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Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was first reported in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. The origins of the virus have subsequently led to an increase in acts and displays of Sinophobia, as well as prejudice, xenophobia, discrimination, violence, and racism against people of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent and appearance around the world. With the spread of the pandemic and formation of hotspots, such as those in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, discrimination against people from these hotspots has been reported.[1][2][3]

Background

In the past, many diseases have been named after geographical locations, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Zika virus, but in 2015, the World Health Organization introduced recommendations to avoid this practice, to reduce stigma. In accordance with this policy, the WHO recommended the official name "COVID-19" in February 2020.[4]


In early coverage of the outbreak, some news sources associated the virus with China in a manner that contributed to stigma. The journal Nature later published an apology for this type of coverage.[4][5] However, even after the majority of politicians had switched to avoiding stigmatizing language when referring to the virus, a minority continued.[4]


Following the progression of the outbreak to new hotspot countries, people from Italy (the first country in Europe to experience a serious outbreak of COVID-19) were also subjected to suspicion and xenophobia,[6][7] as were people from hotspots in other countries. Discrimination against Muslims in India escalated after public health authorities identified an Islamic missionary (Tablighi Jamaat) group's gathering in New Delhi in early March 2020 as a source of spread.[8] As of late April 2020, Paris had seen riots break out over police treatment of marginalised ethnic groups during the then in-place lockdown.[9] Racism and xenophobia towards southern and south east Asians increased in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.[10][11][12] In China, some people of African descent were evicted from their homes and told to leave China within 24 hours, due to disinformation that they and other foreigners were spreading the virus.[13] This racism and xenophobia was criticised by some foreign governments, diplomatic corps, and the Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe.[14]

Africa

Cameroon

The US embassy in Yaoundé issued a travel warning to US citizens amid reports of "... verbal and online harassment, stone throwing, and banging on vehicles occupied by expatriates". Some residents of Cameroon thought that Europeans and Americans brought COVID to Africa.[15]

Egypt

According to the Embassy of Japan in Cairo, store clerks had been hesitating to serve Japanese customers, and "corona" had become a new slur with which to abuse Japanese people on the street.[16]


On 10 March 2020, an Uber driver was arrested after a viral video showing the driver forcibly removing his Chinese passenger at a highway in Cairo's Maadi district on suspicion of having the virus. In the video, a voice is heard in the video jokingly shouting "The first coronavirus case in Egypt!" and the same voice then tells the driver "May God support you, Hajji! Throw him out!". The incident has sparked outrage among Egyptians after the video was uploaded. Some Egyptians visited the Chinese man in his hotel and expressed an apology to him for the incident, widely condemned in the local media as an act of bullying and racism.[17][18]

Ethiopia

Violence towards foreigners has been reported amidst the pandemic, with some locals attacking foreigners on social media by publishing photos of them and linking them to the coronavirus. The Foreign Correspondents Association of Ethiopia had warned that "dangerous rumours" and "vicious posts" were being spread on the internet about foreign journalists, while other foreigners had been physically attacked.[19]

Kenya

A video reportedly recorded in Kibera, Kenya, in March 2020 shows an angry crowd threatening a man and a woman of East Asian descent about the coronavirus. A man in the crowd shouts at the frightened couple, "You are corona!" A motorcycle rider from the crowd later raised his hand threatening to slap the Asian man. Growing unease towards Chinese immigrants has been reported in the streets of Nairobi and its environment especially towards construction workers.[20]


An alleged Kenyan member of parliament posted in a Facebook message that his constituents had the right to stone and chase away any Chinese visitors who were not quarantined.[21] A Kenyan taxi driver told the BBC that Chinese nationals had been changing their usernames on taxi hailing apps to avoid their passenger requests being declined.[22]

Nigeria

Geopolitical analyst Ovigwe Eguegu[23] reported that "a plethora of conspiracy theories, and videos of Asians (some Chinese) eating bats, and other exotic animals" on Nigerian social media has led to increased Sinophobia.[24]

Asia

Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi government has sent dozens of Rohingya refugees, who had remained stranded at sea for several weeks, to Bhasan Char, an uninhabited island in the estuary of the Meghna river. Hundreds more remain stranded on two overcrowded trawlers between Bangladesh and Malaysia. Human rights groups have criticised the Bangladeshi and Malaysian governments for using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to send away refugees.[28]

Long title

To facilitate the expedited review of COVID-19 hate crimes, and for other purposes.

