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Opinion | US-China war of words is fuelling rise in anti-Asian hate
- The ongoing battle between Washington and Beijing is grating heavily on a world already worn down by two years of Covid-19
- As nationalist sentiment puts Asian Americans at increasing risk of xenophobic attacks, both countries must start acting responsibly
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At a distressing, destabilising time like this, with repeated lockdowns and quarantines, with the collapse of tourism, travel and educational exchange, with jets turned around in the sky and ships turned around at sea, with all the economic dislocation and supply-chain snags, frictions are mounting and tempers getting short.
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The underlying tension only gets worse when the two strongest powers on Earth battle it out in public, each playing to a home audience. For now, it’s a ruthless war of words and media images, but the possibility of a kinetic clash is ever present.
The tone in American politics has improved during Joe Biden’s presidency, but many discordant notes continue to sound, and some of his policies regarding China are as tone-deaf as those of his predecessor.
As for the wolf warriors in President Xi Jinping’s administration, they have yet to demonstrate they are serious about diplomacy, let alone tolerance and diversity.
The Chinese internet is censored for many things, but it is brimming with intemperate voices and hate speech in the name of nationalism. Fortunately, acts of violence against foreigners remain rare.
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Incidents of anti-Chinese hate in the US, however, are on the upswing and have become everyday news. The new year is only days old and already a number of anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported from Oakland to New York City.
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