Racism in China
Racism in China arises from Chinese history, nationalism, sinicization, and other factors. Racism in the People's Republic of China has been documented in numerous situations. Ethnic tensions have led to numerous incidents in the country such as the Xinjiang conflict, the ongoing internment and state persecution of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, the 2010 Tibetan language protest, the 2020 Inner Mongolia protests, discrimination against Africans in particular and discrimination against Black people in general.
Demographic background
China is a largely homogeneous society; over 90% of its population is Han Chinese.History
Ethnic taxonomies were an aspect of Qing dynasty governance since the 1600s.Claims about "race" being based on science and physiological differences were introduced to China by Europeans. The idea of East Asian people belonging to a single "yellow race" was invented by European scientists in the 1700s and later introduced to China. Chinese intellectuals initially embraced European concepts of race due to admiration of Western science. These intellectuals also accepted a view categorizing Chinese as "yellow," in part due to favorable connotations of "yellow" in Chinese culture.
Conflict with Uyghurs
In the early 20th century, Uyghurs would reportedly not enter Hui mosques, and Hui and Han households were built together in a town; Uyghurs would live farther away. Uyghurs have been known to view Hui Muslims from other provinces of China as hostile and threatening. Mixed Han and Uyghur children are known as erzhuanzi ; there are Uyghurs who call them piryotki, and shun them. The Sibe minority tends to also hold negative stereotypes of Uyghurs and identify with the Han.A book by Guo Rongxing from Chandos Publishing about the unrest in Xinjiang stated that the 1990 Barin uprising occurred after 250 forced abortions were imposed upon local Uyghur women by the Chinese government.
The Chinese government and individual Han Chinese citizens have been accused of discrimination against and ethnic hatred towards the Uyghur minority. This was a reported cause of the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, which occurred largely along racial lines. Several Western media sources called them "race riots". According to The Atlantic in 2009, there was an unofficial Chinese policy of denying passports to Uyghurs until they reached retirement age, especially if they intended to leave the country for the pilgrimage to Mecca. A 2009 paper from the National University of Singapore reported that China's policy of affirmative action had actually worsened the rift between the Han and Uyghurs, but also noted that both ethnic groups could still be friendly with each other, citing a survey where 70% of Uyghur respondents had Han friends while 82% of Han had Uyghur friends. The CCP has actively pursued the policy of sinicizing religion. This policy seeks to mold all religions to align with the officially atheist CCP doctrines and the prevailing customs of the majority Han-Chinese society.
It was observed in 2013 that at least in the workplace, Uyghur-Han relations seemed relatively friendly. Shortly after the 2014 Kunming attack, some commentators on Weibo, including Muslim-Chinese celebrity Medina Memet, urged others not to equate Uyghurs with terrorism.
According to academic David Tobin, since 2012, "Chinese education about Uyghurs tends to frame Uyghur identities as racialised, culturally external existential threats to be defeated by state violence or teaching them to be Chinese."
According to the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute's founder S. Fredrick Starr, tensions between Hui and Uyghurs arose because the Qing and Republican Chinese authorities both used Hui troops and officials to dominate the Uyghurs and suppress Uyghur revolts. The massacre of Uyghurs by Ma Zhongying's Hui troops in the Battle of Kashgar caused unease as more Hui moved into the region from other parts of China. Per Starr, the Uyghur population grew by 1.7 percent in Xinjiang between 1940 and 1982, and the Hui population increased by 4.4 percent, with the population-growth disparity serving to increase interethnic tensions.
People's Republic of China
Racist incidents continue to occur in the People's Republic of China and they have become a contentious topic because Chinese state sources either deny or downplay its existence. Scholars have noted that the Chinese state's propaganda largely portrays racism as a Western phenomenon, which has contributed to a lack of acknowledgment of the existence of racism in Chinese society. In August 2018, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reported that PRC law does not properly define "racial discrimination" and it also lacks an anti-racial discrimination law which should be in line with the Paris Principles.Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese Communist Party has utilized Peking Man as an instrument of its racial nationalist discourse.
In November 2012, in contradiction to the Chinese Communist Party's rhetoric about equality among China's 56 recognized ethnic groups, CCP general secretary Xi Jinping released his model of the Chinese Dream, which has been criticized as Han-centric.
