America’s Apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act Is Not an “Act of Charity” at All

On June 18, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass an apology in legislative form for the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882. Dissemination of this news led to great celebration from the Chinese-American community.

As early as October 2011, the American Senate had already unanimously passed the decision to apologize for the Chinese Exclusion Act. Now the House of Representatives has once again unanimously voted to overturn one of the darkest laws in human rights history. President of the National Council of Chinese-Americans Shue Haipei said that this is a brand new day for Chinese-Americans; a day they have been looking forward to for a long time.

But there are websites that say the U.S. Congress’ unanimous vote to apologize for anti-Chinese policies is the result of a blossoming of American representatives’ consciences. With respect to this viewpoint, I don’t dare to blindly agree.

True, the American Chinese Exclusion Act was ultimately repealed, and apologies were made to the Chinese. Members of the U.S. Congress eventually recognized that this bill ran counter to the human rights ideology that America advocated, and that it was relevant to serious contradictions in the developmental structure of U.S.-China relations. However, how could this bill that the average person thinks is very abnormal continue for 130 years in what is reputed to be the most free, democratic and humane country in the world? People know that in the 19th century, Chinese people in America were few and far between, with the number of Chinese people entering through American customs only 42 in 1853, increasing to 13,000 people in 1854. Afterward, due to America’s need for the construction of the Pacific Railway, the number of Chinese people imported into America exceeded 10,000 every year.

The hard work in the face of criticism by the Chinese and the selfish pursuit of personal gain by white Americans formed a distinct contrast. As a result, some Americans publicly shouted out the slogan, “don’t give the Chinese job opportunities,” and hateful anti-Chinese incidents were frequent. This is the background for the official launch of the U.S. Congress’ Chinese Exclusion Act. In May 1885, the 47th U.S. Congress formally passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stipulated that any ship from any foreign port carrying Chinese workers into America would be considered to be committing a crime. Moreover, American courts did not have to grant Chinese people American citizenship status. In 1944, in order to promote the success of America’s war goals, Congress finally allowed Chinese people to become American citizens. But because there was not complete legal negation of this bill, the shadow of the “Chinese Exclusion Act” continued to envelop American society.

This just confirms that the background and aim of the more than 130-year-old Chinese Exclusion Act runs in complete opposition to the spirit of American law. In that sense, why did America not negate this absolutely preposterous law for so long? Is it wrong to be fair to the Chinese people who have made contributions to the development of American culture, society and economy? Therein lie the extremely complicated causes of this issue. However, there is a cause that everybody knows, namely the discrimination towards the Chinese by Americans. The Chinese-American community has unremittingly strived for 100 years to resist discrimination and fight for rights. Over the past 100 years, the voice of the Chinese in American political life has continuously been extremely small. The long-term political bruises and complex mental psychology that the Chinese Exclusion Act has caused for the Chinese people has been particularly important in the unconscious construction of a wall against participation in politics.

People can see that the 4 million Chinese immigrants in America are a group “brimming with energy and full of vitality.” For the past few years, political elites have been emerging in large numbers from among the Chinese-American community. Elite officials who represent members of the Chinese community, such as Judy Chu and Gary Locke, have been emerging in rapid succession, forming a new political power. For example, Judy Chu, the first member of the U.S. Congress of Chinese descent, is one of the promoters of the apology for America’s Chinese Exclusion Act. The sudden emergence of generation after generation of Chinese political elites, along with their great efforts, led to a review of the Chinese Exclusion Act by America’s upper levels. Clearly, the resistance to the Chinese Exclusion Act relied not upon supernatural entities or emperors, but on the strength of the Chinese people themselves. Since 2010, the work of numerous organizations of Chinese-Americans, such as the National Council of Chinese-Americans, have had an extremely vast influence by jointly pushing for the creation of dialogues, petitions and promotion of an act of apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Of course, it’s even more important to look at how China’s new strength, especially the increase in China’s comprehensive national power since its reform and opening up to the world, has caused the world to look at China with increased respect. At present, even if having this or that opinion toward Chinese people is still part of American culture, it is as Li Bai wrote in one of his poems: “My skiff has left 10,000 mountains far behind.” China has won applause and respect in the field of international affairs. With the launch of Shenzhou 9, China became the third most powerful nation in space flight, following only America and Russia. If the Chinese Exclusion Act continued to carry on as before, it would not only make the world laugh, but would also make things difficult for America without having any benefit.

The U.S. Congress’ apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act really is not equivalent to the end of discrimination against Chinese people in American society. Even now, racial equality is still a sensitive subject in American politics, culture and social life. America still has a long road ahead of it in terms of allowing minorities, including ethnic Chinese, to completely integrate into mainstream culture. Historical facts have already proven that, as a type of ideology, the phenomenon of racial discrimination still exists to varying degrees. It is extremely important for ethnic Chinese people to raise their own quality of life, integrate into American culture and increasingly join together as a group. And people can see ethnic Chinese people have a lot of strengths, but some also have bad habits, like gambling and problems with being shortsighted and over-exaggerating. Because of this, Chinese people in America need to form political power and lead clean and honest lives. In the end, this will be the most reliable path.