Asian Americans worry about backlash

Asian American advocates and experts urge caution and nuance amid heightened anti-Asian sentiments over the years as the US has implemented new COVID-19-related travel requirement for passengers coming from China, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

The policy was implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, requiring a pre-departure negative COVID test result, or proof of recovery within the last 90 days for all air passengers from China. People are worried that it could lead to racist fallout, the report said.

"What I would ask everyone to do is, again, be careful not to conflate the virus with an ethnicity or a group of people," said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

According to Yang and Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that tracks incidents of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the policy treats China differently among other countries that have similar COVID rates.

"It will be an excuse to China-bash and thereby cause a backlash against Chinese Americans and the Asian American community as a whole," Yang said. He hopes lawmakers, influencers and others have a better awareness of how to discuss these public health matters.

"It is also yet another example of the government's historical penchant for perpetuating the racist trope of Asian foreigners bringing diseases to America," Cynthia Choi, a Stop AAPI Hate co-founder, said in a statement.