20 May 2021

Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 117–13 (text) (PDF)

North America

Canada

A national report, funded by the Government of Canada and conducted as a collaboration with the Chinese Canadian National Council – Toronto Chapter, Project 107, Vancouver Asian Film Festival and the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, revealed there were 600 documented anti-Asian incidents reported in the country since the start of the pandemic.[296] It revealed that East Asians suffered the most attacks at 83%, followed by Southeast Asians at 7%, South Asians at 2%, mixed-race or biracial Canadians at 1.5% and Indigenous Canadians at 1%.[296]


On 26 January 2020, Peter Akman, a reporter who was with CTV News, tweeted an image of his Asian barber in a mask and said, "Hopefully all I got today was a haircut."[297] He was fired after the tweet was reported.[298]


On 29 January 2020, Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada and head of the Public Health Agency of Canada, expressed her concern. Tam, who is originally from Hong Kong, tweeted that "I am concerned about the growing number of reports of racism and stigmatizing comments on social media directed to people of Chinese and Asian descent related to 2019-nCoV coronavirus."[299]


The Nation reported on 7 February 2020 that some people of Hong Kong and other Asian diaspora in Canada had been spreading xenophobic stories and rhetoric online against mainland Chinese people.[300]


Several incidents of violent assaults against women of Asian descent have been reported.[301]


According to an Angus Reid Institute/University of Alberta survey on 22 June 2020, 64% of Chinese-Canadian respondents reported some level of disrespect during COVID-19,[302] 50% of them had experienced verbal abuse, and 29% had experienced physical attacks. 64% of respondents also felt coverage from North American news outlets had led to negative views of ethnically Chinese people in Canada.[303][304]


In Vancouver, anti-Asian hate crimes grew 717% between 2019 and 2020.[305]

Oceania

Australia

On 26 January 2020, two Murdoch News Corp tabloids ran controversial headlines, the Melbourne Herald Sun's headline read, "Chinese virus pandamonium", a misspelling of "pandemonium" and alluding to China's native pandas, while Sydney's The Daily Telegraph headline read "China kids stay home". One of the outcomes of these headlines was a petition of over 51,000 signatures in 24 hours demanding an apology and stating that these tabloids were not representative of Australians.[57][508] In response, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a counter-piece titled "This virus is not 'Chinese' – don't racialise it because we all have to be prepared".[509]


Several isolated incidents of xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic were also reported in the media. On 28 January 2020, a man collapsed and died of a suspected cardiac arrest outside of a restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown. Unconfirmed viral videos circulating on social media suggest that bystanders refused to perform CPR out of fear of the coronavirus.[510] In February, it was reported that a supermarket employee had refused entry to customers of Asian appearance, claiming it was to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. A witness made a complaint that was upheld by Woolworths, which confirmed that the employee had been in the wrong, apologised, and said that it was conducting a full investigation into the incident.[511][512] Ravenswood School for Girls, a private school on Sydney's North Shore reportedly asked a South Korean student to leave her dormitory – even though she had not been to China since visiting Shanghai in October 2019.[513] Similarly, a Chinese-Malaysian student in Perth found herself evicted from her shared home upon returning to Australia after visiting her home country for Lunar New Year.[514]


One news agency reported in February 2020 that Chinese restaurants and establishments in Sydney and Melbourne had seen a dramatic drop in business, with trade declining by more than seventy percent.[515] According to an online Ipsos MORI poll conducted in February 2020, 23% of Australian respondents would consider in the future avoiding people of Chinese origin to protect themselves from coronavirus.[99]


During the early months of the pandemic there was an increased number of isolated reports where members of the Chinese-Australian and Asian-Australian communities were subjected to verbal vitriol and racist slurs.[516][517] On 20 March 2020, a student wearing a mask in Hobart, Tasmania was told, "you've got the virus" and "go back to your country" before being punched, leaving him with a bruised eye and broken glasses. The motivation for the attack was partly attributed to the cultural differences between Eastern and Western cultures in wearing masks. However, the attacker was already known to police and was jailed after pleading guilty to common assault.[518]


In October 2020, a Chinese restaurant in Victoria reportedly received a letter telling the owners to "go back to Wuhan" and calling Chinese people "bloody bird and animal shit eating".[519] 84.5% of Asian-Australians experienced at least one instance of discrimination between January and October 2020, according to a survey.[520]


In March 2021, it was reported that a pregnant Asian-Australian couple, while waiting for a pregnancy scan in south Perth, was at the receiving end of racial slurs and abuse. A woman allegedly told the couple to "piss off back to China" as well as other slurs. The Asian-Australian man responded by saying, "Don't tell me to get out of my own country ... You just told me to get out of my own country, go back to where I come from ... I was born here, mate." The incident was recorded on camera and posted online. The couple said they were "heartened" by the supportive responses they had received after the video was posted and had over 250,000 views.[521]


The COVID-19 Racism Incident Report Survey 2021, conducted by the Asian Australian Alliance revealed that 52% of those who had faced COVID-19-related racism were of Chinese descent, followed by Vietnamese (8%), Malaysian (8%), Korean (7%), Singaporean (3%), Filipino (3%) and Indian (2%) descent. The survey noted that COVID-19-related racism had affected those of East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian descent and other migrant backgrounds, with blame being pushed on different communities as times goes on.[522]

Fiji

On 5 February 2020, Fiji's state-owned broadcaster Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) reported that a local Chinese resident had been berated publicly at a bus station by a man claiming that the victim had COVID-19.[523]


