Media, Activists And Politicians Condemn Anti-Asian Hate Before California Shooter Revealed To Be Asian

 Hours before law enforcement identified an Asian male as the suspected gunman at a Chinese New Year’s celebration Saturday night, multiple public figures speculated that the rampage was motivated by anti-Asian hate, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Among those, New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng tweeted Sunday that she was “deeply saddened” by the “senseless act of anti-Asian violence,” which occurred within a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, leaving 10 people dead and another 10 injured. However, speculation from Meng and others ultimately proved baseless, after the Los Angeles sheriff’s office discovered the suspected Asian male gunman, Huu Can Tran, 72, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Torrance, California, on Sunday, CNN reported.

“It’s not surprising Left-leaning Asian-American elites prematurely played the race card here as it’s been obvious using race hasn’t ever been about protecting Asians from street violence, rather it’s become an ideological rallying cry,” Mark Simon, former executive at the now-defunct Apple Daily, a pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper that closed under government pressure, told the DCNF.

“As GOP continues to make inroads with Asian-American voters over crime and education, expect the #StopAsianHate rhetoric from the Left to grow,” Simon said.

The slogan #StopAsianHate gained popularity with activists and Asian organizations after the COVID-19 outbreak and the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings which left eight dead.

Kaiser Kuo, editor-at-large of China-focused multimedia outlet The China Project, also appeared to suggest that “anti-Asian hate” had fueled the shooting in a Sunday tweet: “Once again, two issues that far too many Americans refuse to confront have collided in tragedy: guns, and rampant sinophobia that too readily fuels anti-Asian hate.”

The China Project recently came under scrutiny after a former business editor, Shannon Van Sant, sent a sworn declaration to Congress and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 21, claiming the multimedia outlet had fired her in June 2020 for being out of “alignment” with the organization’s alleged pro-CCP bias.

Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna named the suspected gunman as Huu Can Tran. [YouTube/Screenshot/Fox11LosAngeles]

Frank H. Wu, president of Queens College, also reportedly viewed the Monterey Park shooting in racial terms, according to USA Today.

“Even if we cannot be sure an attack was racial in intent, it nonetheless can be racial in effect,” Wu reportedly told USA Today before the suspected gunman’s identity had been revealed.

Wu previously served as the chairman of the Committee of 100 (C100) beginning in April 2016, a nonprofit which claims to seek “constructive dialogue and relationships between the peoples of the United States and Greater China.”

The DCNF recently reported in December that 10 C100 members previously served as “directors” of the China Overseas Exchange Association, a China-based organization which Chinese intelligence analysts, such as Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg, have characterized as a Chinese intelligence service “agency.”