The Clinton ghosts that could haunt Asian
Americans
A
Hillary Clinton White House would be accompanied by a tense geopolitical
backdrop, especially when it comes to Sino-US relations
There could be a slew of
implications for Asian Americans — both positive and negative — if Hillary
Clinton wins the race for the White House.
With
polls showing the bulk of Asian American voters swinging to the Democrats this
year, their clout can only grow under a Clinton presidency.
At the
same time, the issue of political donations from the Asian American community
may again draw scrutiny if past scandals from the 1990s involving the
Democratic Party are any guide.
Republicans
and right-wing media, who have already spotlighted the issue of donations to
the Clinton Foundation in the current presidential campaign, can be expected to
make the most of any campaign finance improprieties involving Asian Americans.
Separately,
if Clinton becomes commander in chief, she faces a sizable rise in Sino-US
geopolitical tensions compared to two decades ago when her husband Bill
occupied the Oval Office. The Asia-Pacific region has also become a far more
complex game board where North Korea, the Philippines, Japan and other nations
are concerned.
The
intersection of these developments might prove problematic for both Clinton and
Asian Americans.
In 1996,
when China conducted missile tests in the waters surrounding Taiwan to
intimidate Taipei, then-President Bill Clinton forced Beijing to back down by
dispatching two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region. Today, a far more
militarily capable China is ignoring similar US shows of force in the South
China Sea.
The
likelihood of blowback on Asian Americans, especially Chinese, in the event of
future clashes between the US and China is more pronounced. This is because
some elements of the US population make no distinction between China, Chinese
and Chinese Americans.
As
Chinese American rights activist Helen Zia once commented: “Whenever US-China
relations get chilly, Chinese Americans get pneumonia.”
Wen Ho Lee case
An old
example of such “pneumonia” is 1999’s Wen Ho Lee spy case. Lee
was a Taiwanese American scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory who
was researching ways to improve the safety and reliability of the US nuclear
arsenal.
He was
indicted by a federal grand jury on 59 counts of stealing US nuclear secrets
for China. Federal prosecutors ultimately failed to prove their case against
Lee. In the end, he pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling restricted data.
Lee
eventually won a US$1.6 million settlement from the government and five media
organizations for leaking his name to the press before any formal charges had
been filed.
Both
President Clinton and a federal judge apologized to him in what amounted to a
tacit exoneration. But Lee lost his job and later charged that his Asian
ancestry was the chief factor in his prosecution by the government.
Lee’s
prosecution partly reflected a Clinton administration decision to heighten
so-called “ethnic tracking” or racial profiling of employees in sensitive
government posts. It was a response to concerns that China had escalated its
intelligence gathering in the US — especially with regard to stealing American
military secrets like the design of the W-88 nuclear warhead.
But the
fallout on Chinese Americans was noticeable. A 2001 national
survey taken in the aftermath of Lee’s case by the Committee of 100,
an influential Chinese American policy group, found that one out of four
Americans held “strong negative attitudes” toward Chinese Americans and that
32% felt that Chinese Americans were more loyal to China than the US.
With more
Chinese nationals or Chinese Americans figuring in US espionage or theft of
trade secrets cases, there’s a strong possibility of ripple effects on Chinese
Americans regardless of whether it’s Clinton or Trump who wins the November 8
election.
Escalating
nuclear brinkmanship by Pyongyang, a testy new Philippines president,
India-Pakistan tensions and other developments might likewise impact other Asian
ethnic groups in unknown ways.
Ghost of Asiagate
The
“Asiagate” or 1996 campaign finance controversy erupted after the Justice
Department uncovered evidence that individuals representing mainland China
tried to funnel donations to the Democratic National Committee ahead of that
year’s presidential election.
Some called
it a baldfaced attempt by the PRC to curry favor with US politicians ahead of
Bill Clinton’s re-election in 1996. Beijing allegedly devised the strategy
after some members of Congress successfully lobbied Clinton to grant
then-Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui a visa to visit the US. China denied the
allegations.
The Asian
American businessmen prosecuted and fined for violating campaign finance laws
in the scandal included Yah-Lin “Charlie” Trie, Johnny Chung, John Huang and
James Riady, the son of the owner of Indonesia’s Lippo Group.
US Secret
Service logs say Huang visited the White House 78 times while working as a
Democratic National Committee fundraiser.
The flap
surrounding Asiagate is said to have dissuaded Bill Clinton from appointing
more Asian Americans to key government posts in his second term — though some
of the incidents publicized appear to have been nothing more than expensive
White House photo opportunities for well-heeled Asian donors.
Ironically,
such past charges of Chinese political interference seem benign in comparison
to recent accusations that China hacked the databases of US government agencies
and US corporations in aggressive acts of state-sponsored espionage.
The issue
of foreign meddling in US politics has also taken an exponential leap with
recent allegations that Russia hacked the email servers of the Democratic
National Committee to divulge information that would harm Clinton’s candidacy.
One can
only wonder what the future holds for a Clinton White House, Asian Americans
and Sino-US relations against such a tense geopolitical backdrop.
Doug
Tsuruoka is an Asia Times editor at large
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