Foreign money and China have become potent campaign issues in Election 2010. The Democrats have been accusing the Chamber of Commerce for trying to subvert the American democracy with hideous foreign money.
A US-China trade bill, fought for and signed by Bill Clinton with overwhelming bipartisan support(even Senator Barbara Boxer voted Yea), is now a lethal campaign weapon for the Democrats. The Democrats run an ad in Pennsylvania questions Republican Pat Toomey's loyalty to America because he supported the trade bill and worked for a Chinese-American boss in the then British colony Hong Kong in 1991. The ad--with China's red flag waving in the background--proclaims: "Job killer Pat Toomey. Maybe he ought to run for Senate–in China." Meanwhile, the Republicans run ads across the country as if the sole purpose of the stimulus package were to create jobs in China. An ad attacking Democratic Congressman Baron Hill asks: "Is Baron Hill running for Congress in Indiana or China?"
Anti-Chinese xenophobia has a long history in this country. It has been used by both parties for their own political expediences. Below the fold is the story of the 1998 California Senate campaign--Barbara Boxer vs. Matt Fong. It was all about foreign money and China. Sounds familiar?
Matt Fong was a soft spoken fourth generation Chinese American born in California in 1953. He was the adopted son of March Kong Fong Eu, a five-term populous Democratic Secretary Of State of California from 1974 to 1994 and the first Asian American woman elected to state office in the U.S. Fong graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1975 and served in the Air Force until his commission expired in 1980. He later served as a budget and finance adviser to the Secretariat of AF in the Pentagon with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was elected California State Treasurer in 1995.
In the 1998, he was the Republican candidate for the Senate.
His Democratic opponent was Barbara Boxer, the one term incumbent junior Senator. The country had gotten tired of the Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent Republican led impeachment. The mood was anti-incumbent and Barbara Boxer was in trouble. Her approval ratings never reached 50 percent. The race was competitive through out the summer. A Field Poll released on October 9 showed that Fong was leading Boxer 48 percent to 44 percent with 8 percent undecided. Even with the 2-to-1 financial advantage, her first wave of attack ads painting Fong as an extremist had not paid off.
Boxer was in trouble. Acting despair, she unleashed the second barrage of ads. The knock out punch was this ad (emphasis added):
The ad, which attacks Fong's position on health maintenance organizations, shows the United Nations, and juxtaposes the words ``Matt Fong'' and ``foreign diplomats.'' It claims that Fong ``wants laws that mean just about the only people in America who can't be sued are foreign diplomats and HMOs.''
The message was subliminal but clear: Fong was foreign and not as patriotic as Boxer was.
There was no outrage from the liberals. Boxer was ahead of her time. It was only when Joe Lieberman and the neocons questioned their patriotism that liberals turned against them. The media had decisively sided with Boxer: Fong was repeatedly asked by reporters which side he would pick if he were a member of the U.S. Senate and China attacked the U.S. Fong's complaint of racism was lightly dismissed as despaired campaign tactics by the Boxer campaign and the media.
In any case, Boxer was prepared to go even lower if this ad did not work out. According to LA Weekly:
The campaign ad that could potentially do the most damage to Fong's
image is an ad the Boxer campaign will probably never run. Call it the
"Asian Money" spot. It could go something like this:
[In a deep, ominous voice] Fact: In 1995, Matt Fong personally solicited a $50,000 campaign contribution from this man [closeup of Ted Sioeng], whom U.S. intelligence officials say was at the center of a Chinese government plot to illegally influence American political elections.
Matt Fong claims he didn't know that this contribution was illegal.
But a United States Senate subcommittee called Matt Fong's explanation "UNPERSUASIVE" and said Fong had "EVERY REASON TO SUSPECT" he was taking illegal, foreign money.
Fact: In 1996, Ted Sioeng gave another $50,000 to a Republican campaign organization after Matt Fong arranged for him to meet in person with Speaker Newt Gingrich [photo of Sioeng and Gingrich together].
Matt Fong told government investigators that he didn't know anything about this contribution - but the Los Angeles Times says Fong's wife was paid a $6,500 "commission" for helping raise the money. Etc., etc.
Potent, vicious stuff, which could well backfire on Boxer if she ever stooped to use it - which is probably why she won't.
Indeed, this second ad was no longer needed. It has already been leaked to the media and the media ran it for her. Words already went out: Fong was part of Communist China's plot to influence American political system. The knock out was complete. The only thing Fong could do was parading his mother, a Democratic stalwart, on the TV and called Boxer "Liar".
The victory was swift. Within three weeks, Boxer blasted pass Fong and beat him by 10 points. Fong accepted defeat graciously and faded into oblivion. Many of his Chinese American supporters were bitter, but they too moved on.
To understand how vicious and shameful Boxer’s tactic was, one has to understand the political environment of the late 1990's. The Republican congress had been going after President Bill Clinton for years. Many Chinese Americans contributed to the Clinton Defense Fund and the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. Republicans decided to use Chinese Americans as scapegoats in their vendetta against Clinton. It was alleged that "Asia money" were fueling into the U.S. from China to subvert the 1996 Federal election. Thus the Chinagate. One case involved Ted Sioeng, an Indonesian businessman. He denoted money through his family members in the U.S. to both Democrats and Republicans, including $250,000 to the DNC, $100,000 to Fong, and $50,000 to a Republican think tank. Once the allegation that Sioeng acted on Chinese government’s behalf surfaced, all funds were returned. (Sioeng, living in Indonesia, denied the allegation.) Congressional committees were established to investigate these allegations. The FBI was also involved. According to the LA Weekly:
Since the allegations of a "Chinese plot" surfaced in the fall of 1996, congressional investigators and FBI agents have become a familiar and unwelcome presence in the Chinese-American community, questioning literally hundreds of contributors, including many longtime citizens and permanent residents whose only apparent offense was their ethnicity. The effect of this dragnet has been to intimidate large portions of what is Fong's natural donor base.
"No question, the investigation has had a chilling impact," says Charlie Woo, a senior statesman of L.A.'s Chinese-American community who has raised money for Fong. "Many times when I have called people and said, 'Let's go help Matt,' the most common response is that they are afraid of any further investigation."
The congressional investigation was partisans, as would have been expected. Republicans and Democrats each offered their own reports. Ironically, the Republican report implicated Chinese government but cleared Fong. The Democratic report largely cleared China but cited discrepancies in Fong's testimony to House and Senate. The Democratic report was leaked days before the election. Fong protested but Boxer denied any involvement.
Meanwhile, another scandal involving Chinese spying on America was brewing. Taiwanese American Physicist Wen Ho Lee's name was thrown out to the media as the prime suspect for stealing "crown jewels" of American nuclear secrets for a foreign country. The bipartisan "Cox-Dicks committee" (what a name!) was formed. The media went into frenzy over this. Tim Russell was waggling his figures while belittling "this Chinese" during NBC's Meet the Press. Even CBS' Connie Chuang, herself a Chinese American, reported that plane loads of potential spies arrived from China every day.
Chinese Americans' loyalty to this country and their patriotism were called into question. A new McCarthyism witch hunt for red Chinese seemed to creep up. It was in this context that Senator Boxer unleashed these ads. And this was the reason why they were so effective and lethal.