"The Chinese Exclusion Act? What does this have to do with a policeman who is terrified of evil spirits?" Welbe's lips curled slightly, and a disdainful sneer appeared.

"Sir, do you know the details of Marenny?" Clay asked in surprise.

"I've investigated it a little before, after all, you made suggestions to me in person." Verbe lowered his head and continued to sort out the documents in his hand.

The facts are not as light as in the words. The slight investigation in Welbe actually directly used the power at the national level. The newly-confidenced Republican allies worked very hard, and some of the confidential information came directly from the FBI.

"Cutting the American Chinese Exclusion Act..." Welbe picked up the water cup from the cup holder.

"I want to hear your personal opinion."

"Is this another inspection? Sir." Clay glanced into the back seat from the rearview mirror.

"Yes, if you think so..." Verbe drank all the water in the cup and then put the cup back on the cup holder.

California officially joined the federal government in 1850. When conducting the first census, two residents from China were recorded in Los Angeles. They were employees of a businessman's family and the earliest Chinese immigrants recorded in California government documents.

With the gold rush and the subsequent Pacific Railway Project, a large number of Chinese people entered the United States as labor immigrants.

The Chinese who entered the United States also showed a polarization. In addition to occupying the majority of poor and low-level workers, there were also some wealthy and powerful businessmen and squire.

Chinese maritime traders generally lack security because the Qing government's eating habits were really ugly, so whether you say they were "crawling rabbits with three holes" or "not putting eggs in one basket", they began to make arrangements overseas very early, transferring huge assets accumulated in maritime trade, and spreading their branches and leaves locally to continue the family's bloodline. Facts prove that this set is indeed very effective, and it did not appear to be outdated until the 21st century.

In the early days of the coolie trade, the California government of the United States did not exclude Chinese workers. They needed cheap foreign labor and funds. At that time, any immigrant could apply to become a U.S. citizen as long as he met constitutional standards.

The Chinese coolies are cheap, hardworking and have strong learning ability. They only need to go through simple vocational training and can quickly take over some less complicated technical work, which is unmatched by workers of other races, so soon the Chinese occupied almost 90% of the labor market in North America, especially in California.

Due to differences in language and living customs, Chinese workers like to live in a community where they retain their customs and etiquette in their own country, and even gave the streets and alleys in the community a Chinese name.

Due to the habit of thrift and thrift developed by poverty all year round, they never want to spend a little extra penny outside, but choose to store the money they earn and hand it over to the guild hall for delivery back to China.

At that time, almost all the coolies had a whip behind their heads, not because they were so loyal to our Qing Dynasty, but just to not be dragged out by the government as a riot when they return to their hometown in the future.

During the construction of the Pacific Railway, Chinese workers accounted for 95% of the total workers. The monthly salary of Chinese workers was only just 26 US dollars at first. Although it later rose to 35 US dollars per month, it was still not as high as that of white workers who were 50 yuan a month. Moreover, white workers were required to pay extra for their own catering, just because Chinese workers had their own eating habits and were unable to eat the food cooked by American chefs.

The road construction work is very dangerous and arduous. During the project, thousands of Chinese workers died due to various accidents. Therefore, later generations said that under each sleeper on the Pacific Railway, the corpse of a Chinese coolie was buried.

But for these coolies, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get rich, because at the exchange rate at that time, they worked hard in the farmlands in their hometown for a year, and their income was only more than ten dollars. (In the Qing Dynasty, the exchange rate between silver and US dollar reached a maximum of 1:07, and they were calculated as one dollar to one tael of customs silver. One tael of customs silver could be exchanged for one tael of coin, that is, one thousand copper coins. In fact, many farmers in Guangdong at that time, even if they planted their own land, after deducting various taxes and taxes, the monthly income balance was 700 to 800 yuan.)

After deducting food and other daily necessities, pay off the credit bills and membership fees at the club. If he is still clean and does not prostitute or gamble, he can save about half of his salary every month, which is more than the income of the whole family working for a year before.

If he is lucky, he can accumulate about 300 to 400 US dollars in his pocket after completing the two-year agreement. This is already a huge sum of money in the eyes of ordinary people at that time, and it is enough for him to return home in luxury, build a house, and live a prosperous life of a small landlord. This is why he knows that working in Kingsoft is extremely risky and countless people die in misfortune, but the people in Guangdong are still flocking to him.

Most of the coolies had no intention of becoming permanent immigrants at all. They just regarded the United States as a place to make a fortune. After completing the agreement with the coolies, they returned to their hometown with the money they earned, and only a few people chose to stay and develop.

