What the New Cold War Means for Chinese Americans
A new Red Scare is on the horizon, and it’s already taking shape in Washington
Relations between the U.S. and China are at an all time low — the worst in decades. The sour relations between China and the U.S. will prevent any form of potential collaboration in overcoming the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. But the tensions between these two industrial giants will not only affect the future of trade relations; it will also have long lasting consequences for those with shared American and Chinese identities.
To be clear, U.S.-China relations are rooted in over a hundred years of cultural attitudes towards those who are deemed foreign to American nationalism. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are exempt from the incredibly racist rhetoric used when describing China. The language that is often used to describe the Chinese insinuates that these people are intrinsically foreign from democratic ideals like freedom and equality.
However, the actions of a nation’s government do not necessarily reflect the attitudes and culture of its people. Take us, for example: the majority of Americans (65% to be exact) do not believe that Trump responded to the pandemic accordingly, so it wouldn’t be fair for anyone to conclude that Americans in general are unprepared in times of crisis based on their national leadership. Yet, this is the type of logic that American politicians use to explicitly attack Chinese people.
This rhetoric, combined with escalating tensions between the two nations, has issued the rise of a new Cold War, one between the U.S. and China. If you recall the previous Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in the late 20th century, the war consisted of a series of proxy wars with the goal of maintaining global dominance. Ultimately, the Cold War was an ideological war that contested whether democracy or socialism would prevail.
Similarly to the previous Cold War’s Red Scare and McCarthy communist witch hunts, this new Cold War has begun to instigate scapegoating, racially charged rhetoric, and hysteria. In particular, this new Cold War will have dire impacts for Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants because of perpetual foreigner stereotypes and discrimination that existed far before the onslaught of the pandemic.
How will the Chinese in America Be Impacted?
The first two consequences I will discuss primarily impact Chinese international students and the Chinese community at large. The next two consequences are focused on Chinese Americans — Chinese people born and currently living in America.
Crackdown on Immigration
Immigration quotas, particularly immigration based on national origins, is bound to ensue for the Chinese. After all, it’s not new for Americans to select on the basis of national origin in immigration policy or legally exclude the entry of Chinese people (cough cough Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882).
Under the guise of the pandemic, the Trump Administration has advanced its anti-immigrant agenda by stopping the stream of foreign workers and installing stricter policies for asylum seekers. Over 43,000 migrants seeking asylum have been effectively blocked. Three months ago, the administration suspended green cards through an executive order, essentially halting any kind of immigration to the U.S.
These policies heavily impact immigrants from around the world, but there has been special focus on Chinese immigrants. True to form, the Trump Administration has issued plans to cancel visas for thousands of Chinese graduate students and researchers in the United States with ties to China’s military schools. This plan would be the first law to ban a category of Chinese students from entering the United States and affect at least 3,000 students.
Discrimination in Higher Education and the Workforce
The Trump Administration is also currently in the works of preventing international students from entering the United States in the fall. International students who pour large amounts of money into U.S. higher education — subsequently subsidizing costs for American students — will have to choose between not returning in the fall for their education or risk exposure to coronavirus in universities that will be open. There were 1.1 million international students enrolled in U.S. higher education in 2018–2019, with 369,548 of them from China. To say that Chinese students and Chinese communities will be heavily impacted by this policy is a dramatic understatement: China is the leading source of international students in the United States, so halting their entry will force these students into extremely difficult positions.
*7/20 Update: The Trump Administration has backed down from this policy for international students.
For some lawmakers, though, restrictions on Chinese immigration weren’t enough. Arkansas lawmakers have proposed legislation to completely ban any Chinese citizen from pursuing graduate or post graduate degrees in science or technology. Conversations with similar sentiments are beginning to grow in state capitals across the country.
The crackdown on Chinese students in higher education will also have ripple effects on them in the U.S. job market. With impending restrictions on graduate education for Chinese students, it will become more difficult for Chinese students to live in the U.S. after receiving their education and work. Furthermore, Chinese students face intense scrutiny from employers of companies who are less likely to hire international workers for financial, ideological, and coronavirus concerns. These sentiments will leak into the examination of Chinese Americans for jobs; anti-Chinese biases and generalizations are all too familiar for Chinese Americans, and this treatment will only strengthen in the years to come.
Hate Crimes
Since the early days of the pandemic, the number of Asian hate crimes in the United States has reached record breaking numbers. Over 2100 hate crimes against Asians in the United States have been reported since March, and these numbers are a significant underestimation of the amount of discrimination and hatred Asian Americans face on a day to day basis. Incidents have included being told to “Go back to China”, being called racial slurs, being spat on, being banned from entering businesses, and being physically assaulted.
Asian Americans make up 5% of the entire U.S. population, yet somehow they’re to blame for a virus with no link to genetic disposition?
