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Edina Asian American Alliance hosts AAPI Month Festival FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul
Asian American voters tend to lean away from the Democratic Party as their roots in the U.S. deepen, according to data from a Pew Research Center study published this month.
Why it matters: The latest findings show that ballots from the fastest-growing racial or ethnic segment of the population could be up for grabs in future elections — not unlike Latino voters.
By the numbers: Overall, 62% of Asian American registered voters identify with or lean toward Democrats, versus 34% who identify with or lean Republican, according to Pew's new multi-month, multi-lingual study.
Between the lines: The Pew study shows when Asian American political preferences start moving closer to national splits.
What they're saying: "Place of birth shapes Asian American identities ... and Asian American life in America," Neil Ruiz, head of new research initiatives at Pew, told reporters on a call.
The intrigue: Most Americans of Asian heritage (68%) say it's extremely or very important for Asian Americans to have a national leader representing their concerns.
Zoom in: Filipino (68%), Indian (68%) and Korean (67%) American registered voters are more likely to identify with or lean left.
The big picture: Despite being hyper-in-tune with all the cultural differences among them, most Americans of Asian descent say they believe that what happens to Asian people in the U.S. affects what happens in their own lives, according to the report.
What to watch: How much discrimination and rhetoric people of Asian descent face might influence political views.
Of note: There are roughly 24 million Asian Americans in the U.S., about 7% of the population, and 68% of Asian American adults were born abroad, according to Pew's analysis of government data.
Go deeper: Nearly 75% of Chinese Americans report discrimination in past year
WASHINGTON (7News) — From advocates to business owners and program organizers, 7 News has been highlighting businesses, events, and community members this Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
In early May, Nicole Dowd, the head of public programs at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art shared her story.
“Growing up there were never really you know Asian American or Korean American specific events that I feel like I could participate in,’ said Dowd.
Now, this Korean adoptee is organizing those events on a national scale.
“I find a lot of comfort and excitement in what the future holds,” said Dowd.
In Virginia, Victor Nguyen-Long cofounded a grassroots organization, Viet Place Collective, to uplift and uphold the Vietnamese community’s legacy in the DMV.
“As we lose our parent's recipes and our traditions and our language, as those things fade, places like Eden Center and the Vietnamese community are sort of the last remnants of our roots and our heritage,” said Nguyen-Long.
SEE ALSO | As Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric spreads online, so does fear of real world violence
In Maryland, Kristy Lam’s dumpling business, Mulan Dumpling, pivoted during the pandemic and is now thriving in grocery stores across the country.
“For me, the value of America is so inclusive, they welcome everyone in here,” said Lam. “There's no one culture there's actually a collective of culture, making the America unique.”
This community has grown louder and prouder.
“To be unapologetic about being louder is something the last couple of years has empowered a lot of us,” said Dowd.
Because the last couple of years has in many ways been filled with fear. First, there was the pandemic then a rise in hate against Asian Americans.
“On a personal level it’s terrifying to see and observe,” said Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs. He works out of the FBI Washington field office’s criminal and cyber division. “This type of activity has no place in a society that we all want to live, work and enjoy,” said Jacobs. “So it’s sobering for us, and I think motivates each one of us to go out there and aggressively pursue those who believe um that they can get away with this type of activity.”
In 2020, the FBI reported 279 Anti-Asian hate crime incidents. That number almost tripled to 789 by 2021.
“This type of activity will not be tolerated,” said Jacobs. “When it is reported, you can rest assured that it is going to be pursued aggressively to enforce the law.”
The FBI says there are a few reasons for the spike, including a change in data collection. They’re going into communities daily, educating people about what a hate crime is, how to report it, while working on building trust.
“We take that responsibility incredibly seriously,” said Special Agent in Charge Jacobs.
There’s still a lot of work ahead, but for now, as May comes to an end, many are holding on to hope.
“What I hope is that these celebrations during AAPI heritage month can really help people to find community and solace with one another,” said Dowd. “Allow us to come out stronger.”
“I hope that there's a peace and harmony living in one place together,” said Lam.
The FBI Washington Field Office covers D.C. as well as northern Virginia. The latest numbers from 2021 show three anti-Asian hate crime incidents in D.C. and four in Virginia
Christina Nguyen was driving and listening to a Gucci Mane song one weekend in 2017 when she caught a glimpse of a Panda Express sign.
Inspiration struck.
