| | | | | Dear Friends, On July 4, we celebrated our country’s 250th birthday. While many of us enjoyed parades, fireworks, and gatherings with family and friends, in the backdrop we are living in a tumultuous time shaped by wars, geopolitical tensions, rapid advances in AI, and heated debates over immigration. These forces directly affect Asian Americans and the future of U.S.-China relations, making our mission at the 1990 Institute more urgent than ever. America has weathered turbulent eras before. Fifty years ago, the 1976 Bicentennial arrived amid high inflation, record unemployment, and political distrust after Watergate. Yet, after the civil rights movement and the reckoning of the Vietnam War, we garnered a renewed sense of patriotism. We looked honestly at our past and recommitted to our shared values. Today, we face a similar inflection point. Headlines about U.S.-China competition, anti‑Asian hate, and global instability can make the world feel divided, but they also remind us why bridge‑building matters. Recent events underscore this. We applaud the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in upholding birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. United States v. Wong Kim Ark remains a vital safeguard against attempts to alter or restrict U.S. citizenship rules and serves as a powerful reminder of how Asian Americans have long shaped our nation’s history. As public discourse around China grows more polarized, we also need to give our youth safe spaces to learn, question thoughtfully, and lead with experience. At the 1990 Institute, we believe that America’s strength comes from its ability to evolve, include, and empower. Our work in fostering constructive U.S.-China dialogue and uplifting the next generation of Asian Americans helps ensure that our nation’s “great experiment” continues to thrive. Happy 250th Birthday, America. May we keep striving toward a future where every young person feels they truly belong and can make a meaningful impact. Join us in supporting our programs and our next generation. Stay connected with us by subscribing to our mailing lists and exploring past newsletter issues. Victor Young
1990 Institute Board Chair |
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| | | | ROOTS & WINGS YOUTH SYMPOSIUM ON SEPTEMBER 19 — Join us at the College of San Mateo — 👉Register Now! - WHY WE CREATED DUAL TRACKS FOR YOUTH — In a rapidly changing world, parents/guardians, educators, and students all face tremendous pressure to prioritize academic achievement. When youth step into the real world, they are frequently overwhelmed by the everyday realities of independence and emotional pressure. To bridge this gap, this year’s symposium features dual tracks for youth: Career Pathfinder Conversations and Life Skills Workshops, representing two halves of a whole, successful adult. We cannot give our youth “wings" to fly into their careers without also giving them “roots" to sustain themselves when they get there. At our symposium, they will walk away with tangible tools to become resilient, healthy, and complete human beings.
- MOVING BEYOND LECTURES: INTERACTIVE & ACTIONABLE — Young people usually don’t change their lives after just sitting and listening; they learn by engaging. Both tracks are built to be highly interactive, hands-on experiences.
- Career Pathfinder Conversations: Structured as an interactive, live dialogue, not a one-sided presentation. Participants will actively engage, ask raw questions, and directly converse with industry professionals about their journeys.
- Life Skills: Focuses on survival and stability. Success includes managing stress, understanding a strong financial mindset, communicating boundaries, and taking care of mental health. Through interactive scenarios and group exercises, youth will practice real-world coping mechanisms and life strategies that can keep them grounded when life gets chaotic.
- ⭐🎟️ Bonus giveaway: Youth registrants who register by July 31 may be eligible to receive two tickets to the San Francisco Giants game at Oracle Park on September 21. (Tickets will be distributed at the end of the symposium and you must be present to claim.) 👉 Sign up today.
- Sponsorship and support: If you are able to make a charitable donation of any amount, we would be deeply grateful. Contact us at [email protected] for information on becoming a sponsor and we’ll include your or your organization's name.
WINNING ESSAYS IN THE 2026 CHINA FOCUS COLLEGE ESSAY CONTEST — We congratulate the students who earned prizes from the China Focus Essay Contest, presented in collaboration with UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and 21st China Center, the 1990 Institute, and the Carter Center. Visit our website to read the full essays. - 1990 Institute Prize — Quinn Ennis, Yale University — “The Governance Vacuum Beneath the Lithium Triangle”
Summary: The Lithium Triangle of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile holds the majority of known lithium reserves in the world. Though Chinese and U.S. firms have spent billions of dollars to secure their individual lithium extraction networks, this money has flowed into a governance vacuum. There is no binding multilateral standard that governs the terms of critical mineral finance. This essay proposes a Critical Minerals Project Finance Standard to be backed by existing U.S.-linked institutions and adopted by producer governments as a condition of accessing multilateral capital. As designed, such a standard would apply symmetrically to all investors, rewarding legible and rules-based competition.
- Jimmy Carter Prize — Patrick Luczak and Abraham Wu, UC San Diego, School of Global Policy and Strategy — “Narrow but Not Peripheral: Submarine Cables and U.S.–China Guardrails”
Summary: Most of digital life feels instant and wireless. Messages move, video calls connect, and AI answers arrive in seconds. But much of that traffic still depends on physical submarine cables running across the ocean floor. As U.S.-China competition advances deeper into infrastructure, these cables have become more than technical systems, raising questions of security and strategic leverage. This essay argues that submarine cables reveal a practical problem at the center of today’s rivalry. Submarine cables show how strategic stability may have to work in practice: not through trust, but through rules that survive mistrust.
