Asian American groups are sounding the alarm after the House this week passed a bill seeking to revive the highly controversial, Trump-era surveillance program the China Initiative. “Originally a Trump-era initiative sold as a national security measure, the China Initiative instead turned out to be a witch hunt,” leaders from civil rights groups Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Stop AAPI Hate, and the Asian American Scholar Forum said in a joint statement. The groups added that the initiative devastated families and impeded the United States’ ability to retain and attract academic talent. Asian American advocacy groups have long been warning of the security program’s “chilling” effects. He said that he “concluded that this initiative is not the right approach.”For more from NBC Asian America, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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Persons: Lance Gooden, ”, Mike Johnson, Jeff Sessions, Gang Chen, Chen, ” Chen, “, Anming Hu, University of Tennessee —, China Initiative —, ” Hu, Biden, Matthew Olsen Organizations: China Initiative, Lawmakers, Trump, Justice, American, Forum, NBC News, Chinese Communist Party, ”, MIT, U.S . Capitol, Nanotechnology, University of Tennessee, White, of Justice, George Mason University, National Security Division, DOJ, NBC Asian Locations: China, U.S, States, Texas, NBC Asian America