legacies.  It has led to an era distinguished by peace in East Asia and the Pacific region.  This decision and its legacies have not been without criticism, however.  Relations are as tense today as they were before President Nixon's visit in 1972, and these tensions influence almost every facet of the bilateral relationship.During the forum, "courage" was a frequently used word in tributes to President Carter and his wife of 77 years Rosalyn Carter, who founded the Carter Center to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope in more than 80 countries around the world.  President Carter, age 99, is under hospice care.  Rosalyn Carter passed away in November 2023.

U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng delivered opening remarks via video.  Ambassador Burns recalled that he was an intern at the State Department in 1979.  While acknowledging complexities and difficulties on many topics, both spoke to the need for dialogue and engagement, stabilizing the bilateral relationship, and moving forward from the meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in San Francisco last year.  Watch Ambassador Burns' remarks here: https://bit.ly/3HfaJBQ (video 21:03).  Read Ambassador Xie's speech here: https://bit.ly/48JdFlU

In his opening remarks, Stephen Orlins, Chairman of the National Committee on US-China Relations, referred himself as 小土豆 ("small potato") at the State Department in 1979 and noted that hundreds of thousands of US and Chinese soldiers had died in battlefields when President Carter went to Asia.  "Virtually no American and Chinese soldiers have died on (Northeast) Asian battlefields since the establishment of diplomatic ties, and Asia has been peaceful and prosperous for almost a century," he said.In her luncheon remarks via video, Rep. Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, paid tribute to Rosalyn Carter and President Carter's courageous decision to establish ties with China despite political pressures at home.  "His leadership proved that the United States and China could find areas of common ground and cooperation on issues that are of importance to our people... This does not mean that there has not been areas of deep disagreement and tension," she said.  "We must not turn our backs to diplomacy and cooperation, especially on issues that we must work together like fighting climate change."  Rep. Chu is a co-sponsor of the Restoring the Fulbright Exchanges with China and Hong Kong Act (H.R. 8939 https://bit.ly/3VkKy2G).  Watch Rep. Chu's remarks at https://bit.ly/3O4ydgS (video 6:51)The full day conference covered five panels and a gala dinner in the evening.  A summary of the event is available here: https://bit.ly/3TQYG58

News and Activities for the Communities

1.  APA Justice Community Calendar

Upcoming Events:2024/02/04 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. Korean American Day

According to the University of Hawaii archives, the first ship to bring Korean immigrants carrying 56 men, 21 women, and 25 children (102 people), came to Hawaii on January 13,1903, aboard the S.S. Gaelic. After two years, over 7,000 Koreans came to Hawaii. The majority of the early immigrants who arrived at the sugar plantation were young bachelors, largely uneducated, and engaged in semi-skilled or unskilled occupations.  January 13 is Korean American Day to commemorate this historical event.  Korean Americans have contributed greatly to our nation as leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and more.  Four Korean American Members of Congress are serving in the 118th Congress, including CAPAC Executive Members Reps. Andy Kim from New Jersey and Marilyn Strickland from Washington.  The others are Michelle Steel and Young Kim.  John Park was sworn in as Mayor of Brookhaven on January 8, 2024, becoming the first Asian American Pacific Islander mayor in the state of Georgia.  Read the CAPAC press release: https://bit.ly/41VScE9.  Read the NPR report: https://bit.ly/48tydz0

3.  Asian Pacific Americans in Congress

During the APA Justice monthly meeting on January 8, 2024, Lorraine Tong shared a website maintained by the U.S. House of Representatives on "Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress."  According to the website, since 1900, when Delegate Robert M. Wilcox of Hawaii became the first Asian Pacific American (APA) to serve in Congress, a total of 70 APAs have served as U.S. Representatives, Delegates, Resident Commissioners, or Senators as of 2017. The website contains their biographical profiles, links to information about current APA Members, essays on the institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of APAs in Congress, and images of each individual Member, including rare photos.  At least 9 more congressional members since 2017 are reported by Wikipedia.  Visit the House website: https://bit.ly/41YdmRW

4. New Jersey Designates Lunar New Year

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 date of Lunar New Year changes in concurrence with the cycles of the moon. 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.  February 10, 2024, is New Year's Day for the Year of the Dragon.  Read the Governor's announcement at: https://bit.ly/3u04E99