Anti-Chinese sentiment

Anti-Chinese sentiment (also referred to as Sinophobia) is the fear or dislike of Chinese people and/or Chinese culture.
It is frequently directed at Chinese minorities which live outside Greater China and it involves immigration, nationalism, political ideologies, disparity of wealth, the past tributary system of Imperial China, majority-minority relations, imperial legacies, and racism.
A variety of popular cultural clichés and negative stereotypes of Chinese people have existed around the world since the twentieth century, and they are frequently conflated with a variety of popular cultural clichés and negative stereotypes of other Asian ethnic groups, known as the Yellow Peril. Some individuals may harbor prejudice or hatred against Chinese people due to history, racism, modern politics, cultural differences, propaganda, or ingrained stereotypes.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a resurgence of Sinophobia, the manifestations of it ranged from subtle acts of discrimination such as microaggression and stigmatization, exclusion and shunning, to more overt forms of discrimination, such as outright verbal abuse, slurs and name-calling, and sometimes physical violence.
Historical records document the existence of anti-Chinese sentiment throughout the history of China's imperial wars.
Lord Palmerston was responsible for sparking the First Opium War (1839–1842) with Qing China. He considered Chinese culture "uncivilized", and his negative views on China played a significant role in his decision to issue a declaration of war. This disdain became increasingly common throughout the Second Opium War (1856–1860), when repeated attacks against foreign traders in China inflamed anti-Chinese sentiment abroad. Following the defeat of China in the Second Opium War, Lord Elgin, upon his arrival in Peking in 1860, ordered the sacking and burning of China's imperial Summer Palace in vengeance.
In the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed in response to growing Sinophobia. It prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers and turned those already in the country into second-class persons. The 1882 Act was the first U.S. immigration law to target a specific ethnicity or nationality. Meanwhile, during the mid-19th century in Peru, Chinese were used as slave labor and they were not allowed to hold any important positions in Peruvian society.
Chinese workers had been a fixture on London's docks since the mid-eighteenth century, when they arrived as sailors who were employed by the East India Company, importing tea and spices from the Far East. Conditions on those long voyages were so dreadful that many sailors decided to abscond and take their chances on the streets rather than face the return journey. Those who stayed generally settled around the bustling docks, running laundries and small lodging houses for other sailors or selling exotic Asian produce. By the 1880s, a small but recognizable Chinese community had developed in the Limehouse area, increasing Sinophobic sentiments among other Londoners, who feared the Chinese workers might take over their traditional jobs due to their willingness to work for much lower wages and longer hours than other workers in the same industries. The entire Chinese population of London was only in the low hundreds—in a city whose entire population was roughly estimated to be seven million—but nativist feelings ran high, as was evidenced by the Aliens Act of 1905, a bundle of legislation which sought to restrict the entry of poor and low-skilled foreign workers. Chinese Londoners also became involved with illegal criminal organisations, further spurring Sinophobic sentiments.
Anti-Chinese sentiment in Hong Kong is mostly driven by political opposition to the PRC, but it is also motivated by racist hostility toward Mainland Chinese.
In 2012, a group of Hong Kong residents published a newspaper advertisement depicting mainland visitors and immigrants as locusts. In February 2014, about 100 Hong Kongers harassed mainland tourists and shoppers during what they styled an "anti-locust" protest in Kowloon. In response, the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong proposed an extension of the territory's race-hate laws to cover mainlanders. Strong anti-mainland xenophobia has also been documented amidst the 2019 protests, with reported instances of protesters attacking Mandarin-speakers and mainland-linked businesses.
Discriminatory views of Chinese people have been reported, and ethnic-Chinese Koreans have faced prejudices including what is said, to be a widespread criminal stigma. Increased anti-Chinese sentiments had reportedly led to online comments calling the Nanjing Massacre the "Nanjing Grand Festival" or others such as "Good Chinese are only dead Chinese" and "I want to kill Korean Chinese".
A survey in 2017 suggested that 51% of Chinese respondents had experienced tenancy discrimination. Another report in the same year noted a significant bias against Chinese visitors from the media and some of the Japanese locals.
