Chinese in UK report 'shocking' levels of racism after...

A member of the Chinese community in Manchester wearing a face mask. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Asian community faces verbal and physical abuse in aftermath of first recorded cases of virus in Britain

“We’ll be in trouble if these guys sneeze on us,” Jason Ngan overheard as he and his brother got into a lift in Manchester’s Piccadilly station. Born and bred in Manchester, home to more than 7,000 Chinese people, the legal adviser said the level of anti-Asian racism the coronavirus had unearthed was “shocking”.

“People seem to have put a whole race behind it and it’s exposing all these underlying prejudices towards Chinese people, or at least anyone who looks Chinese. It’s shocking in this day and age. It was so blatant,” Ngan said.

Ngan’s mother runs a Chinese restaurant in Heywood, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. There had been “a real downturn” over the lunar new year period, particularly since cases were confirmed in York last week, he said. “It’s been very noticeable, far fewer customers since all this started.”

Despite only four confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the UK, Britain’s 390,000-strong Chinese community have noticed a markedly racist response to the global health crisis.

In Sheffield, a postgraduate student was reportedly verbally and physically harassed in the street for wearing a face mask, while in Leicestershire two students – mistakenly thought to be Chinese – were pelted with eggs on the street in Market Harborough. The Manchester Chinese Centre has received scores of complaints of racist incidents targeting children in schools across the region.

North Yorkshire police confirmed they had received two reports of verbal abuse where individuals of an “Asian appearance” had comments about coronavirus shouted at them in York, and there was a further incident where staff at an Asian tea house had been verbally abused.

Last week the University of York, home to around 2,000 Chinese students, issued a statement calling for respect and tolerance after xenophobic and racist comments were published on the anonymous confessions page Yorfess.

The site was shut down, but the student newspaper York Vision reported that comments ranged from stating that the risk of the virus spreading was minimal because Asian students were “cliquey and unwilling to integrate”, to one user not wanting to share cutlery with their international housemates.

It is relatively common in some Asian countries to wear a face mask to protect against pollution and sickness, but in the UK some Chinese immigrants say wearing a mask makes them a target for hate.

Some members of the Chinese community reported feeling uncomfortable wearing face masks as people stared at them. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Jingyi Qian, 24, a student at the University of York, said she felt uncomfortable wearing her mask in public “because people stare at me.” Hearing about the incident in Sheffield had put her off wearing one. “I don’t want to get attacked, I just want to protect myself.”

The abuse is not confined to big cities. Waiting for a train in Edale, Derbyshire, Alice, a charity worker, overheard a woman saying she didn’t want a group who appeared to be east Asian to get on the train. She said the woman’s friend must have tried to reason with her because she then said: “I’m looking out for myself!”

The deeper prejudices exposed by the coronavirus are symptomatic of a long history of demonising Chinese people, according to Jex Wang, a Chinese-Australian DJ and writer, who was sent threatening, racist abuse after writing about the coronavirus on Instagram.

“Stereotypes of Asians as submissive and non-aggressive make them a target that people think they can make fun of and laugh at. I’ve seen posts saying Chinese people are dirty, disgusting, uneducated, we ‘deserved’ the virus because of our ‘weird’ food habits,” she said.

“I kept seeing memes and jokes being shared which really upset me. There was even a coronavirus-themed club night in Sheffield that got shut down – they were offering ‘traditional Chinese hats’ to the first 100 people. What is a traditional Chinese hat??”

After calling out the problematic behaviour and language surrounding the coronavirus on Instagram, her inbox was soon flooded with such “hateful” messages that she had to turn comments off on the post. “People accused me of eating bats, told me to go back to China, that I had betrayed the west, I was even accused of fraternising with the Chinese Communist party.” One message said: “China needs to be cancelled. Period.”

Commentary: Western media should quit racist reporting as China fights epidemic

File photo

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- As China works closely with the international community to combat the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), certain western media outlets are generating viciously misleading reports, undercutting global efforts to end the epidemic.

German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel recently featured on its cover a man wearing a red hoody, goggles and a protective mask, with the headline "Coronavirus made in China." Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed a picture of the Chinese national flag with the five yellow stars replaced by coronavirus particles.

Not to be outdone, the Wall Street Journal last week published an op-ed that called China and its people the real "Sick Man of Asia," a highly racist tag that has long been spurned.

These sensational and unfounded allegations from a few western media outlets have turned a blind eye to the unswerving efforts and huge sacrifice China and its people have made to control the spread of the disease and deliberately ignored how China's decisive measures have won support and broad recognition across the globe.

Being insensitive is hardly an excuse. While these media outfits look to stand out from the crowd in their headline writing and cover stories, they should be aware that their racism and xenophobia hurts the feelings of the Chinese people, at a critical time when they are racing against time to fight the disease and save lives. These reports have fomented anti-China sentiment and betrayed the journalistic ethics of truthfulness, objectivity and impartiality.

In the ongoing battle against the disease, China is waging all-out efforts through comprehensive and unprecedented measures for treatment and prevention, and many have far exceeded International Health Regulations requirements.

China, in an open and responsible manner, has shared the virus' genetic sequence and other related information with the world, and practiced rigorous nationwide quarantine measures to minimize the impact. Also, the country has built two hospitals from scratch within two weeks and turned such facilities as gymnasiums into makeshift hospitals to expand treatment.

The efficiency and resolution in response to the epidemic have received high praise and support from the international community. To better prevent the disease, China is ready to engage in even closer international cooperation with foreign governments, experts and organizations.

As the world copes with this shared challenge, cooperation remains key. Tossing mud at this tough time serves to stoke more fear, anxiety and hostility.

Disease does not know any national border or race. And just as the H1N1 influenza outbreak in the United States in 2009 should not be called an "American virus," the NCP is neither a "China virus" nor "Wuhan virus."

Sensationalism merely drums up fear and hatred. News media should stick to reporting the facts and help the general public have a more rational understanding of the epidemic, not assign a nationality to the virus.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com, https://peoplesdaily.pdnews.cn；Xinhua

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