Race, Class, Citizenship, and Extraterritoriality: Asian Americans and the 1996 Campaign Finance Scandal

Abstract

Not since the protracted national debate over whether the Chinese should be excluded from the U.S. in the 1870s and early 1880s have we seen more sustained media coverage and acrimonious debate on the so-called Asian connection in the campaign finance scandal of 1996. Based on my own collection and estimate, no less than 4,000 articles have been published on the subject (newspapers and magazines) between September 1996 and February 1998. As of this writing, no end is in sight for this long-running media obsession and partisan brawl among the political elite.