Chinese in UK report 'shocking' levels of racism after coronavirus outbreak
Asian community faces verbal and physical abuse in aftermath of first recorded cases of virus in Britain
Lucy Campbell
Sun 9 Feb 2020 16.29 GMT
“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.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... s-outbreak

Coronavirus: outbreak exposes anti-Chinese sentiment in the Philippines
Raissa Robles
Published: 9:39pm, 2 Feb, 2020
Ethnic Chinese organisations in the country have called for calm amid an uptick in ‘anti-China racist stereotypes and xenophobic attacks’
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte has come in for criticism thanks to his earlier refusal to impose a total ban on Chinese visitors
A racist undercurrent of anti-Chinese attitudes has been exposed in the Philippines by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that has claimed more than 300 lives worldwide.
On Sunday, Manila confirmed that a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan had died of the virus
– the first fatality outside China – prompting tighter travel restrictions on both foreigners and Filipinos, as well as a torrent of negative backlash against President Rodrigo Duterte.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyl ... -sentiment

Is the Coronavirus Fueling Anti-Chinese Sentiment ? This man thinks so:
(For information, note that this is not a news item; it is an opinion piece written for The China Daily which was republished in the Khmer Times. It is posted here for discussion.)

February 11, 2020
“Something’s not right here folks” | A look at USA 2009 H1N1 Virus compared to China 2020 Coronavirus
Mario Cavolo / China Daily
When the United States 2009 H1N1 swine flu emerged, it eventually infected 60 million and initially killed a minimum of 18,449 cases that year. But the final story of the H1N1 global pandemic was far worse than that, with close to 300,000 deaths, according to the final tallies in 2012 reported by the CDC, as you will read below.

Which is why I am scratching my head at how bizarrely negative forces are attacking China and Chinese people as it engages a remarkably aggressive front addressing this Corona virus outbreak which started in Wuhan, central China. I am forced to ask and answer a few questions.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50689863/s ... oronavirus

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 5:17 pm Is the Coronavirus Fueling Anti-Chinese Sentiment ? This man thinks so:
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50689863/s ... oronavirus

Sorry, i don't buy the "poor victim me" game ^^^ nor shifting the blame for "keeping it quiet for a few weeks" on a few local officials.

China only has itself to blame for its reputation for secrecy and lies when it comes to epidemics. The response for sure is more transparent this time around but still information is tightly controlled.
The refusal to share the virus with international researchers is classic China.

The local officials, IF they were only ones to know and keep it secret (doubtful) are only reflecting the values of their political culture.

But i do believe this virus has stoked a lot of anti-chinese racism. I've seen it, and even had to challenge it in myself.
That does not mean i am not still a fierce critic of China - but racism is different.

To counterbalance opinions here a bit more, I don’t believe any western country can handle this virus outbreak better than China can, given the sheer numbers of population in their cities, they are champions in handling it. Forget about limiting transportation in western countries. There would be riots in the streets overnight. No country would publish true numbers even if they knew it (they don’t obviously). It would add so much fuel to the fire, the world would grind to a halt. China is doing a perfect job, let’s hope they can contain it and western countries don’t have to confront societal chaos caused by their liberated citizens.

^^^ I don't fully agree Hunter. I think you are overstating the "perfect' bit".
But what you say about China having the capacity to employ extremely strict control and quarantine measure is very true.
It will be interesting to see how the wobbly western political leaders will react if the virus really breaks out elsewhere.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:26 am ^^^ I don't fully agree Hunter. I think you are overstating the "perfect' bit".
But what you say about China having the capacity to employ extremely strict control and quarantine measure is very true.
It will be interesting to see how the wobbly western political leaders will react if the virus really breaks out elsewhere.

Alright, I take away “perfect”. But that none other could do better under the circumstances, this i am certain.

hunter8 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:17 pm To counterbalance opinions here a bit more, I don’t believe any western country can handle this virus outbreak better than China can, given the sheer numbers of population in their cities, they are champions in handling it. Forget about limiting transportation in western countries. There would be riots in the streets overnight. No country would publish true numbers even if they knew it (they don’t obviously). It would add so much fuel to the fire, the world would grind to a halt. China is doing a perfect job, let’s hope they can contain it and western countries don’t have to confront societal chaos caused by their liberated citizens.

To counterbalance opinions here a bit more, arresting a doc signalling a virus in the early stage and telling him to shut up is doing a perfect job?

hunter8 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:48 am

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:26 am ^^^ I don't fully agree Hunter. I think you are overstating the "perfect' bit".
But what you say about China having the capacity to employ extremely strict control and quarantine measure is very true.
It will be interesting to see how the wobbly western political leaders will react if the virus really breaks out elsewhere.

Alright, I take away “perfect”. But that none other could do better under the circumstances, this i am certain.

The measures they are taking now would be extremely hard to take in the 'free world', that's true, but they have to take these measures because someone f*cked up in the early stage. I'm pretty sure in the 'free world' the early stage would have been handled better. Not sure if the massive outbreak would haven been prevented though because this virus seems so infectious.