Mayor Choi’s Anti-China & Pakistan Fiasco

Jeff Lalloway and Christina Shea with Irvine Mayor Steven Choi-2014

Choi Insults Community and Gets Confronted by Anti-Defamation League for his Bigotry

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Steven Choi, Mayor City of Irvine 2014 –

A recently surfaced video of Mayor Choi depicts a deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable act for any American Mayor: Choi telling Irvine’s Chinese- and Pakistani-American residents, to their faces, that their home countries are terrorist and human rights-abusing countries, and therefore Irvine will not be friends with them. The Chinese-American community was disgusted and hurt, and the pain inflicted on the Pakistani-American community is best described in letter of condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League, an over 100 year-old civil rights and human relations agency, that was formally issued to Mayor Choi. It noted, “Your remarks generalizing terrorism and the Taliban to Karachi denigrated the Pakistani community and demonized an entire group of people,” that “Irvine is no place for hate,” and that “As Mayor of Irvine, you bear a special responsibility to both challenge and distance yourself from hateful rhetoric.” Indeed, Mayor Choi truly failed in this responsibility, and has unsurprisingly become an embarrassment to the City of Irvine.

Jeff Lalloway and Christina Shea with Irvine Mayor Steven Choi-2014
Jeff Lalloway and Christina Shea with Irvine Mayor Steven Choi-2014

This incident came to the fore earlier this year, when alongside Councilmembers Lalloway and Shea, Mayor Choi struck down two proposed Irvine Friendship City relationships, one with Baoji, China and Karachi, Pakistan, disregarding community support as well as Chinese- and Pakistani-American Irvine residents giving testimony of their support for the proposed relationships. These community members were ignored outright, and even more damning of Choi is the fact that very same day, there was another proposed Friendship City relationship with a Vietnamese city, for which Vietnamese-Americans expressed disapproval and thus the proposed relationship was subsequently terminated. One must ask, why did Choi give one community what it asked for, but not do the same for two others? Irvine is home to over 30,000 Chinese-Americans, and is a city which bills itself as “an international crossroads community.” Surely, isolationism, discrimination and bigotry of the degree which Steven Choi has brought to Irvine runs directly counter to Irvine’s inclusive and uniquely international identity—the irony of Choi himself being a South Korean immigrant is palpable.

Further, and equally dumbfounding, is that Councilman Lalloway responded in April to Irvine’s Chinese and Pakistani-American’s testimony supporting the Baoji and Karachi relationships with the question “We have to focus on foreign relations?” and the statement “Let’s just stay out of foreign relations.” In the 21st century, it is common knowledge among U.S. local elected officials—particularly among mayors—that cities must actively forge international relationships, a most common model for which is friendship and sister cities, in order to acquire a range of resources necessary to ensure the competitiveness of the city. When we consider that American cities were successfully engaging in inter-city relationships with countries like China long before the Cold War ended, we see that in no uncertain terms, Mayor Choi’s leadership has set Irvine back decades. Ultimately, Choi’s shameful bigotry and Lalloway’s ignorance of modern urban governance are a shocking affront to Irvine, and both the continuity of Irvine’s international identity and the potential for its international connectivity rest upon these men moving on from the city’s leadership.

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10 Comments

  1. Dan can’t you dredge up some new trash and stop repeating yourself over and over with “old hat” news? We have already beaten the horse to death on the China and Pakistan friendship City rejection. Since you persist however, let me make just a couple of points of my own:

    First, if you think Communist China is a nice friendly place, you should spend some time there. Most of those hurt Chinese you refer to, got the hell out of China and came to America, the land of freedom. I doubt very seriously there are many who would willingly return to their home country, or support the Human Rights abuses that go on there.

    Now let’s look at Pakistan, hiding place of Osama bin Laden and the winter home of the radical Taliban element. This accomplished with approval of the Pakistan government, the country is so dangerous, the State Department has issued a “No Travel” advisory to Americans. Frankly, who but Pakistan immigrants living in the safety of America, would want to be friends with such a government.

    Lastly, the ADL is entitled to their opinion, just as any other group is, but I take exception to their position. With friends like China and Pakistan, we don’t need enemies.

    • Ltpar: You are completely (and dangerously) incorrect, please let me help you understand:

      1) China has not been communist since 1978. Having lived, worked and conducted research in China for years, and having worked extensively with the Irvine Chinese community myself, I can attest that not only are most Chinese people are happy with their homeland, they return every year. Human rights are no laughing matter, but let’s recognize the principal motivation for why Chinese immigrate to the US–it is to enter their children into our education system. Irvine’s Chinese supported the Baoji relationship. If you want to talk about China, please know what you’re talking about.

