Mea Culpa Too Little, Too Late

Wen Ho Lee cases demonstrates persistence of 'Asian-as-invader' stereotype in American journalism

by Ken Yamada

A political cartoon shows a comet with a sinister-looking Chinese face hurling treacherously across the ocean toward the United States. A commentary on the Wen Ho Lee case? Hardly. This illustration appeared 130 years ago in Harper's Weekly.

The idea of Asian invaders isn't new, yet American news media zealously continue to rekindle the myth. Fueled by collective hysteria and political expediency, the constant rejuvenation of this plot continues to propagate old stereotypes and conjure up racist fears.

Wen Ho Lee, of course, is the Los Alamos scientist who was suspected by the FBI of being a Chinese spy. In September, all but one of the 59 charges against him were dropped. Mr. Lee pleaded guilty to a single count of mishandling classified information.

The New York Times, perhaps the most aggressive in reporting the story, published in late September a 1,600 word mea culpa on its corrections page, explaining why the esteemed newspaper fell short of its high journalistic standards. "We too quickly accepted the government's theory that espionage was the main reason for Chinese nuclear advances and its view that Dr. Lee had been properly singled out as the prime suspect," the Times said.

Other news media gleefully reported the Times' historic apology, with commentary running the gamut. Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Lou Gelfand wrote, "the Times' candor is refreshing and fortifies its credibility." The American Spectator correspondent John Corry viewed the explanation as a sign of the newspaper's "liberal bias."

But what most American media failed to note is the historical context of the Asian-as-invader story, a plot line that continues to re-emerge since the Harper's Weekly cartoon was first published in 1870.

About 40 years after that cartoon, for example, the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee warned of the dangers of Japanese immigration to the state. In a 1908 commentary, the Bee proclaimed: "As soon as a Jap can produce a lease, he is entitled to a wife. He sends a copy of his lease back home and gets a picture bride, and they increase like rats."

At the start of World War II, American media continued to fuel such hostile sentiments. In 1942, Time reported subversive activities by Japanese Americans; the San Diego (Calif.) Union wrote how Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry "played an important part in the success of Japanese attacks; The Los Angeles Times editorialized that "a Japanese American grows up to be Japanese, not American." These accounts appeared despite the absence of any documented acts of espionage. In 1997, amid stories that the Democratic National Committee accepted improper campaign contributions from Chinese donors, the National Review published on its March cover an illustration of President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton, dressed in Chinese garb with slanted eyes and buck teeth. The cover story was tagged "The Manchurian Candidates," in a reference to a similarly-titled 1962 film about a Korean war hero brainwashed by communists to assassinate the president.

Now we have the Wen Ho Lee story. From nearly the beginning, Asian-American groups protested that investigators unfairly singled out Mr. Lee because of his race.

When put in a larger, historical context, the plot indeed looks familiar. But it's not really about espionage. Rather, it's how American media continues to write the same old biased story.

Ken Yamada is senior editor at Red Herring. He has worked as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Newsday and The Los Angeles Times.