Why is calling Coronavirus 'China Virus' considered racist?

[Borderlands of Rojava]

I see just as many people pretending it's a virus that just happens to have started in China to preserve the notion that a culture cannot have a problem if it isn't yours. The virus was caused by the behaviors of chinese people and it's spread was aided by the response of the chinese government.

I remember seeing a chinese doctor show up on Fox News and said that the coronavirus was made in a lab by the chinese government

"Chinese doctor"

[Diarcesia]

I see just as many people pretending it's a virus that just happens to have started in China to preserve the notion that a culture cannot have a problem if it isn't yours. The virus was caused by the behaviors of chinese people and it's spread was aided by the response of the chinese government.

I remember seeing a chinese doctor show up on Fox News and said that the coronavirus was made in a lab by the chinese government

From what I know of Fox, they're desperately wishing this is true. Except that even they think it was too kooky of an assertion to be taken seriously at present.

[Zunt]

From my experience online the majority of people ive seen use the term "China Virus" are doing so as an insult towards chinese people in general. But ive also only seen a handful of people use it online so its not something ive paid a lot of attention to. I did notice irl an uptick of racist comments about chinese people here in Belfast after the virus began spreading and an attitude of some people that chinese people in particular were to be avoided early on, especially towards workers in take aways etc but thats also not too related to the thread topic i guess.

Wanna hear a super ignorant question I was asked here in town?

“Can I get The CoVID19 from the local Chinese buffets? I’m concerned I can get it from them!”

I just couldn’t with her.

“No lady. You can’t get CoVID19 from the local Chinese buffets. What kind of stupid question is that?!”

Mind you, only one of the buffets is owned by a Chinese family. Who have been living in town for 25 years. We know them. Super sweet people. The other two are owned by a Mongolian family and a Korean couple.

I mean.... you definitely CAN get it from the local chinese buffet... but it's not because it's chinese.

[Abbeyverne]

And that's why I'll just call it what is is:

The CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY VIRUS

Or CCP Virus. It's time to get the communism outta China, and the rest of the world. It's immoral and wrong.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Wanna hear a super ignorant question I was asked here in town?

“Can I get The CoVID19 from the local Chinese buffets? I’m concerned I can get it from them!”

I just couldn’t with her.

“No lady. You can’t get CoVID19 from the local Chinese buffets. What kind of stupid question is that?!”

Mind you, only one of the buffets is owned by a Chinese family. Who have been living in town for 25 years. We know them. Super sweet people. The other two are owned by a Mongolian family and a Korean couple.

I mean.... you definitely CAN get it from the local chinese buffet... but it's not because it's chinese.

Now? Possibly. CoVID19 is out of control in the US after all.

What she was implying was that “Chinese food”, because she apparently thought the food came directly from China to her plate, and not from local markets, was going to give her ignorant ass “The CoVID19”.

[Costa Fierro]

The virus originated form Wuhan, China. Often the organisms are named on the basis of the place they were discovered/originated from eg., the New Delhi Super Bug.

It didn't "originate" from Wuhan, it was where the first cases were reported.

Even though the WHO has named the virus, in common parlance, diseases are often referred to in terms of the places eg., Spanish flu.

Except in this instance. We didn't call the H1N1 pandemic the "Mexican flu" because it originated from Mexico, because it originated from pigs. We didn't call similar avian flus that mutated from birds to infect humans the "Asian flu", nor was SARS referred to as the "China virus" or MERS as the "Arab virus".

Calling it the China virus is not aggression against the Chinese but merely a reiteration of the responsibility that China must bear in being the originating country of the virus and then deliberately obfuscating facts and manipulating data, not to mention its attempt to hide/downplay the outbreak initially.

Yes it is. Referring it as the "China virus" is condoning prejudice against Chinese people, regardless of whether or not they're actually from China.

It emphasises that China must be held responsible for the current state of global economy and receding of millions into the state of poverty and hunger, potentially reversing hard gained global efforts in these areas.

China cannot be held responsible for a recession that was predicted years in advance and caused by the same structural problems that capitalism always struggles with. The responsibility lies with capitalism and its enablers.

There is no evidence that calling it the 'Wuhan Virus', the 'China Virus', or 'kung flu' has led to rise in incidence of hate crime against Asian Americans or the Chinese.

