Supervisor Connie Chan, a self-described “Chinatown daughter” and the only major Chinese American candidate in the race to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress, leaned into identity politics at a Saturday forum in front of more than 200 residents at Chinatown’s Victory Hall.
“This is a historical moment for us, for our community to take our voice from San Francisco to Washington, D.C,” said Chan who talked about immigrating with her single mother and a brother to San Francisco’s Chinatown without knowing a single word of English. “I understand our pain and I understand our voices.”
Although there have been two earlier forums, Saturday was the first time the three leading candidates shared a stage since Jan. 7. In that forum, State Sen. Scott Wiener’s failure to clearly answer a question about genocide in Gaza created a backlash. Wiener now uses the word genocide in regard to Gaza.
It was Taiwan, not Gaza, however, that got top billing on Saturday night. The audience listened closely to the candidate’s answers, and Chinese-speaking seniors took meticulous notes on slips of paper throughout the evening.
Taiwan is the foreign-policy issue that figures most prominently among Chinese-American voters, who account for more than 16 percent of the electorate in California’s 11th congressional district.
Whoever wins this race will replace Rep. Pelosi, who, in 2022, became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island in 25 years. That visit aggravated mainland China’s government, which subsequently encircled the island with unprecedented military exercises.
“I do not agree with her decision,” said Saikat Chakrabarti, a centimillionaire candidate, who received the loudest applause and cheers of the evening in response to that question on Pelosi’s visit.
Chinese-American voters here largely saw the visit as inflammatory. They rank maintaining peace with China around Taiwan as a top priority.
“That was a provocative action, and the absolute worst thing that could happen right now is a full-on war with China,” Chakrabarti added.
He said he sees a bipartisan hawkishness towards China in Washington, which has resulted in a Cold War that led to an increase in anti-Asian hate within the United States.
“In Congress, I will fight to stop the Cold War with China,” he said.
The audience burst into applause.
In January, however, Chakrabarti was the only candidate who, when asked whether the United States should use force to defend Taiwan if it was invaded by China, said yes, it should. Both Wiener and Chan sidestepped the question.
Wiener got booed, a bit, when he said he supports Pelosi’s decisions.
Chan, who needs both Chinese votes and Pelosi’s endorsement, avoided directly answering the question, simply emphasizing that the Taiwan issue “is deeply personal” given her years in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and said the United States should be an agent for peace.
“I advocate for us to really make sure that we encourage Taiwan and China that direct dialogue is important,” she said.
For much of the evening, the candidates stressed their bona fides. As the only Cantonese speaker, Chan had an apparent advantage, doubling her speaking time by deftly interpreting her own answers into Cantonese. The other candidates relied on interpreters.
Wiener emphasized his contributions to the Chinese community, citing work on affordable housing, expanding access to healthcare, acupuncture benefits, protecting funding for Muni and BART, reinstating eighth-grade algebra, pushing back against anti-Asian hate, fighting against vehicle break-ins, and delivering resources for the Chinese Hospital, the Chinese Cultural Center, Wah Mei School, and Portsmouth Square.
The list he wanted to present was so long that the time-up alert rang before he finished.
Chakrabarti, who has spent less time courting Chinese American voters and only finalized his Chinese name months ago, tried to dazzle the audience by spotlighting his resume: A Harvard University graduate, a main contributor to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, a leading role on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 congressional campaign, and an author of the Green New Deal.
An unexpected participant was Marie Hurabiell, whose resume is in a league of its own compared to the other three. Hurabiell was a President Donald Trump appointee to the Presidio Trust board, remained a registered Republican until 2022, and wrote in a June 2025 social media post that “Trans women are NOT women.”
“For one end of the spectrum, there are three people in the race. The entire rest of the spectrum … there’s no one,” Hurabiell said in an interview. She said she entered the race two weeks ago because she felt compelled to “give people a choice.”
During the forum, Hurabiell was often the lone candidate who did not blame Trump for the current state of affairs with China. Hurabiell also runs the pressure group Connected SF, and previously ran unsuccessfully twice for the City College Board of Trustees.