Mongolian nationalist and Neo-Nazi groups are reported to be hostile to China, and Mongolians traditionally hold unfavorable views of the country. The common stereotype is that China is trying to undermine Mongolian sovereignty in order to eventually make it part of China (the Republic of China has claimed Mongolia as part of its territory, see Outer Mongolia). Fear and hatred of erliiz (Mongolian: эрлийз, [ˈɛrɮiːt͡sə], literally, double seeds), a derogatory term for people of mixed Han Chinese and Mongol ethnicity, is a common phenomena in Mongolian politics. Erliiz are seen as a Chinese plot of "genetic pollution" to chip away at Mongolian sovereignty, and allegations of Chinese ancestry are used as a political weapon in election campaigns. Several small Neo-Nazi groups opposing Chinese influence and mixed Chinese couples are present within Mongolia, such as Tsagaan Khas.
In the late 1940s, the anti-mainland Chinese term "The dogs go and the pigs come" became popular in Taiwanese society as a result of dissatisfaction with the Republic of China controlled by a one-party system of KMT's rule and the February 28 incident caused by KMT regime.
Due to race-based politics and Bumiputera policy, there had been several incidents of racial conflict between the Malays and Chinese before the 1969 riots. For example, in Penang, hostility between the races turned into violence during the centenary celebration of George Town in 1957 which resulted in several days of fighting and a number of deaths, and there were further disturbances in 1959 and 1964, as well as a riot in 1967 which originated as a protest against currency devaluation but turned into racial killings. In Singapore, the antagonism between the races led to the 1964 Race Riots which contributed to the expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. The 13 May Incident was perhaps the deadliest race riot to have occurred in Malaysia with an official combined death toll of 196 (143 Chinese, 25 Malays, 13 Indians, and 15 others of undetermined ethnicity), but with higher estimates by other observers reaching around 600-800+ total deaths.
Malaysia's ethnic quota system has been regarded as discriminatory towards the ethnic Chinese (and Indian) community, in favor of ethnic Malay Muslims, which has reportedly created a brain drain in the country. In 2015, supporters of Najib Razak's party reportedly marched in the thousands through Chinatown to support him, and assert Malay political power with threats to burn down shops, which drew criticism from China's ambassador to Malaysia.
It was reported in 2019 that relations between ethnic Chinese Malaysians and Malays were "at their lowest ebb", and fake news posted online of mainland Chinese indiscriminately receiving citizenship in the country had been stoking racial tensions. The primarily Chinese-based Democratic Action Party in Malaysia has also reportedly faced an onslaught of fake news depicting it as unpatriotic, anti-Malay, and anti-Muslim.
The Spanish introduced the first anti-Chinese laws in the Philippine archipelago. The Spanish massacred or expelled the Chinese several times from Manila, and the Chinese responded by fleeing either to La Pampanga or to territories outside colonial control, particularly the Sulu Sultanate, which they in turn supported in their wars against the Spanish authorities. The Chinese refugees not only ensured that the Sūg people were supplied with the requisite arms but also joined their new compatriots in combat operations against the Spaniards during the centuries of Spanish–Moro conflict.
Furthermore, racial classification from the Spanish and American administrations has labeled ethnic Chinese as alien. This association between 'Chinese' and 'foreigner' have facilitated discrimination against the ethnic Chinese population in the Philippines; many ethnic Chinese were denied citizenship or viewed as antithetical to a Filipino nation-state. In addition to this, Chinese people have been associated with wealth in the background of great economic disparity among the local population. This perception has only contributed to ethnic tensions in the Philippines, with the ethnic Chinese population being portrayed as being a major party in controlling the economy.
The Dutch introduced anti-Chinese laws in the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch colonialists started the first massacre of Chinese in the 1740 Batavia massacre in which tens of thousands died. The Java War (1741–43) followed shortly thereafter.
The asymmetrical economic position between ethnic Chinese Indonesians and indigenous Indonesians has incited anti-Chinese sentiment among the poorer majorities. During the Indonesian killings of 1965–66, in which more than 500,000 people died (mostly non-Chinese Indonesians), ethnic Chinese were killed and their properties looted and burned as a result of anti-Chinese racism on the excuse that Dipa "Amat" Aidit had brought the PKI closer to China. In the May 1998 riots of Indonesia following the fall of President Suharto, many ethnic Chinese were targeted by other Indonesian rioters, resulting in extensive looting. However, when Chinese-owned supermarkets were targeted for looting most of the dead were not ethnic Chinese, but the looters themselves, who were burnt to death by the hundreds when a fire broke out.
Chinese people in Myanmar have also been subject to discriminatory laws and rhetoric in Burmese media and popular culture.
