Cupertino Vice Mayor Blames Media, Opponents For Controversy

CUPERTINO, CA — Cupertino Vice Mayor Liang-Fang Chao did not apologize at Tuesday’s City Council meeting for comments she made earlier this month about the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Instead, she blamed the media and political opponents for attacking her over her comments that the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law for reasons other than racism.

“I’m sorry that many people were misled by what they read in social media or headlines in the print media,” Chao said at the meeting. “You’re upset because you’re against racism. So am I.”

In emails sent to around 2,000 parents in an unofficial “CUSD Parents” Google group, Chao argued that the Chinese Exclusion Act was not entirely rooted in racism because she thought it was a “labor issue where American laborers [wished] to keep cheaper Chinese laborers out, for good reasons.”

The law was passed amid a rise in anti-Chinese hostility over fears that Chinese workers who immigrated to the United States in the 1850s were taking jobs away from American workers.

Chao, who was born in Taiwan, later clarified that she believed the Chinese Exclusion Act was racist and that her comments were being taken out of context of the long discussion thread in the email group.

She said she only brought up the Chinese Exclusion Act in the context of examining historical events through a racial lens in discussing critical race theory — a phrase has become a catchall for various claims about racism and race relations in the United States having nothing to do with critical race theory itself.

Related: Cupertino Vice Mayor Defends Chinese Exclusion Act As Not Racist

Multiple local organizations, including the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club and Cupertino For All, called ahead of the meeting — the first since Chao’s remarks were made public — for her to apologize.

But a majority of public speakers at Tuesday’s meeting defended the vice mayor, as did most comments in more than 50 pages of comments emailed to the council ahead of the meeting.

“Her comments have been twisted, and the media is feeding words into her mouth, and it’s just not fair,” said a resident who identified herself as C.C. Zhou.

Another speaker who grew up in Cupertino and identified himself as Calley Wang said that Chao should not have used the Chinese Exclusion Act to make her argument about race.

Cupertino's population is more than two-thirds Asian and Asian American.

“This is a time when it’s harder and harder to be Chinese American, where prejudice against Chinese Americans is normalized on both sides of the political aisle,” Wang said. “I don’t think this a good time to be trying to minimize that and to not learn from our past when similar sentiments were around.”

But some community members weren't satisfied with Chao's statement.

"There is no context that justifies those exact words," said Neil Park-McClintick, the chair of Cupertino for All, repeating Chao's "labor issue" comment. "And so when you tell us that you did not say that, that’s called gaslighting."

Park-McClintick added that he respected that Chao's doesn't actually think the Chinese Exclusion Act wasn't racist.

"But you did say those words, and I believe you should take accountability for that and be more careful in the future — and be honest about what you said as well," Park-McClintick said. "Those are direct words. There is no context. The context doesn’t justify what you said."

Chao, who is in line to become mayor in December and is up for re-election in 2022, said at the meeting that “throughout history, racism has been used by opportunistic, self-serving politicians to divide people.”

She continued: “In this instance, racism has been manipulated again for political gains by taking snippets out of a long discussion about K-12 education in a members-only local parent group,” with the goal of bringing down “an outspoken Chinese American woman.”

Mayor Darcy Paul, who spoke after Chao’s statement, appeared to agree.

“Although I may have certain political disagreements with each and every person at one point or another, I view it as highly inappropriate to misuse those disagreements as motivations for attacking a person with such gusto for other purposes,” Paul said.