对华裔社区的警示
德州议员吴元之律师 Rep Gene Wu 致社区公开信
德州华裔社区反歧视维权翻译组 2024年9月30日
[Editor’s Note: See the original English letter, titled “A Warning to the Asian American Community” by Texas State Rep Gene Wu, at the end of this article.]
今年夏天，德州众议院新成立的”保证德州免受敌对国威胁特别委员会“ Texas House Select Committee on Securing Texas from Hostile Foreign Nations 举行了单方面听证会， 目的是为了制止华人移民“对美国造成的威胁” 。
其中一位证人提供的证词是，“我们必须“设定”所有中国移民和商业主都忠实于 C C P”。因而，按照他们的逻辑，所有来自中国的人都私下对美国不忠诚。除此之外，其他证词还提出要禁止中国学生和教授进入德州的大学，禁止就业，并限制中国移民财产所有权。听证会上亚裔社区没有收到邀请参加作证，没有反驳的机会（见编者备注）。
看到这些以国家安全为借口的种族歧视的言辞举止，我心中不禁浮起了一百年前的景象，美国历史上的仇视亚裔的悲剧和排亚法案。
加州曾在1913年颁布了恶名远扬的《禁止外来移民土地法》Anti-Alien Land Law (the Webb-Haney Act）。那时的加州还停留在1882年的《排华法案》[Editor’s Note: see Chinese Exclusion Act in the US history] 的阴影之下。从欧洲来的白人移民，害怕亚裔人尤其是日裔人在农村买地种田，于是，订立了这些法案禁止亚裔移民拥有土地。其使用的理由就是亚裔移民从骨子里对美国不忠诚（言下之意，就是还不够美国化，不配当美国人）。没过多久，其他十二多个州前呼后应，接二连三效仿，颁布法案，禁止亚裔移民拥有可耕种土地，禁止他们拥有商业，甚至拥有自己家人居住的房屋。
1943年，第二次世界大战期间，12万多美籍日裔人被强行围捕关进集中营 [Editor’s Note: See Japanese Internment during the World War II]。其中三分之二的是在美国土生土长的公民，有些人连日语都不会说。但同时，美国政府只拘留了大约 1万名德国和意大利裔移民。这个国家一向是将欧洲移民及其后代视为真正的美国人，而将亚裔人视为永远的外国人。美国陆军中将，西部战区指挥官约翰·德威特 (John L. DeWitt) 曾说过一句名言： “日本人就是日本人，跟美国公民不公民无关。”
大多数类似的历史恶法，因违反第十四修正案， 最终没被通过或被取消。十四修正案的通过，禁止了对种族、民族和国籍的歧视，保证了所有人的公平权益。
但现在，这些恶法又卷土重来，大有意图让过去的种族歧视死灰复燃。我说的这些并不是天方夜谭，抽象理论。大家知道吗？其实这些事情正在发生，正在变成事实。
不知道你是否记得，德州就曾在去年试图通过 S.B. 147 法案 [Editor’s Note: see Texas Alien Land Law Bills and S.B. 147]， 该法案将禁止持签证的中国人，或永久居民拥有房产，甚至包括双重国籍者。与此同时，佛罗里达州通过并颁布了限制中国移民拥有房产和接受高等教育的法案。全美很多州前呼后拥，一浪接一浪，企图通过同样的法案。
同胞们醒一醒，擦亮眼睛，历史悲剧有可能会重演！
早在一百年前，就有人说“东亚病夫”，道德沦丧，携带疾病，以鼠为食，下水道为寝，等等。这些恶毒攻击，在COVID疫情期间再次复现，越演越烈。美国与中国大陆虽隔千山万水，华人还是被认定为”黄祸”，跟 C C P 一样没有区别。随着全球疫情的蔓延，仇视亚裔的火焰扑面而来， 以至于到现在，排亚法案一浪接一浪。
虽然COVID期间的反亚情绪还没有涉及到剥夺华人的土地权，但是紧跟其后，2025 年计划（Project 2025， 见编者备注）及更多措施就接踵而至。最常见的是要取消中国移民的学生签证，并禁止他们进入大学学习。还有就是要全面禁止中国移民在学术界，智库，科技，房地产，基础设施甚至食品生产领域的就业。表面上他们嘴上说无意重建华人集中营， 或颁布第二部《排华法案》，但是实际上，这些行为，切切实实在证明这些立法人和其支持者的真实想法。
即使重复1943年美籍日裔悲剧的可能性只有1%，我们是否应该站起来与我们的社区同盟们一起奋起反抗？还是坐等大祸临头，才有所知觉和行动？亚裔社区尤其是华裔同胞们， 我们不应该眼睁睁地看着我们的权利和自由被一步一步地被剥夺。如果我们视之不管，坐以待毙，那么只会导致对这种行为的纵容，导致更危险的恶果的发生。
做为德州议员十多年的经历，使我更加清醒，使我深刻的看到，有些人的企图就是要重复和延续过去的历史。而我们则应该毫不含糊地大声疾呼，发出对这些残留的种族歧视和偏见的反抗。尤其是今天跟以往大相径庭，我们现在有了投票权， 我们有了自己的同盟，我们能够用自己的选票大声疾呼！
我们的前辈们受难并不等于后辈还需受难。我们现在可以做的更好而不需重复历史。 我希望我的孩子们不需因为他们是华人而抱歉，而感到羞辱。我们的孩子们不应该有成为二等公民的担忧。来，来，来，亚太社区和与我们有着共同追求的同盟们，大家为创建平等，自由，更好的机会，团结协力，共同杜绝偏见恶意的抬头，扑灭歧视火焰的蔓延！