Historically, Thailand (called Siam before 1939) has been seen as a China-friendly country, owing to close Chinese-Siamese relations, a large proportion of the Thai population being of Chinese descent and Chinese having been assimilated into mainstream society over the years.
In 1914, King Rama VI Vajiravudh originated the phrase "Jews of the Orient" to describe Chinese. He published an essay using Western antisemitic tropes to characterize Chinese as "vampires who steadily suck dry an unfortunate victim's lifeblood" because of their perceived lack of loyalty to Siam and the fact that they sent money back to China.
Later, Plaek Phibunsongkhram launched a massive Thaification, the main purpose of which was Central Thai supremacy, including the oppression of Thailand's Chinese population and restricting Thai Chinese culture by banning the teaching of the Chinese language and forcing Thai Chinese to adopt Thai names. Plaek's obsession with creating a pan-Thai nationalist agenda caused resentment among general officers (most of Thai general officers at the time were of Teochew background) until he was removed from office in 1944.
There are strong anti-Chinese sentiments among the Vietnamese population, stemming in part from a past thousand years of Chinese rule in Northern Vietnam. A long history of Sino-Vietnamese conflicts followed, with repeated wars over the centuries. Though current relations are peaceful, numerous wars were fought between the two nations in the past, from the time of the Early Lê dynasty (10th century) to the Sino-Vietnamese War from 1979 to 1989.
Shortly after the 1975 Vietnamese defeat of the United States in the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese government persecuted the Chinese community by confiscating property and businesses owned by overseas Chinese in Vietnam and expelling the ethnic Chinese minority into southern Chinese provinces. In February 1976, Vietnam implemented registration programs in the south. Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam were required to adopt Vietnamese citizenship or leave the country. In early 1977, Vietnam implemented what it described as a purification policy in its border areas to keep Chinese border residents to the Chinese side of the border. Following another discriminatory policy introduced in March 1978, a large number of Chinese fled from Vietnam to southern China. China and Vietnam attempted to negotiate issues related to Vietnam's treatment of ethnic Chinese, but these negotiations failed to resolve the issues. During the August 1978 Youyi Pass Incident, the Vietnamese army and police expelled 2,500 refugees across the order into China. Vietnamese authorities beat and stabbed refugees during the incident, including 9 Chinese civilian border workers. From 1978 to 1979, some 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam by boat (mainly former South Vietnam citizens fleeing the Vietcong) as refugees or were expelled across the land border with China.
The 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War resulted in part from Vietnam's mistreatment of ethnic Chinese. The conflict fueled racist discrimination against and consequent emigration by the country's ethnic Chinese population.These mass emigrations and deportations only stopped in 1989 following the Đổi mới reforms in Vietnam.
During the Sino-Indian War, the Chinese faced hostile sentiment all over India. Chinese businesses were investigated for links to the Chinese government and many Chinese were interned in prisons in North India. The Indian government passed the Defence of India Act in December 1962, permitting the "apprehension and detention in custody of any person hostile to the country." The broad language of the act allowed for the arrest of any person simply for having a Chinese surname or a Chinese spouse. The Indian government incarcerated thousands of Chinese-Indians in an internment camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, where they were held for years without trial. The last internees were not released until 1967. Thousands more Chinese-Indians were forcibly deported or coerced to leave India. Nearly all internees had their properties sold off or looted. Even after their release, the Chinese Indians faced many restrictions on their freedom. They could not travel freely until the mid-1990s. Till date, India and China have cold relations and have been found to engage in anti-Indian works, such as cyber slavery in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. They also control US immigration mafia, like donkey routes which have led to deportations after US President Donald Trump began anti-immigration and deportation pushes.
The Chinese population was active in political and social life in Australia. Community leaders protested against discriminatory legislation and attitudes, and despite the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, Chinese communities around Australia participated in parades and celebrations of Australia's Federation and the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York.
Although the Chinese communities in Australia were generally peaceful and industrious, resentment flared up against them because of their different customs and traditions. In the mid-19th century, terms such as "dirty, disease-ridden, [and] insect-like" were used in Australia and New Zealand to describe the Chinese.
