Racial prejudice as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic was first reported in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. The origins of the virus have subsequently led to an increase in acts and displays of sinophobia, as well as prejudice, xenophobia, discrimination, violence, and racism against people of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent and appearance around the world. With the spread of the pandemic and formation of hotspots, such as those in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, discrimination against people from these hotspots has been reported.
Background.
In the past, many diseases have been named after geographical locations, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Zika virus, but in 2015, the World Health Organization introduced recommendations to avoid this practice, to reduce stigma. In accordance with this policy, the WHO recommended the official name "COVID-19" in February 2020.
In early coverage of the outbreak, some news sources associated the virus with China in a manner that contributed to stigma. The journal "Nature" later published an apology for this type of coverage. However, even after the majority of politicians had switched to avoiding stigmatizing language when referring to the virus, a minority continued.
Following the progression of the outbreak to new hotspot countries, people from Italy (the first country in Europe to experience a serious outbreak of COVID-19) were also subjected to suspicion and xenophobia, as were people from hotspots in other countries. Discrimination against Muslims in India escalated after public health authorities identified an Islamic missionary (Tablighi Jamaat) group's gathering in New Delhi in early March 2020 as a source of spread. As of late April 2020, Paris had seen riots break out over police treatment of marginalised ethnic groups during the then in-place lockdown. Racism and xenophobia towards southern and south east Asians increased in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. In China, some people of African descent were evicted from their homes and told to leave China within 24 hours, due to disinformation that they and other foreigners were spreading the virus. This racism and xenophobia was criticised by some foreign governments, diplomatic corps, and the Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe.
Africa.
Cameroon.
The US embassy in Yaoundé issued a travel warning to US citizens amid reports of "...verbal and online harassment, stone throwing, and banging on vehicles occupied by expatriates". Some residents of Cameroon thought that Europeans and Americans brought COVID to Africa.
Egypt.
According to the Embassy of Japan in Cairo, store clerks had been hesitating to serve Japanese customers, and "corona" had become a new slur with which to abuse Japanese people on the street.
On 10 March 2020, an Uber driver was arrested after a viral video showing the driver forcibly removing his Chinese passenger at a highway in Cairo's Maadi district on suspicion of having the virus. In the video, a voice is heard in the video jokingly shouting "The first coronavirus case in Egypt!" and the same voice then tells the driver "May God support you, Hajji! Throw him out!". The incident has sparked outrage among Egyptians after the video was uploaded. Some Egyptians visited the Chinese man in his hotel and expressed an apology to him for the incident, widely condemned in the local media as an act of bullying and racism.
Ethiopia.
Violence towards foreigners has been reported amidst the pandemic, with some locals attacking foreigners on social media by publishing photos of them and linking them to the coronavirus. The Foreign Correspondents Association of Ethiopia had warned that "dangerous rumours" and "vicious posts" were being spread on the internet about foreign journalists, while other foreigners had been physically attacked.
Kenya.
A video reportedly recorded in Kibera, Kenya, in March 2020 shows an angry crowd threatening a man and a woman of East Asian descent about the coronavirus. A man in the crowd shouts at the frightened couple, "You are corona!" A motorcycle rider from the crowd later raised his hand threatening to slap the Asian man. Growing unease towards Chinese immigrants has been reported in the streets of Nairobi and its environment especially towards construction workers.
An alleged Kenyan member of parliament posted in a Facebook message that his constituents had the right to stone and chase away any Chinese visitors who were not quarantined. A Kenyan taxi driver told the BBC that Chinese nationals had been changing their usernames on taxi hailing apps to avoid their passenger requests being declined.
Nigeria.
Geopolitical analyst Ovigwe Eguegu reported that "a plethora of conspiracy theories, and videos of Asians (some Chinese) eating bats, and other exotic animals" on Nigerian social media has led to increased Sinophobia.
South Africa.
An ethnic Chinese man in Johannesburg told the news broadcaster "Deutsche Welle" that violent comments such as "wipe the Chinese people out" and "hope this virus gets all of them" have been expressed in the country by locals. Additionally, one of the earliest reactions of the South African government with regard to COVID-19 prevention was to build a forty-kilometer (25mi) fence on the border with Zimbabwe. This action was intended to "ensure that no undocumented or infected persons cross into the country", according to Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille. In February 2021, the Director of The Jesuit Institute South Africa, Father Russell Pollitt, criticized as potentially xenophobic Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize's announcement that COVID-19 vaccine distribution would be limited to only South African citizens.
Asia.
Bangladesh.
The Bangladeshi government has sent dozens of Rohingya refugees, who had remained stranded at sea for several weeks, to Bhasan Char, an uninhabited island in the estuary of the Meghna river. Hundreds more remain stranded on two overcrowded trawlers between Bangladesh and Malaysia. Human rights groups have criticised the Bangladeshi and Malaysian governments for using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to send away refugees.
Mainland China.
There have been instances of Wuhan natives in other provinces being turned away from hotels, having their ID numbers, home addresses and telephone numbers deliberately leaked online or dealing with harassing phone calls from strangers. Some places also reportedly had signs saying "people from Wuhan and cars from Hubei are not welcome here." Many hotels and guesthouses refrained from people who had addresses in Wuhan. Multiple hotels purportedly refused to check-in a Wuhan tour guide after she returned to Hangzhou from Singapore with one of them calling the police to give her a health check and asking the police to quarantine her. Amidst these incidents, various cities and prefectures outside of Hubei adopted resettlement measures for Hubei people in their region such as designated hotel accommodation for visitors from the province. In Zhengding, Jingxing and Luquan of Shijiazhuang City, the local governments rewarded anyone who reported those who had been to Wuhan, but not recorded in official documents at least 1,000 yuan RMB. In Meizhou, residents reporting people entering from Hunan were awarded thirty face masks.
