Will WE Allow These Bad Deeds to Recur?
Sherry Chen was arrested for stealing government secrets. She was handcuffed, and paraded before her colleagues. The media reported her arrest as a spy far and wide. Then her case was dropped for the lack of evidence by our government, without apology and/or compensation for damages to her career, reputation, and psychological health. Her misfortune inspired a well-read NY Times article: "Accused for Spying for China, until she Wasn't."
Recently, Prof. Xi, Chair of Physics Dept., Temple Univ. was arrested for stealing corporate secrets. He emailed a sophisticated schematics of equipment to his colleagues in China, which the government suspected to be related to superconductor search called "pocket heater". He was handcuffed, led to the door past his wife and two daughters.
However, the government's damning evidence against Xi turned out to be the damning evidence against the government. Even the inventor of "pocket heater" technology testified that the schematics was not related to "pocket heater." The case was dropped, without apology and/or compensation for damages to his career, reputation, and psychological health. The government didn't practice "due diligence" - consulting an expert on "pocket heater" before making the accusation and arrest. Click here for a NYT article.
Beware this could happen to any Asian Americans, particular Chinese Ams.
Your neck is in it!
What could be causes of such bad deeds against us?
Three possible causes.
(1) Government incompetence. Due diligence was not practiced.
(2) Intentional government abuse of power. The Justice Dept. could be intentionally adopting an intimidation tactics in order to produce a chilling
effect against ALL persons of Chinese/Asian descent in order to stop
real or imagined pervasive stealing of government and corporate secrets.
President Obama was possibly at fault for urging aggressive espionage
investigations and prosecutions, without demanding "due diligence."
(3) A combination of (1) and (2).
How to Stop such Improper Government Practices
[a] If those arrests were attempts to induce Asian/Chinese Ams to distancefrom our respective "old countries" thereby limiting our rights, 80-20
President S. B. Woo had already written Attorney General Lynch,
since 2 months ago, to investigate it. Woo stated that the
"Asian Ams have the complete freedom to communicate, visit with, and
help people of our restive "old countries," He asked AG Lynch to advise, if
otherwise. DOJ replied that it'll "review and reply within 60 business days"
if it doesn't agree with Woo's statement.
The letter together with Woo's earlier inquiry regarding Sherry Chen, asking
if race was an element in the prosecution of Sherry Chen have started
thousand of interviews within DOJ, according to a reliable government
source. 80-20 viewed these reported interviews as a good sign. It might
even have indirectly cause the dropping of the case against Prof Xi.
[b] 80-20 is considering starting a White House petition. It'll respectfully
request President Obama to instruct DOJ to practice "due diligence and
procedure" while aggressively investigating and prosecuting
possible espionage cases. In addition, we respectfully request that he will
instruct DOJ to apologize and compensate the victims of careless
investigations." We are certain that we'll get 100,000 signatures.
Indeed, this will be a petition that President Obama shall answer, unlike
previous ones.
[c] Donate to SELF so as to keep 80-20 alive. It is sooooo clear that our
community needs 80-20 political know how to protect our rights under
toddy's circumstances..
Click here to donate today. The clock is ticking! Together, we shall overcome.
S.B. Woo, a volunteer for the last 16 years,
President, 80-20 National Asian American Initiative
www.80-20initiative.net and www.80-20EF.org 80-20 Mission Statement
80-20's Top 10 Accomplishment, published 3 years ago.