GOP's anti-China message could spur more attacks on Asian Americans

SCREEN CAPTURE /NBC

A GOP memo laid out the Republican strategy to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak which caused the US economic downturn, the rise of the unemployed, and the frstrations Americans feel for the stay-at-home mandates intended to slow the spread of the virus.

"Don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China," suggests the memo obtained by Politico.

On April 12 Views From the Edge posted a warning about the apparent anti-China theme of the GOP's campaign strategy. Unfortunately, the warning has become a flashing red llight for AAPI communities, already wary from being blamed for the coronavirus and the resulting splurge of anti-Asian assaults. 

In its advice to Republican candidates this November, the memo suggests that "No one is blaming Chinese Americans."

"This is the fault of the Chinese Communist Party for covering up the virus and lying about it’s danger. This caused the pandemic and they should be held accountable. ... No one has suffered more from the murderous Communist Chinese Party dictatorship than the people of China. We stand with them against their corrupt government that caused this pandemic," candidates are advised to say.

A Trump PAC's first campaign ad released earlier this month accuesed Joe Biden, Trump's probable Democratic challenger, of being soft on China.

Despite denials from the GOP, in stirring up the hate from some of the Trump supporters, the anti-China sentiment is being translated into a startling rise in attacks on Asian Americans, with one website recording 1500 hate incidents in just a month when the website began accepting reports of anti-Asian assaults.

Trump's critics fear that the anti-China messaging will spur some of his followers, who cannot distinguish between China and Chinese Americans, will increase the attacks against Americans of Chinese descent,. An FBI report has warned. that the attacks would increase as the coronavirus impacts the American way of life.

The Republican decision to move in this direction is on top of the strained relations caused by a trade war between the US and China and a US clampdown on Chinese researchers working in the US and allegations of massive industrial spying by Chinese agents.

A report from L1ght, a company that specializes in measuring hate online, suggests there has been a 900% growth in hate speech towards China and Chinese people on Twitter.

With growing US-China tensions and fears of Chinese espionage, we hear clearly from our members that Asian Americans, especially those who work in the STEM fields, are facing an increasingly hostile environment where our loyalty is being consistently and unfairly challenged," said H. Roger Wang, chair of the Committee of 100, made up of prominent Chinese Americans.

As fears of coronavirus mount, AAPI journalists caution media coverage

Jia Liang Sun-Wang / via Twitter

Jia Liang Sun-Wang, based in Spain, holds a sign in response to coronavirus-based discrimination. 

Faster than the coronavirus itself, racist reaction is spreading faster than the viral outbreak. As efforts to address the disease continue, another outbreak is also appearing revealing the darker side of humanity: mistrust, fear, xenophobia and outright racism.

Most people barely notice how easy it is to turn words of caution into a racist attack, meme or well-intentioned, but nevertheless, racist gaff even if its a micro-aggression. 

But, if you're Asian, paranoia starts to creep in when you're in a crowded commuter train or in a crowd and you simply have to clear your throat. You try to suppress the urge or you take a sip of water to rid yourself of that itch in your esophagus. You start to notice people staring at you or they move away. Or, is it all in your imagination?

Journalists sometimes may fall into the same racist trap, cautions the Association of Asian American Journalists, which suggested some guidelines to help American media in their coverage of the virus.

Stories are starting to mount of the racialized fear of Asian Americans because of the coronavirus, which originated from China and has spread worldwide. Some of the recent incidents include:

• Ride-share drivers are refusing to travel to the countries's Chinatowns and won't pick up Asian customers.

• Business is down for Chinese restaurants. In the US, Chinatowns, in general, have seen viewer visitors.

• Bullies severely beat up a teenage student in Southern California because his attackers accused him for having the virus because he was Asian.

• Hotels deny lodging to Asian American customers

• An AirB&B host in Great Britain turns down an Asian student's bid for housing

• Another Southern California student is sent to the nurse's office because he began couging after drinking some water which went down the wrong tube.

And the list of transgressions continues.

“Do not assume that if someone is of Asian descent, they have coronavirus,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told the L.A. Times.

Members of the AAPI community are targets right now because public health events have always been racialized. Pandemics that originate in areas populated by mostly people of color get more scrutiny, such as SARS in China or Ebola in West Africa, according to Teaching Tolerance. However, when pandemics occur in the US and other western countries, such as the H1N1 virus a couple of years ago, citizens in those countries were not viewed as innately diseased. Many people die yearly from the flu, but Westerners aren’t viewed our of fear.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in the US related to disease goes back to when Chinese people began immigrating here. In the campaign to bar Chinese workers from entering the country in the late 1800s, white labor unions argued that people from China carried diseases that were more virulent than those found in white people, discounting entirely that whole civilizations in the America's were wiped out by small pox which came from Europe.

In the same way disproven studies were used by European colonizers to justify enslaving Africans, junk science about people from Asia was used to justify laws leading to exclusion and exploitation of Asian immigrants. It solidified fear and phobia against Chinese people. The “yellow peril” narrative was born.