“I was like, wait a minute, wouldn’t it be funny if I combined Gucci Mane and then lo mein?” she said.
This idea led her business’s first print: a colorful illustration of the Atlanta-based rapper with the Chinese egg noodle dish tattooed on his cheek. “Gucci Lo Mein” remains Nguyen’s favorite creation to this day.
But her punny ideas didn’t stop there.
Nguyen, who attended college in Austin at the time, was driving back home to Dallas that day and had several hours on the road to herself.
“Just to pass the time, I was like, ‘How many more puns can I come up with?’,” said Nguyen, who is now 30 and a UX designer. Sometimes, ideas just sometimes come flooding to her, she added.
Her brainstorming session on the road ultimately led to the creation of her online shop, Tiny Taste Maker, which sells posters based on puns referencing Asian food and hip-hop artists.
On Saturday night, Nguyen was selling her art among other vendors at the second annual Asian American and Pacific Heritage block party in the Bishop Arts District.
“I love it because people always get a kick out of it,” she said. “Whenever they get [a poster], they start laughing.”
A Vietnamese American born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas, Nguyen was exposed to a variety of foods and cultures growing up, which she said opened her eyes to people from different walks of life.
“It’s great having pride in your own culture and your own ethnic background,” she said. “But sometimes we don’t really celebrate the intersections and similarities between a lot of our cultures.”
Nguyen believes her art serves as a tribute to different cultures, and that that’s why so many people are drawn to it. In five years, Tiny Taste Maker — Nguyen’s nickname is “Tiny” — has sold hundreds of prints and dozens of enamel pins. Some of her more popular prints are “Biggie Rice Balls,” “A$AP Pocky” and “Wonton Snoop.”
“In a weird way, they’re relatable,” she said. “A lot of people look at my illustrations … either recognize that rapper from hip-hop culture or they’re drawn to the foods that I’m drawn to.”
She also describes her prints as informative “in a light-hearted way.” On her website, each print’s information is displayed as a recipe card with “ingredients” that contain a short description of the featured rapper and food. Writing these blurbs has prompted Nguyen to learn about foods from different regions of Asia.
“During the process, I’m educating myself on what other Asian foods are out there that I can kind of combine with other popular cultural artists,” she said.
Her current posters mostly include references to Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and Korean food, but she hopes to expand to other Asian cuisines.
Nguyen’s passion for Asian food stems from her heritage. Her favorite Vietnamese dish is her mom’s bún riêu, a crab noodle soup made from a tomato-based broth. While served in a variety of ways, it’s common to garnish it with greens such as water spinach or bean sprouts, she said.
“It’s my mom’s signature dish,” she said. “I don’t think anyone has ever tried my mom’s bún riêu and didn’t like it.”
However, Nguyen’s relationship with Asian food had a fraught start. In elementary school, she was embarrassed about the food her mom packed, concerned about what her classmates thought about its smell and appearance. She wanted to have what her friends were having: pizza or Chick-fil-A.
But after moving to Austin for college, Nguyen sought out Asian food establishments to feel at home and connect with her roots, especially when she got homesick.
“Asian food and Vietnamese food was just my version of feeling at home,” she said. “I think now it’s just kind of like learning to celebrate the things that make you uniquely you.”
Nguyen noted that many Asian dishes contain a unique combination of sweet, spicy and salty flavors — often unforgiving and “in your face.”
“It’s almost like you don’t know what to expect, but it’s always homey and delightful and you can feel the love in it,” she said.
Like many other cities, Dallas has seen a rise in hate crime against Asian Americans. But Nguyen said Asians have had to deal with discrimination for a long time.
“It’s almost like these things have always been happening,” she said. “We just have never paid attention to it, and I think that’s why it’s so powerful now.”
She added that people, Asian American or not, should continue rallying behind those who feel victimized or marginalized. One way to do so is by celebrating Asian art, which she said can help shed light on other aspects of the community.
Ultimately, she hopes her art brings people together and help people from different backgrounds recognize each other’s humanity.
“At the end of the day, we’re all humans,” she said. “That’s the one commonality that we have.”
WASHINGTON (7News) — From advocates to business owners and program organizers, 7 News has been highlighting businesses, events, and community members this Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
In early May, Nicole Dowd, the head of public programs at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art shared her story.
“Growing up there were never really you know Asian American or Korean American specific events that I feel like I could participate in,’ said Dowd.
Now, this Korean adoptee is organizing those events on a national scale.
