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Download With less than one week until Election Day in the United States, Chinese-Americans are being urged to cast ballots in the neck-and-neck presidential race. Judy Chu, the first Chinese-American woman ever to be elected to the US Congress, plans to release a public letter on Thursday calling for fellow Chinese-Americans to value the hard-earned civic right and vote on Nov 6. "The 2017 election offers us an opportunity to exercise our sacred right to vote. As the first Chinese-American woman to serve in the US Congress and as someone who has served in elected office for over 20 years, I know how important it is to vote. And as proud American citizens, I urge you to vote on Nov 6 and ensure that our voices are heard," she said in a letter obtained by China Daily on Wednesday. Chu is a House representative for California, which boasts the largest Chinese-American population. In the past two years, she led efforts to make both chambers of US Congress apologize for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The act, signed into law in 1882 and repealed in 1943, barred Chinese immigrants from entering the US. Federal law prohibited all Chinese residents in the US from becoming naturalized citizens, which barred them from voting. The congresswoman mentions the discriminative period of history in her letter and says that Chinese-Americans should not forget the past but stand up to make a change. "Now our country is going through a tumultuous period of time, and what happens in this election will affect the future of our country and the future of the world," she said. "Asian-Americans are now the fastest-growing community in the US, and we are uniquely positioned to have a profound impact on the 2017 elections. But that only happens if you choose to vote. Now is our chance to honor our forebears who never had the voting privileges that we enjoy today. Now is our chance to shape our nation's future and build a better world for the next generation." | 