These racist tropes are directly tied to the oppression of Asians and Asian Americans in the United States and eventually led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. 

Coupled with racist tropes about health and culture, these laws led to racist violence against Asian Americans. The remnants of that legacy remain with us today and it is being resurrected by the Donald Trump anti-immigration rhetoric.

MEDIA GUIDELINES

In a press release, the AAJA is urging journalists to exercise care in their coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in China to ensure accurate and fair portrayals of Asians and Asian Americans and to avoid fueling xenophobia and racism that have already emerged since the outbreak.

Some of the news and commentary that have raised concern include:

• Use of images of people wearing face masks without providing the proper context: For many years prior to the coronavirus outbreak, face masks have been commonly used in East Asian countries, including for protection from pollution. This practice has crossed over into immigrant Asian American populations in the United States and the masks are now more prevalent as a result of the outbreak. AAJA urges news outlets to consider the various reasons for the face masks and provide context when using such images. 
• Use of generic images of Chinatown: Only include images of a local Chinatown if it is directly related to a news story, not as a way to illustrate the virus. The images are appropriate, for example, if the story is about Chinatown businesses emptying out over fears of the virus, or if there are potential cases stemming from a particular Chinatown. AAJA warns against blanket use of Chinatown images that reinforce stereotypes and create a sense of “otherness.”  
• Use of the term “Wuhan virus”: The World Health Organization issued guidelines in 2015 discouraging the use of geographic locations when naming illnesses because it could stigmatize the people living there. Coronavirus is the umbrella term for a large group of viruses that can cause anything from the common cold to SARS, according to The Associated Press stylebook. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the virus that originated out of Wuhan.

Meanwhile, AAJA is heartened to see examples of comprehensive, fair and accurate coverage of the outbreak, its impact in East Asian countries and among immigrant communities in the U.S. and around the world. 

For example, while many of the passengers in the two chartered airline flights that flew Americans from China immediately after the outbreak were of Chinese descent, most media only referred to the quarantined passengers as "Americans," which they are. 

Also, AAJA points out that news outlets have covered the impact on daily lives of residents in and around Wuhan; the culture and history of Wuhan beyond its relation to coronavirus; efforts to help businesses in local Chinatowns affected by fear over the virus; the proliferation of xenophobic incidents against those of East Asian descent around the world; and more.

AAJA encourages journalists to turn to reliable resources like the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control in their ongoing reporting. And as always, AAJA is available to engage in a dialogue to foster fair and accurate coverage of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

The reaction is not just limited to the US. Anti-Chinese racism is on the rise around the world: the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Latin America, Europe and Canada. 

Asians in France have countered the French reactions with the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus) (#IAmNotAVirus).

"Yes, People are insulted and kicked off public transport because they are Asian. It's not just jokes/hatred on social networks. Discrimination also happens in real life," tweeted French journalist Linh-Lan Dao.

Coronavirus scare spurs surge in anti-Chinese sentiment

SCREEN CAPTURE / FOX NEWS

US citizens traveling from China are escorted off their flight to a quarantine area.

The coronavirus outbreak is unleashing a new wave of "yellow peril" hysteria against Chinese Americans and other Asians.

"If you look at social media and some of the news, it's fear of the 'Yellow Peril' all over again," says Russell Jeung, chairman of Asian-American Studies at San Francisco State University. 'Coughing while Asian' is like 'driving while black,' something you get stereotyped for."

We're not trying to make light of the virus. Coronavirus is real. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently labeled it a global public health emergency. 

The virus started in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, overwhelmed local officials in China's Hubei province, as victims suddenly developed pneumonia without clear causes and for which vaccines were not proving effective. It led to the Chinese government quarantining the entire province of 55 million. In Wuhan, the streets are deserted and business is at a standstill.

On Monday, the death toll in China is approaching 600, with more than 20,000 people infected.  There are a dozen known cases in the US.

Two cases of the virus have been reported in Toronto. Mayor John Tory was among the first North American officials to caution against the rise of anti-Chinese fears.

Tory said the city supports the Chinese Canadian community by releasing accurate information as often as necessary. And "we stand up as we are all doing here today to stop misleading or damaging or stigmatizing comments or actions that are directed toward any members of our community," he said.

Dr. Eileen de Villa of Toronto's Public Health emphasized that risk of contracting the virus was low and that misinformation was "creating unnecessary stigma."

"I am deeply concerned and find it disappointing that this is happening," de Villa said in the statement. "Discrimination is not acceptable. It is not helpful, and spreading misinformation does not offer anyone protection."

The US has instituted a ban. on all travelers from China except for US citizens. Citizens returning from China must undergo a 2-week quarantine at military bases in California. New Zealand, Philippines, Iraq, Indonesia and Australia have followed the US example.

On social media, attacks and harassment against Asians in New York City was blamed on the fear of the virus. 

Youtube star Michelle Phan had enough upon seeing the racist tweets against Asians. One of the offensive tweets asked why Chinese eat bats and other creatures spreading disease.