“I find a lot of comfort and excitement in what the future holds,” said Dowd.
In Virginia, Victor Nguyen-Long cofounded a grassroots organization, Viet Place Collective, to uplift and uphold the Vietnamese community’s legacy in the DMV.
“As we lose our parent's recipes and our traditions and our language, as those things fade, places like Eden Center and the Vietnamese community are sort of the last remnants of our roots and our heritage,” said Nguyen-Long.
SEE ALSO | As Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric spreads online, so does fear of real world violence
In Maryland, Kristy Lam’s dumpling business, Mulan Dumpling, pivoted during the pandemic and is now thriving in grocery stores across the country.
“For me, the value of America is so inclusive, they welcome everyone in here,” said Lam. “There's no one culture there's actually a collective of culture, making the America unique.”
This community has grown louder and prouder.
“To be unapologetic about being louder is something the last couple of years has empowered a lot of us,” said Dowd.
Because the last couple of years has in many ways been filled with fear. First, there was the pandemic then a rise in hate against Asian Americans.
“On a personal level it’s terrifying to see and observe,” said Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs. He works out of the FBI Washington field office’s criminal and cyber division. “This type of activity has no place in a society that we all want to live, work and enjoy,” said Jacobs. “So it’s sobering for us, and I think motivates each one of us to go out there and aggressively pursue those who believe um that they can get away with this type of activity.”
In 2020, the FBI reported 279 Anti-Asian hate crime incidents. That number almost tripled to 789 by 2021.
“This type of activity will not be tolerated,” said Jacobs. “When it is reported, you can rest assured that it is going to be pursued aggressively to enforce the law.”
The FBI says there are a few reasons for the spike, including a change in data collection. They’re going into communities daily, educating people about what a hate crime is, how to report it, while working on building trust.
“We take that responsibility incredibly seriously,” said Special Agent in Charge Jacobs.
There’s still a lot of work ahead, but for now, as May comes to an end, many are holding on to hope.
“What I hope is that these celebrations during AAPI heritage month can really help people to find community and solace with one another,” said Dowd. “Allow us to come out stronger.”
“I hope that there's a peace and harmony living in one place together,” said Lam.
The FBI Washington Field Office covers D.C. as well as northern Virginia. The latest numbers from 2021 show three anti-Asian hate crime incidents in D.C. and four in Virginia
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Impact of Asian American voters on 2024 race Fox News
The executive director of the New York-based Asian American Federation says the community is facing a mental health crisis.
Jo-Ann Yoo says that hate crimes, fear and discrimination are continuing to buffet the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. She adds that these concerns are compounded by increasing difficulty in finding support amid a shrinking pool of available mental health counselors who speak the “preferred language” and have the cultural competency to work with Asian American and Pacific Islander clientele.
“The anti-Asian violence, the joblessness, the homelessness … all of this perfect storm of so many vulnerable people — not just physically, but emotionally, mentally – it is creating a crisis,” Yoo told Gothamist.
The anti-Asian violence, the joblessness, the homelessness … all of this perfect storm of so many vulnerable people — not just physically, but emotionally, mentally – it is creating a crisis.
Yoo wrote about the community's “mental health gap” in a recent column posted on Gotham Gazette, written along with Luna Liu, a manager with a nonprofit health care insurer. One of the data points they reference, taken from a MetroPlusHealth survey released earlier this month, is that only 45% of Asian women said they know a community-based organization providing mental health services in their preferred language.
The Asian American Federation has been on the frontlines of local efforts to combat anti-Asian bigotry and hate. It takes in reports, organizes self-defense training, raises awareness, and marshals citizen-led public safety crews.
A memorial for stabbing victim Christina Yuna Lee sits in front of a mural on Mosco Street in Manhattan's Chinatown in New York in February 2022. Lee's death was among a number of brutal, high-profile attacks against Asian New Yorkers last year.
Erik Pendzich/ShutterstockYoo's warning comes as politicians across the country have stepped up criticism of China and the China-based social media behemoth TikTok, and follows a pandemic-linked spike in anti-Asian hate crimes and bigotry, including some high-profile attacks in New York.
In New York, complaints of anti-Asian hate crime made to the NYPD grew to 27 in 2020 and surged to 131 in 2021, but since dropped to 83 in 2022 — still far above pre-pandemic levels. Separately, the collaborative Stop AAPI Hate report last year counted more than 11,500 anti-Asian bias incidents nationwide since March 2020.