In May 2012, the Chinese government launched A 100-day crackdown on illegal foreigners in Beijing, due to Beijing residents' concerns of foreign nationals due to recent crimes. China Central Television host Yang Rui said, controversially, that "foreign trash" should be cleaned out of the capital. A 2016 Gallup International poll had roughly 30% of Chinese respondents and 53% of Hong Kong respondents agreeing that some races were superior to others.
Anti-Chinese sentiment
Among some Chinese dissidents and critics of the Chinese government have used of pejorative slurs, or displaying hatred towards the Chinese language, people, and culture.In Hong Kong
Although Hong Kong's sovereignty was returned to China in 1997, only a small minority of its inhabitants consider themselves to be exclusively Chinese. According to a 2014 survey from the University of Hong Kong, 42.3% of respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong citizens", versus only 17.8% who identified themselves as "Chinese citizens", and 39.3% gave themselves a mixed identity. By 2019, almost no Hong Kong youth identified as Chinese.The number of mainland Chinese who visit the region has surged since the handover and many locals believe that it is the cause of their housing and job difficulties. In addition to resentment which is caused by political oppression, negative perceptions have grown through the circulation of online posts which contain descriptions of mainlander misbehaviour, as well as discriminatory discourse in major Hong Kong newspapers. In 2013, polls from the University of Hong Kong suggested that 32 to 35.6 per cent of locals had "negative" feelings for mainland Chinese people. However, a 2019 survey of Hong Kong residents has suggested that there are also some who attribute positive stereotypes to visitors from the mainland.
In 2012, a group of Hong Kong residents published a newspaper advertisement which depicted mainland visitors and immigrants as locusts, an ethnic slur targeting mainland Chinese people. Strong anti-mainland xenophobia has also been documented amidst the 2019 protests, with reported instances of protesters attacking Mandarin-speakers and mainland-linked businesses.
During protest against mainlanders and parallel traders, local demonstrators chanted the pejorative term Cheena. In October 2015, an HKGolden netizen remade the South Korean song "Gangnam Style", with lyrics calling mainland Chinese "locusts" and "Cheena people", titled "Disgusting Cheena Style".
Inside Hong Kong university campuses, mainland Chinese students are often referred to as "Cheena dogs" and "yellow thugs" by local students. Hong Kong journalist Audrey Li noted the xenophobic undertone of the widespread right-wing nativism movement, in which the immigrant population and tourists are used as scapegoats for social inequality and institutional failure.
In a 2015 study, mainland students in Hong Kong who initially had a more positive view of the city than of their own mainland hometowns reported that their attempts at connecting with the locals were difficult due to experiences of hostility.
In Hong Kong, some people consider hate speech and discrimination toward mainland Chinese morally justified by a superiority complex influenced by Hong Kong's economic and cultural prominence during the Cold War, and nostalgia toward British rule. Some protesters choose to express their frustrations on ordinary mainlanders instead of the Chinese government. With rising tribalism and nationalism in Hong Kong and China, xenophobia between Hong Kongers and mainlanders is reinforced and reciprocated.
Anti-Japanese sentiment
primarily stems from Japanese war crimes which were committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History-textbook revisionism in Japan and the denial of events such as the Nanjing Massacre by the Uyoku dantai has continued to inflame anti-Japanese feeling in China. Anti-Japanese sentiment has been encouraged through the CCP's Patriotic Education Campaign. According to a BBC News report, anti-Japanese demonstrations received tacit approval from Chinese authorities, however, the Chinese ambassador to Japan Wang Yi said that the Chinese government does not condone such protests.Anti-Muslim sentiment
Recent studies contend that in contemporary China, some Han Chinese have attempted to legitimize and fuel anti-Muslim beliefs and biases by exploiting historical conflicts between the Han Chinese and Muslims, like the Northwest Hui Rebellion. Scholars and researchers have also argued that Western Islamophobia and the "war on terror" have contributed to the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim sentiments and practices in China. Recent studies have shown that Chinese news media coverage of Muslims and Islam is generally negative, in which portrayals of Muslims as dangerous and prone to terrorism, or as recipients of disproportionate aid from the government was common. Studies have also revealed that Chinese cyberspace contains much anti-Muslim rhetoric and that non-Muslim Chinese hold negative views towards Muslims and Islam. Discrimination against Muslims and sinicization of mosques have been reported.Middle Eastern youth in China who were interviewed by the Middle East Institute in 2018 generally did not encounter discrimination. However, a Yemeni national said that he received unfavorable reactions from some Chinese when he stated that he was a Muslim, something which he managed to overcome with time, especially after he made Chinese friends.