Fractured: San Francisco's Chinese Political Leaders Struggle To Unify

In 1995, Rose Pak thought it was time for San Francisco to have a Chinese American police chief, one who shared the ethnicity of nearly a quarter of the city’s residents. So she turned to her friend, Willie Brown, who had just been elected mayor. 

Shortly thereafter, on his 1996 inauguration day, Brown named Chinatown native Fred Lau to lead the city’s 2,300-member police department, making him the first Asian American to hold the post.

“Rose got me to do that,” Brown said in an interview with The Standard, smiling at the memory of the unprecedented appointment. “I did what should have been done.”

But since the death of Pak in 2016 and Lee’s passing a year later, San Francisco’s Asian community finds itself without leaders who can adequately bridge its complex ideological and generational divides.

A new wave of activism has emerged around issues including anti-Asian hate crimes and merit-based admissions at Lowell High School, but it has exposed a sharp split between established left-leaning elected officials and energized moderates who supported recalls of the school board and District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Meanwhile, a younger cohort of Asian Americans is stepping up to advocate for the community—and that group is marked by political divisions similar to those experienced by the previous generation.

Just months from now, the long-awaited Chinatown subway station will celebrate its grand opening, with Rose Pak’s English and Chinese name, 白蘭, featured prominently at the front entrance.

“Rose was as important as any elected official—period,” Brown said. “And when you lose somebody like that, you obviously know you have to rebuild, and that takes a lot longer.”

Pak began her career as a journalist in San Francisco in the 1970s, later abandoning the profession in favor of activism. She forged deep roots in the Chinese community and built strong political connections, shrugging off allegations of ties to the Chinese government and acquiring extensive influence under the low-profile umbrella of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

Pak was also known for her fierce personality. Many in the community say the Chinese New Year Parade has become less interesting without Pak’s notoriously acerbic running commentary, which frequently involved hurling insults at politicians.

“It was Rose who started talking about how the Chinese community had been ignored for a long time in San Francisco and how their voting numbers had never been appropriately rewarded on behalf of candidates,” Brown recalled of their conversations about increasing Chinese representation in city politics. “Some of those positions had never been available to community-based people and people of color.”

David Chiu has many “firsts” ahead of his titles in SF politics—the first Asian American supervisor to represent Chinatown (2009), the first Asian American to be Board of Supervisors president (2009) and the first Asian American assemblymember to represent the east side of the city (2015).

After 15 years in local electoral politics, he arrived at the City Attorney’s Office, becoming the first Asian American to hold the seat.

But so many firsts took a toll. 

“It was a lonely experience,” Chiu said. “As a Chinese American political activist, there were not many of us.”

Chiu’s political generation achieved some big breakthroughs, though the wins have proven fleeting. At one point in 2013, there were four Chinese American supervisors and one Korean American supervisor, creating a significant voting bloc representing the Asian community.

That same year, Chinese American political leadership reached a historic peak in San Francisco, with three branches of government led by Chinese Americans. Ed Lee was mayor, Chiu was the Board of Supervisors’ president and Cynthia Ming-mei Lee was presiding judge of the San Francisco Superior Court.

But that high level of representation has begun to fade.

A Rift With Electeds

Both the school board recall and the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin attracted national attention and highlighted a powerful push against progressive politics from San Francisco’s Asian American voters.

Yet the current crop of elected Asian American leaders—including Assemblymember Phil Ting, Supervisor Connie Chan, and Supervisor Gordon Mar—did not stand with their constituents on these issues, particularly when it came to the Boudin recall.

“Chinese residents are voicing their concerns, but those Chinese leaders chose not to listen,” said Man Kit Lam, a public school parent from Hong Kong and a recall campaign activist. He worked for the school district before being laid off, and he volunteered in both recalls and became an outspoken figure after the high-profile case involving the theft of school board recall petitions.

Lam said the Chinese American community, especially the immigrant community, is considered less political, and they highly value education and public safety. He warns that if elected leaders are dismissive of these priorities, the community will rise up in voting.

“In a Chinese word, this is called 官逼民反, ‘the oppressive government forced the people to rebellion,” he said.

David Ho, a political consultant who worked for Boudin, does not think that San Francisco’s Chinese progressive leaders are “out of touch” with the community.

“The leadership is to the left of the community—it’s always been,” Ho said. 

He added that the community “institutions” that train and support Asian American leadership—generally nonprofits that are more progressive than the average Chinese American voter—have been very successful in getting candidates elected.

On the west side of San Francisco, both the Richmond and Sunset districts—each of which is home to significant Chinese American populations that tend to be moderate in their political outlook—are now represented by progressive Chinese American supervisors Chan and Mar, respectively, as well as Assemblymember Ting.

Ho underlined the fact that Chinese American moderates couldn’t secure an elected seat on the west side and that the strong support of both recalls from the Chinese community was an “outlier” situation that did not show a pattern. He suggested that after the November election, there would be a clearer sense of the preferences of Asian voters.

The Boudin recall, which split San Francisco in a 55% to 45% result, also showed a sharp difference between the Chinese American elected officials and many of the community members they represent.

Ting, Mar and Chan say they believe that Chinese American leadership in the city is well-represented, vibrant and strong. But when asked if they consider themselves more progressive, more to the left of many of their Chinese American constituents, each of the three gave The Standard slightly different explanations.

On the other side, Amy Lee, a more moderate young activist and a recall supporter, started her political involvement as a sort of homecoming. Amy, a Chinatown native who used to work as a designer and barista, is now a full-time community activist.

“I feel like Asian Americans have always been victimized, especially the monolingual and elderly,” she said. That’s why she decided to join the movement to fight that discrimination.

After working for Bilal Mahmood’s state Assembly campaign, she said she’s now committed to her own nonprofit, called Dear Community, which aims to uplift Asian Americans, help Chinatown businesses and foster intergenerational connections among Chinese Americans.

But it’s not easy for her. As a newcomer to politics, she said “we are trying to do good things—but you have to earn your space.”

Fong and Amy Lee said they are not considering running for office. But another new-on-the-scene activist is keeping his options open.

Laurance Lee, a parent who became an activist during the school board recall effort, is eyeing some real power. He’s active on Twitter, writes op-eds for multiple local publications and frequently shows up at Asian community events.

“I am looking at some options in the near future,” he confirmed. 

Laurance said he admires people who put themselves out there as potential political candidates and appreciates the civic servants sacrificing their own time and energy for the public.

“I am an advocate for good government,” he said, and running for office “is the most impactful way to help people and to improve our beloved city.”

Han Li can be reached at han@sfstandard.com or on Twitter @lihanlihan.