Pandemic politics and the rise of immigration: Online attitudes towards Westerners and the west in China

Abstract

AbstractThis article aims to unpack discourses of ‘race’ and racializations associated with White Western foreign residents in China amid pandemic politics. China's proposal to loosen visa regulations for non‐citizens during the pandemic (February 2020) sparked many racist and nationalistic sentiments online. Since then, exposés of the ‘special treatment’ foreigners apparently demand during quarantine in China have met significant online backlash. Anti‐foreigner sentiments are at a new high and not only against African migrants, who have been the focus of extant studies. COVID‐19 hit the world at a time of vast international migration into China and China's growing power, and the revival of existing racializations and the ignition of new ones are intricately linked with these phenomena. This article proposes that understanding the conditioning contexts of Chinese postcoloniality and state‐led patriotism can enable valuable insights into the emerging racialization of White Westerners in pandemic‐era China.