A poll tax was passed in Victoria in 1855 to restrict Chinese immigration. New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia followed suit. Such legislation did not distinguish between naturalised, British citizens, Australian-born, and Chinese-born individuals. The tax in Victoria and New South Wales was repealed in the 1860s.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the Growing trade union movement began a series of protests against foreign labour. Their arguments were that Asians and Chinese took jobs away from white men, worked for "substandard" wages, lowered working conditions, and refused unionisation. Objections to these arguments came largely from wealthy land owners in rural areas. It was argued that without Asiatics to work in the tropical areas of the Northern Territory and Queensland, the area would have to be abandoned. Despite these objections to restricting immigration, between 1875 and 1888 all Australian colonies enacted legislation that excluded all further Chinese immigration.
In 1888, following protests and strike actions, an inter-colonial conference agreed to reinstate and increase the severity of restrictions on Chinese immigration. This provided the basis for the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act and the seed for the White Australia Policy, which although relaxed over time, was not fully abandoned until the early 1970s.
The Chifley government's Darwin Lands Acquisition Act 1945 compulsorily acquired 53 acres (21 ha) of land owned by Chinese-Australians in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, leading to the end of the local Chinatown. Two years earlier, the territory's administrator Aubrey Abbott had written to Joseph Carrodus, secretary of the Department of the Interior, proposing a combination of compulsory acquisition and conversion of the land to leasehold in order to effect "the elimination of undesirable elements which Darwin has suffered from far too much in the past" and stated that he hoped to "entirely prevent the Chinese quarter forming again". He further observed that "if land is acquired from the former Chinese residents there is really no need for them to return as they have no other assets". The territory's civilian population had mostly been evacuated during the war and the former Chinatown residents returned to find their homes and businesses reduced to rubble.
In the 1800s, Chinese citizens were encouraged to immigrate to New Zealand because they were needed to fulfill agricultural jobs during a time of white labor shortage. The arrival of foreign laborers was met with hostility and the formation of anti-Chinese immigrant groups, such as the Anti-Chinese League, the Anti-Asiatic League, the Anti-Chinese Association, and the White New Zealand League. Official discrimination began with the Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881, limiting Chinese emigration to New Zealand and excluding Chinese citizens from major jobs. Anti-Chinese sentiment had declined by the mid-20th century.
In May 2009, during the Papua New Guinea riots, Chinese-owned businesses were looted by gangs in the capital city Port Moresby, amid simmering anti-Chinese sentiment reported in the country. There are fears that these riots will force many Chinese business owners and entrepreneurs to leave the South Pacific country, which would invariably lead to further damage on an impoverished economy that had an 80% unemployment rate. Thousands of people were reportedly involved in the riots.
In 2000, Tongan noble Tu'ivakano of Nukunuku banned Chinese stores from his Nukunuku District in Tonga. This followed complaints from other shopkeepers regarding competition from local Chinese.
In 2006, rioters damaged shops owned by Chinese-Tongans in Nukuʻalofa.
In 2006, Honiara's Chinatown suffered damage when it was looted and burned by rioters following a contested election. Ethnic Chinese businessmen were falsely blamed for bribing members of the Solomon Islands' Parliament. The government of Taiwan was the one that supported the then-current government of the Solomon Islands. The Chinese businessmen were mainly small traders from mainland China and had no interest in local politics.
Anti-Chinese sentiment became more common as China was becoming a major source of immigrants for the west (including the American West). Numerous Chinese immigrants to North America were attracted by wages offered by large railway companies in the late 19th century as the companies built the transcontinental railroads.
Anti-Chinese policies persisted in the 20th century in the English-speaking world, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, anti-Chinese zoning laws and restrictive covenants, the policies of Richard Seddon, and the White Australia policy
In France, there has been a long history of systemic racism towards the Chinese population, with many people stereotyping them as easy targets for crime. As a result, France's ethnic Chinese population have been common victims of racism and crime, which include assaults, robbery, and murder; it is common for Chinese business owners to have their businesses robbed and destroyed. There have been rising incidents of anti-Chinese racism in France; many Chinese, including French celebrity Frederic Chau, want more support from the French government. In September 2016, at least 15,000 Chinese participated in an anti-Asian racism protest in Paris.
In 2016, Günther Oettinger, the former European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, called Chinese people derogatory names, including "sly dogs", in a speech to executives in Hamburg and had refused to apologize for several days.
Although historical relations between two were friendly and even Marco Polo paid a visit to China, during the Boxer Rebellion, Italy was part of Eight-Nation Alliance against the rebellion, thus this had stemmed anti-Chinese sentiment in Italy. Italian troops looted, burnt, and stole a lot of Chinese goods to Italy, many are still being displayed in Italian museums.
