More than 60 Asian-American groups officially filed a complaint against Harvard University on May 15, alleging that the school practices "systemic and continuous discrimination" against Asian Americans by holding them to higher standards for admission.

"So many in the Asian-American community have not spoken out," Zhao Yukong, one of the chief organizers of the suit and author of The Chinese Secrets for Success, said at a press briefing at the National Press Club Friday. "We've been largely silent for 20 years."

In all, 64 Asian-American groups - including Chinese, Indian and Korean - co-filed the complaint, which claims it is made difficult for "high-performing male Asian-American students to gain admission to Harvard University and other Ivy League colleges", because the university has set quotas to keep the number of Asian-American students significantly lower than that of other ethnic groups.

The complaint was also filed with the US Justice and Education Department's Civil Rights Division. The coalition of Asian-American organizations urged the US to investigate Harvard and other Ivy League schools for the alleged racial discrimination.

The coalition asked that Harvard "immediately cease and desist from using stereotypes, racial biases and other discriminatory means in evaluating Asian-American applicants."

"We want to eliminate discrimination of Asian Americans, and we want procedural justice for all racial groups," Zhao, who is also an executive with an engineering company and a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, told NBC. "All racial groups should be treated equal."

The complaint cites data provided by HQH Chinese American Equalization Association showing that over the past 20 years, while the overall number of Asian-American college students in the US has doubled, the percentage of Asian-American students admitted to Harvard has remained at 14-to-18 percent.

The data also show that Asian-American students have to score about 140 points higher than White students, 270 points higher than Hispanic students and 450 points higher than African-American students to gain admission to Harvard.

Li Chunyan, a Chinese-American professor and another of the lawsuit's organizers, said that Harvard and other colleges in the US are supposed to dispense with questions in the admission process that reveal an applicant's ethnic background, nationality, race or gender.

"There is a lot of discrimination, and it hurts not just Asian-Americans, it hurts the whole country," said Zhao.

Zhong Jiayu, who researches Asian Americans' rights at the Claimant Expert Information Services in Maryland, said he came across several other discrimination cases involving his clients.

"I think Chinese Americans should first have an awareness of their rights protections," said Zhong. "Secondly, Chinese Americans and Chinese in the US should stand united to voice their demands."

He also said that Chinese Americans should strive to have more political power in the US to prevent actions that challenge their rights.

The complaint comes after a lawsuit against Harvard University six months ago, when a group called Students for Fair Admissions, Inc alleged that Harvard violated the Civil Rights Act by "intentionally discriminating against applicants on the basis of race - specifically against Asian Americans" to achieve "racial balancing".

Robert Luliano, Harvard's general counsel, responded to the issue with a statement saying that over the past decade, the percentage of Asian-American students admitted to Harvard College had increased to 21 percent.

Liu Xiaoxian in Washington contributed to this story.

(China Daily USA 05/18/2015 page2)