Antisemitism and Sinophobia

drawing out some interesting parallels

There are some interesting parallels between antisemitism and Sinophobia, particularly regarding the dynamics between these forms of racism and criticism of Israel and China respectively. What fascinates me about these dynamics is how individuals tend to recognize and condemn them in one case while dismissing or minimizing them in the other. Many people vigilantly critique opposition to Israel or China as veiled antisemitism or Sinophobia, but rarely show equal concern for both cases.

When Israel dominates the headlines, Jewish communities worldwide experience measurable increases in antisemitic incidents. Reports of antisemitism surged across the rest of the world following the October 7 attacks and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. Likewise, negative media coverage of China seems to coincide with spikes in anti-Asian racism like it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dual Loyalties

Jewish and Chinese people are, on occasion, asked to prove their ‘loyalty’ by denouncing or at least declaring a lack of affiliation with Israel and China respectively. Last year, US Senator Tom Cotton pressed the CEO of TikTok on whether he had ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party, to which the CEO repeatedly replied “Senator, I’m Singaporean.” Just two years earlier, then Australian Senator Eric Abetz explicitly asked three Chinese-Australians at a Senate hearing “whether they are willing to unconditionally condemn the Chinese Communist party dictatorship”.

Jewish people are often pressed to condemn Israeli military actions or face accusations of complicity, regardless of their actual connection to the State of Israel. I happen to think accusations of mass antisemitism on social media are overblown, but I occasionally see Instagram and TikTok videos where someone mentions that they’re Jewish and their comment section is flooded with ‘Free Palestine’ comments despite the fact that Israel/Palestine is never mentioned in the videos.

Antisemitism and Sinophobia often manifest in conspiracy theories about an elite foreigner class taking over, or already controlling, Western institutions by stealth. The old antisemitic trope about Jews controlling the media and the big banks has a modern parallel in claims about Chinese infiltration of academic institutions and government.

Just as Jewish and Chinese people are asked to disavow Israel and China, they also face pressure from others to be ‘patriotic’ and to defend Israeli and Chinese interests overseas. Jewish organisations sometimes expect members to uncritically support Israeli policies, while Chinese student associations occasionally pressure members to counter any criticism of the CCP. Critics of these countries are expected to go to great lengths to distinguish the states from the ethnic groups, while supporters are free to treat them as inseparable.

Dual loyalties are real – existing through cultural ties, religious connections, or family relationships across borders – and they’re a normal and inevitable part of life in a liberal society. Nonetheless, you shouldn’t treat people with suspicion because of their ethnic or religious background. The Jewish and Chinese communities are, like any other ethnic community, internally diverse and not defined purely by their relationship to a particular state. The demand to constantly disprove presumed allegiances to foreign governments creates a form of conditional citizenship – treating citizens of Jewish or Chinese descent as a fifth column – that doesn’t belong in the 21st Century.

Political Weaponisation

It’s also clear to me that concerns over antisemitism and Sinophobia are often strategically overstated or employed in bad faith to silence criticism of Israel and China. Many pro-Israel groups claim upfront that anti-Zionism is antisemitism and even those that don’t typically claim that any and all pro-Palestinian activism is motivated by antisemitic double standards. Pro-Palestinian student activists often face accusations of creating ‘unsafe environments’ for Jewish students, even when they engage in disciplined critique targeted specifically against Israeli government policies.

Similarly, Chinese state media and Chinese nationalists routinely accuse Western critics of China's human rights record of Sinophobia. They love to spit the dummy at any mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Tibetan independence, the persecution of Uyghurs or the existence of Taiwan.

Pro-Israel and pro-China activists have mastered the art of pearl clutching. Two years ago UK Lawyers for Israel lobbied to have these plates decorated by Palestinian children removed from a London hospital on the grounds that they make Jewish patients “feel vulnerable, harassed and victimised”:

Absolutely terrifying.

These cynical tactics are often employed to get people fired for daring to criticise their beloved states. Journalists have lost their jobs over sharing Instagram posts from human rights NGOs and people of Chinese descent have lost their jobs over calling themselves Taiwanese and stating that Taiwan is a country.

Concluding Thoughts

My point isn't to suggest that antisemitism and Sinophobia are identical in every respect, nor to push you towards any particular stance on Israel or China.

Instead, I'm highlighting the inconsistency in how people often approach these issues. It's unprincipled to readily conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism while dismissing any connection between anti-China politics and Sinophobia (or vice versa). This selective application of principles often reveals more about one’s political allegiances than their commitment to fighting prejudice.

Sometimes legitimate criticism of these countries gets unfairly labelled as prejudice, while other times it really is a cover for antisemitism and Sinophobia. Distinguishing between the two can be hard. Regardless of your stance on these countries and governments, we should ideally be consistent instead of being selectively sceptical in line with our political preferences.