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 April 2019, Kiron Skinner, director of policy planning at the State Department, used racial language to describe some of the thinking animating conversation in the American capital. “This is a fight with a really different civilization and a different ideology and the United States hasn’t had that before,” said Skinner. "It’s the first time that we will have a great power competitor that is not Caucasian.”
"The United Chinese Americans (UCA), www.ucausa.org, expresses grave concern for Chinese American scientists, who have been made to feel increased scrutiny and increasing suspicion of their loyalties based on their ethnic background."
"Let there be no doubt: At UC Davis, we highly value our international researchers, scholars and students. Indeed, our international relationships and collaborations form an essential part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion," wrote UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. Mary.
Moss Roberts, a professor of East Asian Studies at New York University, examines the roles of race, religion, politics, and history in U.S. attitudes toward China since 1949.
"I want to reiterate that the University of Michigan is proud to support research and educational collaborations with international scholars, including those from China. I view the perception that U of M is a welcoming beacon for talented, ambitious people around the world as one that we can’t afford to lose. And I think that one of the underappreciated aspects of having international exchanges is that they make our world a safer place," wrote University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel.
In early 2019, hundreds of Chinese students reportedly faced unexplained and highly unusual delays on their student visas.
"On behalf of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America, the Chinese American Hematologist and Oncologist Network, and the Chinese Biological Investigators Society, we write to express our concerns about the recent political rhetoric and policies that single out students and scholars of Chinese descent working in the United States as threats to U.S. national interests."
Veteran journalist John Pomfret writes that "the federal government, as it did in the 1950s, is giving extraordinarily talented scientists no option but to market their talents elsewhere."
"We must, however, ensure that attentiveness to national security concerns does not bleed into something more insidious: a questioning of people within our community based on their country of origin or their heritage," wrote Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell.
