Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and her husband, Chris Hu, exit federal court in Brooklyn after being arraigned on Tuesday. - Photo: Reuters
NEW YORK (SCMP): When Russell Jeung heard this week that a Chinese-American former aide to New York’s governor was indicted on charges of acting as an agent of Beijing, his spirits plunged. His concern matched that of others who feared the collateral damage: that this could stir a fresh wave of prejudice against the Asian-American Pacific Islander community.
“I’m crestfallen. I don’t know a better way to describe it. It’s what racial minorities feel when a stereotype gets realised,” said Jeung, an Asian American Studies professor at San Francisco State University and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate.
“Here’s another real-life example of an old ‘Yellow Peril’ stereotype. It then reinforces the broader society’s view of Chinese-Americans as suspects and as potential spies and as disloyal.”
On Tuesday, Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to Governor Kathy Hochul and an aide to former governor Andrew Cuomo before that, was charged with acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government and laundering millions of dollars.
Chris Hu, her husband and co-defendant, was charged with money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, prosecutors said.
The case is likely to have political and international fallout after Hochul called for the expulsion of China’s consul general, Huang Ping. The US State Department sought to play down Huang’s departure, calling it “the end of a regular scheduled rotation”.
As the news hit the front pages, AAPI members voiced apprehension of blowback.
The high-profile case follows years of their combating bigotry and demonisation fuelled by the US-China trade war, the Covid-19 outbreak and anti-immigration politicians ahead of the US presidential election in November.
“I fear that the case will play into stereotypes about Asians being perpetual foreigners and never truly American – the rationale for ‘Chinese Exclusion,’” said Gabriel Chin, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.
“After Covid, in the current world political situation, along with the anti-Chinese land laws popping up in various states, this could contribute to the rise in anti-Asian violence.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said her office had worked with the Justice Department on the case. - Photo: Reuters
Like others, Chin said that when he first heard the news he longed for it to be false.
“There have been other cases where there was smoke, but investigation proved there was no fire,” said Chin. “I hope this case turns out to be another where there are some apparently suspicious circumstances which ultimately have a non-criminal explanation.”
In one recent incident, the shooter in the attempted July assassination of former president Donald Trump was erroneously identified in a report as a Chinese man before it was altered soon after to say the gunman was “identified only as a white male”.
Asian-Americans said that there is often a prevalent mainstream belief, more so than with other ethnic groups, that Asians are monolithic – rather than a collection of diverse individuals, like other communities.
“I hope that the general public will not judge the Asian-American community based on the troubling behaviour of a small minority of people. Most Asian-Americans are patriotic and love America,” said Rana Siu Inboden, senior fellow at the Robert Strauss Centre for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, Austin.
“It is very disturbing to me as a Chinese-American to see other Asian-Americans acting as Chinese agents,” added Indoben, formerly with the US consulate in Shanghai. “I do worry that there is a potential that cases like these can cast a negative light.”
Sun, a naturalised US citizen born in China, is accused of shaping the messages that senior state officials received on issues of importance to Beijing; blocking Taiwanese government representatives from meeting with state officials; and obtaining New York State proclamations for Chinese officials without authorisation, prosecutors further alleged in the indictment.
The couple both pleaded not guilty, with Sun released on a US$1.5 million bond and Hu released on a US$500,000 bond.
Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, exiting US District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday after being charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China’s government. - Photo: Reuters
The indictment in the federal Eastern District of New York also identified four individuals in China’s New York consulate, including two “high-ranking” Chinese government officials, as working with Sun.
The Chinese embassy in Washington disputed the allegations. “The relevant report made malicious speculations and associations and is completely inconsistent with the facts,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu.
Chinese diplomats in the US, Liu said, “have never and will not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries”.
The Committee of 100, a Chinese-American civic group, said that it trusted the Sun-Hu legal case would produce a fair outcome.
“In the meantime,” it added in a statement, “we hope that this incident does not fuel more stereotyping of Chinese Americans, increase use of racist tropes or violence, or incite policies to ban those of Chinese heritage from obtaining jobs, purchasing land or being trusted members of American society.”
“Covering Chinese Americans with a blanket statement of fearmongering sets our country back.”
Chin expressed concern that the New York case and others could spur calls to renew projects like the China Initiative. That Justice Department programme, announced in 2018 by the Trump administration and led by the FBI, aimed to root out economic espionage and technological theft in academic and research circles.
The programme was officially disbanded in 2022, but critics said it fuelled discrimination, destroyed careers and caused long-lasting damage. In July, reportedly under investigation, the prominent Northwestern University neuroscientist Jane Wu took her own life.
“The reality is that people born overseas, and people born in the US but who are not white, have reason to fear that they will automatically be suspects,” said Chin. “We have to live our lives, but nevertheless should be careful.”
AAPI members added that Sun’s prominent former role at a time of record numbers of Asians elected to Congress – and even a presidential candidate – could dent the community’s political momentum.
“The attack on Asian American politicians, advisers, will decrease the political influence they have on the system, at the exact moment they need the system to be open to them,” said Chris Kwok, a facilitator with business arbitration network Jams Pathways. “All Asian-Americans will feel the backlash.”
Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, said the case “reinforces the broader society’s view of Chinese-Americans as suspects and as potential spies and as disloyal”. - Photo: Handout / SCMP
An Asian American Foundation survey of 6,272 respondents released in May found that 32 per cent of Asian-Americans reported having been called a slur and 41 per cent said they believed they were likely to be the victim of a physical attack in the next five years because of their race, ethnicity, or religion.
“Americans don’t think hatred toward Asian-Americans has increased, but Asian-Americans disagree,” the report concluded.
Asian-Americans said there is no panacea to change deeply entrenched views.
One suggested approach: greater cooperation between China and the US on global issues like climate change to reduce geopolitical tensions along with more business ties and people-to-people contact.
“It is our hope that the situation between the two governments does not negatively affect any privately owned business on either side of the Pacific,” said Michael Tindall, board chairman of the Asia Chamber of America.
Another approach, Jeung said, would better depict the diversity of Asian-Americans, rather than trying to shout down stereotypes by working to prove the opposite.
“We need to have lots of stories about us to counter the one story told about us,” he said.
“Rather than trying to say we’re not from the ‘model minority’, we’re dumb, you show a range.”
Still, changing deeply entrenched stereotypes is extremely difficult, Jeung noted, especially in the current context. “It helps politicians to make China the primary threat, for votes, budgets – the Department of Defence creates an enemy so they get more funding.”
Asian-Americans added that while plenty of other countries engage in espionage and influence operations, Beijing has not exactly helped its reputation. Polls show that roughly four of five Americans view China as the biggest US adversary.
This week’s case follows an indictment last month of Yuanjun Tang, 67, a naturalised US citizen who allegedly ran a pro-democracy civic group while providing intelligence on dissidents to China’s Ministry of State Security.
Earlier in August, a jury in New York convicted Wang Shujun, a naturalised US citizen from China, of leading a pro-democracy group while secretly working with Beijing intelligence officers to monitor dissidents.
In April 2023, the FBI also arrested two New York residents for allegedly operating a secret Chinese police station in Manhattan. - South China Morning Post