In the 16th century, increasing sea trades between Europe to China had led Portuguese merchants to China, however Portuguese military ambitions for power and its fear of China's interventions and brutality had led to the growth of sinophobia in Portugal. Galiote Pereira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who was imprisoned by Chinese authorities, claimed China's juridical treatment known as bastinado was so horrible as it hit on human flesh, becoming the source of fundamental anti-Chinese sentiment later; as well as brutality, the cruelty of China and Chinese tyranny. With the Ming dynasty's brutal reactions on Portuguese merchants following the conquest of Malacca, sinophobia became widespread in Portugal, and widely practiced until the First Opium War, which the Qing dynasty was forced to cede Macao to Portugal.
Spain first issued anti-Chinese legislation when Limahong, a Chinese pirate, attacked Spanish settlements in the Philippines. One of his famous actions was a failed invasion of Manila in 1574, which he launched with the support of Chinese and Moro pirates. The Spanish conquistadors massacred the Chinese or expelled them from Manila several times, notably the autumn 1603 massacre of Chinese in Manila, and the reasons for this uprising remain unclear. Its motives range from the desire of the Chinese to dominate Manila, to their desire to abort the Spaniards' moves which seemed to lead to their elimination. The Spaniards quelled the rebellion and massacred around 20,000 Chinese. The Chinese responded by fleeing to the Sulu Sultanate and supporting the Moro Muslims in their war against the Spanish. The Chinese supplied the Moros with weapons and joined them in directly fighting against the Spanish during the Spanish–Moro conflict. Spain also upheld a plan to conquer China, but it never materialized.
15% of ethnic Chinese reported racial harassment in 2016, which was the highest percentage out of all ethnic minorities in the UK. The Chinese community has been victims of racially-aggravated attacks and murders, verbal accounts of racism, and vandalism. There is also a lack of reporting on anti-Chinese discrimination in the UK, notably violence against Chinese Britons.
The ethnic slur "chink" has been used against the Chinese community; Dave Whelan, the former owner of Wigan Athletic, was fined £50,000 and suspended for six weeks by The Football Association after using the term in an interview; Kerry Smith resigned as an election candidate after it was reported he used similar language.
Professor Gary Craig from Durham University carried out research about the Chinese population in the UK, and concluded that hate crimes against the Chinese community are getting worse, adding that British Chinese people experience "perhaps even higher levels of racial violence or harassment than those experienced by any other minority group but that the true extent to their victimization is often overlooked because victims were unwilling to report it." Official police victim statistics put Chinese people in a group that includes other ethnicities, making it difficult to understand the extent of the crimes against the Chinese community.
In the 1850s, sizable numbers of Chinese immigrants came to British Columbia during the gold rush; the region was known to them as Gold Mountain. Starting in 1858, Chinese "coolies" were brought to Canada to work in the mines and on the Canadian Pacific Railway. However, they were denied by law the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote, and in the 1880s, "head taxes" were implemented to curtail immigration from China. In 1907, a riot in Vancouver targeted Chinese and Japanese-owned businesses. In 1923, the federal government banned Chinese immigration outright, passing the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Exclusion Act, prohibiting further Chinese immigration except under "special circumstances". The Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947, the same year in which Chinese Canadians were given the right to vote. Restrictions would continue to exist on immigration from Asia until 1967 when all racial restrictions on immigration to Canada were repealed, and Canada adopted the current points-based immigration system. On June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology and compensation only for the head tax once paid by Chinese immigrants. Survivors or their spouses were paid approximately CA$20,000 in compensation.
Anti-Chinese sentiment was first recorded in Mexico in 1880s. Similar to most Western countries at the time, Chinese immigration and its large business involvement have always been a fear for native Mexicans. Violence against Chinese occurred such as in Sonora, Baja California and Coahuila, the most notable was the Torreón massacre.
Peru was a popular destination for Chinese slaves in the 19th century, as part of the wider blackbirding phenomenon, due to the need in Peru for a military and laborer workforce. However, relations between Chinese workers and Peruvian owners have been tense, due to the mistreatment of Chinese laborers and anti-Chinese discrimination in Peru.
