Photo courtesy of Keystone Press Agency via Stimson Center. During his portion of the panel, Brian Hioe, associate professor of Asian American studies and SUNY Stony Brook, discussed Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit and its representation of U.S. imperial influence.
By Kiera McLaughlin ’26
Staff Writer
The idea of the United States as an empire isn’t new, but seems to be sweeping academics and changing the way American history is discussed in college classrooms. This idea was discussed in the context of the relationship between the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, when the University of Massachusetts Amherst presented “U.S. Empire in Asia and the Pacific: Repression and Resistance” as a part of the “Confronting Empire: The 2022-2023 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series.” . As specified in the Feinberg Series’ website description of the lecture, the speakers focused on the history of the U.S. in the Philippines and the current relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan.
The panelists argued that the U.S. is an empire with deep roots in racism, and they each used the Asian-American communities in the U.S. as evidence of racism within the U.S. The presenters were Moon-Ho Jung, a professor of history at the University of Washington, Nerissa S. Balce, an associate professor of Asian American studies at SUNY Stony Brook and Brian Hioe, a founding editor of New Bloom, a website which describes itself as “an online magazine featuring radical perspectives on Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific.” University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor of History Sigrid Schmalzer moderated the panel discussion.
The lecture began with Jung explaining how the U.S. is an empire, which he connected to the anti-Asian racism throughout American history that continues today. Jung stated, “A democracy rooted in empire and white supremacy is not democracy. That’s American democracy.” Schmalzer told the Mount Holyoke News that, “Professor Jung is definitely not alone in … seeing the U.S. as an empire, and explaining the trajectory of our history in terms of [an] empire alongside other empires.” She continued, “That’s where the field is moving more and more. … Recognizing that we should not treat the U.S. as if it’s different from other kinds of empires, because the U.S. has expanded [to an empire] … from the very origins [of it] because it is founded in settler colonialism.” Jung’s presentation continued to discuss how the U.S. is also considered an empire because of its role in colonialism and imperialism throughout its history. “Empire and democracy cannot coexist. If the United States is anything, it was and is an empire that has claimed unilateral authority over lands and peoples and has claimed the authority to incarcerate and kill anyone around the world in the name of freedom and democracy,” Jung stated.
As the lecture continued, Balce took over and explained the history of violence in the Philippines created by the U.S. as portrayed through art, literature and violent images focusing on the Philippine-American War. One of the pieces of literature she focused on was Filipino author Gina Apostol’s “Insurrecto: A Novel,” a book about two women, a Filipino translator and an American filmmaker, writing a script in the Philippines during the Philippine-American War. Balce quoted Apostol and stated, “The voice of [the Philippine-American War] is the voice of the enemy. What I have understood is that our silence or forgetting of our war against the Americans is structural, cultural destruction. It is not amnesia. It is not a disease on our part, it is an aspect of genocide. Forgetting is an aspect of genocide.” Balce focused on using Filipino art and voices to bring back the Filipino narrative that she explained has been snuffed out by the American version of the story. Schmazler emphasized the importance of Filipino stories and art to portray the history of the Philippine-American War, “I think what we as scholars want to be able to do is to tell not only the stories of the atrocities, … which is focused on that is really not very empowering, right? It really doesn’t even leave anybody in a position where you feel like you can do anything,” she said.
Schmalzer continued to reflect on the images shared by Balce of the violent crimes perpetrated against the Filipino people by what she called “anti-left, anti-Communist counterinsurgency campaigns funded by the US military industrial complex.” During the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos and other Filipino dictators, she said, “It’s important to be able to confront those [images] in whatever histories that we were looking at. But then if you stop there, you are, in some ways, just re-victimizing the people who [were] victimized. … To people in resistance and people who are … telling a new story, creating different images that celebrate the lives and the culture and the resistance of the people who have been subjugated is … just really important.”
The lecture ended with Hioe elaborating on the U.S. as an empire and how it has influenced ties to Taiwan, especially relating to the current news of the U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit only a few months ago. Hioe stated, “Taiwan has been neglected, has not been talked about a lot, [but] particularly in recent months and weeks it has suddenly taken on global significance.” He further explained the visit by the U.S. Speaker of the House and how it has led to international media exaggerating hypotheses of World War III. Hioe responded, “People have had decades to [get] used to Chinese threats directed at Taiwan, but that is not picked up on in international media coverage. What does that tell us? It tells us that the perspectives of Taiwanese people have been ignored. Taiwan has had decades to [get] used to Chinese threats.”
Schmalzer explained that international media has ignored this situation in Taiwan, saying, “Most people have seen it the whole time as … you can’t acknowledge the sovereignty of Taiwan without confronting that the [People’s Republic of China] won’t tolerate [it]. … I think that’s part of why it’s the thing that we are all pretending isn’t happening — … because it’s politically inconvenient and potentially dangerous to push the issue.” This past between the United States and Asia and the Pacific is complex, and as Jung explained at the end of his presentation, “There are no easy answers, but I know this much — In this struggle for justice and democracy, we cannot but be a menace to empire.”