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EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is the first in a bimonthly series featuring prominent Asian Americans. The lives of scientists and politicians usually don’t cross. Lately, they have become bedfellows, with current events being the matchmaker. Last year, it was Johnny Chung. Today, it is an American scientist of Chinese descent accused of giving secrets to China. Chinese American scientists working in our nation’s labs are concerned that this spy scandal is hurting their professional careers merely by their being of the same ancestry. Are they overreacting? I might think so, had I not myself lived through the Asian fundraising scandal. During my U.S. Senate campaign, a journalist asked whether I still felt loyalty to my ancestral homeland of China, and if there was a war, whose side would I chose? Usually, I try to ignore and just laugh off such insensitivity. But my blood was boiling. The question was asked in a serious and forthright manner. What if your son or daughter were applying to work for the journalist that interviewed me? As your child walked through the door, would the journalist be thinking that they were interviewing a foreigner or a U.S. citizen? Maybe it doesn’t matter at a newspaper, but it does matter if your “loyalties” are being questioned during an interview for a job or for a promotion at one of our nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories. Unfortunately, the strong words cast against the alleged Chinese American spy are carelessly thrown over the entire community. Chinese American scientists that I have spoken to now feel like outcasts who are looked upon with suspicion. If you sit with them and listen, their fear is genuine—and their promotions are truly uncertain. These scientists are not politicians like me, who purposefully put themselves in harm’s way to be kicked around in the political arena. They choose professions to focus on formulas, not foreign policy. During the Asian fundraising scandal, many in our own community decided that this was not a good time to participate in politics. Many felt that keeping a low profile was better. They believed that silence is golden. I fought this attitude of retreat. When the wind blows, we must stand tall. Lying down may be a Darwinian response to the emperor beheading those who stand tall. But in 21st century America, we must all stand tall. Fortunately, many activists have loudly voiced their concerns about the impact of this current spy case to the agency that owns the labs, the Department of Energy. At the recent Committee of 100 luncheon in New York City, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson pledged to not allow the alleged actions by one scientist to cast a dark shadow on all other Chinese Americans employed by the labs. I was convinced he was sincere. The solution to this racial profiling or stereotyping is becoming part of the everyday fabric of America. If we had as many mayors and legislators as Latinos or African Americans, the Asian fundraising scandal would not have been a major story. As part of the everyday fabric, there would be knowledge replacing suspicion, and there would be less, if any, suspicion about our loyalties. In a participative democracy, silence is not golden. Today, the paths of academics, scientists and politicians have crossed. We can no longer afford to lie down or let the winds blow over us. When President Bill Clinton failed to appoint former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien as his Secretary of Energy, we heard hardly a whimper from Asian American political leaders, activists or scientists. Too bad there is no second chance. Matt Fong is chairman of the Leadership America Foundation and the former state treasurer of California.
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