What is most despicable about this is that not only are hate crimes against Asians increasing, but people who commit these crimes are getting away with it. Last month, a woman in Torrance, California had verbally and physically attacked multiple Asian people while going off on a racist tirade. Her actions were recorded on video, where it headlined in news agencies. However, these horrific actions captured on video and public demands for the woman to be arrested were not met by law enforcement. While Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the police on a Black man in Central Park, is being formally investigated by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, all this Torrance woman received was a misdemeanor.
Asian Americans have come forward with their traumatizing experiences of being verbally and physically assaulted. But despite the attention that has been brought towards this issue, the situation has not dramatically changed. Asian Americans are continually fighting bigotry and hate-charged violence, and the perpetrators of these crimes are often not held accountable.
Chinese Americans have every right to be afraid since these hate crimes have not slowed and are likely to persist long after the pandemic is over.
Normalization of Anti-Chinese Rhetoric
Policies and institutions are closing in on the Chinese community. But the greatest force that has negatively impacted my community is the culture. Politicians and authorities have casually thrown anti-Chinese rhetoric into their everyday language that normalize these sentiments in American cultural norms.
The Trump Administration has referred to coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus,” “Wuhan Virus” and most recently, “Kung Flu.” When asked on whether these racially-charged labels were offensive to Asian Americans, President Trump replied, “I think [Asian Americans] would agree with it 100%. It comes from China. There’s nothing not to agree with.”
Hate to break it to you Mr. President, but we don’t agree with your nicknames. Not 100%, not 50%, not even 1%. Our livelihoods aren’t a joke, so stop acting like they are.
Language is powerful; it ingrains values and norms into our culture. The anti-Chinese sentiments that have been expressed by our national leadership only encourages and validates those who commit atrocities towards innocent people in a racially backward quest towards American exceptionalism.
Yet, no one is truly exempt from psychological unease towards the Chinese. After all, our attitudes towards the Chinese stem from our own distrust towards the Chinese government. But perhaps there’s something else. A collective fear of a superpower capable of surpassing the U.S. in its so called global supremacy and greatness. A fear of the rise of a country whose ideological and political system threaten our valorization of Enlightenment ideals. A fear of people who challenge our popular perceptions of leadership potentially dominating the world.
Maybe there is a fear. Or maybe not.
Regardless, the Chinese living in America will be hit hard by what’s to come next.
Whether it be the U.S.-China Trade War (yes, we’re still in it), racially charged national rhetoric, immigration policies, restrictions on international students, lack of enforcement on hate crime prevention, and the normalization of racist tirades, the adversary Chinese Americans are fighting is the place they call home.
7/22 Update: The Trump Administration has accused the Chinese government of stealing research related to coronavirus. They have ordered Chinese diplomats in Texas to leave, shutting down the Chinese Consulate in Houston.
7/24 Update: Days after the shutdown of the Chinese Consulate in Houston, the Chinese government has ordered the closing of the American consulate in Chengdu.
7/25 Update: Days after Chinese diplomats exited from the consulate in Houston, a group of American men forced down the doors of the consulate and raided it under accusations that the consulate was used as a “spy hub.”
Fight Fire with Resilience
As a Chinese American, I am scared of what this future holds. But above all, I’m angry. Why do Chinese Americans, and Asian Americans, continue to be unintentional collateral damage for the U.S. in yet another power struggle for global dominance?
Hate crimes against Asian Americans have skyrocketed amidst the pandemic. As if that wasn’t enough, now we have to deal with an even uglier aftermath? My international friends will be barred from coming back to the U.S., my American born friends and I will be scrutinized by our future employers, my community is under constant attack by politicians and the media, and now, every time I go outside, I am fearful of becoming another hate crime statistic that no one seems to care about.
I hate that I have no real power over the impacts of the deteriorating relations between the U.S. and China, but what I have realized is that I can choose to not submit to this narrative. Instead of upholding outdated, racist, and misogynist visions of America, let’s actively work to change this narrative.
To do that, Chinese Americans, and Asian Americans, must speak out against hate crimes and discrimination. In response to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, I founded Watercress to highlight the experiences of the Asian community and humanize us to the rest of the 95% of America who isn’t Asian. Many Asian American groups have formed and rallied against racial hate and injustice. We have to keep speaking out and standing up for ourselves and our community.
But this does not rest on Chinese Americans alone. It will take all of us to combat the racial hate and fear that has driven this racial rhetoric since the nation’s founding. Our language and our actions both uphold and challenge social norms. Changing the culture starts with individual actions, and it can be as simple as being mindful of the type of language you use or speaking up when you sense injustice.
Throughout American history, when opportunities for social advancements erupted for Asian Americans, so too did exclusion and violence. We like to think that history moves in a linear trend towards progress, but alas, history moves in endless cycles.
And this new cycle of hate, fear, and discrimination towards the Chinese in America has only just begun.