Gothamist sat down with Yoo to talk about mental health, the current state of anti-Asian hate crimes, and the people and politics surrounding the issues. The conversation with Yoo has been lightly edited.
Yoo: There is more openness for people to talk about their anxieties.
Oftentimes for our community, there is a dearth of experts and resources. They don't get to talk to people in their own language, people with a lot of cultural expertise.
With our mental health clinics, Asian-led, Asian-serving – before you could get an appointment in two, three weeks. Now it's months. They are overwhelmed. They are swamped.
This is a moment when our community has realized, “Oh, I've gotta talk about these things. This is terrible.” And I think that's really great. It's created an opening.
Do we have the capacity to do this? No, we don't have enough clinicians who speak the language; we don't have enough resources. I need money. We need to hire more people who can speak the language.
We can't do a cookie-cutter approach: “I need you to have this degree, I need you to have this degree.” Oftentimes, you just need to bring in somebody who knows how to navigate trauma situations, be able to talk about trauma. You don't need a Ph.D., you don't need an M.D.
(The Asian American Federation keeps an online directory of mental health providers who speak over 17 Asian languages. More resources are available on the NYC Coalition for Asian American Mental Health website.)
Gov. Kathy Hochul, she's the first one who threw in money, real money. Three million dollars is a big deal for our community. The safety programs. It was: “You know your community best. Go do the programming that we need to do.”
I value my relationship with Attorney General Letitia James. She's like, “If you have a problem, call my website.” I talk to her staff regularly.
I had a shaky relationship with City Hall, the previous City Hall. But part of it is there wasn't a playbook. I know what happened to the Arab Muslim community after 9/11. I guess the notes didn't get passed to the next administration. So, then we go back to reinventing the wheel.
We were also in lockdown, and during our global pandemic, that made it really hard. I think I need to be gracious here. We do need some post-mortem and we do need some assessment.
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks with Asian American Federation Executive Director Jo-Ann Yoo at the Justice for Asian Women Rally on Times Square in March 2022. The rally came amid a spike in attacks on Asian Americans, especially women.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/ShutterstockBut I think the reality is, we need more funding. They need to make funding easily accessible. You still have to go through all these bureaucratic loops. Some of the groups doing the safety work now, doing the community-building work, they're immigrant groups. They don't have the capacity to sit down and write a 20-page government proposal.
I don't think the powers that be take our situation seriously. That is still my frustration. If people want to report to law enforcement, we know that there are still obstacles to reporting. Sometimes people wanna go report to their police precincts, but there might not be somebody who speaks that language, who can take those cases.
I also hear the anti-Asian country sentiments of our elected leaders in Congress, like anti-TikTok, anti-China. You can have disagreements with foreign countries. But the problem is that those sentiments get transferred on to Asian Americans. We're gonna have to pay the price, and we know that, and we're watching and we are scared.
We're all trying to cope.They're all trying to cope. I don't know, how do you heal? You are violated in your own city, in your own neighborhood. I don't know how you heal from that.
The victims that we've assisted, victims that we work with, they do deal with a lot of PTSD. We do check in with the victims of violence to say, how are you doing? And sometimes the calls end with a lot of tears and them telling us, “I'm afraid. I'm afraid to go outside.” Those are the times that I can call NYPD to request, can we have extra patrol in the neighborhood?
It's preventing the victims from living their full lives. Because it requires you to go outside. And if you've been attacked on the subway, you're afraid to ride the subway. If you're attacked on the street, how do you go for a walk? The PTSD is real.
This is how we all have to live: You have to trust people. You have to trust your fellow New Yorkers that they're not gonna harm you. For them, that trust has been violated in the worst way. How do you regain that? How do you regain the trust in that somebody isn't going to be around the corner and punch you in the face?
But with all the victims, you have to think about what is their trauma? What is the invisible scar that they're holding onto?
There were days when I told my staff I have to come to work, but I dreaded getting up out of bed in the morning. I would just lie in bed and read the emails coming in, some Facebook message coming in, at all hours.
But if I could listen and offer empathy and compassion, then that was what I had to do.
This spring, I was accepted to Brown University. But what should have been a moment for celebration was overshadowed by the enduring controversy over racial bias in college admissions.
Today, most top colleges use “race-conscious” admissions policies, actively considering an applicant’s race when deciding which students to accept. The unpopular practice — disapproved of by 74 percent of the American public — disadvantages Asian American students like me, who are forced to achieve higher grades and test scores in order to overcome negative racial stereotypes.
