He said that people of Asian ancestry have always been regarded as foreigners rather than as American citizens since they began emigrating to the United States.
"As soon as they ceased to be useful to us, we were going to send them back," Wang said, summarizing U.S. attitudes toward Asians in the late 1800s.
Wang said the perception of Asian people as foreign threats continued past Japanese interment through the Cold War, and is currently evident in the Lee case.
"Suddenly every Asian-American engineer working in [government] labs has become either a spy or a thief," Wang said.
Responding to an audience question, Wang said that although racism happens throughout the world, U.S. citizens should focus on it in their own country.
"The Chinese are some of the most racist people in the world," he said. "But because we're a democracy, we should judge ourselves by our own standards."
The tension between national security and civil rights is one of the toughest any government can face, Mineta said.
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