Republicans Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month By Reviving Xenophobic Anti-Chinese Conspiracies
150 years after the Chinese Exclusion Act and a wave of popular bigotry endorsed by elected officials, today's Republican Party is echoing that horrific legacy with disturbingly similar rhetoric
“Are they trying to build a little army in our country,” Donald Trump asked a crowd of his loyalists in New Jersey last weekend, fearmongering about “military-aged men” who are escaping the oppressive Chinese regime and seeking asylum in the United States. These xenophobic conspiratorial comments highlight a dangerous political narrative pushed by the wider GOP in recent months that has disturbing parallels to the deadly violence and racism of the 19th century.
On Thursday, the Republican House Homeland Security Committee held a subcommittee hearing to push their conspiratorial anti-Chinese demagoguery in the hopes of scoring some political points and Fox News appearances. Giving notice of the hearing, the Democrats on the committee gave an astute and accurate description, “Another Republican Border ‘Hearing’ with Invasion Rhetoric and Fearmongering.”
Rep. Dale Strong (R-AL) was committed to proving the Democrats right. “The United States is being invaded, and I think that’s the right word,” Strong said from the Congressional dais.
Rep. Strong’s invocation of the deadly white nationalist “invasion” rhetoric came after Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) opened her remarks expressing her disappointment that the committee “allows special witnesses from an organization that's been designated as a hate group for publishing the works of white nationalist.” Ramirez also brought receipts highlighting a trove of the tweets of the GOP’s witness using the white nationalist “invasion” rhetoric. Ramirez said:
“I have a number of your Twitter posts here and it's not hard to find examples of you or someone who's doing a good job pretending to be you uplifting the same invasion rhetoric central to the white nationalist and antisemitic great replacement conspiracy theory.”
We also have plenty of other receipts.
The House GOP governmental website even reiterated “invasion” rhetoric throughout their blog released on May 13th ahead of the hearings, titled, “Joe Biden’s Executive Action Is A Political Stunt That Does Nothing To Secure Our Southern Border” and claimed “there have been a record-breaking 27,583 Communist Chinese nationals have been encountered at the Southwest border.” The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the top organization to elect Republicans to the House, wrote, “Chinese nationals INVADE our country” on May 7. Rep Matt Rosendale (R-MT) wrote, “Chinese invaders were caught by Border Patrol.” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said, “Chinese nationals are invading our country in droves.” Many, many, many other Republicans and right-wing media have been pushing the baseless, conspiratorial anti-Chinese bigotry.
While there has been an increase in Chinese nationals seeking safety along the borders of the United States, it should come as no surprise that there is no evidence of any military invasion, as the Republican conspiracy alleges. Of course, journalists refute such outlandish claims, but when asked on Fox News on Wednesday about the bigoted conspiracy about a secret Chinese army invasion, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Mark Green (R-TN), admitted, “we do not have any evidence of that.” That was the GOP Committee Chairman admitting they have no evidence for the racist, xenophobic claims he and his colleagues are making.
The Republican majority’s witness and member of a hate group on Thursday’s hearing, Todd Bensman (the witness Rep. Ramirez brought the receipts on), wrote in his submitted testimony that there is “little credible evidence” of the conspiracy about the creation of a secret army. But it has never really been about the facts. It's about the demagoguery.
That demagoguery has a long, dark history. The language of invasion is particularly notable for the parallels to the racist language in the 19th century, but the rhetoric of an “army” or “military-aged” men obviously lands in the same location. Ben Zimmer, and many others, have traced the attacks of migrant “invasions” being first wielded against Chinese immigrants in the 1870’s. Similar to today, leading political figures amplified this dangerous rhetoric as they campaigned for harsh crackdowns on non-white immigrants and strict restrictionist policies. Historian Erika Lee describes how the anti-Chinese bigotry went mainstream in her essential book, “America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States, citing San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin and others labeling Chinese immigrants as invaders.
“The US Congress eventually heeded the call of Californians and other Westerners to protect them from the so-called Chinese invasion with the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act”, writes Lee.