Chakrabarti frequently invokes Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez. Hurabiell does not criticize President Donald Trump, and she is running on her association with Mayor Daniel Lurie; her campaign website claims Connected SF played a key role in electing Lurie.
Hurabiell believes a significant portion of the Chinese American community belongs to the spectrum that she represents, so at Victory Hall she pointed to the ideological similarities.
“We have stood shoulder to shoulder in these fights,” she said at her first forum, referring to the 2022 recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin, the 2022 recall of school board members, and the fights for algebra in school and to keep merit-based admission at Lowell.
The forum was co-hosted by San Francisco’s three Chinese political clubs, the Chinese American Democratic club, the Edwin M. Lee Asian Pacific Democratic Club, and Rose Pak Asian American Club.
“All three clubs have worked very hard over the past several weeks to make this event possible,” said Jeremy Lee, president of Rose Pak Asian American Club.
To protect the monolingual Chinese-speaking audience and non-Chinese-speaking candidates, moderators warned all interpreters that they would be replaced if their interpretation was materially different from the candidate’s statement three times. It worked.
On several occasions, the bilingual organizers and campaign staff pointed out inaccuracies in the nuanced political translation, and interpreters corrected them immediately.
Throughout the forum, Chakrabarti emphasized cutting the military budget and ending corruption in Congress, including banning members of Congress from doing insider stock trading and ending corporate money in politics.
“I’m also the only one willing to take on not just Republicans, but a corrupt Democratic establishment,” he said. He also committed to doing town halls multiple times a year when he becomes San Francisco’s representative.
Chan pledged to fight for working families and a future that has free City College of San Francisco for all.
“We will take our working people’s agenda, our immigrant agenda, from Chinatown, from San Francisco, and all the way to Washington, D.C.,” she said.
Wiener, who recently unveiled an ambitious housing platform to build eight million homes over the next decade, returned repeatedly to housing policy.
After being led for four decades by a leader “who has moved mountains for San Francisco,” Wiener said, who does the city need next?
His answer: “We need someone who wakes up every morning thinking, ‘What am I going to do for San Francisco today?’ That is what I do.”
An earlier version of this article included guidelines the Scott Wiener campaign sent to previous debate organizers, but not the organizers of this event. The reference has been removed.
Because I find it hard to believe any of these candidates’ motives and words, my chief takeaway from this story is in the statement: “Chinese American voters here saw the visit as inflammatory. They rank maintaining peace with China around Taiwan as a top priority.”
The community sees Nancy Pelosi’s audacious official visit to Taiwan as “”inflammatory!”
These voters are not stupid.
Polls show a majority of Americans oppose our country’s unprovoked war against Iran. They are appalled by the deeds of our representatives in Washington. They are appalled by the ocean of lies and rationalizations.
Whichever candidate goes to Washington will face a world on fire, and growing distrust and chaos here.
Trump is moving troops to the Middle East now and not rejecting a resumption of conscription. How many more children will be sacrificed to defend a sick obsession to project American military power around the world?
It is not about spreading democracy.
And speaking of democracy, which candidate in Chinatown mentioned the endless signals Trump is sending about plans to void any future election that doesn’t go his way?
Response to Livingston. Where did the statement about Taiwan come from? It’s not in the story. Is it your or a candidate’s opinion? That’s certainly not the opinion of ALL “Chinese American” as you claim. Speaking about them as a group sounds condescending. Read some other responses. Every conflict is different – Ukraine, Gaza,Taiwan. Don’t mix it up together
Referring to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan (which happened during the Biden Administration and alarmed many), the author of this article wrote:
“Chinese-American voters here largely saw the visit as inflammatory. They rank maintaining peace with China around Taiwan as a top priority.”
There was no condescension intended in what I wrote.
I am deeply worried about the future, and what it holds for all people.
While conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, China and Taiwan have important differences, each conflict requires the manipulation of the working class who routinely pay (in blood and savings) for the profits transnational corporations and financial capital hope to obtain.
This is a conversation that needs much more space, and I regret if my remarks confused anyone.
“We need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks.”
–Bart Simpson
Had no idea that Hurabiell was connected to Trump and his anti-LGBTQ agenda. Thanks to M Local for covering this. Unacceptable and unfortunate because she has fairly sensible positions on some of the issues.
