The Foreign Service Journal, May 2021

14 MAY 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL wrote in “Notes to the New Administra- tion” (March FSJ ), the problem has not yet been solved, leaving “many employ- ees, disproportionately of Asian Ameri- can descent, still trapped in a cycle of fighting perceptions of disloyalty.” In a March 18 statement, “Asian- Americans and Pacific Islanders in National Security Statement on Anti-Hate and Discriminatory Practices,” hun- dreds of national security professionals appealed for an end to the discrimina- tion, which has been perpetuated and accelerated, they say, under the COVID- 19 pandemic and concentration on great- power competition. Several members of Congress are speaking out. One of them is Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who before his 2018 elec- tion to Congress spent several years working for the State Department. In March media interviews and in a related Twitter thread, Rep. Kim described his own experience while working for State. “What confused me more is that I didn’t even apply to work on Korea,” one tweet read. “State was proactively telling me they didn’t trust me.” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) spoke out against the assignment restrictions when Secretary Blinken testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10, noting that he had recently met with AAFAA. He said in an interview that diplomatic discrimination and violence against members of Asian American communities are “different manifestations of the same issue: the inability of our gov- ernment and some people to distinguish between a foreign government and Ameri- cans of Asian descent. It was that inability that caused the American government to intern over 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent [during World War II].” ARB to Review Murder of Local Employee T he State Department announced on March 9 that it is convening an accountability review board (ARB) to study the October 2020 murder of Edgar Flores Santos, a local staff member at U.S. Consulate Tijuana who worked for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Ser- vice (see December 2020 Talking Points) . The ARB, to be headed by Ambas- sador (ret.) George Staples, will submit its findings and any recommendations to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Meanwhile, Mexican authorities confirmed the capture of two men sus- pected of involvement in the homicide, Telemundo 20 reported Feb. 2. The men are thought to be part of a criminal cell involved in the distribution of narcotics in Tijuana. Police discovered the body of Santos in October 2020 in a field outside Tijuana, a few days after he was reported missing. Police said he had been shot nine times. His work truck was found at the crime scene. Santos is survived by his wife and two young children. Democracy Under Siege ”A s a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world in 2020, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the inter- national balance in favor of tyranny. Incumbent leaders increasingly used force to crush opponents and settle scores, sometimes in the name of public health, while beleaguered activists—lack- ing effective international support—faced heavy jail sentences, torture or murder in many settings.” That is the opening paragraph of Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World 2021” report, issued on March 3, docu- menting the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. Ominously, the countries experienc- ing deterioration outnumbered those with improvements by the largest margin recorded since the negative trend began in 2006. With India’s decline to “Partly Free” status, less than 20 percent of the world’s population now lives in a “Free” country, the smallest proportion since 1995. The annual report evaluates 195 countries and 15 territories, assessing the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, the functioning of the government, freedom of expression and of belief, associational and organiza- tional rights, the rule of law, and personal autonomy and individual rights in each. Despite the Jan. 6 insurrection and other disquieting developments, the United States not only maintained its 2020 democracy score of 83 out of 100, but inched up three spots on the Freedom House list. However, that feat reflects the fact that other democracies fared even worse, not that the U.S. improved. As the study’s authors note, “The long demo- cratic recession is deepening.”