Zhang Zhaohong: Why did the US Senate apologize to the "Chinese Exclusion Act"?

>Zhang Zhaohong: Why did the US Senate apologize to the "Chinese Exclusion Act"? Zhang Zhaohong The U.S. Senate passed a resolution on the 6th to defend the unfair "Chinese Exclusion Act" 130 years ago...

Zhang Zhaohong

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution on the 6th to apologize for the unfair "Chinese Exclusion Act" 130 years ago. So, what exactly is the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 passed by the U.S. Congress? And what impact did the subsequent legal provisions have on Chinese immigrants at that time? What kind of discrimination does it bring? In the past few years, I have been compiling some histories of overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese communities. I have read some materials in this area, and now I have compiled the materials and published them, because if we forget the past, there will be no future. 1882 was an unforgettable year of humiliation for the Chinese in the United States. This year, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, an epoch-making event in the history of immigration, for the first time. The bill stipulates that (1) starting from this year, the entry of Chinese workers will be stopped for 10 years; (2) Chinese who have already arrived in the United States will not be allowed to naturalize as American citizens. Once Chinese return to China to visit relatives, they will not be able to return to the United States; (3) 1880 Chinese workers who have resided in the United States before November 17, 2017 and have obtained customs certification documents will be allowed to re-enter the United States after temporarily leaving the country; (4) Chinese (non-Chinese workers) who hold Chinese government documents in English stating that they have the right to enter the United States according to the contract are allowed to enter the United States; (5) Chinese who enter the United States without proper channels will be deported according to the judgment of a U.S. court after the passage of this bill; (6) After that, no state or federal court will allow Chinese to naturalize as U.S. citizens. After this law was signed, many Chinese workers had to live in foreign lands for the rest of their lives. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was just the beginning. In 1884, the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Supplementary Act made new provisions. Chinese people and their descendants from all over the world will always be treated as Chinese. Regardless of whether they have become citizens of other countries (such as British or French nationality), if they want to come to the United States, they must be subject to the restrictions of the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Supplementary Act, and they must return to the country they came from. Since then, anti-Chinese actions have become more and more intense. In 1888, the U.S. government enacted the "Scott Act", which stipulated that after Chinese workers left the United States, they were not allowed to return to the United States regardless of whether they had documents or not. As a result, more than 20,000 Chinese workers who are currently returning to China to visit relatives cannot return to the United States. During this period, "Chinese exclusion" became a fashionable slogan for American political parties to win votes. At this point, the number of Chinese going to the United States dropped sharply, reaching the lowest level in 1887, with only 10 people. In May 1892, Congress passed the "Geary Act", a "habeas corpus law" that deprived the Chinese. Provision was made to extend the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the entry of Chinese laborers, for 10 years. Cancel the habeas corpus order for Chinese people, and Chinese people are not allowed to apply for bail. This case deprived the Chinese of their right to personal protection (habeas corpus) and completely lost their basic judicial rights. Moreover, within one year of the passage of the bill, all Chinese workers in the United States must apply for a residence permit. Those who still do not have a residence permit after one year will be arrested and deported. Anyone who enters the country illegally will be imprisoned for five years and will be deported after serving the sentence. On May 15, 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court held in its ruling in the case of "Kwong Yiu Ting v. Government of the United States" that the right of the United States (through its Congress) to exclude and expel aliens, either absolutely or conditionally, "is an inherent and inalienable right of every sovereign and independent nation." In 1894, the Qing government signed a "Ten-year Treaty Prohibiting Chinese Labor from Entering the United States" with the United States. This treaty expired in 1904. Congress also enacted legislation on April 27, 1904, to indefinitely extend the Chinese Exclusion Act (referring to the law signed in 1894) that should take effect immediately, and prohibit Chinese workers from entering the American continent from Hawaii, the Philippines and other US-controlled areas. This led to the historic patriotic movement across China to boycott American goods. In the early days, the anti-Chinese movement in the United States was just sporadic mob-style attacks, robberies, and murders. Later, it evolved into an organized, institutional, and comprehensive action promoted by the government. The main anti-Chinese elements were originally limited to the working class and expanded to the parliament and city government. In order to win workers' votes, politicians sacrificed the interests of the Chinese to gain favor. And the object of rejection. The driving force behind this entire action is racial discrimination. Influenced by the social Darwinism of the time, white Americans in the 19th century believed that they were the "superior" nation and the Chinese were the "inferior" nation, so they were excluded from American territory. This was of course racial prejudice. However, at that time, the Manchu Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, faced with internal and external troubles, and was unable to protect overseas Chinese in the United States. As a result, tragedies for many overseas Chinese continued to occur. From then until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, the number of Chinese declined rapidly. In 1880, before the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, it was 105,465. After 60 years, the Chinese population had dropped to 77,504 in 1940, accounting for 0.06% of the U.S. population. In addition, I saw a paragraph in "The Vicissitudes of the Chinese in the United States" compiled by Chen Ruzhou and Chen Yingfu: "There is also a similar anti-Chinese provision in the Arizona Constitution. Chinese people along the railway towns must leave the town when the sun goes down. Otherwise, they will be imprisoned for the night and will not be free until daylight. It was not until 1982 when the Ancestral Association of the Same Origin initiated a petition, and Governor Gasol deleted this ordinance." It is also a courageous and responsible attitude for the U.S. Senate to apologize for the injustice 130 years later and return belated justice to Chinese immigrants.