{"id":3448,"date":"2020-02-02T01:54:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T17:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=3448"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:02:10","slug":"an-outbreak-of-racist-sentiment-as-coronavirus-reaches-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/an-outbreak-of-racist-sentiment-as-coronavirus-reaches-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"An Outbreak of Racist Sentiment as Coronavirus Reaches Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A nearly empty road in Wuhan on Monday. The authorities have limited travel amid the coronavirus outbreak. <\/span>Credit…<\/span> Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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A newspaper front page called it a \u201cChinese virus.\u201d Fake posts have warned people to avoid Chinese products. As the outbreak spreads, some worry about xenophobia.<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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The Australia Letter<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span> (letter 142) is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. (New York Times)
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This week\u2019s issue is written by <\/em>Isabella Kwai<\/em><\/a><\/span>, a reporter with the Australia bureau.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, when Andy Miao takes the train to work in Sydney, he has noticed other people\u2019s disapproving looks if he does not wear a face mask. Although he does not have the coronavirus, Mr. Miao, who is of Chinese heritage and grew up in Australia, knows it\u2019s because of one reason: his ethnicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes people like me who are very, very Australian feel like outsiders,\u201d said Mr. Miao, 24, who returned from a trip to China earlier this month and has since seen jokes degrading Chinese people. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely invoking a lot of past racial stereotypes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But as the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency<\/a><\/span> after the virus spread to countries including Australia, he is worried about an outbreak of misinformation, panic and xenophobia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The virus has killed more than 200 people, with nearly 10,000 cases reported, though in Australia there are just a handful of cases, and health officials have said that the risk of catching it for many Australians is low.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, universities have delayed exams<\/span><\/a>, face masks \u2014 used only weeks ago against bush-fire smoke \u2014 are a common sight, and the government plans to evacuate Australians from the epicentre of the outbreak in China.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other responses here in Australia, where the relationship with China is contentious, have taken a more xenophobic bent.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Some far-right lawmakers polled their followers, asking if Australians should ban Chinese people temporarily from the country. A newspaper in Victoria, The Herald Sun, called the coronavirus a \u201cChinese Virus\u201d on its front page, prompting over 40,000 people to sign a petition<\/span><\/a> demanding an apology. On social media, fake announcements are warning people away from Chinese-populated areas, and memes are making light of early reports that the virus jumped from wild animals to humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cRacism feeds on fear and anxiety,\u201d said Tim Soutphommasane, a former race-discrimination commissioner and now a professor at the University of Sydney. While the virus originated in China, \u201cviral diseases don\u2019t have ethnic, racial or national characteristics,\u201d he said, adding that the misinformation was \u201calarming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the government said that it planned to evacuate Australians citizens from the province to Christmas Island, an Australian territory 2,000 miles away from the mainland, to be quarantined for 14 days.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But many questioned the implications of using Christmas Island, where refugees and asylum seekers have been held<\/a>,<\/span> instead of military bases on the mainland.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wuhan Coronavirus<\/span><\/h1>\n