It was reported that on a scheduled 27 January China Southern Airlines flight from Nagoya to Shanghai, some Shanghainese travellers refused to board with 16 others from Wuhan. Two of the Wuhan travellers were unable to board due to a fever while the Shanghainese on the spot alleged that the others had taken medicine to bypass the temperature check. One of the Wuhan tourists protested on Weibo, "are they really my compatriots?" which a Shanghai tourist who was purportedly at the scene replied that they did it to protect Shanghai from the virus. Many netizens criticized the Wuhan tourists for travelling with a fever, although some also called for understanding and for Shanghainese not to regionally discriminate.
In March and April 2020, media outlets reported instances of xenophobia towards foreigners, although according to "The Globe and Mail" on 10 April, Chinese officials denied the existence of any such discrimination within China. It has been attributed to fears of a second wave of the coronavirus, although the Chinese vice-foreign minister noted that ninety percent of imported COVID-19 cases were PRC nationals returning from overseas. According to "The Telegraph", foreigners are being barred from hotels, supermarkets, and restaurants, while others have had their visas cancelled and reentry into China barred. "The Guardian" reported on 29 March of foreigners being shouted at by local residents, avoided in public places, and sometimes scolded as "foreign trash". Shanghaiist has referenced stories of foreigner misbehaviour circulating on the Chinese internet as playing a role in the increased xenophobia. A comic posted on Weibo depicts people in hazmat suits disinfecting foreigners and throwing them in waste bins.
In April 2020, several reports emerged in Guangzhou of African nationals being evicted from their homes by local police and told to leave, with no place to sleep, amidst some recent Chinese news articles negatively reporting on Nigerians in the city. The reports of discrimination created controversy in Africa damaging Sino-African relations, and sparked a diplomatic crisis, with African governments and diplomats speaking out against the incidents in Guangzhou. The Nigerian legislator Oloye Akin Alabi posted a video of his confronting the PRC's ambassador Zhou Pingjian over the alleged mistreatment of Nigerians in the city. The governments of Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda have also asked for explanations from the PRC government, and the African Union Commission invited the PRC ambassador to the African Union to discuss the mistreatment allegations. The African ambassadors summarised the complaints in an official protest letter demanding the cessation of reported ejection from hotels or apartments, forced testing and quarantine, the seizure of passports, and threats of visa revocation, arrest or deportation of Africans particularly in the Guangdong province. In response, Chinese authorities issued measures discouraging Guangzhou businesses and rental houses from refusing people based on race or nationality and encouraged foreigners to report discrimination to a 24-hour hotline. Some locals coordinated food donations and listed available hotels online to African residents.
China initially placed land mines in selected regions along its border with Myanmar, which were later replaced by a barbed wire fence along 1,000 kilometers of the Myanmese border, for the stated goal of reducing cross-border COVID-19 infections. Other government sources suggested that pandemic restrictions were secondary to a desire to block the transmission of foreign ideas across the once-porous border region, citing a desire to specifically restrict the flow of Christianity and Buddhism into China.
Hong Kong.
More than a hundred restaurants in Hong Kong turned away customers from mainland China, with one restaurant demanding that a customer produce a Hong Kong identity card to prove they were not from the mainland. Tenno Ramen, a Japanese noodle restaurant in Hung Hom, refused to serve mainland Chinese customers. The restaurant said on Facebook, "We want to live longer. We want to safeguard local customers. Please excuse us." Another example is Kwong Wing Catering, a pro-2019–20 Hong Kong protests restaurant chain, which announced on Facebook on 28 January 2020 that it would serve only English- or Cantonese-speaking customers (no Mandarin-speakers customers allowed) since the government did not implement a border closure against mainland China. However, Mandarin is also the common tongue in Taiwan, so the said Facebook post was then updated a day later to clarify that they welcome Taiwanese customers.
Many protesters in Hong Kong have reportedly insisted on calling COVID-19 the "Chinese Virus" or "Chinese coronavirus". Expats and South Asian minorities have also faced increased xenophobia, with media narratives blaming them as more likely to spread the virus.
Indonesia.
The "Foreign Policy" reported that "On social media, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts encourage people to stay away from places where Chinese citizens or Chinese-heritage Indonesians work and live... Major media outlets are also complicit in spreading anti-Chinese conspiracies." Several Indonesian Muslims online have also linked the virus with China's mistreatment of Uighur Muslims, and that it is "an "azab" (punishment) from Allah".
A demonstration was staged outside a hotel in Bukittinggi, rejecting the visit of tourists from Southern China who stayed there amid fear of coronavirus. The demonstrators demanded that the tourists be isolated in an airport, and displayed distrust over screening tools in airports. It ended after police guaranteed that the tourists would stay in the hotel up to the following day, when the tourists depart from the city.
In a press release, the embassy of Japan in Indonesia said incidents of discrimination and harassment toward Japanese people had increased in the midst of the pandemic, and announced they had set up a help center to assist Japanese residents dealing with these incidents. In general, there have been reports of widespread anti-Japanese discrimination and harassment in the country, with hotels, stores,