Next month, the Supreme Court will hand down rulings in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, two cases that will determine whether public and private universities can continue to use race as a criterion in the admissions process. Legal analysts expect the court to find “race-conscious” admission policies to be in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination at institutions receiving federal funds. I’m hopeful this will happen — an applicant’s race has no bearing on how well they can contribute to a college’s community.
Education has always been important in my family. My maternal grandparents originally hailed from South Korea, where their childhoods were marked by food shortages as the Korean War waged on around them. Still, they worked hard in school, and after graduating from Seoul National University, they journeyed to the United States in the 1960s to pursue doctoral degrees at Purdue University.
As they became accustomed to America, the abundance of educational opportunities convinced them to stay and raise children in their new home, so they obtained green cards after their student visas expired and became naturalized citizens shortly thereafter. When my mother was born, my grandparents instilled the value of education in her, letting her know that if she worked hard in school, she could open doors to greater opportunities.
To my grandparents, the United States was a magical place characterized by its boundless opportunities; America’s educational prowess allowed academic-minded young people from a war-torn nation to advance in life and become professors and chemical engineers. Unfortunately, the aspirational view of American higher education that drew my grandparents to this country is growing increasingly at odds with reality, as today’s university administrators work to artificially quell the number of Asian Americans in higher education, on the basis of racial tropes.
Old reporting from Harvard’s student newspaper reveals that stereotypes about Asian Americans are deeply ingrained in the university’s admissions practices. A slew of racially insensitive comments unearthed by the Department of Education exposed that Asian American applicants had been repeatedly stereotyped as bland and boring people who lacked personality and leadership skills, as well as the ability to contribute to a diverse campus culture. For instance, one admissions officer wrote that an applicant’s “scores and application seem so typical of other Asian applications I’ve read: extraordinarily gifted in math with the opposite extreme in English.”
The consequence of these “race-conscious” practices is best exemplified by the distribution of “personal ratings” — the encapsulation of an applicant’s likability, friendliness, and other traits by a single digit. Historical data show that significantly worse “personal ratings” are awarded to Asian American applicants on average. Even Harvard’s own internal review confirmed that its admissions system was biased against Asian Americans, though the investigation was conveniently abandoned before a final conclusion could be reached.
In practice, these stereotypes continue to result in staggering racial disparities in acceptance rates. One professor found that at Harvard, a hypothetical Asian American male with a 25 percent chance of admission would see his chances shoot up to 36 percent if he were white, 77 percent if he were Hispanic, and 95 percent if he were African American. In fact, the racial disproportion is so extreme that Harvard’s internal admissions data show that Hispanic students in the sixth-lowest academic decile and African American students in the fourth-lowest academic decile are gaining admission at higher rates than Asian American students in the top academic decile.
Today, these “race-conscious” admissions policies serve as obstacles for the 19 million Americans of Asian descent pursuing the American dream. My grandparents, and many others like them, immigrated to the United States because they believed that if their children and grandchildren studied hard in school, they would have the opportunity to go on to great colleges. If America is to continue living up to this promise, students of all races must have an equal shot at being admitted to our nation’s best schools.
The Supreme Court should step in, uphold the Civil Rights Act, and kickstart an overhaul of out-of-date admissions policies at colleges across the country.
Alex Shieh is a contributing Globe Opinion writer and founder of The Phillips Academy Poll, a polling firm run by members of Gen Z. Follow him at @alexkshieh.
What does it mean to be Asian American to you?
I think being Asian American is multi-faceted: There are many cultures under that umbrella. It's at least 100 languages. It's also 40% of the world's population, and a big economic powerhouse.
And while the numbers are staggering, I do feel a kinship with other Asians. There's a shared value system — respect for elders, closeness to extended family, focus on education, work ethic and temperament. On the other hand, being from India is very different than being from Japan, for example. There are vast differences culturally, and also culinarily, just to name a couple.
Is there a memory that comes to mind of a moment that crystallized what being "Asian American" meant to you?
I think the Muslim ban and the vilification of immigrants in general during the 2016 presidential election was a seminal moment. It galvanized not only my solidarity with other Asian Americans but also all immigrants.
I started working with the ACLU at this time on immigrant rights. After a few years of this, I decided to dedicate myself to doing something in my professional life that addressed the same issues on an artistic level. And that's how my Hulu show "Taste the Nation" was born.