Due to the Chinese support for Chile throughout the War of the Pacific, relations between Peruvians and Chinese became increasingly tenser in the aftermath. After the war, armed indigenous peasants sacked and occupied haciendas of landed elite criollo "collaborationists" in the central Sierra – the majority of them were of ethnic Chinese, while indigenous and mestizo Peruvians murdered Chinese shopkeepers in Lima; in response to Chinese coolies revolted and even joined the Chilean Army. Even in the 20th century, the memory of Chinese support for Chile was so deep that Manuel A. Odría, once dictator of Peru, issued a ban against Chinese immigration as a punishment for their betrayal.
Starting with the California Gold Rush in the 19th century, the United States—particularly the West Coast states—imported large numbers of Chinese migrant laborers. Employers believed that the Chinese were "reliable" workers who would continue working, without complaint, even under harsh conditions. The migrant workers encountered considerable prejudice in the United States, especially among the people who occupied the lower layers of white society, because Chinese "coolies" were used as scapegoats for depressed wage levels by politicians and labor leaders. Cases of physical assaults on the Chinese include the Chinese massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles. The 1909 murder of Elsie Sigel in New York, for which a Chinese person was suspected, was blamed on the Chinese in general and it immediately led to physical violence against them. "The murder of Elsie Sigel immediately grabbed the front pages of newspapers, which portrayed Chinese men as dangerous to "innocent" and "virtuous" young white women. This murder led to a surge in the harassment of Chinese in communities across the United States."
The emerging American trade unions, under such leaders as Samuel Gompers, also took an outspoken anti-Chinese position, regarding Chinese laborers as competitors to white laborers. Only with the emergence of the international trade union, IWW, did trade unionists start to accept Chinese workers as part of the American working class.
In the 1870s and 1880s, various legal discriminatory measures were taken against the Chinese. These laws, in particular, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, were aimed at restricting further immigration from China. although the laws were later repealed by the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943. In particular, even in his lone dissent against Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), then-Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote of the Chinese as: "a race so different from our own that we do not permit those belonging to it to become citizens of the United States. Persons belonging to it are, with few exceptions, absolutely excluded from our country. I allude to the Chinese race."
In April 2008, CNN's Jack Cafferty remarked: "We continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food [...] So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years." At least 1,500 Chinese Americans protested outside CNN's Hollywood offices in response while a similar protest took place at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
Africa and China have a relationship built on mutual cooperation, dating back to the Cold War under the banner of anti-imperialist rhetoric. This history, alongside Chinese investment into Africa and through the Belt and Road Initiative, has led to historically positive interactions between China and Africa. However, in recent years, Chinese migration into Africa has grown following global trends of immigration. As rising contact occurs between these two regions, conflict has also continued to increase over cultural differences and market competition by the Chinese nationals. Much of the anti-Chinese sentiment in Africa is tied to commerce, specifically mistreatment of workers, the perceived threat of corruption, and competition for African businesses.
Ghana saw small scale Chinese migration as early as 1949, but would remain limited in scope until the 2010s until the gold rush. In 2013, the Guardian reported over 4,500 Chinese miners being deported due to illegally mining gold (all illegal mining is colloquially known as galamsey). While the mining was done in collaboration with Ghanaian artisanal gold miners, armed conflict over robberies would sometimes break out between parties, leading to casualties and even death. The illegal activities of the Chinese miners would eventually reach a level of notoriety that would involve the then President Mahama, who developed an Inter-Ministerial task force dedicated to clamping down on galamsey behavior, especially targeted at Chinese foreign miners.
The Ghanaian gold rush lead to increased Sinophobia following increased anti-galamsey sentiment, which became increasingly associated with Chinese miners specifically due to the high profile arrests and deportations. The outrage is attributed primarily to the competition perceived between local artisanal Ghanaian miners and the illegal Chinese workers, who represent foreign competition, stoking nativist sentiment. The inability of the government to respond to the illegal Chinese mining activities, alongside the participation of the local officials in the corruption through bribery also led to further increased resentment.
The resulting aftermath of these high profile incidents has led to the word galamsey itself to be highly associated with Chinese workers in Ghana. An interview conducted by Jodi-Ann Wang for a journal at Kenyon College found that the term "galamsey" was one of the words most associated with China. Following this association, most interviewees would mention the highly publicized mining incidents, and express that there was local outrage over the illegal acts.