      2) Regarding Pakistan, you’re making the same mistake Choi did: Confusing the country’s government with the people themselves. Irvine’s Pakistanis supported the Karachi relationship, and for good reason: City-to-city relationships are a unique bridge for societies to bypass divisive national-level politics and bring cultural and political understanding, economic opportunities and global educational resources to both societies.

      Again, being close with both Irvine’s Chinese and Pakistanis, I can tell you that the positive sentiment for these relationships by Chinese/Pakistanis expressed in the embedded video are reflective of their whole respective communities.

      I understand your opinion, but opinions do not hold water to facts.

    • Pat, I haven’t been to China yet, but my wife spent seven weeks in China in 2007 while on assignment for the LA Times. She did extensive travel in big cities and the countryside. She would disagree with your assessment

      Have you ever been to China?

      • Dear Dan & Ltpar;
        Did you ever been in Pakistan or did you ever study about Pakistan instead stories about Osama or Taliban?
        Do you know that since 10 years Taliban has killed more than 70,000 innocent men women and kids in Pakistan, before 10 years there were few Mullah Politicians who won the elections but now every Mullah Parties were rejected by Pakistani people and there is a democratic process going on there which has elected 5 different democratic parties in all over Pakistan sine 35 years and they have paid the price for that by beheading bombed and shot by Taliban and Al-Qaida.
        And about Karachi let me tell you the fact that there is no way that Taliban or Al-Qaida can conquer that City because the political party which always has won the election from there is totally against Mullah/Taliban culture and all the people of Karachi has been supporting that party for this reason.

        There is no country has sacrificed that much what Pakistan had and still doing for the allied countries against terrorism…

        Pardon my week English but I hope you can understand my point.
        A Sincere democrat from Karachi…

        • Kahn – No, I have never been to Pakistan.

          You however, write an excellent position in support of the people. Without question, the normal people in Pakistan and a number of other similar countries have been brutalized by radical Islamic elements and governments who tolerated their existence. I have no doubt that a majority of people in Pakistan would like to be left alone to live and work in peace. That sadly is not the environment which exists. There are substantial Anti-American elements in both the population and the government, which led to the State Department issuing it’s warning advisory. As I have stated before, it would be foolish for Irvine to engage in a Friendship City relationship with a place that is unsafe for a delegation to travel to. If that ever changes in the future, my opinion might change. Thanks you for your comments.

        • Thanks for the thoughtful comment Khan. I haven’t been to that part of the world yet but in my international travels, regardless of nation, I have always found people to be wonderful and friendly.

      • Yes, Dan I have been to China twice.

        The first time was as part of the Sister City Board evaluating Bejing as a potential Sister City. People were friendly and the local politicans were good hosts. There were conditions that had to be met to become a Sister City and Bejing never accomplished them and the request went by the wayside.

        The second time was with a group of friends I have traveled the world with and we saw more of the country. Again, people at the street level were friendly, but led typical Third World lives. Outside the cities, you could see the poverty and tough living conditions people had to endure. In many cases I found the scenarios very moving. I witnessed no protests, government interventions or human rights abuses. That said, anyone who believes that human rights abuses in China to not exist is very naive. I have no ax to grind with the everyday people in China or any of the other Third World countries I have vistined or worked in (Afghansitan & Iraq). My problem is with the governments who are in most cases corrupt and abuse the people.

        The demand by the Chinese government to end our Sister City Relationship in Taiwain was the deal breaker on the second China Sister City attempt. Of course your BFF’s Larry Agran, Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang would have deserted our long time friends in Taiwain for the sake of jumping in bed with China. Wonder what the quid pro quo would have been for Larry on that one?

        • Pat, you can find third world conditions in this country, typically in very red states in the south. China was called a terrorist nation by our mayor. Watch the video. Shameful.

  2. Well, Republicans are guilty too Republican supported right wing dictators in Central America that killed people and political opposition. China and Pakistan are not the only ones. We know Nixon supported a dictator in Chile. Conservatives only point out to China and Pakistan or North Korea instead of political regimes that are like Franco. What Dan is saying is some of the folks from China and Pakistan disagreed with their governments. And yes China is poor but so is Mississippi in the US which sometimes doesn’t have electricity in the Mississippi Delta area or whites in West Virginia or Kentucky mountain areas. or Mexicans in the Rio Grande and this is the US we are talking about. Same goes for the Commonwealth of Puetro Rico.

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