【编者备注】
德州”保证德州免受敌对国威胁特别委员会“Texas House Select Committee on Securing Texas from Hostile Foreign Nations 在9月10日Tyler Texas的听证会录音：https://house.texas.gov/videos/20807。
Project 2025 — “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” 是由美国右翼智库的代表Heritage Foundation 及其他100多保守主义组织共同撰写的行动计划。其目的是彻底改变美国执政体系，推进共和党总统例如Trump入主白宫后，施行一系列保守主义的颠覆政策，例如替换成千上万名行政机关里的工作人员，使他们变成共和党总统例如Trump的忠诚支持者。全文件共约900页，涉及重要的国家政策，包括给上层首富减税，政府部门私有化，取消国家教育部，撤销清洁能源和环保政策，削减对少数族裔的保护，减少移民签证，取缔家庭移民，大规模驱逐移民，等等诸多方面。其中提到与中国或华裔社区有关的内容多达近900次，甚至直接诋毁5千年华夏文明（原文见下)，把华人列为国家安全的威胁，等等。很多政策专家担心，这项计划可能会进一步把美国推向日趋严重的美中矛盾，极端右翼和独裁专制的危险方向。网上有很多关于Project 2025 的介绍，例如 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025，https://www.reuters.com/world/us/project-2025-what-is-it-who-is-behind-it-how-is-it-connected-trump-2024-07-12/
在今年九月的美国联邦众议院的“中国周 China Week”之际，共和党和保守智库推进了与Project 2025相关的 28 条法案，其中25条被通过。
Project 2025 原文第180页：“…the nature of Chinese power today is the product of history, ideology, and the institutions that have governed China during the course of five millennia, inherited by the present Chinese leaders from the preceding generations of the CCP. In short, the PRC challenge is rooted in China’s strategic culture and not just the Marxism–Leninism of the CCP, meaning that internal culture and civil society will never deliver a more normative nation. The PRC’s aggressive behavior can only be curbed through external pressure.”
“…当今中国权力的本质是中国五千年来，历史，意识形态，和统治机构的产物， 这些制度由现任中国领导人从 C C P 前几代人那里继承下来。简而言之，中国造成的挑战根植于中国的具有战略性的文化，而不仅仅是 C C P 的马克思列宁主义，这就意味着其内部文化，以及全民社会永远不会演变成一个更加正常规范的国家。中国的侵略行为只能通过外部压力来禁止遏制。”
【编者结语】
同胞们行动起来！如同以上德州众议员吴元之Rep Gene Wu 律师所述，“人为刀俎，我为鱼肉”的时刻到了！这些歧视性法案虽然表面上是以国家安全为名义，但事实上，华人已经被认定为美国的敌人，是对国家安全的威胁。我们需要反思一下，居安思危：美中关系将要如何发展下去？即使你和你的孩子已经成为美国公民，那又会怎样？当初在美国土生土长的日裔美籍人，受到的是什么待遇？在排华恶浪再度兴起的时刻, 我们的生死存亡和孩子们的未来，就在于我们的行动。2024年美国大选已经开始，用你的选票发出你的愤怒，让敢来实施歧视和欺负我们的人，品尝应有的恶果而不会重蹈覆辙！观看Rep. Gene Wu 关于歧视法历史和当前法案介绍的图片和录像：https://youtu.be/1GW5HQp4VbQ
附英文原文
A Warning to the Asian American Community
Texas State Rep Gene Wu
This past summer, a newly formed Texas House Select Committee on Securing Texas from Hostile Foreign Nations held a one-sided hearing on the dangers of Chinese immigrants in our country.