My memoir, "Love, Loss and What We Ate," is also an Asian American story because it discusses themes that are relevant to our community. It tells not only my story but this country's story in many ways.
I also wrote my children's book, "Tomatoes for Neela," so that Asian American kids as well as biracial kids could see themselves and learn about our foods. There's even a recipe for chutney in the back for families to try. My Asian American identity fuels everything I do.
What do you love about being Indian American?
I love celebrating Diwali with all our friends and family here in New York. Over the years our get-togethers have bloomed into something everyone looks forward to. It's a chance to enjoy and share the music, food, and rituals of our culture with those we love — and also pass it down to my daughter and her cousins.
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Impact of Asian American voters on 2024 race Fox NewsAlmost a year ago in a rain-lashed evening at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, the Indian football team, led by the talismanic skipper Sunil Chhetri, produced a dominant show against Hong Kong to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup. The Blue Tigers had then thrashed their opponents 4-0, who until then were unbeaten at the tournament and many predicted them to repeat the same against India.
As India gear up for their next assignment, which is the Intercontinental Cup, the captain addressing a virtual press conference called in the evening. “It was an exciting and lovely day in Calcutta (Kolkata). Now we have to make sure that we do justice to all the hard work we've done,” noted Chhetri on Saturday.
While India will be playing the Intercontinental Cup, followed by the SAFF Championship, the prime focus remains on the continental event, which is scheduled to be played in January-February next year in Qatar.
India, ranked 101 in the latest FIFA rankings, will face a gritty test at the Asian Cup in Qatar. The team is clubbed alongside Australia, Syria and Uzbekistan – all placed much higher than India in the rankings.
Chhetri too admits the same but hopes to draw inspiration from underdogs Morocco, who had stunned the likes of Belgium, Spain, and Portugal to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2022.
“On the looks of it, it seems a little bit more difficult than what we had the last time. Asian Cup always would be difficult. Even when we met Thailand, UAE and Bahrain the last time, it was difficult. We had some good performances in some games, some moments we weren't that great, especially the second half against Bahrain. And going forward to give any huge target to myself or the team wouldn't be ideal. We're trying our best about being as tough opponent as possible and go and give a good account of ourselves.
"In modern football a lot of teams who are underdogs have shown us. One name that comes in my head is Morocco. And if you're a good unit you can make it difficult for other teams to play against you. And that's our first and prime target. On paper it does look a little bit more than the last time,” said Chhetri.
Mr Wong, who is also Singapore’s Finance Minister, warned that competing regional blocs will make it harder for Asia's developing countries to sit at the same table as more advanced nations.
To prevent this, the bloc is working to maintain more open economic cooperation, with broad participation across the globe.
While still actively engaging long-standing partners within Asia, the US and the European Union, ASEAN is also forging new ties in other regions including Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
In his speech, Mr Wong called on economies to not undermine the multilateral trading system, saying rising protectionism will leave all countries worse off.
While he said it is understandable why nations and companies want to de-risk or diversify, Mr Wong also warned that taking it too far could prompt reactions and unintended consequences.
“No one wants to be overly reliant on a single supplier for raw materials, key components, or technology,” said Mr Wong.
“But it is hard to see how de-risking, at its current ambition and scale, can be strictly confined to just a few 'strategic' areas without affecting broader economic interactions ... Over time, we will end up with a more fragmented and decoupled global economy.”
The term “de-risk” was introduced at the recent Group of Seven (G7) summit, where leaders pledged to de-risk without decoupling from China to reduce economic reliance on Beijing.
On Wednesday, Mr Wong visited Japanese companies working on a hydrogen supply chain network.
As a leader in green technology, Japan can play a key role in facilitating sustainability financing and projects in Southeast Asia, he said.
Mr Wong also welcomed Japan's intention to cooperate more in regional security.
“Japan has historically adopted a low-key posture in security. But with the passage of time, there is scope for Japan to make a greater contribution in this area,” he noted.
“We hope that Japan will continue to build on the momentum of its recent engagements with regional countries and further contribute to Asia’s stability, security and growth.”
Mr Wong said that despite an increasingly dangerous and troubled world, there are reasons for optimism.
“Asia’s dynamism, shaped by its diverse cultures, resilience and adaptability, offer hope,” he said.
“We can also take heart that countries in the region share a deep commitment to collaboration and a common interest to work together.”
On Friday, Mr Wong is expected to meet Japanese political leaders including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to further strengthen bilateral ties.
