Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States began in the 19th century, shortly after Chinese immigrants first arrived in North America, and continues into the 21st century. It has taken many forms throughout history, including prejudice, racist immigration restrictions, murder, bullying, massacre, and other acts of violence. Anti-Chinese sentiment and violence in the country first manifested in the 1860s, when Chinese people were employed in the building of the world's first transcontinental railroad. Its origins can be traced partly to competition with white people for jobs and reports of Americans who had lived and worked in China and wrote relentlessly negative and unsubstantiated reports of locals.
Violence against Chinese in California, Oregon, Washington, and throughout the country took many forms, including pogroms; expulsions, including the destruction of a Chinatown in Denver; and massacres such as the Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871, the Rock Springs massacre, and the Hells Canyon Massacre. Anti-Chinese sentiment led to the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned the naturalization and further immigration of people of Chinese descent. Amid discussions of "Yellow Peril", anti-Chinese sentiment was eventually extended to all Asians, leading to the broader Asian Exclusion Act of 1924.
Although relations between the US and China normalized after the Sino-Soviet split and the 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China, anti-Chinese sentiment has increased in the United States since the end of the Cold War, especially since the 2010s, and its increase has been attributed to China's rise as a superpower, which is perceived as a primary threat to America's position as the world's sole superpower. Since 2019, xenophobia and racism further intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, with increased discrimination, racism, and violence against Chinese people, people of Chinese descent or anyone perceived to be Chinese, especially Asians. According to survey results released on 27 April 2023 based on 6,500 respondents, nearly 75% of Chinese Americans have experienced racism in the past twelve months with 7% having suffered property destruction, 9% physical assault or intimidation, 20% verbal or online harassment, and 46% unequal treatment.
Early Chinese immigration to the United States
The arrival of three Chinese seamen in Baltimore in 1785 marked the first record of Chinese people in the United States. Starting with the California Gold Rush in the middle 19th century, the United States — particularly the West Coast states — enlisted large numbers of Chinese migrant laborers. Early Chinese immigrants worked as gold miners, and later on subsequent large labor projects, such as the building of the first transcontinental railroad. The decline of the Qing Dynasty in China, instability and poverty caused many Chinese, especially from the province of Guangdong, to emigrate overseas in search of a more stable life, and this coincided with the rapid growth of American industry. Chinese people were considered by employers as "reliable" workers who would continue working, without complaint, even under destitute conditions.
Chinese migrant workers encountered considerable prejudice in the United States, especially by the people who occupied the lower layers in white society, and Chinese "coolies" were used as a scapegoat for depressed wage levels by politicians and labor leaders. Cases in which Chinese people were physically assaulted include the Chinese massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles and the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit. The 1909 murder of Elsie Sigel in New York, for which a Chinese person was suspected, was blamed on the entire Chinese community and led to physical violence. "The murder of Elsie Sigel immediately grabbed the front pages of newspapers, which portrayed Chinese men as dangerous to "innocent" and "virtuous" young white women. This murder led to a surge in the harassment of Chinese in communities across the United States."
The emerging American trade unions, under such leaders as Samuel Gompers, also took an outspoken anti-Chinese position, regarding Chinese laborers as competitors to white laborers. Only with the emergence of the international trade union Industrial Workers of the World did trade unionists start to accept Chinese workers as part of the American working-class.