Poll: almost a third of Americans blame China or Chinese people for the coronavirus

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

A new poll finds that while the majority of Americans say the Coronavirus pandemic is a natural disaster, about 3 in 10 Americans blame China or Chinese people for the pandemic.

The survey by Center for Public Integrity/Ipsos also found that Asian Americans are the race/ethnicity most likely to say the coronavirus pandemic is a natural disaster rather than caused by a specific people or organization; 79% compared to 55% of African American and White and 51% of Hispanic respondents.

A majority of US citizens (56%) believe the coronavirus pandemic is a natural disaster, according to the poll, but Republicans (60%), retirees (51%), and those without a college education (48%) are most likely to believe that specific people or organizations are responsible for the coronavirus pandemic.

Unfortunately, because of the rhetoric from the Trump administration and Republicans' presidential campaign blaming China for the virus, among the 44% who say a specific group or organization is responsible, most blame China or Chinese people; 66% mentioned China. More specifically, 45% mentioned China or Chinese people generally, 13% say it was caused by a lab in China, and 9% blame the Chinese government.

That's bad news for Asian Americans, who are suffering a sharp rise in attacks since the coronavirus hit the US, according to private nonprofits who are recording the anti-Asian incidents and hate crimes.  More than 1500 such reports were collected by Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University who launched the STOP AAPI HATE website.

"We’re already seeing an increase in physical assaults, refusal of service and vandalism,” said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, a San Francisco-based civil rights organization helping to run the tracking effort, “despite the fact that 95 percent of Americans are sheltering in place.”

In late March, the FBI warned that it anticipated a national surge in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.

Choi worries that the assaults against Asian Americans will get worse when shelter-in-place orders are lifted and more people interact on subways, in workplaces and elsewhere. “We are preparing for worst-case scenarios,” she told NBC.

“Virulent racism isn’t a mass phenomenon,” Chris Jackson, the head of public polling at Ipsos, said. “But among Republicans particularly, there is an environment where blaming China or blaming the Chinese people is acceptable, and that is an environment that fosters more extreme acts.”