‘Wiener emphasized his contributions to the Chinese community, citing work … protecting funding for Muni and BART’
So Wiener’s been in office since, what, 2010, and has made transit a centerpiece of his political work.
Muni, BART and Caltrain are all facing declining ridership because they are all aligned to deliver workers to office buildings for jobs that no longer exist and might be coming back.
Just as Wiener has warped state law to give value to institutional real estate investors and speculators, Wiener now would soak taxpayers with regressive taxes, a parcel tax and a sales tax, to subsidize these legacy systems to support office real estate valuations in the hopes that the jobs and riders will return.
Wiener’s intentions are not to build housing to house people or to make transit work for riders, it is to gift value to real estate at the cost of working people through regressive taxation.
It did take place in Chinatown. There were some “neutral” attendees – the silent ones such as myself. But it seemed a bit orchestrated. The noise and clapping seemed mostly from the team members of the candidates. There were the contingents of seniors who did not seem to react much and one group left en mass toward the end. The translation was spotty according to some attendees. How much did these monolingual speakers listen well? Regarding the Taiwan question – the booing for Weiner for supporting Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and cheering for Seikat opposing it was more prominent after the English response before the translation. Marie’s support for the trip appeared not translated. Seikat maybe after the Chinese vote, but that’s not monolithic. There are many who left China and Southeast Asia with strong anti- China stand. So it may backfire on him. The debate seems partisan but maybe that’s how these forums are, whoever brings the most people…
None of the candidates seem to get that arming Taiwan to the teeth is a provocation, not a deterrence. They fail to learn the lesson that is Ukraine. Taiwan is the wildcard in the first island chain. The US has 75k+ troops in Japan and South Korea and Biden drastically increased the US military apparatus in East Asia. As China feels this pressure, it good reason to ensure Taiwan does not become an increased US proxy force. It would be refreshing for a candidate to oppose weapons transfers as a better bet toward peace, but the political calculation is to cater to mainstream democrats who relish China fearmongering, while placating Chinese Americans who recognize arming Taiwan as a provocation. A provocation that could end very badly for Taiwan.
View from some Asians: “Taiwan claims to be a sovereign country built by political refugees who fled Mao’s People’s Republic after 1949 and became a democratic country in the 1980’s after Japanese colonization and Chiang dynasty rule, parallel to South Korea’s history of becoming a democratic country. China in recent years claimed Taiwan to be a province. China buzzed planes over Taiwan during Pelosi’s visit, and recently have been circling planes and ships near and inside Taiwan’s territory aggressively more. Taiwan feels violated and the need to defend itself. The comparison with Ukraine sure is interesting. Not sure about your ‘wild card’ claim. The Northeast Asian countries except for North Korea have been allies with the US as a democratic alliance that began during World War II with Allies vs. Axis of evil.” People from those countries I talked to want it to stay that way, although some soften their stands with economic trades. Interestingly, there seemed to be more pro- China voices in SF, more pro-Taiwan in the South Bay.
The US sails missile carriers through the Taiwan Strait and parks aircraft carriers along the South China Sea. Nuclear subs lurk off the coast of Korea and ever-increasing, joint operations with the Phillipines routinely encroach on China’s territory. Guam hosts a bevy of bombers. India has nuclear warheads pointed China’s way, and we’ve granted Australia nuclear subs.
China is outpacing the US and thus we seek to hem them in, surround them. Like Crimea is for Russia, Taiwan is China’s red line. I care only so far about Taiwan’s aspirations to become a recognized sovereign nation, which won’t happen. If they want to get creamed, they can do it on their own. $14b in US munitions moves them a step closer.
You make it sound like the US is controlling all these other countries. The disrespect for their people’s sovereignty is astounding. India prime minister went to Moscow literally holding hands with Putin in response to Trump’s tariff measure. And has been at war with its pro- China neighbor Pakistan. Australia has its own concerns over China’s expansion. Philippines’ ongoing disputes with China over the South China Sea escalated as it feels threatened by China’s recent encroachment especially near the oil fields. Japan and South Korea have long been post war allies with US. Guam is a US military base. The “We the US imperialist puppet master” line gives the US more power than in reality and neglects these countries’ individual response to the current administration. I have no desire to engage with opinions without facts further.
