Anti-Asian Racism in the Era of Great Power Competition
October 14, 2021 , 10:00 am – 11:30 am
The current wave of anti-Asian racism did not arise from a deliberate attack on the United States. Its causes have been much more indirect in nature. As such, those who inflame anti-Asian sentiment can do so in the name of “being accurate” on the supposed Chinese manufacturing of the COVID-19 virus, as President Donald Trump suggested. The political rhetoric that exaggerates China’s threat, including the insistence of the term “China virus,” has driven anti-Asian violence and continues unabated despite changes in the Administration as well as greater coverage by the mainstream media. In this talk, Jessica J. Lee of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft will explore how the current climate reduces space for U.S.-China cooperation on vital issues of mutual concern such as climate crisis and pandemics, as well as endangers Asian Americans by reinforcing centuries-old fears about their influence in society.
Speaker
Jessica J. Lee
Senior Research Fellow, East Asia Program
Quincy Institute For Responsible Statecraft
Jessica J. Lee is a Senior Research Fellow in the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute. Her research interests include U.S. foreign policy toward the Indo-Pacific region, with an emphasis on alliances and North Korea.
Jessica’s analysis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, USA Today, the Washington Times, The Nation, Arms Control Today, and Quincy Institute’s news platform Responsible Statecraft. She has testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and co-authored the Quincy Institute report, “Toward an Inclusive & Balanced Regional Order: A New U.S. Strategy in East Asia.”
Discussant
Ying Chen
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
The New School for Social Research
Ying Chen is Assistant Professor of Economics at the New School and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work mainly explores the contradictions within capitalism and how they exhibit themselves. Topics she has studied include economic development, labor, and climate change, with a special focus on the global south. She has published in journals including Environment and Development Economics, Economics and Labor Relations Review, Journal of Labor and Society, Review of Radical Political Economics, International Review of Applied Economics, and so on.