At first, the US government's attitude towards Chinese workers was fair, but local officials were inevitably racist and superior. Before 1873, Chinese people had basically the same political status in the United States as Indians. At that time, Chinese, Indians and blacks were not allowed to testify in any case of litigation for white people.

This is true for higher education legal workers. It is completely imaginable how the rural people in the western United States view the Chinese.

From the perspective of American racists at that time, these yellow-skinned little men could not integrate into American society or become part of the American big family. They would only use their low salary to steal the jobs of white Americans and bring the wealth that originally belonged to white Americans back to a country they killed in which they were in.

The attack on Chinese actually started in 1860. At that time, the California gold rush had ended. A large number of white people who came to California to hunt for gold from all over the country were stranded in the local area. Many people invested all their property in order to hunt for gold, and even owed a lot of usury, which can be said to have bet on their wealth and lives.

The depletion of gold mines caused a large number of gold diggers to lose their jobs, and California's economy also stagnated. At that time, the industrial and commercial construction in California was weak and could not provide enough jobs. So the single white workers began to point the finger at the Chinese who had jobs to do.

When two ethnic groups have no interest disputes, they can live in peace, but once there is a conflict of interests, the weak side will definitely initiate a rebellion. On the issue of employment, white workers are on the weak side, because unless they are willing to accept the same salary as the Chinese, no capitalist will be stupid enough to hire them.

So an anti-China storm began to slowly brew in white society. In order to cater to and win over white voters, California politicians also began further political actions.

Initially, California enacted the Foreign Miner Income Tax Act, which gave additional taxes to all foreign miners who started mining, which made most Chinese miners unable to continue working and could only open laundry and restaurants in Chinatown, San Francisco.

In 1877, the first anti-China riot broke out in San Francisco. Four hundred California railway workers who were furious due to the railway company's salary cuts tried to burn the entire Chinatown with fire because they felt that it was the low wages of Chinese workers, which led to this situation.

Finally, the thirty San Francisco Mounted Police in Chinatown and the "Pick Pickles Brigade" spontaneously formed by 5,000 San Francisco citizens stood up to protect the Chinese community.

But this was just the beginning of a series of disasters. In 1880, the U.S. federal and California governments issued several orders against Chinese people. The Fisheries Act prohibited Chinese from participating in any fishing activities. The subsequent Qing and U.S. Beijing Treaty restricted the number of Chinese people to the United States and their length of residence each year. The Civil Procedure Law of each state clearly stipulated that Chinese people are not allowed to intermarry with white people. After further interpretation, the legality of all Chinese and white marriages was abolished.

California abolished this law in 1948, but the rest of the United States were implemented until 1967, and was finally terminated by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Therefore, in some novels of the Republic of China, the scene where Chinese married white wives or talked about love with white women in the United States was completely dreaming during the day.

The situation developed in 1882, and the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act was introduced under the joint promotion of the Democratic Party and Republican politicians.

The reason why it is called notorious is that it is a bill targeting a single nation and full of racial discrimination. The content of the bill is not complicated, it can be summed up in one sentence to prevent Chinese people from immigrating to the United States again.

The bill prohibits Chinese workers from entering U.S. territory in any way from any border. After the bill is signed and taken into effect, ships that transport coolies to the United States will be severely punished, and even Chinese crew members on foreign merchant ships are not allowed to land at U.S. ports.

In addition, after the bill comes into effect, no Chinese living in the United States shall be naturalized and re-entered once they leave the United States.

In addition, Chinese people who have obtained legal identity certificates issued by the Qing government, including students, teachers, businessmen and government officials, can be allowed to enter the United States, but must carry the certificates with you so that the US police can conduct random inspections anytime and anywhere.

Chinese who had previously lived in the United States must obtain guarantees from two American citizens to obtain legal residence ID cards, otherwise they would be deemed illegal to enter the country and were deported. This kind of identity card was originally only issued to Chinese people, and then the scope gradually expanded to all foreign immigrants, and eventually developed into the famous green card.

The provision that Chinese people cannot naturalize means that except for immigrant children who have been naturalized very early and those born in the United States, all Chinese who have come to the United States after 1882 are not allowed to become American citizens.

Moreover, according to the laws of the United States at that time, the ownership of foreign immigrants in the United States was not protected, and Chinese people were prohibited from working in government departments and companies, and they were not allowed to purchase land and start businesses in the United States. At the same time, the municipal government agencies prohibited the issuance of new business licenses to Chinese people.

Therefore, in those novels of the Republic of China, a Chinese student or businessman opened a factory or bought land and dug oil wells in the United States to make money through stocks was completely wishful thinking, because in the era when the Chinese Exclusion Act came into effect, it was impossible for Chinese to have the opportunity to make a comeback in the United States.

PS: Thank you for your support.
Chapter completed!