Ayanna Pressley: 'Republican Rhetoric And Policies Have Helped To Normalize' Anti-Asian Racism

5 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) spoke about China.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you to our witnesses for being here.

00:04 As policy makers we have the responsibility to weigh our words carefully, especially during

00:09 discussions like the one that we're having here today.

00:12 The Chinese Communist Party has adopted Russian propaganda efforts to interfere in our elections

00:18 and advance its own objectives.

00:20 We should address that issue seriously and we can and must do so without stigmatizing

00:25 and discriminating against people based on their identities.

00:30 Racial slurs are not a national security strategy.

00:33 They do nothing to help counter the threat posed by the CCP.

00:37 Mr. Madison, in a June 2023 tweet you wrote that equating the Chinese Communist Party

00:42 to Chinese culture is "racist by any other name."

00:48 I agree.

00:49 Distinguishing between a political party and an entire race of people and its culture is

00:53 important and we have the moral responsibility to make that clear, yet it's lost on some.

00:59 Mr. Madison, what is the harm in equating China's ruling party, the Chinese Communist

01:03 Party, with all people of Chinese descent?

01:08 One, because the history of China is far bigger than the Chinese Communist Party.

01:14 It is one of the world's great civilizations.

01:17 There contains, you know, whether you accept the way in which the current sort of minority

01:22 structure is described or not.

01:25 It includes a lot of different people from different places that have come together or

01:30 have been sort of defined as Chinese in the last 170 years.

01:36 Another reason is that there are a lot of Chinese Americans who are Chinese people who

01:41 came to this United States and have chosen to become citizens.

01:44 I remember a classmate of mine at University of Washington was seventh generation Chinese,

01:49 which is more American than I am by any measure that counts.

01:53 And to pretend that they are somehow represented by the Chinese Communist Party rather than

01:58 their local politicians, their elected congressional members and their state senators and governors

02:02 and president, I think it dismisses the choices that they or their family have made.

02:09 Thank you.

02:10 Anti-Asian racism is pervasive in this country.

02:12 Republican rhetoric and policies have helped to normalize it.

02:15 In March 2020, Donald Trump tweeted the racist phrase, quote, China virus, end quote, in

02:20 reference to COVID-19.

02:22 In the week that followed, there was a significant increase in anti-Asian content on Twitter,

02:27 as well as an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans, according to a 2021 study.

02:32 I ask for unanimous consent to enter this study from the American Journal of Public

02:35 Health into the record.

02:38 Without objection to order.

02:39 Mr. Mattis, how can Congress address the CCP without contributing to xenophobia?

02:48 The first is to continue making such distinctions, because even if they are semantic in terms

02:54 of policies, they help us frame in our own head, in our own mind, what it is that we

02:58 should be focused on and how our efforts should be guided.

03:02 The second is that I firmly believe that we have a shortage of China expertise for all

03:09 of the different departments in the government, and finding ways, either through the creation

03:13 of an open source center, as Colonel Newsham mentioned, the sort of the recreation of the

03:18 Foreign Broadcast Information Service, but really discussing its public dissemination

03:22 issue to make information available.

03:24 Because at the end of the day, our federal government and law enforcement will focus

03:28 on illegal behavior, and that's where we want it in a democracy.

03:32 But what we're talking about is often unacceptable, but still legal behavior.

03:38 And that's something that has to be guided by a civil, a discussion in civil society

03:42 about how we govern ourselves and how we deal with each other as citizens.

03:46 Thank you very much.

03:47 The AAPI community has seen a sharp increase in discrimination and race-based violence

03:52 since the start of the pandemic.

03:54 There were 158 anti-Asian hate crimes in the country in 2019.

03:59 This number jumped to 746 in 2021, nearly five times higher.

04:06 Our constituents are depending on us to help them, not endanger them with racist rhetoric.

04:11 As a proud member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, my hope is that Congress

04:15 will prioritize policies that affirm and protect the AAPI members of our community, like the

04:19 Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act, and stop contributing to hateful acts against

04:24 them.

04:25 And finally, Professor Snyder, when political leaders normalize racist language that pits

04:29 one group against another, does it make our country more or less safe?

04:34 As our adversaries know and seek to exploit, it makes us less safe.

04:43 Thank you.

Ayanna Pressley: 'Republican Rhetoric And Policies Have Helped To Normalize' Anti-Asian Racism

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