In a paper presented at the Sixth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Overseas Chinese on September 2-23 in Beijing, Dr. Pei-te Lien, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, reviewed the Chinese transnational political practices in the United States. The paper, "Surveying transitional political practices among the Chinese and other major Asian ethnic groups in the Untied States," presents the findings as follows.
Foreign-born Asians were a majority of the total Asian population in the United States, accounted for 62 percent.
Dr. Lien's earlier finding in 2006 indicates that the relationship between political assimilation and transnational linkages depends on both the nature of the transnational political concern and the type of political participation.
The current survey, the Pilot National Asian American Political Practices Survey, interviewed 1,218 adults of the top six Asian American ethnic population groups residing the Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Chicago metropolitan areas. The survey design yielded a final sample of 308 Chinese, 168 Korean, 137 Vietnamese, 198 Japanese, 266 Filipino, and 141 South Asians or an average of 200 completed interviews from each Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and an additional 247 interviews from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.
Only a tiny percentage (6%) of foreign-born Asian Americans participated in home country politics after entering the United States. Chinese constituted only 4 percent. But, 68 percent of Chinese Americans pay close attention to news stories and other information regarding the homeland.