US president’s prime-time address draws sharp backlash from immigrants who fear a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes
SCMP
Annie Guo, who was born in China’s Fujian province and migrated to the United States more than two decades ago, said she was worried that the Chinese immigrant community – particularly first-generation migrants – would again be targeted following Trump’s speech.
“First-generation Chinese immigrants like me are the easy targets because we still have many family ties in China. Whenever Trump doesn’t do well in the election, he needs a scapegoat. We are likely going to be the primary target again this time. It is like our original sin,” said Guo, a mother of two living in New York.
“But I am still hopeful, because many American people have common sense and know what’s the truth. Just look at [broadcasters] ABC, NBC, CNN: all decided not to air the speech live on primary channels.”
The decision by these major US television networks not to broadcast the speech live drew a rebuke from the president, who has placed unprecedented pressure on American media.
During his address, Trump said networks that did not air his speech were engaged in a “plot” and should have their licences revoked.
Elaine Peng, a campaign leader who mobilised Chinese-American volunteers for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024 and eventual winner Joe Biden in 2020, said Trump had made such claims for years without providing credible evidence.
Peng, a Chinese immigrant herself, is a mental health specialist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She said she had no political ties to China and, while campaigning extensively in swing states, never had any contact with individuals or organisations related to the Chinese government.
Anti-China rhetoric inevitably harmed Chinese-Americans, she cautioned.
A 2023 Pew Research Centre survey found that more than 30 per cent of Asian adults knew an Asian person in the US who had been threatened or attacked because of their race or ethnicity since the pandemic began in 2020.
The surge was also reflected in official and independent data. FBI figures showed that hate crimes targeting people of Asian origin jumped 167 per cent between 2020 and 2021, while advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate documented nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) from March 2020 to December 2021.
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, a group of 85 members of Congress, accused Trump of using conspiracy theories to justify his voting agenda.
“Don’t be fooled. Trump is using conspiracy theories as a pretext for attacking voting rights,” it wrote on social media. “If he really cared about foreign election interference, he wouldn’t have cut funding for agencies tasked with protecting our cybersecurity infrastructure.”
Ben Lin, a father of two living in the Democratic stronghold of California, said he was “not very worried” about the repercussions of the speech because the state was “largely inclusive”. However, he believes Asian immigrants must remain cautious.
“I think as Chinese immigrants, we have to pick our neighbourhood very carefully nowadays. You are more prone to become a target of hate crime if you are living in the wrong places, no matter how low-key you are.
“Too bad, that is just going to be the case for the next few decades for us.”