Opinion | With Donald Trump bringing xenophobia back, it’s an awful time to be a Chinese abroad
Alice Wu says China bashing is back in fashion, months into the US-China trade war. Ill-behaved Chinese tourists and Beijing’s calls for national rejuvenation make things worse for ethnic Chinese overseas
It reaffirms not only the awful reality that Chinese-Americans are considered perpetual foreigners, but as Frank Wu, chairman of the Committee of 100 and former dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said, “Even if you’re born in America, even if your family has been here for generations, people look at you and think you must be a foreign agent or a spy or you’re up to no good.”
If almost every Chinese student at an American college is a spy, it must follow that there are Fu Manchu’s and Fah Lo Suee’s running amok, lurking around, readying to threaten the Western world. Xenophobia towards East Asian people is not a relic of Western colonialism, fear of the “yellow peril” is very much alive today.
If it was ever a cancer in remission, it’s back with a vengeance, coming to the fore again with the trade war and China bashing. The xenophobia has been shamelessly tweeted and prominently featured, most recently at the United Nations’ annual meeting.
