Chinese people are the target of HALF Australia’s racist attacks – with bigots accusing them of eating bats and spreading coronavirus even as they put their families in danger by criticising Xi Jinping
- Asian Australian Alliance found 49 per cent of racist attacks were on the Chinese
- They analysed 400 racially-motivated incidents during the COVID-19 crisis
- Jinghua Qian, 33, who was born in Shanghai said she was asked about eating bat
- Post-Tiananmen Square migrant talked about the danger of criticising China
People of Chinese ethnicity have been the victims of almost half Australia’s racist attacks since the coronavirus crisis began, a study found.
An Asian Australian Alliance analysis of more than 400 racially-motivated incidents in 2020 found 49 per cent of of the people targeted were those of Chinese heritage.
Almost two-thirds, or 65 per cent, of those being harassed were women with 62 per cent of all racist incidents occurring in public places like the street and supermarkets.
Asian Australian Alliance analysis of more than 400 racially-motivated incidents in 2020 found 62 per cent of incidents had occurred on a public street. Pictured is a woman shouting and spitting at two sisters of Vietnamese heritage at Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west in March
Jinghua Qian, who was born in Shanghai and came to Australia as a child after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, said the abuse was particularly bad in early 2020, before the World Health Organisation declared a COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Early on in January and February, all that stuff about how Chinese people eat bats and wet markets are disgusting and it is the way we eat that’s the problem,’ she told the ABC’s 7.30 program.
The 33-year-old daughter of Melbourne milk bar owners said ethnic Chinese people in Australia also put their relatives in China in danger if they criticised the Communist regime of authoritarian President Xi Jinping.
‘It really is scary because your family members could be detained or harassed or punished in all sorts of ways for what you do,’ she said.
The Asian Australian Alliance report analysed 410 racist incidents between April and June 2020.
Name-calling was the most common form of abuse with 35 per cent of respondents to the online survey citing slurs.
Jinghua Qian, who was born in Shanghai and came to Australia as a child after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, said the abuse was particularly bad in early 2020, before the World Health Organisation declared a COVID-19 pandemic
A 23-year-old woman of Chinese-Malaysian heritage from Perth told the report about how a group of white men had racially abused her.
‘A group of white men walked by and called me to go back to China while I’m actually Malaysian,’ she said.
‘He called me ‘you’re f***ng Asian, go eat bats and die alone.
‘Don’t come to Australia.’
Forty per cent of racist incidents occurred on the street or a footpath with another 22 per cent of the abuse happening in supermarkets.
An Asian Australian Alliance analysis of more than 400 racially-motivated incidents in 2020 found 49 per cent of of the people targeted were of Chinese heritage. Pictured is Sydney’s Chinatown
A Vietnamese-Australian woman, 19, from Sydney was even threatened with a knife and spat at on the street after being told to ‘stay away because I’m Asian so I have coronavirus’.
‘Attempted to kick me. Called me an Asian sl** and an Asian dog. Told me to go eat a bat,’ she said.
‘Threatened me with a knife. Spat in my face, getting spit in my left eye.’
Another Vietnamese-Australian woman in Sydney was even spat on and accused of having COVID-19 as she walked home.
‘A ute slowed down on the far side of the road and yelled something, I had headphones in, I just heard “f***ing Asian,’ the 29-year-old said.
The Asian Australian Alliance report analysed 410 incidents of racist incidents between April and June 2020. Name-calling was the most common form of abuse with 35 per cent of respondents to the online survey citing slurs
A large proportion, or 40 per cent of racist incidents, had occurred on the street or a footpath