Another component feeding into heightened hostilities between Chinese migrant workers and Ghanaians are cultural clashes, which are at times heightened by the language barrier. Many Chinese entrepreneurs do not speak fluent English, and most Ghanaians do not speak Mandarin. Basic language skills are at times taught on the job, but clashes inevitably occur. The interview also noted an instance of a Ghanaian waitress who worked in a Chinese restaurant take an order that was completely in Chinese, but failed to comprehend. The mother-in-law of the owner of the store berated the waitress in a manner that was similar to how employers treat employees in China. Such cultural and racial conflicts often result in the formation of negative prejudice.
Aside from mining incidents, Ghanaians have also clashed with Chinese workers over textiles. The 1980s-90s introduced a series of policies that hurt local Ghanaian textile manufacturing, such as structural adjustment programs and opening Ghana to the global market. The influx of cheap Chinese textile prints into Ghana hurt local manufacturing severely, as the majority of the Ghanaian consumer base was low income, making Chinese textile prints dominant in the competition. In addition, in her book, Making Borders: Engaging the Threat of Chinese Textiles in Ghana, Linn Axelsson notes that Chinese African print is perceived as "smuggled", "counterfeit", and "morally unjust" by locals. Smuggled is in reference to the ways that these textiles often undermine tariffs that make them comparatively much cheaper, hurting the local textile manufacturing. The textiles are "counterfeit", as the designs used are often licensed as Ghana's exclusive intellectual property, and thus confuses consumers. "Morally unjust" refers to the historical legacy these textiles have in West Africa, and that the Chinese presentation as legitimate African print textiles is immoral. These fears, some of which have real economic impacts, have contributed to increasing negative impressions of China.
Zimbabwe's historical positive relationship with China has eroded with the new wave of immigrants, who are largely profit-driven and make up the largest portion of the current Chinese diaspora in Zimbabwe. The historical narrative, of cooperation between members of the Global South and of "all-weather friends" has broken down past the era of Maoism.
Chinese migrants are often associated with being abusive, low wage employers and extensive local corruption. There have been a number of reported cases of abuse that were thrown out due to local officials receiving bribes. In addition, some Chinese nationals have attempted to illegally move money across borders, either through trading foreign currency through informal markets, or trying to externalize massive quantities of cash. The lack of compliance with local law has soured relations between local Zimbabweans, and their general impressions of Chinese as a whole.
In addition, the flooding of the Zimbabwean market of cheap Chinese goods has also led to the impression of all Chinese goods being cheap, and at times, the Chinese traders being scammers who provide deficient products. The derogatory transliteration of the Chinese term "Zheng Zhong" (正宗) to "Zhing Zhong" is commonly used by locals to refer to products as cheap and having a short lifespan. The high number of Chinese goods, especially in textiles, has also informed the ways Zimbabweans perceive all Chinese factories. In Harare, ten Chinese owned textile mills, despite being largely staffed by locals, was forced to shut down due to fears of Chinese goods unfairly driving down local prices.
While the date of the first Chinese arrivals to Africa is contested, evidence from the Cape of Good Hope's refreshment station, in modern day South Africa, indicates that Chinese convicts and slaves of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) arrived in the early 1650s. The Cape was used by the VOC as a penal settlement for criminals and exiles from the East Indies, including men from China. They were not incarcerated but instead put to work and were designated as "free blacks" after the terms of their incarceration had ended. The local Dutch and other white settlers were dispelled with the growth of early Chinese settlement and regulated them to a segregated neighborhood and burial ground. White settlers also introduced legislation to curb the activities of Chinese businesses out of fear that they would harm white traders. They also could not own land or real estate, had to pay fees to own a business, and had no rights as citizens.
The importation to work in South African mines in the early 20th Century also stoked Anti-Chinese sentiment in the country. 60,000 Chinese laborers were brought to work in the Witwatersrand gold mines in South Africa between 1904-1910 in order to solve a native-labor shortage after the Boer war as the result of African laborer's resistance to returning to the mines where wages had been slashed and working conditions remained oppressive and because white unskilled labor was deemed too costly. Poor Afrikaners, as white unemployment remained high, blamed the Chinese workers and mine owners for keeping them poor and taking jobs away from them. Others against Chinese migration and work in the mines, argued that Asian migrants would eventually settle and become involved in trade, displacing white traders. The increasing opposition led to the phasing out of Chinese workers between 1907 and 1910.
