In the expanding global Covid-19 crisis, Beijing and Washington have wasted no time in exchanging political blows, both high and low. On March 13, the Chinese State Council Information Office issued its 2019 report on human rights violations in the US, highlighting the government’s anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-minority and anti-poor policies and generally depicting America as an illiberal regime with rampant third-world problems. To add insult to injury, Beijing is now encouraging conspiracy theories that the novel coronavirus might have originated from the US. A March 4 Chinese-language editorial by the state-controlled Xinhua – titled “We are righteous: The world should thank China” – even demanded an apology from the US for its “anti-China” rhetoric and travel ban , while dangling the threat of cutting the export of key medical supplies to the US. Meanwhile, in America, the “China threat” pundits have also been busy at work. On March 3, US Senator Rick Scott, a long-time China critic, said in a letter to The New York Times : “Communist China cannot be trusted, and has not been honest about the coronavirus.” Scott has also insisted on calling the coronavirus the “ Chinese Coronavirus ”, as have others, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson – and President Donald Trump. On March 16, Trump tweeted that the government would “powerfully” support US industries especially affected by the “Chinese Virus”. His comment stirred criticism from both Beijing and Chinese Americans. The latter have taken their grievances online, demanding that Trump apologise, in a change.org petition which had gathered more than 75,000 signatures in a day. Aside from the broader economic and public health impact of the epidemic, Americans of Asian descent are increasingly caught in a treacherous web of the US-China great power rivalry. Having fought for equal treatment and equal protection under the law for decades, Asian-American communities nationwide are now caught between pledging allegiance to the ideals of American democracy and defending themselves against growing racist attacks by majority and minority groups alike. The Asian-American civil rights movement against racial discrimination in education and the public sphere needs to reassess its solidarity at this fragile time, when an Asian cultural affinity is being contested. From coast to coast, anti-Asian xenophobia is on the rise, as evidenced by outright physical attacks and exclusions in schools and professional engagements. Such fear-based bigotry targets both recent immigrants and US-born citizens, with Asian children, women and senior citizens being particularly vulnerable. Social anxieties and confusion have intensified among Asian-Americans, adding to the pain of historical wrongs. From the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and school segregation in the late 1800s to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and modern-day anti-Asian bias in higher education, discrimination against Asians has been a constant throughout America’s history. In its most recent manifestation amid the outbreak, the racial discrimination is most overwhelmingly felt by small business owners in Chinatown and beyond. In New York City, many Chinese shops have reported losing up to half their business and the city’s largest Chinese restaurant, Jing Fong, closed temporarily on March 12. Similar distress is happening to Asian-American businesses in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and elsewhere. While the US government is negotiating a multibillion-dollar stimulus package to provide tax breaks and workers’ benefits, it is unclear how the support will trickle down to the Asian enclaves throughout the country. Sadly, macroeconomic measures, even when coupled with politicians’ lip service encouraging Americans to visit Chinatown, cannot revive Asian-American businesses on a meaningful scale without explicitly addressing the racist roots of the fall in market demand. More importantly, the US-China melee surrounding Covid-19 also puts many Asian-Americans in an uncomfortable political limbo by fracturing their nascent alliance with the conservative political establishment. While Asian-Americans have traditionally voted for Democrats (77 per cent in the 2018 midterms), a growing number are turning to the Republican Party. On the back of Asian support for issues such as affirmative action, legal immigration and family values, many new Asian-American organisations – including Chinese Americans for Trump, Asian-Americans Freedom Pac (political action committee), and the National Committee of Asian-American Republicans – have actively embraced the GOP. As coronavirus panic grows, Americans stock up – on guns But this emerging Asian-GOP connection is a delicate one, the balance of which can be easily thrown off by many congressional Republicans’ consistent anti-China rhetoric. Talk of US-China decoupling hurts Asian-Americans because, for most Americans, the lines between Chinese and Asian-American are not clearly drawn. While it is safe to argue that Americans of European descent will not be singled out after Trump’s European travel ban , the GOP’s racialisation of the Covid-19 crisis has prompted the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to object to the behaviour of their congressional colleagues. Asian-American supporters of the Republican Party are in a bind: they are being asked to choose between a party that bluntly blames their community for a public health crisis and one that neurotically promotes a racial justice agenda at the expense of hardworking Asians. Neither choice is ideal. Now add China to the equation. Initially, Beijing praised overseas Chinese, including many Chinese-American groups, for their philanthropic activities to support China’s emergency responses to Covid-19. But the earlier enthusiasm and gratitude have quickly morphed into cynicism and demands for retrospective appreciation. In a nationalist overreaction to an opinion piece “China is the real sick man of Asia”, Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters, two of whom are Asian-American and one Asian Australian. More expulsions have followed. On March 4, the US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights sent school districts across the country a guidance letter addressing heightened anti-Asian discrimination in light of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, such an outcry for equal treatment, just and proper in its own right, pales in the face of bigger geopolitical forces at work – a hegemonic “war” that has Asian-Americans caught in the middle. Wenyuan Wu holds a PhD in international studies from the University of Miami. Her research covers governance and energy reform issues in China, the United States and Latin America