In the mid-1980s, Henry Kissinger approached I. M. Pei with an idea to bring prominent Chinese Americans together to help resolve issues in United States-China relations. Pei, who died in New York in 2019 at age 102, has been one of the most prolific architects of our time. He designed landmark buildings throughout the world, including the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris, and the Bank of China in Hong Kong. He was born in Guangzhou, China, came to the U.S. at age 17, and studied architecture at MIT and Harvard.
Kissinger’s idea resonated with Pei in 1989 when the People’s Liberation Army killed hundreds of students during peaceful protests in Beijing. Pei wrote in the New York Times: “More than anything we wanted to combine our love of the nation that had become our own with our desire to do something for the land of our birth and heritage. We wanted to believe that a more open and modern China was possible. Today, these dreams are dashed by the horrible events at Tiananmen Square.”
With the help of a few prominent Chinese American artists, scientists, and businessmen, Pei founded the Committee of 100. Today it has over 100 members. They include CEOs of global corporations, Hollywood celebrities, presidents of U.S. universities, prominent members of the academia, etc. Membership is by invitation only. Looking at the list of members and reading their biographies, one becomes proud of the country whose naturalized citizens rise to the highest level of prominence and wealth solely due to their extraordinary talents and hard work.
The formation of the Committee of 100 coincided with the exponential growth of trade, cultural and scientific exchange between the U.S. and China. Members of the Committee of 100, with their roots in China, have been instrumental in this exchange. Before COVID-19 disrupted travel and cultural events, they had been regularly received by leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. The committee conducted spectacular Gala events in the U.S. promoting Chinese culture and China’s achievements on the world stage.
Unfortunately, as years passed, the Committee of 100 wore away from Kissinger’s idea. Financial interests of the Committee members, many of whom have developed multimillion- (multibillion-) dollar businesses in China, made it difficult for them to criticize China for human rights abuses, as its founder Pei did. They did speak against Harvard’s quota on the admission of Chinese American students and against FBI investigating American scientists with ties to China.
But where is their outrage about China’s policies in Tibet, the crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, the internment of 2 million Uighurs in Xinjiang, the censorship of social media, and the disappearance of doctors who sounded the alarm on COVID-19? In summer 2020, Zoom, whose workforce is in China and whose CEO is a member of the Committee of 100, interrupted U.S. meetings devoted to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the event that started the Committee of 100.
Last year, the Committee of 100 expressed interest in working with the Committee of Concerned Scientists on overzealous investigation of Chinese scientists by the U.S. government. A few cases of wrongly targeted scientists have been addressed by the Committee of Concerned Scientists. They were acquitted and sued the government for millions of dollars. One wrongly accused is too many, but did members of the Committee of 100 ask themselves whether such acquittals would ever happen in China?
Responding to a request to join forces in combating discrimination and internment of China’s Muslim population, a representative of the Asian Pacific American Justice Task Force told the executive director of the Committee of Concerned Scientists that he had little awareness of the specifics of it and that the issue is beyond the scope and purpose of the APA Justice Task Force. This was after the topic dominated the news about China for two years. It prompted resolutions by Congress in 2019 and 2020.
The meaning of Pei’s “desire to do something for the land of our birth and heritage” must have found different interpretation among current members of the Committee of 100.
Eugene M. Chudnovsky is a distinguished professor at the City University of New York and co-chairman of the Committee of Concerned Scientists.
Correction: This piece originally said the “regional co-chair of the Committee of 100 in Washington, D.C., told the executive director of the Committee of Concerned Scientists that he had no knowledge of” the internment of a portion of China’s Muslim population. That individual disputed the characterization of that sentence so it now reads as follows: “A representative of the Asian Pacific American Justice Task Force told the executive director of the Committee of Concerned Scientists that he had little awareness of the specifics of it and that the issue is beyond the scope and purpose of the APA Justice Task Force.”