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| | ASIAN AMERICAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER (AAPI) NEWS Great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark praises Supreme Court ruling affirming birthright citizenship | PBS News - The great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark, the Chinese American at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case that established the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, called the ruling a victory for all Americans.
- Learn more about Wong Kim Ark on New Asian American Voices and in our YouTube Short.
How AAPI adults are being affected by Trump's immigration crackdown, according to a new poll | AP News - Many AAPI adults have experienced or witnessed some degree of upheaval because of heightened immigration policies, an AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll finds, while most say the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity for immigrants.
California to institute Bruce Lee Day, a first for a Chinese American in the state’s history | NBC News - Born in San Francisco, Bruce Lee will become the first Chinese American in California history with an annual namesake day — May 17. Asian American organizations hope Lee will be celebrated with voluntary commemorative activities such as cultural exhibits, public events, and classroom lessons.
- Hear about Bruce Lee’s impact in our video: “The Master of Influence with Si-Fu Bruce Lee.”
California cuts Stop the Hate funding, leaving future in doubt | AsAmNews - California’s Stop the Hate program, created to combat racial hate amid the pandemic-era rise in anti-Asian hate, will receive $30 million in the state’s newly signed budget — well below the $100 million advocates originally requested. Since 2021, Stop the Hate has built a social safety net of 180 community-based organizations, assisting millions of Californians.
Don’t Be A “Solo Superhero,” Jonny Kim Tells Harvard Alumni | Harvard Magazine - “The greatest gift this amazing institution has given me is not my medical education or the prestige that follows. It is that the people at Harvard helped pull me out of the darkness and into the light and did it through something I had long considered a weakness: empathy.” — Jonny Kim, NASA astronaut, physician, U.S. naval officer, former Navy SEAL, and self-described son of immigrants.
- Join conversations on mental health at our upcoming Youth Symposium on September 19.
U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS & CHINA NEWS Essay: Beyond Politics: A China-Born Journalist’s American Story | Wall Street Journal - “America has changed since I arrived. So has China. So has the relationship between them. The door that once opened to me is no longer wide open.”
- By Lingling Wei, chief China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal
"China Initiative 2.0”: U.S. crackdown on Chinese scholars intensifies | South China Morning Post - Immigration lawyers and activists claim the Trump Administration has ramped up its targeting of Chinese scientists and researchers in the U.S.
American AI Companies Say Chinese Copycats Are Quickly Catching Up | New York Times - U.S. companies complain that competitors in China are unfairly copying their artificial intelligence systems using distillation, a technique that has been around for years.
Opinion: To understand Chinese culture, you have to separate the “source code” from the “operating system” | joelwong.net - While the operating system — how people dress, work, trade, and organize their daily lives — has undergone some of the most radical rewrites in human history, the source code — the foundational assumptions about how the universe, society, and human relationships work — has remained remarkably untouched for thousands of years in China.
China failed to qualify for the World Cup, so soccer-loving fans are cheering for a referee instead | NBC News - China has not qualified for the men’s World Cup since 2002, but soccer remains deeply popular. Fans have rallied behind Chinese referee Ma Ning, known as “Card Master,” one of 52 referees picked for the tournament.
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| | THE ASIAN AMERICAN FOUNDATION (TAAF) — New series on YouTube COMMISSION TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL CREATION OF A NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE — Online sessions are open to the public - Established by Congress in June 2022, this commission is charged with delivering a comprehensive plan of action that will lay the groundwork for Congressional authorization of a national museum dedicated to honoring the achievements, progress, and lasting impact of AAPIs.
- Check out the list of upcoming virtual sessions to learn more about the Commission’s work and share your input. A session specifically for students and youth is on July 30.
INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES - U.S.-CHINA EDUCATION TRUST (USCET) — Students passionate about advancing U.S.-China relations and cross-cultural dialogue can gain hands-on experience in this Fall 2026 internship working in a fast-paced, dynamic nonprofit environment dedicated to fostering mutual understanding between the U.S. and China.
- ASIA SOCIETY —The Center for China Analysis (CCA), part of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), has a domestic politics pillar that is recruiting an intern for the 2026-2027 academic year who can provide research on China’s elite politics, national policymaking, and the domestic-foreign policy nexus.
- CONFERENCE ON ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN LEADERSHIP (CAPAL) — The Public Service Internship Program will place undergraduate and graduate students within the public sector in the Washington, DC, area and throughout the U.S. in internships for Summer and Fall 2026. All eligible applicants will be considered for a scholarship.
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| | Dim Sum - A Little Bit of Heart |
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| | | | 1990 Institute
P.O. Box 383 | San Francisco, California 94104
[email protected] www.1990institute.org Copyright 2026 The 1990 Institute. All rights reserved. |
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