UNLIKE LOGIC chips, which process information, memory chips, which store it, looked less vulnerable to the Sino-American techno-tussle. Such semiconductors are commodities, less high-tech than microprocessors and so less central to the great-power struggle for technological supremacy. That changed on May 21st, when the Chinese government banned memory chips made by Micron from critical-infrastructure projects. The restriction hurts the American chipmaker, which last year derived 11% of its revenue from mainland China. It also opens up a new front in the transpacific chip war—one which the countries that are near China but allies of America are being roped into.
By opening a gap in the market, the ban creates an opportunity for the world’s two biggest memory-chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, both from South Korea. They made 16% and 44% of their respective sales in China in 2021. With Micron frozen out of critical infrastructure—and looking riskier to other Chinese buyers—the South Korean duo can pick up more contracts. That is what investors seem to have concluded: Samsung’s share price is at its highest since April 2022; SK Hynix’s was last this lofty in August.
The prospect of a windfall for South Korea’s chipmakers is, however, complicated by the country’s blend of American and Chinese interests. President Joe Biden’s administration has made no official demand asking its counterpart in Seoul to prevent the South Korean firms from jumping in to fill orders for which Micron will no longer be able to compete. But it is said to be lobbying for this behind closed doors. The 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to protect it against its despotic nuclear-armed neighbour to the north lend weight to such requests.
At the same time, Seoul has little interest in damaging its commercial ties with China. South Korea exported $156bn-worth of goods, equivalent to 9% of its GDP, to the country in 2022, and imported roughly the same amount. That makes China its largest trading partner by some distance. On May 24th the South Korean government formally asked America to review the rules which limit American subsidies to chipmakers if the recipient expands its Chinese production capacity of advanced chips by more than 5% over ten years.
South Korea is, in other words, treading carefully. Any public attempt to guide Samsung and SK Hynix risks upsetting Beijing, which is already fuming: on May 22nd a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said America had “coerced other countries into imposing export restrictions on China for the sole purpose of maintaining its hegemonic interests”. The official line from Seoul is, for the time being, that it is up to the companies how they respond. That strategic ambiguity may not be viable for much longer. ■
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Video of the Cambodian runner Bou Samnang’s rain-soaked performance in a 5,000-meter race resonated with fans who applauded her gritty determination.
Runner number 401 was dead tired and suffering from low blood pressure. She was also last by a wide margin in the 5,000 meters and plodding alone, through a raucous rainstorm, around the track of a near-empty stadium.
Bou Samnang, 20, finished the race anyway.
Her rain-soaked performance at the Southeast Asian Games — this year’s edition was hosted this month by her home country, Cambodia — would have been a footnote in a tournament that is unknown to most sporting fans outside the region. But when video of it circulated widely on social media, she became an unlikely national celebrity.
“I knew that I would not win, but I told myself that I should not stop,” she said in an interview.
As she struggled on, it helped that a small group of supporters were applauding furiously, she added, and that she felt a duty to finish because she was representing her country.
After she crossed the finish line, she acknowledged the fans, started to cry and buried her face in a Cambodian flag.
Ms. Bou Samnang, who graduated from high school last year, did not expect to attract international attention when she arrived on May 8 for the 5,000-meter final in Phnom Penh, the capital and her hometown. She was grateful just to be competing.
A few weeks earlier, Ms. Bou Samnang had suffered from a particularly bad bout of low blood pressure, a result of her chronic anemia, while she was training in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. A doctor told her to stop running for a while, and her coach, Kieng Samorn, did not insist otherwise.
“She has a health problem,” Mr. Kieng Samorn said. “We can’t force her.”
But Ms. Bou Samnang said she was eager to run at the Southeast Asian Games, her first international competition, and her coach did not stand in her way.
In the 5,000-meter women’s final, held in a lightly attended 60,000-seat stadium, Ms. Bou Samnang gathered at the starting line alongside some of the region’s best runners. The eventual winner, Nguyen Thi Oanh of Vietnam, is an Olympian who had won multiple golds at previous Southeast Asian Games.
After the starting gun sounded and the runners fell into formation, Ms. Bou Samnang took a position toward the back of the pack. Within a minute or so, she had fallen so far behind that she was not visible in much of the television coverage.
But she kept going, even as Ms. Oanh and other runners finished, the skies opened up, and some fans lost interest.
