STATEMENT FROM COMMITTEE OF 100
Recent news has put two distinct phenomena in the public eye simultaneously: documented cases of individuals acting as illegal agents of China, and accusations against Chinese American public officials that rely on ethnic stereotypes rather than evidence. Conflating the two does not make Americans safer. It makes the work of identifying genuine threats harder.
Committee of 100 condemns foreign influence operations by China or other nations targeting American institutions. When individuals participate in those efforts, they betray the public trust. Prosecuting such conduct is legitimate and necessary.
The distinction matters for our community. Chinese Americans hold a wide range of views on U.S.-China relations, on Taiwan, on trade, on immigration. Expressing those views, even forcefully, is protected speech. We encourage every member of our community to exercise it. What the law prohibits is something else entirely. Acting covertly at the direction of a foreign government, without disclosure, is not an expression of opinion. It is a betrayal of public trust. Opinions are not espionage. Undisclosed foreign agency is.
We also condemn baseless accusations and reprehensible behavior targeting Chinese American leaders, such as the recent attacks directed at Maryland state Delegate Chao Wu. Questioning the loyalty of an elected official based on ethnicity or national origin, without credible evidence, is not a security measure. It is bigotry. Every American public servant deserves the same presumption of loyalty, regardless of where they were born.
False accusations harm both the accused and the country. Between 2018 and 2022, the Justice Department’s China Initiative prosecuted dozens of researchers and academics, the majority of them Chinese or Chinese American, on charges of failing to disclose ties to Chinese institutions. The program was shut down after a review found it produced a high rate of failed prosecutions and drove talent out of American universities and laboratories. It followed a longer pattern, from the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Alien Land Laws to the prosecution of Wen Ho Lee, of treating Chinese Americans as suspects first and citizens second.
Committee of 100 calls on journalists and public officials to apply the same evidentiary standards to accusations involving Chinese Americans that they would apply to anyone else. Name what is documented. Distinguish it from what is alleged. And resist the political pressure to let one serve as proof of the other.
