Coronavirus stoking rising racism against Chinese-Canadians, survey finds

People say they have been spat on, yelled at and made to feel a threat to public health because of ethnicity

More than 60 per cent have changed routines to avoid racist encounters while half say they have been insulted because of Covid-19

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A survey of Chinese-Canadians finds racist abuse has risen since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 10:00pm, 24 Jun 2020Updated: 1:34am, 25 Jun 2020

A survey in Canada has confirmed reports that racism against people of Chinese ethnicity has been on the rise in the North American country since it reported its first cases of Covid-19 in March.

Half of the Chinese-Canadians polled said they had been called names or insulted as a direct consequence of the pandemic and 43 per cent said they had been personally threatened or intimidated. More than 60 per cent of respondents had adjusted their daily routines in a bid to avoid unpleasant encounters.

The survey, which questioned 516 Canadians of Chinese ethnicity, was conducted by the University of Alberta and the Angus Reid Institute, a non-profit public opinion research agency in Canada, against a backdrop of rising anti-China and anti-Asian racism, as well as xenophobia.

Vancouver police said in May that anti-Asian hate crime was on the rise, with 16 reports made in March and April, compared to 12 in the whole of 2019. Also in May, two lion statues at the entrance to the city’s Chinatown were defaced twice with racist graffiti.

Discrimination has been stoked by the use of terms such as “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus” by senior figures in the neighbouring US, including President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. While Trump dropped references to the “Chinese virus” in late March, he has recently returned to racially charged terms like “kung flu” and “Chinese flu” at his campaign events.

The survey, which was released on Monday, found two-thirds of respondents felt coverage from North American news outlets had led to negative views of Chinese-Canadians, while three in 10 said they were frequently exposed to racist graffiti or messaging on social media.