Tracking paranoid rhetoric, visa restrictions, and the targeted policing of China-connected research, which combine to create a hostile atmosphere for Chinese people in the U.S.
“Faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone.”
—MIT President L. Rafael Reif, June 25, 2019.
Since early 2018, the American immigration and justice system has appeared to target Chinese students, and ethnically Chinese researchers, with paranoid rhetoric, visa restrictions, and targeted policing and politicization of China-connected research. Together, these three trends comprise the primary — but not only — components of the current atmosphere of suspicion and distrust in America of not just Beijing, but Chinese people as a whole.
This tool tracks rising Sinophobia in the U.S. Click on the filters to view different categories of Sinophobia-related developments, including Responses to Sinophobia, like the letter by the MIT President cited above.
Read about why The China Project launched this Sinophobia Tracker, in the words of our Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Goldkorn.
In 2021, the United States lost published research scientists to other countries, while China gained more than 2,408 scientific authors. This was a remarkable turnaround from as recently as 2017 when the United States picked up 4,292 scientists and China picked up just 116. As Figure 1 shows, the rest of the OECD and China have both surpassed the United States for net inflow of scientific authors.
Sadly, Haley’s rhetoric neatly follows “the traditional American assumption that only a few evil leaders stood in the way of a worldwide acceptance of American values and hence of peace” — a diagnosis made by historian Eric F. Goldman regarding some American leaders’ attitudes during the Cold War, but one that remains apt today. This tradition, embodied by words such as “enemy,” are an act of “othering,” dividing the world in an “us vs. them” mentality.
We also conducted a survey of scientists of Chinese descent employed by US universities in tenured or tenure- track positions, with results revealing general feelings of fear and anxiety that lead them to consider leaving the United States and/or stop applying for federal grants. If the situation is not corrected, American science will likely suffer the loss of scientific talent to China and other countries.
Senate Bill 264, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, restricts nationals from certain “countries of concern” — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria — from buying land or property within 10 miles of a military installation or “critical infrastructure facility” in Florida.
With geopolitical tensions between the United States and Chinese government rising, we’re once again seeing politicians like DeSantis lean into racism, hate, and fear for their own political gain. Florida’s pernicious new law weaponizes false claims of “national security” against Asian immigrants and others.
The Vincent and Lily Chin Institute, along with ACJ and the Planning Committee of the Vincent Chin 40th Remembrance and Rededication, all firmly believe that Vincent Chin's legacy continues to advance the ideals of equal justice and solidarity against the racism and hate that Lily Chin courageously addressed.
"We should immediately restart the Fulbright program in China, which sent thousands of Chinese and Americans between the two countries for research and learning until it was halted during the Trump administration, and increase federal funding for Chinese studies programs at our universities."
An op-ed by Chén Gāng 陈刚, the MIT professor whom the U.S. Department of Justice dropped all charges against, a year after accusing him of failing to disclose ties to China. In his opinion piece, Chen describes his time under investigation as “a living hell,” calls the China Initiative “terribly misguided,” and says that there were “critical mistakes on the part of the FBI, federal prosecutors, and other federal investigative agencies” that need to be reviewed “by Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice to hold individuals accountable for this glaring misconduct.”
“A chilling effect has taken hold on American campuses,” the New York Times reports in the aftermath of the prosecution and acquittal of nanotechnology professor Hú Ānmíng 胡安明 of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Hu told the NYT that the trial was “the darkest time of my life,” adding, “My basic human rights were invaded, my reputation was destroyed, my heart was deeply hurt, my family was hurt.” Scientists and university administrators say that the U.S. government targeting of ethnic Chinese scientists “has slowed research and contributed to a flow of talent out of the United States that may benefit Beijing.”
