"Chinese Americans are caught between U.S. hostility and Beijing’s political pressure" by CWP alum Audrye Wong
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and state Sen. Scott Wiener are engaged in a contested campaign to succeed retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi in California’s 11th Congressional District. To prevail, either candidate will need to win over a substantive number of Chinese American voters.
Chinese Americans make up nearly a quarter of San Francisco’s population. Although the race has largely centered on kitchen-table concerns and the conflict in Gaza, the politically sensitive question of China and Taiwan has also drawn considerable attention. Undoubtedly, Beijing is watching the race closely, given that the winner will have a voice and a vote in Congress, where U.S. foreign policy is made.
Previously, Dr. Wong was a professor at the University of Southern California and postdoctoral fellow at the Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft joint program of the Harvard Kennedy School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program. She has also held affiliations with Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Wilson Center, the Brookings Institution, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is fluent in Mandarin.
Photo Credit: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/china-united-front-communist-party-22375568.php
