California Japantowns Threatened: New bill to preserve neighborhoods (in Bay Area News) International Showdown: Selling arms to Taiwan (in Business) Pavilion of Women: Big-screen adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's novel (in A&E) Voices from the Community: Vietnamese Father Answers his American Son (in Opinion)

Committee of 100 Conference

National survey of attitudes toward Asian Americans gets heavy attention

By Sam Chu Lin

The Committee of 100 aims to bring the Chinese American perspective to the mainstream. With the release of their survey on attitudes toward Asian Americans, it’s apparent they have their work cut out for them.

Among those surveyed, the study found: 25 percent indicated strong negative attitudes and stereotypes of Asian Americans, 24 percent disapproved of intermarriage with APIs, and 23 percent said they would feel uncomfortable voting for an Asian American presidential candidate.

The survey was topic No. 1 during the organization’s annual national convention held last week in Washington, D.C. Many participants agreed that long-held suspicions and negative feelings about the API community continue — and may even be on the rise.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said to attendees: “The myth of the perpetual foreigner is alive and well.”

“The experiences of Japanese Americans during the second World War, the so-called Oriental exclusion acts of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, and the alien land laws,” he said, “were all based on the belief that we as Americans of Asian Pacific ancestry are so different that we can never be fully American.”

Despite the advances made by API communities, many prejudices have yet to be erased. Mineta said he was shocked to learn that 46 percent of those polled by the Committee of 100 survey, believe that Americans of Chinese ancestry would readily pass on information to the Chinese government.

With the release of this new poll, Mineta warned, “no single ethnic group within our community can afford to sit on the sidelines in this fight. Very few non-Asian Americans make the distinction between the dozens of ethnic groups within our community, and that comes as no surprise.”

Also on hand was Congressman Bob Matsui, D-Sacramento. Matsui credited the Committee of 100 for playing a pivotal role in “clearing the name of Dr. Wen Ho Lee,” who was released from jail on one count of mishandling classified information, after being charged with 59 counts of breaching national security — and being branded a spy for China by mainstream media.

“It was only because you had the courage and were willing stand up and take a risk and put yourself out there, he is now a free person without a blemish of being a spy,” he said.

Matsui also took aim at the U.S. government’s Cox Report completed in 1999, which, he said, concluded that “Chinese espionage had, in fact, occurred.”

But he pointed out that Stanford University’s Center for International Security did an independent study and reviewed the Cox Commission Report, and found “there is no credible evidence presented or incidence described of actual theft of U.S. missile technology,” Matsui said. “I would have to say I would rely on scientists at Stanford University before I would rely upon some of my colleagues and their staffs on Capitol Hill.”

Matsui noted that the Cox Report, named for Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Newport Beach, is still an official document of the United States and quoted today. Although Lee’s name is not mentioned in the report, Matsui credited it for creating an atmosphere that led to the indictment of the former Los Alamos scientist.

While fighting back tears, he added: “As someone who was incarcerated when he was six months old by his own government, with my mother and father, with the allegation of being potentially an enemy alien hanging over you, that’s something no human being should have to bear. When Norman Mineta and I and our families were incarcerated in 1942, nobody stood up … You did something extraordinary. You stood up, and you proved to the American public, Dr. Wen Ho Lee was a loyal American citizen.”

Committee of 100 member George Koo pointed out that Cox, who is responsible for the China espionage report, is being considered for a judicial post in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He said that Cox should repudiate the report or face a possible grassroots effort to derail his nomination.

On a brighter note, the Committee of 100 announced this year’s C-100 Headliner Journalism award winner, CBS correspondent Mike Wallace. The co-editor of 60 Minutes was recognized for his exclusive interview with Wen Ho Lee and for “helping to define his case in a more objective way.” Wallace said he was “pleased in accepting the award.”

Attendees also celebrated I.M. Pei’s birthday. During a dinner, Chairwoman Anna Chennault called on all of the guests to stand and sing “Happy Birthday” to the famous architect. Afterward, Pei stepped up to the podium and introduced a video featuring the contributions and accomplishments of former U.C. Berkeley Chancellor Chang-lin Tien, one of the group’s founding members.

Yahoo’s co-founder Jerry Yang praised Tien for being one of his mentors.

“Chancellor Tien has truly been a role model,” Yang said. “He has always told me to think about my personal life as a way of giving back to the community and to the society.”

Cellist Yo Yo Ma, also a committee member, expressed his appreciation for Tien by recounting how the chancellor took the time in his busy schedule to see him, and served as his translator on a visit to China. In a show of gratitude, Ma performed a Bach selection for the ailing Tien, who is at home recovering from brain surgery.

At the conclusion of the presentation, the audience, many with tears in their eyes, stood up and applauded. Tien’s son, Norman, a U.C. Davis professor, accepted the Committee’s Inspiration Award, and told everyone his father’s condition is improving and he would be most appreciative of the honor.

Keynote speaker Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor and the first Asian American woman in a president’s cabinet, told the audience: “Asian Americans are playing a more public and influential role than ever before … Where we find ourselves today is the result of individuals and organizations that saw, as their patriotic duty to the nation that they love, to enter the public arena, to serve, to speak out, and to make a difference for our country.”