US apologizes for discriminatory laws_美文_趣味英语-查字典英语网

US apologizes for discriminatory laws

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On Monday, the US House of Representatives unanimously expressed regret for the passage of discriminatory laws against Chinese immigrants to the United States, particularly the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday that China appreciates the apology, adding that contributions by Chinese-Americans to US history deserve positive and due evaluation.

"The development of the US, an immigration country, cannot be separated from the endeavors and cooperation of many races, including Chinese-Americans," Hong said at a daily news conference.

Thanks to a grassroots campaign of Chinese-American communities across the US, the vote marked the first time the House acknowledged the laws' far-reaching injustice. It followed a similar apology approved by the US Senate in November.

Representative Judy Chu, a California Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, called Monday's passage a "breakthrough" in the "historic" effort to acknowledge the harm done by exclusion laws 130 years after its adoption.

"The trauma of the exclusion laws left a permanent scar upon generations of Chinese-Americans, splitting apart families, and disenfranchising many," Chu said before the vote. "Like all Chinese-Americans, my own grandfather did not have the legal right to become a naturalized citizen, and had to carry papers on him at all times or else be deported."

The new legislation "formally regrets the passage of legislation that adversely affected people of Chinese origin in the United States because of their ethnicity, and recognizes that the United States was founded on the principle that all persons are created equal," she added.