Traditional Targets Of Racism, Chinese-Americans Seek Protection
Asian Americans have long been a cherished scapegoat for Americans citizens and their leaders, resulting in violent attacks and reaching a peak in World War II when more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens were imprisoned in concentration camps.
And while those darkest days may not return, signs point to increasing violence, isolation and limits placed on Chinese nationals on purchasing land or getting employment. Once again, the “yellow peril” fearmongers are pointing to Asians, specifically the Chinese and Chinese Americans, seen by many as perpetual foreigners, as having caused for everything from spy balloons, to the COVID-19 pandemic, to blaming the Chinese for the supply chain troubles and subsequent economic problems in the U.S.
And just as American Muslims were verbally and physically attacked after the Sept. 11 attacks, once again, Asian Americans are at risk. Anti-Chinese violence is increasing while racist rhetoric became fashionable under trump and continues to be fueled by the right wing. Lawmakers in Texas, Florida, Arkansas and in Congress have proposed laws banning citizens of China from buying land, homes and other buildings in the United States.
The continued rising number of anti-Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) hate crimes and violence was the impetus of a proposed bill to protect all Americans against arbitrary imprisonment or detention without due process, as happened to Japanese Americans during World War II.
The bill, known as the Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act, was re-introduced in January by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and lost both legs in combat in Iraq. Duckworth is one of 16 representatives and two senators of Asian-American descent who are currently serving in Congress. All but two of the members of Congress are Democrats while both Senators are Democrats.
In addition, there is one representative and three non-voting delegates of Pacific Islander descent who currently are serving.
The bill would prohibit imprisonment based on race, religion, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability. It has 25 co-sponsors, all Democrats, and has been tied up in the Senate Judiciary Committee. A companion version has been introduced in the House by Representatives Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Jill Tokuda D-Hawaii.
A 2017 House version attracted 18 co-sponsors, again all Democrats, and never received a committee vote with Republicans controlling the House at the time. A 2019 House version attracted six Democratic co-sponsors but never received a committee vote although Democrats controlled the chamber.
The bill is named in honor of the late Rep. Mark Takai, D-Hawaii, and the late Fred Korematsu, who challenged the Civilian Executive Order in the Supreme Court that directed all people of Japanese ancestry be removed from designated areas on the West Coast during World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, paving the way for the forced removal and incarceration of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. A subsequent order, Civilian Exclusion Order 34, directed that all people of Japanese ancestry be removed from designated areas of the West Coast because they were considered to pose a threat to national security. February 19th has since been commemorated by Japanese Americans as the “Day of Remembrance.”
Korematsu challenged the order and the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled the Civilian Exclusion Order illegal. The exclusion order was replaced in 1971 by the Non-Detention Act which prohibited the government from detaining U.S. citizens who were considered to be national security risks. The act did not specifically bar detentions or imprisonment based on characteristics such as race or religion. The loopholes in the Non-Detention Act act made it possible, in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for the government to detain Americans with South Asian and Arab backgrounds. The Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act would fill the loophole to protect all Americans from improper detentions.
After the passage of the Civil Liberties Act in 1988, the U.S. government officially apologized and paid reparations to Japanese Americans.
Opponents of the Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act say it is not necessary because there have been no mass internments since World War II. They also argue that other bills like the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act, which would make lynching a federal crime, are not necessary because there hasn’t been a confirmed lynching in the U.S. since 1981.
Though there have been no widescale internments since World War II, there have been increasing efforts to encroach on the rights of people of Chinese heritage. It is not unlike ex-president trump’s order that Muslims could not travel to the U.S. The ban was overturned by the Supreme Court and trump then temporarily barred travel to the U.S. from certain countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Trump further inflamed anti-Asian American sentiment by referring to the pandemic as the “China virus” and the “Kung Flu” virus.
Most recently, amid rising anti-Asian violence, the former president has continued to make thinly veiled racist comments about his former transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, the wife of GOP Senate leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kent. McConnell has consistently opposed trump’s bid for re-election. Chao was born in Taiwan, moved to the U.S. as a young child and was naturalized as a citizen at age 19.
Since the start of the pandemic, the New York City Police Department reported that hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian sentiment jumped 1,900 percent in New York City in 2020. The violence has continued into 2021, and while anti-Asian violence has taken place nationwide, the rise in attacks in 2021 has been particularly focused in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and Oakland’s Chinatowns.
The House passed the COVID–19 Hate Crimes Act on May 17 to address the increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. The act passed by a 364–62 vote; all 62 votes against the bill were from Republicans. The Senate also approved the legislation in a vote of 94–1, with only Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., opposed. President Biden has since signed the bill.
Most recently, on Jan. 11, an 18-year-old Indian University student was stabbed multiple times in a Bloomington Transit bus by a 56-year-old woman, who admitted to attacking Asian Americans intentionally, saying “It would be one less person to blow up our country.”
In New York City, in February, a South Korean diplomat was physically attacked, prompting City Councilman Keith Powers to issue a statement on the increase in hate crimes against the Asian Americans over the past year.
Stop (Asian American Pacific Islanders) AAPI Hate, a San Francisco-based organization formed during the COVID-19 pandemic to combat and gather data about rising anti-Asian hate, has tallied more than 11,000 reports of anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander hate incidents since it began tracking data in March 2020.
A Pew Research Center poll released in April 2022 revealed that 82 percent of Americans have unfavorable opinions of China, including 40 percent who have very unfavorable views of the country.
Concerns over rising anti-Chinese bigotry also have been raised in the Asian American community over the newly established bipartisan House select committee to study strategic challenges coming from the Chinese government. The committee’s role is to make policy recommendations on how to respond to Beijing’s “economic, technological, and security progress and its competition with the United States.”
The China Initiative was another government effort to prosecute perceived Chinese spies in American research and industry. The effort was started by the trump administration in November 2018 and it was shut down on Feb. 23, 2022, amid criticism of racial profiling of Chinese American citizens as well as residents of Chinese origin and ancestry from any other nation. No one was convicted or even charged with spying in any China Initiative case.
Lawmakers in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota have proposed laws banning citizens of China from buying land, homes and other buildings in the United States. In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign legislation to bar citizens of countries the State Department has designated as “foreign adversaries” from owning agricultural land. Those countries include China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Similar proposals are being considered in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has imposed prohibitions on certain foreign purchases of agricultural land and land near military bases.
In Congress, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D. and Rep. Elise Stefanik R-N.Y., have sponsored the “Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act,” or PASS Act. The act would bar North Koreans, Russians, Iranians or Chinese from buying farmland and ensures the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is fully involved in reviewing any foreign acquisition of American companies that may effect the U.S. agricultural sector.
The Texas bill to bar Chinese from buying land was introduced by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst.
“The growing ownership of Texas land by some foreign entities is highly disturbing and raises red flags for many Texans,” said Kolkhorst who was named one of the “Worst Legislators” in Texas by Texas Monthly magazine in 2017. “By comparison, as an American, go try to buy land near a Chinese military base and see how it works out for you. It would never happen there, and it shouldn’t happen here.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said he will sign the bill if it passes the Texas Legislature. The proposal would bar property purchases by people from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, including Green Card and visa holders, and asylum seekers. The laws would not apply to people who are already U.S. citizens.
The Texas plan hearkens back to the so-called Alien Land Laws, which were passed in numerous states between the 1880s and 1920s, barring Asian people from owning land. The California Alien Land Law was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in 1952 for violating the 14th Amendment.
In 2021, Abbott signed a law forbidding citizens or the governments of North Korea, Russia, Iran and China from having ownership or contracts connected to critical infrastructure.