By: Karissa Ketter, News Editor
Content warning: mentions of anti-Asian violence and racism.
China has consistently been featured in western news for one reason or another these last couple years. Beginning with the COVID-19 outbreak, western media and government officials have villainized China for their role in the pandemic.
Should we be critical of the Chinese government? Absolutely. They have recently committed their own share of violence against minority groups, including over one million Uyghur Muslims being put in concentration camps. We should also be critical of their ever-expanding surveillance state and social credit system used to collect personal data and monitor behaviour. However, the west’s media framing of China goes beyond a critique of their government and falls into manufacturing severe and misplaced hatred for Chinese culture and citizens. It’s time news outlets take a hard stance against such divisive rhetoric.
At the start of the pandemic, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres posted to Twitter, “The pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.”
Human Rights Watch attributes the rise in anti-Chinese sentiment to conservative government leaders in western countries. A prominent example of the blatant racism and xenophobia in western politics is Majorie Taylor Greene, a US republican party representative. According to Vice News, Greene was trying to “do the Red Scare all over again — this time with Chinese citizens living in the United States.” The Red Scare was a government-manufactured fear of communism after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Throughout the 20th century, it resulted in multiple false accusations, and “is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties.”
In 2021, Greene publicly declared her aim to deport everyone in the US with Chinese background if they’re loyal to the Chinese government. How she would prove loyalty is unclear, but the tactic echoes back to World War II, when the US detained Japanese Americans in concentration camps and publicly questioned their loyalties.
Anti-Chinese sentiment is not exclusive to the US Republican party, either. Canada recently announced plans to introduce a “foreign influence transparency registry.” This came after months of demands from the Conservative Party to address allegations of Chinese election interference. The new registry could result in criminal charges to anyone who refuses to disclose “arrangements, registrable activities, exemptions, information disclosure,” and “compliance.” The list appears intentionally vague, and there’s little information on what would qualify as foreign influence.
Manufactured hatred for Chinese people exists across the globe. Senior government officials in the “United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have latched onto the COVID-19 crisis to advance anti-immigrant, white supremacist,” and “xenophobic conspiracy theories.” The result is the demonization of refugees, foreigners, and anyone from East Asian descent.
Unfortunately, their scare-mongering tactics worked. From 2015 to 2020, “unfavourable views” of China spiked from 55% to 73%. This was accompanied by a rise in xenophobia and hate crimes across the world. The Vancouver Police Department reported 204 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020 alone.
Three years into the pandemic, this manufactured hatred for China has lingered. Most recently, an alleged Chinese “spy balloon” was spotted off the coast of South Carolina. The US used a fighter jet to shoot down the balloon. China responded to the incident and said the airship was a civilian vessel drifting off course. Their Foreign Ministry added, “The Chinese side has clearly asked the US side to properly handle the matter in a calm, professional, and restrained manner [ . . . ] The US use of force is a clear overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.” While the device’s true purpose is still unclear, western media outlets were quick to adopt the Pentagon’s unfounded spy balloon allegation, making claims of espionage. Fear-mongering without solid facts only exacerbates international division.
The anti-Chinese rhetoric created by the US has more consequences than awkward international relationships, though. One in four Americans think of China as an enemy. This has led to disgusting acts of violence against people from East Asian descent. 2022 reports find that anti-Asian violence in the US increased 339% compared to 2020. Violence against Chinese people continues to be reported worldwide, with Vancouver being titled the “anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America” after seeing a 717% increase in reported attacks in 2020.
News articles that stir hatred and division are a sensationalized version of reality, and they contribute to widespread prejudice against East Asian people. We can’t point fingers at the Chinese government’s failures without acknowledging mistakes made by our own. For instance, Canada’s intelligence agency, CSIS, has been given permission to spy abroad and even break local laws in overseas countries. That’s not to mention the fact that the last residential school only closed in 1996, and a settlement for reparations was reached just this year. Canada still has a lot of work to do. We can and should discuss current events without perpetuating an “us vs. them” narrative.
