Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States

A defiant Columbia in an 1871 Thomas Nast cartoon, shown protecting a defenseless Chinese man from an angry Irish lynch mob that has just burned down an orphanage. The billboard behind is full of inflammatory anti-Chinese broadsheets.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States began in the 19th century, shortly after Chinese immigrants first arrived in North America,[1] and continues into the 21st century. It has taken many forms throughout history, including prejudice, racist immigration restrictions, murder, bullying, massacre, and other acts of violence. Anti-Chinese sentiment and violence in the country first manifested in the 1860s, when Chinese people were employed in the building of the world's first transcontinental railroad. Its origins can be traced partly to competition with white people for jobs,[2] and reports of Americans who had lived and worked in China and wrote relentlessly negative and unsubstantiated reports of locals.

Violence against Chinese in California, Oregon, Washington, and throughout the country took many forms, including pogroms; expulsions, including the destruction of a Chinatown in Denver; and massacres such as the Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871, the Rock Springs massacre, and the Hells Canyon massacre.[3][4][5] Anti-Chinese sentiment led to the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned the naturalization and further immigration of people of Chinese descent. Amid discussions of "Yellow Peril", anti-Chinese sentiment was eventually extended to all Asians, leading to the broader Asian Exclusion Act of 1924.[6]

Although relations between the US and China normalized after the Sino-Soviet split and the 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China, anti-Chinese sentiment has increased in the United States since the end of the Cold War, especially since the 2010s, and its increase has been attributed to China's rise as a superpower, which is perceived as a primary threat to America's position as the world's sole superpower.[7][8][9] Since 2019, xenophobia and racism further intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, with increased discrimination, racism, and violence against Chinese people, people of Chinese descent or anyone perceived to be Chinese, especially Asians.[10][11][12][13][14] According to survey results released on April 27, 2023 based on 6,500 respondents, nearly 75% of Chinese Americans have experienced racism in the past twelve months with 7% having suffered property destruction, 9% physical assault or intimidation, 20% verbal or online harassment, and 46% unequal treatment.[15]

  1. ^ McClain, Charles J. (1994). In search of equality: the Chinese struggle against discrimination in 19th-century America. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08337-7.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kearney, Dennis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Race riot tore apart Denver's Chinatown". Eugene Register-Guard. October 30, 1996. Retrieved October 28, 2020 – via Google newspapers.
  4. ^ Gyory, Andrew (1998). Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 10. ISBN 9780807847398. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  5. ^ Grad, Shelby (March 18, 2021). "The racist massacre that killed 10% of L.A.'s Chinese population and brought shame to the city". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  6. ^ Guisepi, Robert A. (January 29, 2007). "Asian Americans". World History International. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ Art, Robert J (2010). "The United States and the Rise of China: Implications for the Long Haul". Political Science Quarterly. 125 (3): 359–391. doi:10.1002/j.1538-165X.2010.tb00678.x. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 25767046. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  8. ^ "Berkeley News; Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies", University of California, Berkeley, February 12, 2020, retrieved September 20, 2020, History is resurfacing again, with China becoming a stronger country and more competitive and a threat to U.S. dominance today, just like Japan was a threat during the Second World War.
  9. ^ Griffiths, James Griffiths (May 25, 2019). "The US won a trade war against Japan. But China is a whole new ball game". CNN. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  10. ^ Reny, Tyler T.; Barreto, Matt A. (May 28, 2020). "Xenophobia in the time of pandemic: othering, anti-Asian attitudes, and COVID-19". Politics, Groups, and Identities. 10 (2): 209–232. doi:10.1080/21565503.2020.1769693. ISSN 2156-5503. S2CID 219749159.
  11. ^ White, Alexandre I. R. (April 18, 2020). "Historical linkages: epidemic threat, economic risk, and xenophobia". The Lancet. 395 (10232): 1250–1251. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30737-6. ISSN 0140-6736. PMC 7154503. PMID 32224298.
  12. ^ Devakumar, Delan; Shannon, Geordan; Bhopal, Sunil S; Abubakar, Ibrahim (April 2020). "Racism and discrimination in COVID-19 responses". The Lancet. 395 (10231): 1194. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30792-3. ISSN 0140-6736. PMC 7146645. PMID 32246915.
  13. ^ "Many Black, Asian Americans Say They Have Experienced Discrimination Amid Coronavirus". Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project. July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  14. ^ Chelsea Daniels, Paul DiMaggio, G. Cristina Mora, Hana Shepherd. "Does Pandemic Threat Stoke Xenophobia?" (PDF). New York University College of Arts & Science. Retrieved May 18, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference survey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).