'No room' for China-bashing in election season: US politicians

Members of the Democratic and Republican parties said that there's "no room" for China bashing come election season, when some candidates are prone to negatively portraying the country in their campaigns.

"There's no room for it - and there should not be room for it - in the democratic process," said Raul Alvillar, national political director of the Democratic National Committee.

"Anybody who is doing that - whether it's a Republican or a Democratic candidate - should be held accountable for the comments that they're making because given the day, you're going to be representing folks like yourself or like myself, and we want people there that are representing our interests and our values and our morals," he said. "When there's hatred and comments that aren't good for our community, it's wrong and it's bad."

Alvillar spoke during a panel discussion focused on the Democratic Party and Chinese Americans in the 2016 federal elections, hosted by the Committee of 100 at its 25th anniversary summit. Alvillar, who started in his post last year, conversed with former US Ambassador to China Gary Locke.

Mayor Allan Fung, a Republican representing Cranston, Rhode Island, said that it's the responsibility of individuals in the party to speak up against the use of stereotypes come campaign season.

"I think as an individual and as a party, [we should] be sure that we're inclusive and provide opportunities for all," he said.

"But what we've also seen is sometimes people using stereotypes, whether knowingly and unknowingly, and putting it as part of their campaign ads, and we've seen in the past, there have been some very high-profile cases across the country," he said. "And the rhetoric that gets pushed against China, or using some stereotypes in those campaigns, I think it's a responsibility on us as individuals, the Committee of 100, as a party to be able to speak up when they see those types of stereotypes going overboard."

But Fung, who has been Cranston mayor since 2009, also said that a party cannot control the actions of all its members and candidates, but that it's important to raise awareness and continue to have dialogue so people understand political realities.

Ed Cox, chairman of the New York Republican State Committee, said that the party has progressively lost more of the Asian - "and by Asian, I mean mostly Chinese," he said - vote in the past decade and a half, culminating with President Barack Obama's election in 2012.

But the good news is that the party is "coming back on a national level," he said. While most of the Asian vote in the country is concentrated on the coasts, in New York and California, which are "very blue states", Cox said that Virginia might be where the party turns its attention to the Asian vote for the 2016 elections.

"There is one state where it could make a huge difference, and that's Virginia, which has become a swing state," he said.

"And there the Asian population is 7 percent, and I think there will be a focus on the Asian population there in the upcoming 2016 presidential election," said Cox, who is the son-in-law of President Richard Nixon.

Cox said that the party has historically been labeled as the "party of plutocrats," but that's not the case.

"We're the party of the small-businessmen," he said. "We're the party of lower taxes; we're the party of less regulation. When I was out in Bensonhurst with the local Chinese, politically interested people, those were the issues they were interested in," he said.

Fung, Cox and Alvillar all said that the party could be more engaged with the Asian population.

"We shouldn't have off years when we're talking to the AAPI community," Alvillar said.

"I think we have to be engaged, and not just during election years," Fung said.

"Before I was even involved in politics, it used to frustrate me because I was the president of the Chinese American Association, and all you would see with the candidates and politicians was that they would just show up for the Lunar New Year celebration just during election time," Fung said.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com