Ms. Bou Samnang would finish in 22 minutes and 54 seconds — nearly six minutes behind Ms. Oanh of Vietnam and about 90 seconds behind a compatriot, Run Romdul. By then the stadium floodlights were out, water was pooling on the track, and her pink shoes and red uniform were completely soaked through.
Her performance recalled other runners who persevered, including a few who famously won track events after falling. One is Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who did so in the 1,500-meter event at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.
Runners don’t tend to win much praise if they lose by a wide margin. One exception is in long-distance events, where it’s common to celebrate the last finisher, said Steve Brammar, the secretary general of the Trail Runners Association of Hong Kong. An ultramarathon trail race that he directs there has an “Ultimate Finisher” trophy for just that purpose.
Ms. Bou Samnang’s “perseverance was inspiring and really seems to have warmed hearts and captured imaginations,” Mr. Brammar said in an email.
After finishing last in the 5,000-meter race this month, Ms. Bou Samnang’s health prevented her running the 1,500-meter event, as planned, her coach said. But after video of her determined performance circulated online, she received public praise from Cambodia’s king and a $10,000 bonus from Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife, equivalent to several years of an average Cambodian’s earnings.
Ms. Bou Samnang, whose father died in 2018, is the third of four children. She said she would use the bonus to study law at a Cambodian university, and that she planned to keep running competitively.
Her mother, Mai Met, said that she cried after hearing that her daughter had finished last in the 5,000-meter race. But that sadness was tempered by the outpouring of public support that came later.
“I am delighted,” said Ms. Mai Met, 44, who has long supported the family by working in garment factories.
Her determined finish illustrated an “ideal of sport,” said Edgar K. Tham, a sports psychologist in Singapore who works with athletes around Southeast Asia.
He said the attention Ms. Bou Samnang has received is notable in part because Cambodian athletes tend to fare better at combat sports than track events in regional competitions.
But the example she set, he added, will resonate far beyond Southeast Asia.
“That’s what life’s about: moving forward and using failures as lessons to bounce back,” he said. “If you take it in this spirit, it’s something inspirational.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on Tuesday in favor of a new admissions process at one of the most prestigious public high schools in the country, and found that it had not discriminated against Asian American students in its admissions policies.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Va., had replaced the admissions exam with an essay and began admitting students from a cross-section of schools, with weight given to poorer students and those learning English.
The appellate court, in a 2 to 1 ruling, found that there was not sufficient evidence that the changes were adopted with discriminatory intent.
Writing for the majority, Judge Robert B. King, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said that the school, widely known as T.J., had a legitimate interest in “expanding the array of student backgrounds.”
The decision reversed a 2022 decision by Judge Claude M. Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who found that the changes made by the high school had disproportionately burdened Asian American students.
The case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions, but the Thomas Jefferson case could break new ground.
The high school’s new admissions criterion never even mentions race, but the lawsuit challenges the use of race-neutral “proxies.”
“They are, in our view, using proxies for race in order to get a racial result,” said Joshua P. Thompson, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group that is helping parents, many of them Asian American, with their lawsuit.
The high school applauded the decision. “We firmly believe this admission plan is fair and gives qualified applicants at every middle school a fair chance of a seat at T.J.,” said John Foster, division counsel for the Fairfax County Public Schools.
In late 2020, officials in Fairfax County, Va., were concerned about the negligible number of Black and Hispanic students at the school and changed admissions standards at Thomas Jefferson High School, which draws students from across Northern Virginia.
As a result, the percentage of Black students grew to 7 percent from 1 percent of the class, while the number of Asian American students fell to 54 percent from 73 percent, the lowest share in years.
A group of parents, many of them Asian American, objected to the new plan and started the Coalition for T.J. The coalition filed a lawsuit with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which has filed similar lawsuits in New York and Montgomery County, Md.
The ruling was widely expected, and the case is likely now headed to a review at the Supreme Court.
A Supreme Court ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the T.J. case would be the next step in ending any consideration of race — in this case by using proxies such as ZIP codes or income — to boost racial equity through education and other public programs.
In a forthcoming paper in the Stanford Law Review, Sonja B. Starr, a professor of law and criminology at the University of Chicago, writes that the plaintiffs are “laying the groundwork for a much bigger legal transformation” that could ban any public policy effort to close racial gaps.
Ms. Starr predicted in an interview that the T.J. case could ultimately reverberate in areas beyond education, such as fair housing, environmental permitting and social welfare policies.
Campbell Robertson contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
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