Under South African apartheid, Chinese residents were classified as "Coloured," and were subject to apartheid legislation such as the Group Areas Act 41 of 1950, the Immigrants Regulation Amendment Act 43 of 1953, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 of 1949, the Immorality Amendment Acts of 1951 and 1957, and the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 49 of 1953. They were unable to vote until 1994, and needed permits to acquire or occupy property in white areas until 1985. Until the 1970s, Chinese South Africans were unable to own property, forcing them to rent from landlords and neighbors, which put them in a precarious position and made them vulnerable to exploitation, eviction, and prosecution.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Chinese graffiti proliferated in South Africa which was fueled by the use of names like "China Virus," "Wuhan Virus," "Chinese flue," "Asian flue," and "Kung flue" to refer to the virus and the misinformation and conspiracy theories that circulated regarding the origins of COVID-19.
Anti-Chinese sentiment has erupted due to large Chinese companies involvement in the mining industry and the increase in independent traders. Protests have happened over anger about the employment of Chinese workers rather than Namibian workers, bad payment, and poor working conditions. The success of Chinese construction companies in winning contracts over Namibian firms has created resentment which is made worse by accusations of poor workplace conditions.
In Oshikango, Namibia, a town on the Namibia-Angola border, the recent arrival of Chinese migrants have stoked anti-Chinese sentiments. Most set up shops to sell and import Chinese products, which have increasingly been seen as cheap products meant to cheat local Namibians. Those who have expanded into other industries have also faced backlash, with the Namibian construction industry lobbying heavily against Chinese companies. Previously, Chinese traders were able to maintain a positive relationship with customs officials, but the rising anti-Chinese in Namibia has made customs officials less likely to turn a blind eye to illegal business practices they ignored before. It has also led to an association between the Chinese and bribery of government officials.
Dislike of Chinese traders has also led to changes in immigration policies. Before 2005, Chinese people appeared to have an easier time obtaining papers than other immigrants, but it has since become very difficult to obtain the correct papers. The government also issues very few work permits for foreign shopkeepers. Finally, in Oshikango, the sale of a large tract of land to build a "China town" or "China village" in 2006 stoked anti-Chinese sentiment. Locals accused the town council of selling the best land to foreigners. While xenophobia, these accusations were also factually incorrect, as much of the land was bought from individuals.
A study of print media in Botswana indicates that most of the anti-Chinese sentiment is tied to commerce. Chinese migrants have been accused of selling counterfeit products, participating in the illegal ivory trade, and taking advantage of loopholes to set up illegal businesses. Tensions have also risen due to large construction projects with reports of poor construction, project delays, and Chinese contractors bribing local officials to receive preferential contracts and treatment. Chinese migrants have also been accused of not integrating into local society, refusing to speak in English or Setswana, and treating Botswanan workers poorly.
Lawmakers in Botswana have also expressed complaints about Chinese nationals in the country. MP Akayang Magama claimed that Chinese firms avoid paying their employees benefits, bribe labor officials and "treat their employees like slaves." Another MP, Robert Molefhabangwe referenced the "unwelcoming behavior by some Chinese nationals," and claimed that the Chinese contractors "maybe ... are sent to our country because they are a political embarrassment and a nuisance of some sort." While both of these lawmakers are referencing state-owned firms, they are taking issue with the actions of individual Chinese nationals, not the PRC.
Anti-Han sentiment refers to fear or dislike ethnic Han people. Anti-Han sentiment includes hostility towards Han Taiwanese as well as mainland Han Chinese. Since the proportion of Han people in China's ethnic composition is absolute, the anti-Han sentiment is closely related to the anti-Chinese sentiment.
List of non-Chinese "sinophobia-led" acts of violence against ethnic Chinese:
There are a variety of derogatory terms for Chinese people. Many of these terms are racist.
The COVID-19 pandemic, in which the virus was first detected in Wuhan, has caused prejudice and racism against people of Chinese ancestry; some people stated that Chinese people deserve to contract it. The prevalence of this sentiment led to multiple acts of severe violence against people of Chinese ancestry, and it also led to multiple acts of violence against those who were wrongly supposed to have been of Chinese ancestry.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the victims of the violence and the verbal abuse ranged from toddlers to the elderly, school children and their parents, and they were not just mainland Chinese, they were also Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, members of the Chinese diaspora and other Asians who are either mistaken for or associated with them.
Several citizens across the globe also demanded a ban on Chinese people from their countries. Racist abuse and assaults among Asian groups have also increased in both the UK and the US. Former U.S. President Donald Trump also repeatedly called the coronavirus the 'Chinese virus', however, he denied the fact that the term had a racist connotation.