Recent months have seen a significant uptick, perhaps even a contagion, of racially motivated attacks on Asians in the United States. Chinese Americans are the biggest targets, with 84 percent saying they are victims or at least are personally aware of it, compared to two-thirds for Asians generally.
Discrimination and accompanying assaults on Chinese, of course, can be attributed to the fact that Chinese look, act and sound different. That has been true for eons
For Chinese the attacks run the gamut from racist comments or threats to the burning and looting of their businesses and homes to beatings and killings. A good portion of Chinese living in the US feel fear and even say they are terrorized.
The liberal media’s narrative, shared by the Democrat Party and academics is that the underlying cause is Donald Trump, especially his smearing of China with the coronavirus. US President Joe Biden recently expanded on this theme blaming white supremacists, pointing the finger at the Republican Party and its supporters.
However, in counter position Ying Ma, author of Chinese Girl in the Ghetto, points out the racist attacks on Chinese were quite common long before Donald Trump became president, or for that matter before he was born. Furthermore, the incidences have increased since Joe Biden entered the White House.
Also, she observed an inordinate number of the attackers were, and are, not only white people.
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Moreover, the overwhelming proportion of the attacks, ninety-five plus percent according to some accounts, have occurred in cities and/or states governed by the Democratic Party. Chinese Americans generally reside in big cities that are Democrat-run; but still, the numbers do not confirm the way liberals and Democrats cast blame is accurate.
Discrimination and accompanying assaults on Chinese, of course, can be attributed to the fact that Chinese look, act and sound different. That has been true for eons.
Other minorities find the Chinese claim to be the model minority, meaning they add to the tax coffers, rarely commit crimes, build internationally famous companies and become admired citizens, unpleasant to listen to.
Liberals especially despise the Chinese for their upsetting affirmative action, notably by their opposition to quotas used to exclude them from America’s best colleges and universities. Polls taken of Chinese Americans indicate this is their biggest gripe about America. Incidentally, Asians, led mainly by Chinese, recently sued Harvard University over the racial bias quotas used by its admissions office.
Liberals also dislike Chinese culture, Confucian teachings being at the core: family-oriented, abjuring large government, emphasis on the role of education, teaching moral standards and honoring elders.
Democrats are often surprised to learn what the Chinese say about American history and politics. It does not favor them.
Almost all Chinese mention the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that banned the immigration of Chinese. It was promoted by the Democratic Party and enacted by the state government in California. It became anathema to the Chinese.
Most Chinese also know how China was treated by President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, widely known as the most racist among American presidents. When World War I ended China was on the side of the victors. Thus, Chinese leaders expected the German Concession in China that included the sacred home of Confucius, would to be returned. At Versailles, Japanese diplomats asked Wilson to add another point to his 14 Points (for peace, etc.): racial equality.
Chaffing at this suggestion Wilson approved the Japanese taking the German Concession in China in return for rescinding their proposal.
Presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson refused to accept the argument made by a host of American scholars and diplomats that by the 1960s Washington could make friends with China. President Richard Nixon understood this and in 1972 visited China and made diplomatic agreements that constituted “the week that changed the world.”
Though an idea floats to persuade China to support the American-built liberal world order that is in a state of falling apart, noted scholar Walter Russell Mead thinks differently.
As China has recommended changes for a global community of shared future, America is falling behind owing to overspending in controlling crime, drugs, undocumented immigrants, defense, etc. and is handicapped in spending on research and development due to huge arrears and its resultant high cost for interest on the debt.
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When former president Trump visited China in 2017, his grandchildren spoke to President Xi Jinpng and the First Lady in Chinese (which they had learned speaking it at home) and recited Chinese poems. Millions of people of Chinese origin in both countries saw this on television and remember it vividly. Most were impressed that Trump espoused more respect for Chinese culture and China than any other American officials they knew.
In contrast, noted Democrats failed to show due respect for the Chinese leader and even labeled him in unfriendly terms.
Clearly, the root reasons for the rash of racial attacks on Asians deserve more thought than it appears.
The author is the Stanley J. Buckman Professor (emeritus) of International Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the author of more than thirty-five books on China and US Asia policy.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.