This is akin to saying "there's no evidence the Holocaust ever happened".

Terminology depicting racial characters are often in Medicine without prejudice to any community for eg., Mongoloid facies in Thalessemia.

Except "Mongoloid" is explicitly referring to people of a specific ethnic group in a derogatory way.

Still, do you think that calling the virus by such terms should be considered racist? How do you counter the above arguments?

TL;DR you're racist.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

And that's why I'll just call it what is is:

The CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY VIRUS

Or CCP Virus. It's time to get the communism outta China, and the rest of the world. It's immoral and wrong.

I can type big too.

China isn't even communist.

[The Alma Mater]

I mean.... you definitely CAN get it from the local chinese buffet... but it's not because it's chinese.

Now? Possibly. CoVID19 is out of control in the US after all.

What she was implying was that “Chinese food”, because she apparently thought the food came directly from China to her plate, and not from local markets, was going to give her ignorant ass “The CoVID19”.

Well, if the plastic boxes the take-away is in came from Wuhan, you *could* get it from those - the virus "survives" quite long on plastic.
But I indeed doubt that is what she meant. Or perhaps it was.

[Greater Malegron]

And that's why I'll just call it what is is:

The CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY VIRUS

Or CCP Virus. It's time to get the communism outta China, and the rest of the world. It's immoral and wrong.

I can type big too.

China isn't even communist.

Indeed. China has recently understood the value of preserving its history and culture and is hopefully reversing the acts of the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Now? Possibly. CoVID19 is out of control in the US after all.

What she was implying was that “Chinese food”, because she apparently thought the food came directly from China to her plate, and not from local markets, was going to give her ignorant ass “The CoVID19”.

Well, if the plastic boxes the take-away is in came from Wuhan, you *could* get it from those - the virus "survives" quite long on plastic.
But I indeed doubt that is what she meant. Or perhaps it was.

I doubt that was her concern. Besides, she was eating in, not getting takeout. She was just an idiot.

[Dumb Ideologies]

A few liberals who hadn't fulfilled their daily quota of declaring trivial things "problematic" declared it to be so. This encouraged some few avowedly non-PC types to use it more often, which in turn was used to "prove" to other libs that the whole vocabulary was "racist" all along.

[Sanghyeok]

I can type big too.

China isn't even communist.

Together, we can make it communist again.

[Cordel One]

And that's why I'll just call it what is is:

The CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY VIRUS

Or CCP Virus. It's time to get the communism outta China, and the rest of the world. It's immoral and wrong.

China's communist in the same sense the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is democratic.

Here, not only can I type in big text but I can make it bold and colorful: China isn't communist

That being said, there's still no evidence the C"C"P had anything to do with the creation of this virus.

[Autumn Wind]

I don’t think it’s racist.

I just think it’s a half-assed attempt to deflect from the inept handling of the pandemic by the current administration.

It’s like when they tried to rename French fries “freedom fries” just because France didn’t support the invasion of Iraq.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

I don’t think it’s racist.

I just think it’s a half-assed attempt to deflect from the inept handling of the pandemic by the current administration.

It’s like when they tried to rename French fries “freedom fries” just because France didn’t support the invasion of Iraq.

The virus stopped being solely china's fault when it reached America and Trump lied to the American people about how bad it really was.

[-Ocelot-]

I see just as many people pretending it's a virus that just happens to have started in China to preserve the notion that a culture cannot have a problem if it isn't yours. The virus was caused by the behaviors of chinese people and it's spread was aided by the response of the chinese government.

Be that as it may, it’s ridiculous to call it China virus. That only contributes to promote anti-Asian sentiment worldwide because stupid and ignorant people can’t distinguish. I’ll refer to it by its scientific name: SARS-CoV-2. Come the fuck on.

Yeah, I guess you are right. We should be calling it the Communist Party's virus, instead.

[Nuroblav]

I can type big too.

China isn't even communist.

Unfortunately this will met with cries of 'oh look...he did the funny not real gommunism hahahahahahaha'
-
To answer OP's question:

A few liberals who hadn't fulfilled their daily quota of declaring trivial things "problematic" declared it to be so. This encouraged some few avowedly non-PC types to use it more often, which in turn was used to "prove" to other libs that the whole vocabulary was "racist" all along.

