{"id":2081,"date":"2025-09-20T00:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T00:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/porosresearch.com\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2025-11-06T00:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:14:43","slug":"82-asian-american-civil-rights-groups-oppose-house-proposal-to-revive-the-china-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/?p=2081&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"82 Asian American Civil Rights Groups Oppose House Proposal to Revive the \u201cChina Initiative\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The U.S. House Appropriations Committee recently added a provision to the Fiscal Year 2026&nbsp;<em>Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act<\/em>&nbsp;that seeks to reinstate the \u201cChina Initiative,\u201d drawing concern from Asian American advocacy groups. On September 12, a coalition of 82 civil rights and Asian American organizations\u2014including Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), Stop AAPI Hate, and the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CAA)\u2014sent a joint letter to Congress voicing opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cChina Initiative\u201d was launched in 2018 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prevent economic espionage and technology transfer, with a focus on cases linked to China. Since its implementation, it has sparked controversy within academia and civil rights communities, as several cases lacked sufficient evidence, resulting in dismissals or acquittals of scholars. Critics argued that the program disproportionately targeted Asian\u2014particularly Chinese American\u2014researchers in the sciences. In 2022, the DOJ formally terminated the initiative, stating it would adopt broader strategies to address national security risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On September 10, the House Appropriations Committee passed the funding bill by a 34\u201328 vote. The committee\u2019s report explicitly called for the DOJ to \u201crebuild the China Initiative,\u201d framing it as part of efforts to counter China and maintain U.S. competitiveness. However, the measure must still go through Senate consideration and a full legislative process, leaving its future uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the September 12 joint letter, the 82 organizations stressed that reviving the initiative would negatively impact Asian American communities and researchers of Asian descent working in the United States. The letter urged Congress to strike the provision, emphasizing that national security policy should not be based on race or nationality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The coalition effort was spearheaded by AAJC, AASF, Stop AAPI Hate, and CAA, with participation from a wide range of civil rights groups, academic associations, and community organizations nationwide. Many groups noted that since the initiative\u2019s repeal in 2022, U.S. policy has shifted toward broader oversight of transnational security and research collaborations. Reinstating the old framework, they warned, could create new tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During its implementation, the \u201cChina Initiative\u201d involved multiple cases against researchers, some of which were later dropped due to insufficient evidence. These cases stirred public debate at the time, with scholars voicing concerns over barriers to academic exchange and researchers becoming more cautious in international collaborations. When the DOJ announced the program\u2019s termination, it acknowledged flaws in its execution and decided to discontinue pursuing cases under the \u201cChina Initiative\u201d label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The funding bill\u2019s next steps depend on Senate review and bicameral negotiations over the final version. Observers predict that, amid ongoing U.S.-China tensions, debates in Congress over balancing national security with academic freedom will remain contentious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. House Appropriations Committee recently added  [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2082,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions\/2082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}