“For one end of the spectrum, there are three people in the race. The entire rest of the spectrum … there’s no one,” Hurabiell said in an interview. She said she entered the race two weeks ago because she felt compelled to “give people a choice.”
And by “people” she is, of course, excluding trans people, who she thinks should not even exist, never mind have “a choice.”
It’s odd that Connie Chan is called out for “identity politics” because she is in solidarity with Chinese and the Chinatown community. After all, she is Chinese, and she is from Chinatown. Is that, somehow, wrong?
Meanwhile, Wiener is a self-avowed Zionist. Isn’t zionism the absolute ultimate “identity politics”?
I personally really don’t want another pro-israeli / pro-apartheid /pro-settler colonialist congressperson representing us. His are the politics that bring us to these dark times we live in now.
Wiener never represents himself as Jewish, and I would assume he is secular. Whereas Chan is blatantly playing a race card here.
Personally I would never vote for anyone who favours one group of voters over another in the way that Chan does, and as the D10 candidate invariably does as well.
We are all Americans.
We need someone who brings people together, and not divide them by race or any other artificial and arbitrary taxonomy.
Tom? Wiener has always been public about his Jewish identity. For many years he’s chaired the California Jewish Legislative Caucus. Just a few weeks ago he was forced to resign that position after he finally admitted that Israel is committing genocide. He wrote the anti-Palestinian anti-arab censorship law that infects our public school system and further pits communities against each other. Wiener is not your man “for all Americans.”
Tom,
Wiener favors one small group of voters over all others.
That would be developers of land.
He ain’t the ‘Lone Ranger’ in this.
Erdogan in Turkey is fueled by the same class.
The most powerful group in Israel are the Settlers.
It’s about the control and exploitation of Land and the removal and decimation of its native owners.
The uranium in all of these groups reactors is Capitalism which itself is driven by an existential need for Profit..
And has no conscience and well describes Wiener’s power base.
People like me are Chan’s power base.
We are driven by Conscience.
Wiener and his base are driven by Greed.
In the end, Greed usually wins in Politics and at the Bank.
While people of conscience are cooler with better music and dance moves and sex.
I choose the latter and always have.
Connie for Congress !!
go Niners !!
h.
are you serious? Wiener doesn’t represent himselve as Jewish? Like, being on the CJLC? Come on.
And, to be fair, it’s part of being a politician. Do you think he doesn’t leverage the gay community too? Is that identity politics too?
Chan and Wiener are leveraging what they can, and to pretend they aren’t is just sticking your head in the sand. Vote with open eyes.
Saikat is also one of the founders of the Justice Democrats.
Well, the more I read about each of these people (except that Trumpie homophobe) I am rather disappointed. Weiner used to be pretty good, but now it’s seems he’s really overleveraged himself with some sketchy people. He just stepped down from the Jewish legal caucus after people got mad that he didn’t think murdering tends of thousands of families was Genocide…. not that he really changed his mind there, but politically he made a good choice. (and those who are like, ‘this isn’t Israel! it doesn’t matter!’. It does. Seriously, the winner is literally going to represent us internationally. I’d prefer not to have someone who will accept what is happening as “OK”). And beyond that, the over all housing thing just failed miserably. We went from “let’s fast-track rent-controlled buildings with inexpensive units near mass transit” to “ANY NEW BUILDING WILL MAKE SF CHEAPER!!” – literally directly out of the republican supply-side-economics of housing that has been proven false over and over and over and over and over again. But…. lots of investors loved that (including several of my inlaws donating who are also – bizarrely enough – part of the Chinese Republican Association)
Then we’ve got that Charcorbati guy, who seems really nice, but when it comes down to reality – he’s been here on-and-off for about 10yrs. What has he done? I’m not a politician, but I’ve worked in schools, done volunteer work, go to community gardens, donate a substantial part of my time and money to the community, even took in a foster kid. I’m certainly not rich, whereas this guy has a net worth in the hundreds of millions and I don’t see anything but him being bored and rich. Seems nice, but that’s not what we need.
