President-elect Barack Obama is expected to name New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to head the Commerce Department at a news conference today in Chicago. A group of Chinese American activists have launched a campaign to oppose Richardson’s cabinet nomination because of his handling of the case of Wen Ho Lee, the US nuclear scientist of Chinese descent who was falsely accused by the Clinton administration of spying for the Chinese government. At the time, Richardson was serving as Energy Secretary under Bill Clinton. Albert Wang said, “This was the major Chinese American civil rights case in the last thirty years. And there was a feeling among many Chinese Americans, particularly in Silicon Valley, that Bill Richardson did a lot to promote the notion that all Chinese Americans are potential spies.”