To sum things up: the general crowd that used the term likely were. Perhaps it was used to stir the pot of controversy, knowingly offending those that tend to not like this sort of thing, and then retaliating with a failure to understand the confusion, rather just pointing and laughing to no avail and letting the cycle continue. This is a problem with a lot of politics these days: it merely becomes this endless of cycle of people trying to own each other without considering the option of calming down.

Perhaps there's better forms of porcelain to choose from

[Kandorith]

A few liberals who hadn't fulfilled their daily quota of declaring trivial things "problematic" declared it to be so. This encouraged some few avowedly non-PC types to use it more often, which in turn was used to "prove" to other libs that the whole vocabulary was "racist" all along.

Ah yes, because people of Asian heritage totally did not see an alarming increase in bigotry and racism committed against them when not from China at all.

It's all because of "the liberals"

The more you know.

Honestly I would laugh my behind of if in the end it turns out the virus originated somewhere completely else and was spread because of a tourist. Now that would be a plot twist.

[Nuroblav]

A few liberals who hadn't fulfilled their daily quota of declaring trivial things "problematic" declared it to be so. This encouraged some few avowedly non-PC types to use it more often, which in turn was used to "prove" to other libs that the whole vocabulary was "racist" all along.

Ah yes, because people of Asian heritage totally did not see an alarming increase in bigotry and racism committed against them when not from China at all.

It's all because of "the liberals"

The more you know.

Sure liberals get a lot pinned onto them, but I reckon that wasn't the main part of DI's point - rather they think the problem entire toxicity of the relationship between those two areas.

[Kandorith]

Ah yes, because people of Asian heritage totally did not see an alarming increase in bigotry and racism committed against them when not from China at all.

It's all because of "the liberals"

The more you know.

Sure liberals get a lot pinned onto them, but I reckon that wasn't the main part of DI's point - rather they think the problem entire toxicity of the relationship between those two areas.

Oh I know: hence the the more you know

I am slowly starting to understand that whole liberals vs erm... whatever the other group is called again (It's way less here in other parts of the world) But the toxicity sometimes does humour me.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Be that as it may, it’s ridiculous to call it China virus. That only contributes to promote anti-Asian sentiment worldwide because stupid and ignorant people can’t distinguish. I’ll refer to it by its scientific name: SARS-CoV-2. Come the fuck on.

Yeah, I guess you are right. We should be calling it the Communist Party's virus, instead.

Really bro?

[Albrenia]

Calling it the 'China Virus' isn't racist, it's just stupid. Calling it Coronavirus or COVID 19 is using the widely understood name for the pandemic.

Kung Flu just sounds like a bad joke. Sort of like calling Chicken Pox 'Polka Dot Virus' or something.

[Nuroblav]

Calling it the 'China Virus' isn't racist, it's just stupid. Calling it Coronavirus or COVID 19 is using the widely understood name for the pandemic.

Kung Flu just sounds like a bad joke. Sort of like calling Chicken Pox 'Polka Dot Virus' or something.

Kung Flu sounds like something Tim Vine would say, although I doubt he'd stoop down to that level.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Calling it the 'China Virus' isn't racist, it's just stupid. Calling it Coronavirus or COVID 19 is using the widely understood name for the pandemic.

Kung Flu just sounds like a bad joke. Sort of like calling Chicken Pox 'Polka Dot Virus' or something.

Won’t lie. First time I heard it called Kung Flu, I laughed. After, it’s just meh.

[Dumb Ideologies]

My point was that people were calling it the Chinese virus at the beginning without that having racist connotations. When the culture war people started problematising it they constructed this particular word usage as the symbolic ground through which to criticise anti-Chinese racist sentiment and as a way to identify people who believe the Bad Thing. And then most leftists stopped using it, while the free-speech crowd and populist-style patriots dug their heels in. Which in turn "proved" the point of the liberals that said group are racists because they're still using the word that we just forbade, how dare they?

In reality, where Chinese and other Asian people are getting beaten up it isn't because of this word choice. Indeed, the attempt to ham-fistedly police word usage feeds cover-up and conspiracy talking points because people do not like unsolicited lectures. These things are happening because events have been slotted into the wider narratives and the context of the cultural rivalry with China, as well as a natural psychological reaction from scared people who have seen the virus coming in from outside and are blaming the outsiders for the problem rather than the system of globalisation because that's a bit more complicated and also gives them iPhones.