In the US, Fatalities in Crimes Targeting Asians... Claims of Influence from Trump's 'Corona = China Virus' Remarks

Trump Racist Remarks Controversy (PG) / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] Since the COVID-19 pandemic, assaults targeting Asian Americans have continued to occur in the United States. Some have pointed out that this hatred stemmed from former U.S. President Donald Trump referring to the coronavirus as the 'Chinese virus.'

According to major foreign media such as CNN on the 13th (local time), a series of assaults targeting Asian Americans have recently occurred in the U.S., causing many citizens to live in fear.

CNN reported that at the end of last month in San Francisco, California, an 84-year-old Thai American man was assaulted during his morning walk and later died.

Three days later, in Oakland Chinatown, California, a 91-year-old Asian American man was roughly pushed and injured.

Last week, a 64-year-old woman was robbed in front of a Vietnamese supermarket in San Jose, California, and a 61-year-old Filipino American man was assaulted with a facial cut on the New York subway.

CNN stated, "There is no evidence that these incidents were motivated by 'anti-Asian' prejudice," but added, "Authorities and Asian communities say that hate and violence targeting Asians have been building for months and that measures need to be taken."

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office in California provided a hotline number for reporting hate crimes targeting Asian Americans on its Facebook page. [Source: Alameda County District Attorney's Office Facebook page, redistribution and database prohibited] / Photo by Yonhap News

Manjusha Kulkarni, Secretary General of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (APPPI), described the rise in hatred against Asian Americans since the COVID-19 pandemic as "the latest version of hate and racism against Asians."

The site established by APPPI in March last year to report cases of hate and discrimination against Asians received over 2,800 reports by the end of the year.

The majority were verbal harassment (71%), followed by avoidance of Asians (21%), cases involving physical attacks (9%), and incidents of intentional coughing or spitting (6%).

The problem was especially pronounced in California and New York, where there are large Asian populations.

John Yang, Secretary General of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, pointed out that the emergence of anti-Asian prejudice in the U.S. is partly due to former President Trump.

In other words, prejudice intensified after Trump referred to COVID-19 as the 'Chinese virus.'

Experts noted, "When faced with the threat of disease or other crises, people tend to scapegoat groups perceived as outside cultural norms," highlighting that Asian Americans were the target during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response to the surge in crimes targeting Asian Americans, the Alameda County District Attorney in California recently established a special response team dedicated to such crimes. The New York Police Department also launched a similar task force in August last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.