It depends on how you define it. Either way, anti-Asian prejudice is execrable.
If by the term “Chinese virus” it is meant that there is something inherently nationalistic about the chemical makeup of the virus, then no, there is no Chinese virus. If by the term “Chinese virus” it refers to Chinese natives, emigrants or visitor, or more broadly to natives of or emigrants or visitors from Asian countries, then no, there is no Chinese virus.
But if what is meant is a virus whose dissemination around the world the Chinese communist government maliciously facilitated, then yes, there is a Chinese virus.
Upon the discovery of this virus in Wuhan, China, the Chinese government suppressed news of it, thereby critically delaying the appropriate response to it: hand-washing, social distancing, masking and, hardly least, research into a vaccine. Once the virus became too prevalent to be denied, China owned up and imposed a draconian lockdown on Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, harsher than any lockdown anywhere else in the world.
This is the Chinese communist party approach: Suppress the facts, then suppress the people who must bear the consequences of the original denial.
To our knowledge China refuses to make available the original data in the lab or labs where the virus appeared. China will provide the conclusions it has reached based on the data, but not the data itself.
That this malign behavior by the Chinese government triggers negative remarks and murderous violence against Asian Americans makes no sense and serves only a malign purpose of its own. There is no logical connection between the behavior of China’s government and anti-Asian American slurs and violence. Prejudice makes no sense, but does meet some perverse need that we fail to understand.
The only way forward is to affirm the equal humanity of Asian Americans and of all other people, to inculcate this value, to stand in solidarity with Asian Americans and to prosecute those who break the law as they manifest their irrational hostility.
To deny that this virus spread needlessly for at least one month due to the malign nature of the Chinese communist system is to deny facts. Excision of prejudice cannot be built upon denial of facts. It will not work. It is not right.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
