Editor's note: Christopher Leslie, a two-time Fulbright award winner, is a lecturer in the School of Foreign Languages at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. He recently returned to China after having spent two weeks in the U.S. In the video, he shares his thoughts on the rising xenophobic sentiment around the world amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Views expressed in the video are his, and do not necessarily reflect those of CGTN.
CGTN: The outbreak of the novel coronavirus this year has witnessed the re-emergence of discrimination and even racism against Chinese people across the world. Some sellers on Amazon were also recently spotted selling T-shirts that read, "Coronavirus made in China." What do you think is the source of this xenophobia we see today?
Leslie: People are afraid. And there certainly is reason for people to be afraid. Any sort of new virus, even if it's a new version of the flu virus, can potentially be a worldwide problem. Unfortunately, a lot of the Western news media are taking this story out of context and making people's fears even stronger. This is sort of the role of the news. They need to have viewers in order to sell advertising.
In the United States, there's a different idea about how to promote individual expression. It may not be the best way to think about individual expression that sometimes we have negative speech in the United States and in China, people prefer to be more supportive. So we're witnessing that sort of conflict between these two different systems of belief. And I think it's an opportunity for people to understand each other, but also maybe for these sellers on Amazon to be more sensitive to our people's feelings.
CGTN: What do you make of the U.S. administration's response to the COVID-19 when it first broke out in China?
Leslie: This is a difficult part of the story when we have an administration in the United States that is very interested in limiting immigration and migration of different people.
It was very easy for the United States government to say we're going to ban people from China coming into the country. It's unfortunate that we are living in the world right now where it seems natural to exclude people in large categories.
I notice people commenting about the H1N1 virus a few years ago, which started in the United States. When the H1N1 virus which was the flu virus was moving around the world, nobody called for the ending of flights from the United States. Nobody said we should ban United States citizens from other countries. So it does seem like there's a double standard.
The World Health Organization has suggested that large-scale bans on movement is not the best way to fight a crisis like this. Saying that all people who are Chinese citizens are potential carriers of the virus does not really reflect the truth of how a virus works. So the policies certainly reflect people's ideals or ideology. And unfortunately there seems to be a xenophobic tone to the current policy.
CGTN: At the same time, many in the West have also called out such discriminatory reactions. How prevalent do you think the issue is in the West?
Leslie: I definitely saw both sides of that during this trip.
Most people, I think that I deal with – that might be just my friends and my family – most people I've dealt with were very much concerned about the people of China and the United States' response, not really exhibiting some of the unfortunate responses that you see at the moment.
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