Public figures' remarks about Asians stoke anger in US

Recent comments by political and academic figures in the United States have sparked outrage as they were made amid rising anti-Asian violence in the country.

Mike Huckabee, who was Arkansas' governor from 1996 to 2007, in mocking some US corporations' criticism of changes to voting regulations in Georgia and Major League Baseball's subsequent decision to pull its annual All-Star Game from Atlanta, tweeted Saturday: "I've decided to 'identify' as Chinese. Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my 'values' and I'll probably get shoes from Nike & tickets to @MLB games. Ain't America great?"

Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California accused Huckabee of "adding fuel to anti-Asian hate".

Lieu tweeted that "Coke likes me, Delta agrees with my values, I wear Nikes and my hometown (Los Angeles) Dodgers won the World Series. But it's not because of my ethnicity."

Lieu asked Huckabee's daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders－who served as former president Donald Trump's press secretary and now is running for governor of Arkansas－if she agrees with her father.

"Do you condone Mike Huckabee adding fuel to anti-Asian hate?" Lieu tweeted.

Investigative journalist Victoria Brownworth tweeted: "Six Asian American women were massacred on March 16. Last weekend, an Asian woman your age was beaten and kicked in NYC and is still in hospital with broken bones and a concussion. Every day Asian/AAPI people are victimized by hate crimes."

AAPI stands for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Beth Moore, founder of Living Proof Ministries in Houston, called the comments by Huckabee, who is a Baptist minister, "antithetical to the gospel".

In Texas, a Republican congressional candidate recently made anti-Chinese remarks. On a question about US immigration issues at a GOP forum in Arlington, Sery Kim said she would oppose Chinese immigration.

"I don't want them here at all. They steal our intellectual property, they give us coronavirus, they don't hold themselves accountable. And quite frankly, I can say that because I'm Korean," Kim added.

Kim's comments were condemned by Asian American advocacy groups, and she lost two prominent endorsements from Young Kim and Michelle Steel, two Republican Korean American members of the US Congress.

In a statement rescinding their endorsements, the two lawmakers said they have spoken with Sery Kim "about her hurtful and untrue comments about Chinese immigrants and made clear that her comments were unacceptable".

"We urged her to apologize and clarify her remarks, especially as hate against the AAPI community is on the rise," the congresswomen said. "However, she has not publicly shown remorse, and her words were contrary to what we stand for."

In academia, the Faculty Senate at Cornell University, after months of debate, rejected a resolution on a proposed dual-degree program between its School of Hotel Administration and China's Peking University.

Mainly citing Western "allegations of genocide and other human rights violations against China", opponents of the program voted against the academic partnership on March 31.

Although the Chinese government, many Western civic groups and individual journalists have rebutted the campaign launched against China, in particular its handling of affairs in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, information contrary to the allegations is not being considered.

junechang@chinadailyusa.com