What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS monitors the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese-, Korean-, Arabic-language news media as well as English-language newcomer and native-born ethnic press published and/or distributed widely in California. "Gleanings from the Ethnic Media" is a regular weekly column compiled by Emil Guillermo, host of "NCM: New California Media TV" (seen on PBS station KCSM-TV60 in the Bay Area); assisted by Pacific News Service and the NCM Network. Just as the alternative news media connected the disaffected populations in the 1960s, so in the 1990s the ethnic media connects the new ethnic majority communities of California -- to one another and to the larger public forum.

REPORT ROCKS COMMUNITY: Bad times ahead for Chinese-Americans, according to an editorial in the World Journal (San Francisco). Real fears are surfacing that the Wen-Ho Lee case, combined with release of the Cox Report alleging China's theft of U.S. nuclear secrets, will bring increasing suspicion of all Chinese-Americans. Hardest hit could be those working in politics or in government positions at national laboratories.

"The only way to handle this is for all Chinese-Americans to pull together and fight bias wherever it occurs," writes the World Journal, which advocates caution in speaking out about one's home country. "The only secrets the Chinese took back to Mainland China were not of nuclear weapons but of democracy."

One effect may be a severe fall in high-tech exports. According to the China Press (San Francisco), the U.S. government interdicted $50 million in items destined for China in all of 1998, but that sum has already reached $450 million this year so far. One executive of a computer firm with a branch in Beijing said there is a good chance that any computer business with China will turn sour.

CHINA: REMEMBER THE EMBASSY: Sino-American ties will not return to normal until Washington completes its investigation into the bombing of the Belgrade embassy, and fully informs Beijing of the results, Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing told listeners at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, according to Sing Tao (San Francisco). The Chinese further expect Washington to send a high-ranking person to Beijing to explain the incident to the Chinese government and people.

HOW SERIOUS IS IT?: Chinese military officers fear that the U.S. is preparing to act against China. Officers in various branches, who believe the attack on the Belgrade embassy was intentional, told China Review (Beijing) that the U.S. and NATO were testing China's strategic intent by stirring up conflict.

They fear that the U.S., by drumming up fear on both sides, could drag China into an arms race quagmire. The U.S. is introducing a new missile defense in Asia, which will force China to invest vast resources for its defense. This would enable the U.S. to defeat China without a war, as happened with the Soviet Union.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, many Chinese military men came to believe that wars had gone out of fashion. But in the aftermath of the embassy bombing, they believe that the danger of major war still remains and China must therefore prepare itself.

BROWN AT THE BORDER: Now they can stop you just because you're brown, writes La Prensa (San Diego). The Court of Appeals for the 9th U.S. Circuit on a 2-1 ruling recently upheld the detention of two Hispanics stopped inside the United States. The Court said "The Border Patrol can stop automobiles based on the occupant's ethnicity."

"Only one small problem," editorialized La Prensa. "Mexican Americans can look similar to Italians, Greeks, Arabs, Palestinians, Iraq, American Indian etc." With this ruling, it continued, "you can detain and arrest individuals (based) on the 'character of the area, nearness to the border, traffic patterns, previous smuggling problems in the area, officers experience, and the behavior of the (vehicle) passengers.' The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just made every person residing in San Diego a candidate to be arrested, detained, and charged with being an illegal alien!"

DEFENDING THE MAKAH: Tribes from the Pacific Coast and Canada are coming forward to support the Makah tribe, which has just completed a successful hunt of a grey whale for the first time in more than 70 years (Indian Country Today, Rapid City, SD).

Public sentiment has been strongly against the hunt. In response, Billy Frank, Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission said, "For 70 years the Makah did not exercise their treaty right to harvest grey whales because non-Indian commercial hunters over-harvested the resource."

In 1997, the Makah obtained permission from the International Whaling Commission to harvest up to 4 whales per year for 5 years. "Now," Frank says, "the whale populations have recovered, and the Makah can again exercise their treaty right and cultural traditions in the same responsible manner as they have for centuries." Although the grey whale is recovering, hunting them is still illegal.

OUT OF BALANCE: Berkeley has an embarrassing problem -- a lack of diversity in its schools. Parents are protesting the situation at John Muir Elementary where 50 percent of the students are African American and 21 percent are Hispanic but only one of the 14 teachers is African American (San Francisco Sun Reporter). A community coalition has been formed to protest the lack of diversity and to call on Berkeley administrators to hire at least 40 Black and Latino teachers district-wide.

ENTREPRENEURIAL BOOM: Ethnic communities are bullish on business -- with a nearly 200% increase in ethnic owned businesses seen in the last year, reports The Korea Times of Los Angeles.

In all, there are 3.25 million minority owned businesses in the United States with a total annual income of $4.95 billion and 4 million employees.

Asian groups led the way, making for a third of all the businesses and employing two million people. Latinos owned 1.4 million small companies. More than half of the owners were 1st generation immigrants.

RATS, LEMMING-LIKE, FLEE: It's just not normal. Thousands of rats are following one another to the ocean at the southern tip of Vietnam, according to Lao Dong (Vietnam). Though rats have approached the situation orderly, the whole thing has created such a stir among the people. Many are flocking to temples and churches, lighting incense and consulting the I-Ching for the meaning of the exodus. Some fear an impending natural disaster.

Under Hanoi pressure, Ca Mau province television, which first reported the news, retracted its own report, calling the story "completely false."

But Lao Dong quoted the governor of Camau Province: "What's got the local government worried is that the rats are leaving near the end of year 2000 which has been rumored as doomsday. It is creating so much unrest that it has become a threat to local governance."