An opposition Fijian member of parliament Mitieli Bulanauca mentioned that COVID-19 has been spread by evil forces to assist China and they were responsible for the crisis, which is being assisted by satanic forces. Bulanauca also claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) had sided with China over the poor handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Chinese Embassy in Fiji condemned claims made by Bulanauca saying that it is shocked and disappointed as his remarks are not factual and were taken from fake social media pages.[524]

New Zealand

MP Raymond Huo said there were racial abuse incidents in the country's Chinese community. An online petition to prevent people from China from entering the country was signed by more than 18,000 people.[525] In Canterbury, an email was sent to a Chinese-origin student's parent, which reportedly said, "our Kiwi kids don't want to be in the same class with your disgusting virus spreaders."[526]


Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff said he was "sickened" by the reports of Asian-origin people being racially targeted at swimming pools, public transport and restaurants.[527]


There were reports of incidents of violent assaults against New Zealanders of Korean descent. In February 2021, the Chinese consulate in Auckland was affected by a phony bomb threat made on an events website Aucklife that was hacked. The motive was reportedly a punitive response against China for allegedly causing the pandemic.[528][529]


Indigenous Māori reported high levels of discrimination throughout the pandemic, potentially due to "iwi checkpoints" in which tribal authorities set up COVID-19 safety checkpoints to discourage non-essential travelers from visiting predominantly Māori lands.[530][531]


Following a Delta variant community outbreak in mid–August 2021, several congregants of the predominantly Samoan "Samoan Assemblies of God Mangere" church received racist abuse after their church was linked to 58 cases in the outbreak. Auckland councillor Efeso Collins claimed there was a racist double standard towards the Pasifika community. Many pointed to the irony that Pasifika people have extremely high vaccination rates, but were portrayed as "virus-spreaders".[532][533] The Ministry of Health condemned racism against the Pasifika community.[534]

South America

Argentina

On 26 February 2020, an incident involving a fight was reported in La Plata between a Chinese supermarket owner and an Argentine delivery man. The fight was triggered because the delivery man said "¿Qué hacés, coronavirus?" ("What's up, coronavirus?"), making a joke about Chinese people and the coronavirus. Both men ended up injured and the police later had to intervene.[535]

Bolivia

Local authorities quarantined three Japanese nationals despite them having no coronavirus-related symptoms.[16]

Brazil

Brazil's Education Minister, Abraham Weintraub, tweeted an anti-Chinese slur on 4 April 2020. He insinuated that China was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic and that it was part of its "plan for world domination". In the original Portuguese, his tweet substituted the letter "r" with capital "L" – "BLazil" instead of "Brazil", for example – in a style commonly used to mock a Chinese accent.[536]


On 16 April 2020, a judge ruled in favor of tribes in the Javari Valley and barred the evangelical Christian group New Tribes Mission of Brazil from entering the area. The group UNIVAJA, which unites some of these tribes, released a statement identifying themselves as "survivors of previous genocidal plagues" and accusing the missionaries of "physically expos[ing] us to a lethal virus". Two months earlier, President Bolsonaro had selected a former missionary from New Tribes to head the government agency responsible for protecting these tribes.[537]


According to Brazilian journalist Gabriel Leão, Asian Brazilians have not been impacted as much by racism and discrimination as other Asian communities in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly those in the United States, United Kingdom, and other European countries. However, Leão expressed concern that anti-Asian sentiment will increase in Brazil as well, because of how Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro tried to use the pandemic as an opportunity to attack China, similar to Donald Trump. In early 2020, Bolsonaro reportedly became convinced that COVID-19 was "part of a Chinese government scheme to expand its global power".


According to Leão, there have already been reports of Brazilians of Asian descent suffering from pandemic-related harassment, for example, being told to "go back to their country" or being accused of "spreading the virus". He himself has heard strangers in Brazil casually curse the "Chinese virus".[538] Chinese Brazilians in particular have been dealing with increased occurrences of discrimination in 2020, for example being told to "go back to China", "watch out for sellers", or to "get out, Chinese". One Chinese Brazilian in particular was told "Put the fucking mask on, you piece of shit. These pests come to our country to kill us. Go back to your country, you animal" when he tried to take off his mask to drink water at a clinic in Rio de Janeiro at the end of 2020.[539]

Anti-Chinese sentiment

Anti-Filipino sentiment

Anti-Japanese sentiment

Anti-Indian sentiment

Anti-Italianism

Anti-Korean sentiment

Anti-Russian sentiment

Anti-Thai sentiment

Anti-Vietnamese sentiment

Antiziganism

Islamophobia

Antisemitism

Homophobia

Transphobia

Cyber racism

Yellow Peril

a pandemic that also resulted in anti-Asian sentiment, especially towards Indian people and culture, and resulted in cholera's association with Asia

1817–1824 cholera pandemic

Christine Fernando and Cheyanne Mumphrey (20 December 2020) "Racism Targets Asian Food, Business During COVID-19 Pandemic". /NBC San Diego.

Associated Press