The bluntly racist Chinese Exclusion Act was the first significant legislation that established federal control over immigration. Up until the Act, there was no such thing as an “illegal immigrant,” but as Lee notes, “Chinese immigrants became the first to be classified as illegal and the first to be charged with the new crime of illegal immigration.”
The long shadow cast by the Chinese Exclusion Act extended far beyond the United States, as Lee writes:
“With Chinese exclusion, the United States also became a global leader in the enactment of racist immigration restriction laws. Its Chinese exclusion regime became a template or reference point for immigration policy around the world— and an American export.”
It would be a century after the Chinese Exclusion Act that immigrants from Asia were allowed to migrate to the US beyond a trickle. And as the present rhymes with the past in the ugliest of tones, our history should provide clarifying context. When the extremes of xenophobic sentiment are expressed from the halls of power, devastating policy can quickly follow, casting a long shadow. The fact that we again see the conspiratorial white nationalist rhetoric of migrant invasions finding purchase in Congress should be a critical warning sign along the path we are traveling.
The escalation of this particular Republican nativist attack is made all the more galling by the fact that they are doing so in May, Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. At a time for reflection and celebration of the AAPI communities’ vital role in the fabric of America, Republicans are reaching for echoes of the sharpest moment of racist exclusion.
Republicans' commitment to a 2024 strategy of an even more hardened version of white identity politics with these sorts of nativist appeals as a leading tactic is more likely than not to be a strategic blunder. While Trump was able to eke out an electoral college win in 2016 with the aggressive nativist strategy, it hasn’t delivered for the GOP at the ballot box sense. The seething violent and anti-democratic bigotry propelling the GOP’s extreme agenda, on display here, also does them little favor.
To this effect, the New American Voters campaign released new data that found that AAPI individuals make up the largest group of new American citizens since the last presidential election. They find that of the estimated 3.5 million new American citizens that have naturalized since the last presidential election over 37% come originally from Asian countries. Of course, politicians and political parties will have to compete for the support of those voters like everyone else, but amplifying bigoted conspiracy theories it’s pretty far from an inviting welcome sign.
WEEKLY STATS OF NATIVIST NARRATIVE
192 Republican ads running with immigration-related attacks on TV and CTV
Total spending on nativist ads for the week of May 13th -- $8,880,050 (AdImpact)
22 new Republican-aligned immigration-related Facebook ads
Year to date:
Total nativist TV and CTV ads: 75
Total spend on nativist TV and CTV ads --- $152,666,807 (AdImpact)
Nativist Ad of the Week
In the Republican Primary for Arizona Senate race, Kari Lake has a new TV ad video claiming that “illegals are pouring in... from Asia, Africa, South America, causing crimes…we’re not safe because of the open borders, we must finish the wall and stop the invasion” after attacking her Democrat opponent Ruben Gallego because he “allowed illegals to vote”.
Of the 525 GOP Twitter accounts we track, this week, they sent:
459 original tweets peddling anti-immigrant attacks mentioning “border”
90 original tweets about “open borders,” with Sen. Ted Cruz tweet having the most reach with 302.9K Views, 6.8k Retweets, and 13k Likes.
60 original tweets that used “Biden Border Crisis” with the GOP Oversight Committee tweet having the most reach with 252.6K Views, 1.8k Retweets, and 4.4k Likes.
26 original tweets that mentioned both “fentanyl” and “border” with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet having the most reach with 605.4K views, 1.5K Retweets and 4.7k Likes.
Top Articles on Social of the Week (Right-wing media still dominating the conversation online)
This past week there were 289k interactions, an increase of ↓ 20% and 9.5k articles published, an increase of ↓ 13% from last week. Interactions and article count are both lower than the previous week. Data assembled from Newswhip.
Marine Corps Time: “2 people in ICE custody after attempting to breach Virginia Marine base”
Facebook: 1.4k Interactions X: 6.2k Shares
Fox News: “‘Enough’: Controversial ID program for illegal immigrants targeted by GOP senator”
Facebook: 194 and Twitter: 4.8k Shares
Gateway Pundit: “Breaking: House Democrats Vote UNANIMOUSLY to Give Illegal Aliens Representation in Congress and the Electoral College”
Facebook: 3.5k Interactions X: 1.2k Shares