Chan…. ugh. If she had Weiners experience, I’d be loving her, but she’s really pretty much a nubie and has a slew of mistakes that all her enimies have distorted beyond belief. Heck, now she’s peaking chinese to chinese people so that’s “identity politics”?
I don’t know. If you’re biggest issue is that she voted against 469 Stevenson St, you should be happy to see her go.
Forget about Wiener or the leftist carpetbagger from New York Chakrabarti.
Connie Chan stands above both of them.
Wiener has a long and demonstrable record of getting things done. And he knows how to work with politicians across the aisle.
Chan is an inexperienced novice with little in the way of achievement. It is far too soon for her to be in a position of this importance. She is out of her depth here, which is why she is trying to leverage identity politics.
Wiener has the gravitas and track record to succeed here where the other candidatees do not.
What has Scott Wiener gotten done except to deregulate housing which has not made housing less expensive, and ban nudity? Aside from that, Wiener’s been all performative.
Wiener has styled himself a champion of transit. After 16 years in office, Muni, BART and Caltrain are in the worst shape ever, thanks to Scott Wiener. Now, Wiener wants to tax working people to fund unused transit service to downtown San Francisco in order to inflate office valuations where people no longer work, valuations that should really mark to market.
Connie Chan did a good job last time working with the Mayor on the Budget.
She knows how to get along with people and is a very serious person. She also has the correct instincts on housing, whereas Weiner is too pro-real estate lobbyist and others in the 1%. Don’t forget that Chakrabarti (sorry if misspelled his name) financially supported the ouster of Dean Preston…who is really a Democratic Socialist in the same league with AOC and Bernie. While he touts his connection to AOC and Bernie, it shouldn’t be forgotten all the money he spent against Dean. Plus Dean is very smart and also knew how to get along with his fellow Supervisors.
“All the money” Saikat Chakrabarti spent against supervisor Dean Preston was exactly 500$. Dean Preston’s loss was very sad but it wasn’t Chakrabarti’s responsibility like you make it sound. It was his own. As a comparison District 9 supervisor Jackie Fielder also had the Aipac billionaires money against her but she won.
It is well documented that Saikat Chakrabarti gave $10,000 to Bilal Mahmood’s campaign for a seat on the county Democratic Party. Equally damning that Saikat voted for Lurie and supported Mahmood over Dean Preston, who was not just any progressive. Preston single handedly spearheaded and accomplished universal tenant protections in the form of San Francisco’s Tenants Right to Counsel, a first in the nation. Preston also consistently prioritized taxing million and billionaires and pushed for the development and funding of social housing. All three of these issues are top priorities of Mamdani’s agenda today and must be prioritized by any credible candidate here in SF who seeks to prevail. Sadly, Bilal has been nothing but a rubber stamp for Lurie’s austerity agenda. Even worse, Mahmood is actively undermining and trying to dismantle many of Preston’s accomplishments. Saikat has little understanding of San Francisco’s local landscape and our extreme struggles with affordability, and funding for public transit and public schools.
Do we know what he gave to SF Grow? Perhaps it was only $500 which I believe is the max for an individual. Aren’t there something called Independent Expenditures or a way that money cannot always be tracked?
Nevertheless.
However much money he gave to defeat Dean his bona fides as a Democratic Socialist in the mold of AOC and Bernie need to be questioned due to his lack of support for Dean Preston’s re-election. Or at least the question should be asked and I haven’t seen much attention paid to that question.
Tom,
Wiener and David Chiu joined forces to get rid of 2,200 Rent Controlled units in Park Merced and Scott
has fought mightily for developers, going so far as to write State laws that override San Francisco laws protecting the rights of homeowners to have some say in what gets built next door.
As for ‘Clickbait’, Congress does not need another millionaire as that Class is well represented and while he stresses his bribes to Bernie and AOC, neither has endorsed him.
Chan is Working Class and married to a San Francisco firefighter.
San Francisco has always been an immigrant City and we should send one to Congress if for no other reason, to piss Trump off.
go Niners !!
h.
Connie Chan is against housing. If she is allowed to shape policy, there simply won’t be a middle class in SF a generation from now.