Thread: Chinese-American Activists Oppose Richardson Cabinet Post

Chinese-American activists oppose any Bill Richardson cabinet nomination

By Ken McLaughlin
Mercury News
Posted: 12/02/2008 07:25:29 PM PST

Dec 3:Obama tabs Richardson, a Hispanic, for Commerce

In a move bound to create political tension between Latinos and Asian-Americans, a group of Chinese-American activists in Silicon Valley has launched a nationwide grass-roots movement to fight President-elect Barack Obama's nomination today of Bill Richardson as commerce secretary.

The group is upset at the New Mexico governor for his handling of the nearly decade-old case of Taiwanese-American Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. officials once suspected Lee of giving nuclear secrets to China when Richardson was President Clinton's energy secretary.

The Chinese-Americans say they realize that challenging the nomination of Richardson, 61, the nation's most high-profile Hispanic politician, will ruffle the Latino community, many of whose leaders felt he should have been named secretary of state instead of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

But the Chinese-American group insists that Richardson's refusal to acknowledge making serious errors in the case makes it a moral imperative to oppose his nomination to Obama's Cabinet. They say their criticism of Richardson has nothing to do with him being Latino but everything to do with his lack of judgment in the case.

"This was the major Chinese-American civil rights case in the last 30 years,'' said Albert Wang, a Fremont physician. "And there was a feeling among many Chinese-Americans, particularly in Silicon Valley, that Bill Richardson did a lot to promote the notion that all Chinese-Americans are potential spies.''

The group has already gathered more than 4,000 electronic signatures protesting Richardson's nomination as head of the federal department dealing with business and industry.

A former congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richardson ran for president against Obama in the Democratic primary and later endorsed him over Sen. Clinton. He has acknowledged the government made "some mistakes'' in the Lee case, but he has denied that his public statements naming Lee as an espionage suspect represented racial scapegoating or exhibited a lack of judgment.

But Roger Hu, a 30-year-old Silicon Valley engineer who was raised in Los Altos and was an Obama delegate at the Democratic convention, has written an "open letter'' to Obama and the transition team stating that Richardson should not be nominated or confirmed for any Cabinet-level position.

In the letter, which appears on his blog at http:/ notorich.blogspot.com, Hu says he became aware of the Lee case when he was entering his senior year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Richardson's actions were simply inexcusable,'' he writes.

Hu, Wang and well-known Chinese-American human rights activists such as Henry Der plan to say in a new letter to Obama today (edit) that Richardson's actions violated Lee's due process rights by firing him without the required legal notice. It will also accuse Richardson of promoting Lee's indictment when there was no evidence that he had engaged in espionage.

Until Richardson apologizes for his actions, the group says, it will continue to oppose the nomination.

Der accused Richardson of fueling suspicions about the loyalties of dedicated, hardworking Chinese-Americans.

"Wen Ho Lee bore the brunt of Richardson's actions, but there were many Chinese-American scientists who felt great fear,'' said Der, who once headed Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco. "Even I got a visit from the FBI, and I'm not a scientist.''

Caitlin Kelleher, press spokeswoman for Gov. Richardson, referred calls on Tuesday to Obama's transition office. A spokesman there would not comment on anyone not yet officially nominated.

Victor Garza, chairman of La Raza Roundtable, a San Jose-based civil rights group with about 800 members, said Richardson "is one of the most high-profile Hispanics in the United States who has done an excellent job in many high-profile jobs.''

Noting that his group has endorsed many Asian-Americans running for local offices, Garza said he hopes "my brothers and sisters who happen to be Chinese don't allow their resentment'' over Richardson's handling of the Lee case "to become a single issue'' that could threaten his nomination.

"And I hope this single issue won't create a major problem between the two groups,'' Garza said.

Lee, now 68, was indicted on Dec. 10, 1999, on 59 counts that accused him of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets. His arrest followed months of press reports and speculation that he had passed secrets to China — something with which he was never charged and always denied. He spent the next nine months in solitary confinement at the Santa Fe County Jail.

Supporters claimed Lee, who was born in Taiwan and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was being targeted because of his race. The government denied that, although former Los Alamos counterintelligence chief Robert Vrooman says Lee was singled out because he is ethnic Chinese.

Initially, government attorneys said Lee had stolen the "crown jewels" of U.S. nuclear weaponry science and intended to turn them over to a foreign power. But the government was eventually forced to acknowledge that the material was classified "restricted" rather than secret and that "99 percent" of the material was already available to the public.

Lee eventually pleaded guilty to one felony count of downloading sensitive material and was sentenced to time served.

Some political analysts see the dust-up as one of the opening salvos in an evolving political mosaic created by the election of the nation's first black president.

Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, said the controversy shows that all the talk about a "post-racial America'' is overblown.

"We believed we were going to work our way to the point where race did not matter,'' said Rodriguez, author of "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America.''

But the reality, Rodriguez said, is that "race is only going to affect our society in more complex ways.''

Contact Ken McLaughlin at kmclaughlin@mercurynews.com or (40 920-5552.

http://www.mercurynews.com/bizreports/ci_11123347

Supporters claimed Lee, who was born in Taiwan and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was being targeted because of his race. The government denied that, although former Los Alamos counterintelligence chief Robert Vrooman says Lee was singled out because he is ethnic Chinese.

I don't remember reading before that Lee was Taiwanese. OK he was also "ethnic Chinese" but so are all Taiwanese. The thing is most Taiwanese hate the Mainland China Communist Party, this is why Taiwan has a 5 million man reserve Army. Taiwan had a secret atomic bomb program going back in the 1990's which the US opposed, they did not want to "upset China". I bet that's why the US went after Lee, they did not want Taiwan to have any bomb secrets.

Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, said the controversy shows that all the talk about a "post-racial America'' is overblown.

Ya think???!!!

Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, said the controversy shows that all the talk about a "post-racial America'' is overblown.

Ya I think this talk is not only overblown, it is 180 degrees wrong since the elites are continuously dividing Americans up by race ever more and more! Whites becoming a minority will not end racial problems, it will just make them worse since there will be ever increasing numbers of "races" demanding special treatment.

Anytime someone is messing with that fool Richardson, I'm happy as lark!
I hope he rots away in New Mwxico and they take the nomination away from the whining wanker.

This incoming administration is a real piece of work..they will really screw things up.

The group has already gathered more than 4,000 electronic signatures protesting Richardson's nomination as head of the federal department dealing with business and industry.

I am not Chinese-American but I will be happy to sign up! Richardson IS NOT QUALIFIED for any position in Obama's cabinet. Obama only selected him after racist type groups like LaRaza DEMANDED more Hispanics elected into his cabinet.

Originally Posted by butterbean

I am not Chinese-American but I will be happy to sign up! Richardson IS NOT QUALIFIED for any position in Obama's cabinet. Obama only selected him after racist type groups like LaRaza DEMANDED more Hispanics elected into his cabinet.

I already went to their website and signed their petition, you can do so also. I had to manually enter their web address, the link does not work.

Leftist chinese commies fighting Obama's main Reconquistatdor, gets the popcorn, im gonna enjoy this