“Why do you (white) settlers give out smallpox infected blankets to Native Americans, wiping out 95% of their population?” Phan said in response.

Later in the back-and-forth exchange, Phan wrote: “Why are some of you telling me to go back to eating bats?” Phan tweeted in response. “I’m American you ignorant f—s.”

Ride-sharing drivers have turned down passengers who look Asian and vice-versa, passengers have refused rides with Asian drivers. 

Caitlin Pascua, an Uber driver of Asian American descent in the Los Angeles area, told Bloomberg News that her business has declined since the outbreak and lower ratings and fewer tips from customers.

The rising fear on top of the current climate of xenophobia spurred by anti-Chinese rhetoric coming out of the US-China trade wars is fueling racist sentiment.

“With this new virus, something was triggered that is always latently there, under the surface, which is this fear of the other and the idea that bad things come from elsewhere,” says Roger Keil, a professor in the environmental studies department at York University, who studied the impact of SARS on the city of Toronto.

Chinese researchers under intense scrutiny as fears of 'yellow peril' rising

 Under pressure, Dr. Xifeng Wu resigned her position as a researcher.

ASAM NEWS

The headline reads "The US is purging Chinese cancer researchers from top institution". Another declares "FBI and NIH demonize Chinese researchers as Trump-inspired paranoia spreads across America."

The articles from Bloomberg Businessweek and Cleantechnica, a publication focusing on coverage of clean energy, raise some important issues about the National Institute of Health and FBI’s increase scrutiny of Chinese scientists, some of whom are American citizens, for collaborations with foreign governments.

Recently Xifeng Wu, a naturalized American citizen, stepped down as director of public health for the Center for Public Health and Translational Genomics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The resignation followed a three month investigation into her ties to China. International cooperation in research is common in science and China honored the Anderson Cancer Center in 2015 for international science cooperation.

“MD Anderson was very much an open door. The mission was ‘End cancer in Texas, America, and the world,’ ” Oliver Bogler, a former high ranking official at the Cancer Center from 2011 to 2018, said to Bloomberg Businessweek.

That cooperation, however, caught the attention of the FBI and NIH which fears China may be stealing American know how.

” Even something that is in the fundamental research space, that’s absolutely not classified, has an intrinsic value,” says Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the NIH, said to Businessweek. “This pre-patented material is the antecedent to creating intellectual property. In essence, what you’re doing is stealing other people’s ideas.”

RELATED: Chinese Americans fear spread of 'yellow peril' bias

In April, FBI director Christopher Wray put it another way.

“Put plainly, China seems determined to steal its way up the economic ladder at our expense.”

After the actions in Texas, Emory University in Atlanta ousted two veteran biomedical researchers and shuttered their laboratory after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, expressed concern about their foreign ties. Emory is conducting their own investigation to see if those fears can be substantiated.

The NIH sent letters to research institutions throughout the country explaining their suspiciouns. The letters were part of a sweeping NIH effort, launched in August 2018, to address growing U.S. government fears that foreign nations, particularly China, are taking unfair advantage of federally funded research. NIH has said at least 55 institutions have conducted investigations in response to its inquiries, which identify individuals with NIH funding.

Wu currently has a complaint with the US Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission and declined an interview request from Bloomberg.

In a blog for Cleantechnica, Steve Hanley wrote:

This sort of reckless rhetoric is precisely the sort of inflammatory speech that permeated the United States during the Cold War when Russia was America’s arch enemy. It also fueled the Red Menace scare that let to the rise of Joseph McCarthy — the paranoid junior senator from Wisconsin, the Hollywood blacklist, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor.

Words have consequences, and Wray’s words are a direct affront to every American. He might as well emulate Tail Gunner Joe himself and strut around Washington waving pieces of paper while looking into the cameras and intoning, “I have here a list of Chinese Americans…..”From 2009 and 2015, 52% of defendants indicted under the U.S. Economic Espionage Act have been Chinese. One in five indicted between 1997 and 2015 were never found guilty-that’s almost twice the rate of non-Chinese defendants.

Chinese American organizations such as the OCA and United Chinese Americans issued statements urging caution in spreading the anti-Chinese rhetoric and crackdown.

The "crack down targeting primarily Chinese American scientists at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston are unsettling, because of the manner in which the investigations were carried out, and the fear they have generated," said the United Chinese Americans in an April 25 statement.

"No scientist has been charged with a federal crime. Yet, reportedly, at least 10 scientists have retired, resigned, been fired or placed on administrative leave, with more parties affected. Fifty-five other NIH-funded institutions are currently carrying out similar investigations in response to U.S. government concerns."

“Because so many have been questioned by the FBI, I’m very concerned about whether this ultimately leads to an erosion of Chinese Americans’ civil rights,” said Rep Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

“In the same way racial profiling of African Americans as criminals may create the crime of ‘driving while black,’  profiling of Asian Americans as spies … may be creating a new crime: ‘researching while Asian,” wrote Andrew Kim of South Texas College of Law at Houston.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
____________________________________________________________________