Coronavirus: Erin Chew bashes the discrimination drum

My geography is not great, but we are talking about an outbreak that originated in Wuhan, right?

A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he walks while enjoying the spring weather at a park in Beijing. Picture: Kevin Frayer/Getty

Last week SBS announced the Asian Australian Alliance, in conjunction with Being Asian Australian and Per Capita fellow Osmond Chiu, will launch a survey to facilitate reporting of anti-Asian racism. The head and co-founder of the alliance is Erin Chew, an Australian-born writer of Malaysian-Chinese descent. According to her profile she specialises in “whitewashing, media representation and racism”.

A thoroughly good idea I say. Aside from a plethora of anti-harassment officers, human rights commissions, anti-discrimination and equal opportunity boards, anti-hate crime police officers, race discrimination commissioners and a left-wing media that sees racism at the core of our national identity, there are no outlets where complainants can report these incidents.

Erin Chew. Picture: Twitter

“There has been a spike in racism coming out of this COVID-19 situation,” Chew told SBS. “It started as soon as the first headlines sensationalised how this was all China’s fault.”

Now my geography is not great, but we are talking about an outbreak that originated in Wuhan, Hubei, by the banks of the Yangtze River, right? We can safely conclude that is part of China. Until recently its wildlife markets featured a range of exotic animals which were stacked in cramped and unsanitary conditions.

No doubt accusatory and narrow-minded types would say the Chinese authorities were reckless in permitting this. Admittedly it is not in line with best practice in avoiding outbreaks, but we are talking bacteriology, the modern concept of which has been around only since the late nineteenth century.

In hindsight, China could have handled the outbreak slightly better, particularly by not delaying in notifying the World Health Organisation until December 31, not forcing a whistleblowing doctor to retract, not censoring journalists and social media, not falsely denying that human to human transmissions were occurring while at the same time hoarding personal protective equipment from around the world, not lying about its number of cases and deaths, and not falsely attributing the disease to American soldiers who attended the Military World Games in Wuhan last October. Except for all this, the nation’s handling of the outbreak has been exemplary, and only a bigot would say otherwise.

Conversely, only a denialist would disagree with the notion that racism is ingrained in this country. “This is something that has been bubbling in Australia for decades, even centuries,” said Chew last week, citing the White Australia policy.

Passengers in Wuchang railway station in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

In 2016 she told the Fin Review “We need to get a statement of regret from the Australian government to recognise the contributions of our early Chinese and other migrants who came during the White Australian (sic) Policy days and to bring closure to a long period of blatant discrimination.”

Bring closure? Following the end of the World War II, Australian governments gradually dismantled that shameful policy, and its last vestiges were abolished in the early 1970s. The last thing Chew wants is closure — rather, she wants to enshrine victimhood by incessantly referring to the entrenched discrimination of days long gone.

Chew also vastly exaggerates the state of racism in Australia and, ironically, makes disparaging generalisations herself. Writing for the blog “You offend me you offend my family” in 2018, she stated “As you all are aware, there is a strong air racism and sinophobia against the Chinese in Australia. Any Asian Australian who remotely looks Chinese are implicated in this. I won’t banter on about this as I have repeatedly written about this but safe to say that the Australian Government and media are trying very hard to normalise the hatred towards China.” If you thought that was alarmist, wait for this. “Most non-Asian Australians will not be able to decipher the differences and will just target all Asian Australians as being complicit in this so called ‘China invasion into Australia’ plot,” she wrote. “AUSTRALIA IS RACIST AS F**K, no matter how much I love it and no matter how much I love living there.”

My #weekly #Opinion piece on why I love my country #Australia but why it is #racist as #fuck. The #racism is not just against #Asians but it's against all #POC and #Australias #Indigenous people's. #AsianTwitter #racism #auspoll #auspol #qanda #auspol white https://t.co/wPX2cHYYKr

— ThisAsianWomanSays (@echewy) April 11, 2018

But presumably “most non-Asian Australians” includes not just those of Anglo-Saxon descent, but also those minorities from Africa and the Middle East, not to mention the indigenous population. Seemingly they too are part of this conspiracy to “target” all Asian Australians. Who is accusing who of racism?

