Committee of 100 National covention held in L.A.
By Sam Chu Lin

Five hundred people were on hand May 4-7 as the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese Americans from across the country, staged its 11th anniversary conference in Los Angeles. The event brought together an impressive list of API luminaries in politics, business, media and arts.

“Your success in corporate and high-tech America, your leadership in politics, the arts, communications, literature, confirms the latest remarkable chapter of the Chinese experience in America,” said Bill Moyers, television journalist and anchor for PBS. Moyers also announced that he is launching the production of a new four-part television series on Chinese Americans, a story “not only of terror and tragedy but of triumph, too,” he said.

The case of Wen Ho Lee represents one of those times of tragedy for many Asian Americans. At a panel discussion Los Angeles Times newspaper columnist Bob Scheer blasted the Clinton administration for its handling of the case and chastised the media, particularly the New York Times, for “failing to use the best journalistic standards to cover the story.”

Panel moderator Nelson Dong, who has served as a prosecutor, and Laura Hong, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, dramatized transcripts of an FBI interrogation of the fired Los Alamos scientist. The presentation left people stunned.

“I thought I knew a lot about the Wen Ho Lee case, but I’ve learned a lot more here,” said Matt Fong. “We have to wonder if Wen Ho Lee is getting due process of law.”

This year’s Headliner’s Award went to ABC Nightline Producer Mary Claude Foster and to ABC Correspondent John Donvan, for their June 28, 1999 broadcast of Asian American, When Your Neighbor Looks Like the Enemy. Donvan, in his acceptance speech, admitted he initially tried to kill the story because he believed Asian Americans were simply over reacting to the John Huang campaign fund-raising scandal and the arrest of Wen Ho Lee.

“It took a long time, but my vision is permanently improved about the Asian American experience,” he said.

The event also served as a campaign stop for two political candidates. Fong, conference chair of the conference, helped organize a meeting between GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush and a group of Committee of 100 members. At the meeting, Bush reassured the members that he supports WTO status for China.

“He was very straight forward in talking about China,” said David Chu, president and CEO of Nautica International, Inc. “He understands it is important for China to have a role in the WTO to improve China’s economy and its political situation.”

State assemblyman Mike Honda (D-San Jose), who is running for a congressional seat, was also in attendance. At a private dinner, he told committee members he would be a champion for Asian American issues and WTO status for China if elected.