COVID-19 and US-China Relations

By Annie Liu

I designed this piece to highlight the racism that intensified against Chinese Americans surrounding COVID-19. America-China relations have always been strained, and as our country struggled to formulate and adhere to a clear, transparent response to the pandemic, anti-Asian rhetoric and behaviors began to amplify across the nation. I myself and people I know have been victim to varying ranges of racist attacks, and I hope this piece will not only bring attention to the anti-Chinese sentiment during COVID-19, but also how our acceptance in America as Chinese Americans have always been conditional.

This piece hopes to highlight the sacrificial nature of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Essential workers, disproportionately composed of marginalized minority populations, are typically subject to unsafe conditions in their workplace and forced to make extremely difficult choices between their own health and their main source of income. In a way, essential workers are no more than disposable pawns in America’s poorly played game of responding to this pandemic.