Now consider what Chew wrote for the Australian Independent Media Network in 2016 regarding white Australian tourists in Asia. “They are loud, rude, and culturally inappropriate, disrespecting the respective country’s rule of law. The drinking, sexcapades, rude behaviour and pure stupidity epitomises the scum and trash that plague the Asian tourism industry.”

She continues: “Not only do they push their ‘whiteness’ around whilst in bars and clubs, but they feel invincible and think that they can get away with murder. They fail to respect the rules and laws of the respective Asian country, because in their minds, the rule of law is dictated by them and Asians are beneath them and don’t even fit into the equation.” Actually, Chew has described perfectly the reputation of mainland Chinese tourists in Asia. Before she screeches “racism” in response, she might consider it was the South China Morning Post that judged them so.

Even when Chew discloses acts of racism against her, she reveals her own prejudices. Writing in AsAm News of her return to Australia in January, she revealed how a white woman had said to her “Get away from me with your Chinese virus.” Yet Chew’s take on this was “I was dumbfounded at how non-Asian Australians were that racist and xenophobic…” How ironic. The ABC reported today on the rising xenophobia in China. Businesses there have announced they will no longer serve “foreign friends” (read gwai lo), and locals have circulated images on social media of dark-skinned people being placed in bins and disinfected by workers in hazmat suits.

Passengers line up to enter Wuchang railway station in Wuhan.

By now you too have probably concluded that Chew is not exactly objective when it comes to discussing racism, and in fact should play no part in determining the extent to which Asian-Australians face discrimination. But wait, there’s more. When the Morrison Government announced travel bans from mainland China in response to coronavirus, Chew was again bashing the discrimination drum. “This is an over-reaction from the Australian government, and in many ways it feels like it is a form of racial targeting,” she told the SCMP.

When she appeared on radio station 3AW in February, Chew was asked by host Tom Elliott whether the absence of Chinese customers from Chinese restaurants was indicative of racism. She declined to label it so, instead putting this down to them being “ignorant”. Similarly, when asked whether the Chinese government’s internal travel bans were motivated by racism, Chew avoided the question. Tweeting afterwards, she claimed she had been shouted down by a “privileged white man”, reminding her followers that she was a woman of colour and thus a victim.

As so often the case with those who perpetuate victimhood, Chew fails to recognise the real victims. Last month ABC Australian Story featured investigative journalist Vicky Xu, who exposed China’s horrific treatment of Uyghurs and other minority Muslims detained in “re-education” camps. A Chinese national, Xu has been vilified, ostracised, and told it is unsafe to return to her homeland. She routinely faces death threats.

Chew, however, voiced concern about Xu’s “explosiveness”, saying hers was “just one voice in a complex media debate on the growth of mainland China”. Claiming that Xu was “talking without a filter,” she said “We have to be nuanced when we talk about this issue because there is this ‘Yellow Peril’ idea that still encroaches in Australian society,”

Then there is the case of Curtin University academic and Chinese national James Jing. Last year ABC reported he unsuccessfully lobbied fellow academics for years to supervise his research into censorship and the Chinese social media platform WeChat. Not unreasonably, he believed this refusal had something to do with Chinese influence and the fact Chinese tech giant Tencent, which owns WeChat, is a sponsor of Curtin’s events and programs.

Saying Jing’s account was “fishy”, Chew tweeted “This is him blaming in a bid to get media attention [and] perpetuate sinophobia against other Chinese Aussies.” Imagine Chew’s reaction if her accounts of the racism she claims to have experienced were described as “fishy”.

This entire article sounds fishy. James Jing blames China for his PhD proposal not being accepted at Curtin Uni. This is him blaming in a bid to get media attention + perpetuate sinophobia against other Chinese Aussies. Why not try another uni? #racism https://t.co/scWwj4oL1B pic.twitter.com/UVObf77h6o

— ThisAsianWomanSays (@echewy) November 11, 2019

Naturally, none of these revelations are likely to spoil Chew’s project. She can be assured that an excitable media will eagerly report its future findings, however exaggerated. But as for her incessant whining, her sense of entitlement, and her obnoxious remarks, one is reminded of the “Okay Karen” meme. Mindful that it is a takeoff of white middle age women with those characteristics, I am happy to do my bit for inclusiveness next time Chew has a petulant spray. Okay Erin.