Welcome to the Ethnic Media Spotlight, a new regular column where we highlight reporting from across the ethnic media sector. Stories you – or we – may have missed, topics that don’t show up on most major news channels, important perspectives unique to the diverse communities represented by ethnic media – you’ll find it here.
California Governor Meets China’s Xi Jinping
This week we begin with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s trip to China, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Billed as a diplomatic mission focused on climate, many are also seeing the visit as signs of a potential thaw in otherwise frosty relations between the world’s leading superpowers. Newsom’s meeting with Xi comes ahead of the international APEC Summit scheduled to take place next month in San Francisco (Newsom’s hometown), where there is speculation Xi may meet with President Biden.
But… and there is always a but. According to an article in the Chinese-language World Journal, not everyone in Beijing is looking through the same rose-colored lenses. “Many Chinese scholars believe that the Biden administration’s basic thinking and posture towards China has not changed,” the article points out, a posture many in China see as one of containment and suppression. And with elections in the US looming, anti-China rhetoric is sure to heat up once again, straining ties even further.
Troubled Waters Over Philippine Islands
Another source of US-China friction comes by way of the West Philippine Sea, where earlier this month Chinese and Filipino naval vessels squared off near Pag-Asa Island, part of the contested Spratly Island chain that both Beijing and Manila claim as their own, according to reporting from the Philippine Post. “Confrontations between Beijing and Manila in the West Philippine Sea, or parts of the South China Sea within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), have increased in frequency,” the article notes.
Richmond, CA Passes Anti-Israel Resolution
Closer to home, the Jewish News of Northern California is reporting that the city of Richmond, California just passed an “anti-Israel resolution” condemning the country for its ongoing bombardment of Gaza. “The people of the United States, whose government and tax dollars directly support Israel’s military, have immediate moral obligations to condemn Israel’s acts,” Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez told a meeting of the City Council after the resolution passed. Several opponents of the measure told the paper that as Jews they now feel less safe in their community.
Putting a Human Face on Immigration
An opinion piece in the Spanish language Hoy Dallas out of Texas looks to put a “human face” on the topic of immigration. The piece profiles Lixania Rodas, a one-time attorney and human rights activist from Venezuela who like millions of others abandoned her home in search of security and a better life. “Now I am completely unemployed. Right now, I’m still like the people who come here for the first time, with nothing,” Rodas says. “The ordeal is not over. Migration is not over.”
It’s the Economy…
And in Atlanta, attorney and journalist Jongwon Lee writes in the Korea Daily that inflation is eroding Asian American support for President Biden as the 2024 elections loom on the horizon. Citing recent polling data from PEW, Lee notes that among Korean Americans inflation ranked highest (38%) as among the key election issues, far surpassing other topics, including inequality (19%) and climate change (12%). And despite the wave of anti-Asian attacks that have roiled communities nationwide, only 6% of Republicans and 11% of Democrats ranked racism as a major issue. An overwhelming 97% stated they would vote for a candidate based on policy and not on whether the candidate was Asian American.
Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum Visits LA
Finally, out of Los Angeles, La Opinión’s Araceli Martinez reports on the recent visit to the city by Mexican presidential hopeful Claudia Sheinbaum, who was recently tapped to succeed current President Manuel Lopez Obrador. “For us you are homeland, you are nation, you are life, you give strength to the migrant families of our country,” said Sheinbaum, speaking to a packed crowd at the Million Dollar Theater in Downtown LA.
Her remarks also touched on a longstanding promise to turn Mexico’s consulates in the US into “spaces of protection” for the many migrants living and working here. “We want to strengthen the work of the consulates so that they are not only promoters of trade relations… now we are facing a great opportunity to make progress.”
