300% rise in hate crime against Chinese and Asian communities since Covid

A Birmingham councillor says that police need to do more to tackle racist abuse suffered by the British-Chinese community in the wake of Covid.

Speaking at a council meeting on Wednesday (October 13), Cllr Alex Yip (Cons, Sutton Wylde Green) said he wants to see the issue treated as a priority, pointing to the ‘under-reporting’ of the issue.

Phrases such as ‘F off back to China’ and ‘Here comes Covid’ were just two of the examples Cllr Yip used to highlight the abuse faced by members of the ‘Chinese, Asian and South-East Asian’ community.

There has been a more than 300 per cent rise in hate crime directed toward these communities since the start of Covid.

And Cllr Yip, who is a member of the Covid Anti Racism Group (CARG) wants to see more action taken to prevent instances occurring and to prosecute those who do partake in racist abuse.

What did Cllr Yip say in his own words?

Cllr Yip told the Education and Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee yesterday (October 13): “We’ve seen a 300 per cent increase in the hate crime directed to people of Chinese, Asian and South-East Asian heritage, specifically because of Covid.

“We’ve had British-Chinese people, nothing to do with the outbreak over in China, who have been told to ‘F off back to China’, ‘Here comes Covid’ – a lot of racial abuse, physical violence, taunting.

“It’s has significant implications onto the British-Chinese community in the whole of the country.

“And this is also quite frustrating because of the amount of under-reporting that has happened, and the number of prosecutions that have been followed up is relatively low. So I’d like something more to be done with the police to really regard this as a priority.

“Specifically with the Chinese community, West Midlands Police had a hate crime reporting app, and it was frustrating that Chinese wasn’t a language on that. Police forces don’t necessarily understand the nuances within the Chinese community – that there are two different main languages, two different written formats.

“And it’s things like this that we really need to embed ourselves with, with the nuances of the local community.”

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