Coronavirus, South China Sea politics fuel anti-Chinese sentiment in the Philippines
- While the Southeast Asian nation has just three confirmed cases, experts say fears over the virus’ spread are threatening to become an ‘epidemic of racism’
- Police say they will crack down on the spread of fake news, but it remains unclear how they will do so and which law they will use
“When there are gaps in scientific knowledge – cliché and prejudice fill the void,” noted a blog post by scholars Jonathan Corpus Ong and Gideon Lasco.
“There is a lot of hateful and racist speech in Philippine social media right now, and what’s heartbreaking is that rather than calling it out as such, many academics and even journalists in the country have actually justified this speech as a form of political resistance – a kind of ‘weapon of the weak’ against the Chinese government,” said Ong, an associate professor of global digital media at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Michael “Xiao” Chua, a history professor at Manila’s De La Salle University, describes himself as “a historian with fourth-generation Chinese blood”. “I haven’t felt any stigma yet, not in school or office, the stigma is really with Chinese nationals,” he said.
“I feel it more in social media, some people mixing their anti-Duterte feelings with existing resentment over the West Philippine Sea issues,” Chua said, referring to Beijing and Manila’s overlapping claims in the South China Sea. “I am not saying there is no discrimination but I think some on both sides are overhyping the issue to pursue their political agenda.”