Yellow Peril Revived? Anti-Asian Racism and American Public Opinion on China (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Asian American Attitudes and Anti-Asian Sentiment in the Trump Era

Abstract

I examine the under-explored link between U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry and anti-Asian racism in the United States with a focus on American public opinion. With a new measure of anti-Asian racial resentment and a series of original national surveys, the first study shows that negative sentiments against Asian Americans significantly predict American public support for hawkish China policies. Utilizing survey experiments, the second study probes the critical role racialized elite rhetoric on China plays in strengthening the effects of racial attitudes on American public foreign policy preferences. The findings contribute to our understanding on the overlooked, yet potentially consequential, politics of racial identity in American public opinion on China and foreign policy preference formation in general.

Author

• D.G. Kim, University of California, San Diego