Community Action Alert!
Voice Your Concern with FBI Director Wray’s Remarks on Chinese Students, Scientists and Professors as National Security Threat
Many in Asian American communities, particularly Chinese Americans, are shocked and concerned to hear high-ranking U.S. officials characterize students, professors and scientists of Chinese origin as potential national security threats in a recent Senate hearing. This broad characterization targeting people by national origin is against the American values and federal laws. It exacerbates the bias against all Chinese Americans because an average American in general cannot tell the difference between Chinese foreign students and scholars and U.S. citizens of Chinese descent.
Spurred by the community’s broad concerns, OCAA helped coordinated an effort by the leaders of 14 national organizations in writing a letter on March 1st to FBI Director with a request for a meeting. Given that several Chinese American scientists in recent years have been mistakenly targeted for prosecution of espionage-related charges, these organizations seek to create an ongoing dialogue with the FBI to foster better communications and mutual understanding between these communities and the FBI. Now is your turn.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
- Sign up on here to register your concern, and support the organizations’ efforts to create a dialogue with the FBI Director.
- Contact your House Representatives and Senators. Find their contact info here. See below for sample language for a phone call or letter.
- Share this action alert with your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
Download the PDF file of the Community Alert here: English, Chinese（中文）.
Sample Language for Phone Call or Letter
I am a constituent from [City, State]. I am calling to express my concerns about the FBI Director’s remarks during a recent Senate hearing. He made a blanket statement that characterized all Chinese students, professors and scientists as potential spies. By making such statements, he is approving law enforcement to target people based on their ethnic background and national origin, not on their actions. This is against the American principles and values. I know examples of innocent Chinese Americans being wrongfully accused as spies and caused severe damage to their life and family. I’d like to ask my congressman/senator to
- Call on the FBI Director to clarify his statement, and reaffirm that the FBI will not engage in profiling based on national origin or ethnicity.
- Encourage the FBI Director to speak to the coalition of national organizations that sent him a letter on March 1 calling for a dialogue between the FBI and the Asian American community.
- Assure the voters in [your congressional district or state] that the congressman/senator will not tolerate broad profiling based on a person’s ethnic identity or national origin.
Background reading
“The Chinese Student Threat?” Inside Higher Ed, February 15, 2018
Committee of 100 Denounces Broad Brush Stereotyping and Targeting of Chinese Students and Academics (English | Chinese | PR Newswire)
UCA Statement on Senator Marco Rubio’s and FBI Director Chris Wray