How do we navigate competition, conflict, and the American dream? By Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
“Why is everyone freaking out because I’m a Chinese balloon. Because where I’m from, I’m just a balloon,” said comedian Bowen Yang on Saturday Night Live, dressed as a white balloon, wearing glamorous long white gloves, bobbing in the ocean waves. As the rhetoric, anxiety, and fear of Chinese spy balloons and other unidentified objects in our country’s airspace swirl around us, I keep going back to the humor of Bowen Yang to keep myself grounded. He jokes that although people say they are concerned about being surveilled, they won’t unplug their Alexa, they keep their bank passwords in their Notes app, and they mail their DNA to a company just to find out if they are 10 percent French. “But je suis just a balloon.” When PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff asked President Joe Biden if U.S.-China relations have taken a big hit lately with recent fears and anti-Chinese rhetoric, Biden said, “No. ... I know, I talked to him.” “I made it real clear to Xi Jinping that we're going to compete fully with China, but we're not looking for conflict,” Biden said. “I called him this summer to say this is not a threat, just an observation: look what's happened to Russia. Six hundred American corporations have pulled out of Russia. From McDonald's to Exxon. And I said, you've told me all along that the reason why you need a relationship with the United States and Europe is so they invest in China. So who's going to invest in China if you engage in the same kind of deal? You notice there's not been much going on there.” In contrast, there are at least 11 state legislatures who are considering measures to limit land ownership by foreign nationals and foreign entities, including Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, Utah, and Texas. One particularly restrictive bill being considered in Texas would prohibit land and property ownership by foreign nationals and foreign entities from the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. “What alarms us is the impact of anti-China fearmongering on Chinese immigrant communities and the erection of unfair barriers to their pursuit of the American Dream solely because of their country of origin,” said the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus’ (CAPAC) leadership team in a joint statement. “We urge our colleagues to be mindful of using rhetoric or writing legislation that would further discriminate against our community members. As our nation’s leaders navigate the increasingly complex U.S.-China relationship globally, we encourage nuance and clarity to ensure the rights of our communities domestically are not collateral damage.” For Asian Americans, such legislation is a stark reminder of alien land laws from the 1800s that prevented Asian immigrants — who were also not allowed to become citizens at the time — from owning land. On this Day of Remembrance, the 81st anniversary of FDR’s Executive Order 9066 that incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, Asian Americans across the country not only remembered, but also educated, forged alliances, created art, and protested — asserting our place in this country and leading the way for others. And to make sure, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) recently re-introduced the Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act to protect all Americans against arbitrary imprisonment or detention without due process solely on the basis of race, religion, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability. Named in honor of Fred Korematsu and late U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, this bill would make sure what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II never happens to anyone again. |