One of the guests who testified stated that we must “assume” that “all” Chinese immigrant business owners are loyal to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because, as he suggested, all Chinese people are secretly disloyal to America. Additional testimony called for bans on Chinese students and professors at American colleges and universities, prohibitions on employment, and the passage of property ownership restrictions. The Asian American community was not permitted to respond during this hearing.
The supporters of these racist policies cloak their argument as being about national security. Instead, they’re echoing the dangerous sentiments that were in effect more than 100 years ago against Asian Americans.
In 1913, California’s infamous Anti-Alien Land Law (the Webb-Haney Act) prohibited Asian immigrants from owning land. It was justified by arguing that Chinese and Japanese immigrants are, by nature, disloyal. Shortly after that, a dozen other states followed suit and enacted laws prohibiting Asian Americans from owning land to farm, owning a business to grow, or even owning a home for their families to live in.
Thirty years later, during World War II, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up against their will and forced into concentration camps. Two-thirds of those imprisoned were American-born citizens, many of whom didn’t even speak Japanese. Meanwhile, the U.S. government only detained about 10,000 German and Italian nationals. Our nation viewed the European immigrants and their descendants as true Americans while treating Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners. U.S. Army Lt. General John L. DeWitt, commanding general of the Western theater of operation, would famously state: “A Jap’s a Jap — it makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not.”
Most of the horrific historical laws were eventually ruled unconstitutional for violating the 14th Amendment, and regulations prohibiting discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and national origin. But now there are renewed legislative efforts to bring back these antiquated forms of intentional racial discrimination. These are not theoretical ideas. The push to pass these laws is happening across the country, in the US Congress, and nearly all state legislatures.
Texas famously tried to pass S.B. 147 in 2023, a bill banning property ownership for Chinese visa holders, permanent residents, and even dual citizens. At the same time, Florida enacted laws restricting property ownership and higher education for Chinese immigrants. Countless states across the nation are looking to pass these same laws.
History could very well repeat itself.
A century ago, Chinese and Japanese American communities were often stereotyped as carriers of disease and vectors for moral decay. Our people were seen as subhuman creatures that ate rats and slept in filth. The same exact racist stereotypes reappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese American communities, separated from the motherland, by time, distance, and citizenship, were directly blamed for the actions of the CCP. The tide of Anti-Asian hate and Anti-Asian legislation began to rise quickly with the beginning of the global pandemic.
The attacks on Asian Americans will not stop at just banning property ownership. The authors of Project 2025 and many other groups have much more planned. They have already called for the elimination of student visas for Chinese immigrants, and to prohibit those already here from attending colleges and universities. They have also called for a complete ban on the ability of Chinese immigrants to find employment in academia, think tanks, technology, real estate, infrastructure, and even food production.
Proponents of these laws may argue that it is not their intent to create a future Chinese Internment or enact the Second Chinese Exclusion Act, but their actions say otherwise. For the Asian American community, if there is even a 1% chance that the same laws could lead to another 1943, our community and allies must fight with everything we have.
The Asian American community (especially Chinese Americans), must show that we won’t just watch as others strip away our rights and our freedoms. If we allow it to go unanswered, it will only lead to more discrimination. We must send an unequivocal message that we will not tolerate racism or discrimination in any form. There are forces determined to repeat our nation’s darkest history. But, this time, there is a big difference. This time, we will vote. This time, we have allies in other communities. This time, we are fighting back.
The experiences of our ancestors do not have to become the experiences of our children. We can do better than our history. My boys deserve a future where they don’t have to apologize for being Chinese American — and don’t have to live in fear that one day, possibly soon, they will be regarded as second-class citizens (OR SOMETHING HARSHER). Together, the Asian American community must rally with all of those who share the same American tenets of freedom, opportunity, and equality, and to tamp down the rise of these familiar racist beliefs.
