NBCNews.com someway discovered it essential to “increase” the current information of Arcadia (Calif.) Mayor Eileen Wang pleading responsible to being a spy for communist China with the notion that this may spur a violent racist response in opposition to Asian People. The headline:
Racial backlash erupts on-line after California mayor admits to being an agent for China
Alicia Lozano and Doha Madani started: “The resignation of a Southern California mayor who pleaded responsible to performing as a international agent for China has sparked backlash and reignited fears of anti-Asian discrimination.”
Conservative accounts on X recalled a Norm McDonald joke from 2016: “What terrifies me is that if ISIS have been to detonate a nuclear system and kill 50 million People. Think about the backlash in opposition to peaceable Muslims?”
The resignation of a Southern California mayor who pleaded responsible to performing as a international agent for China has sparked backlash and reignited fears of anti-Asian discrimination. https://t.co/Vp2B5bDRGD
— NBC Information (@NBCNews) Might 15, 2026
NBC’s story laid out the argument:
However racist feedback started to appear on social media feeds quickly after FBI Director Kash Patel introduced on X the case in opposition to Wang. Many replies to Patel’s publish saying the costs recommended investigating different outstanding Asian American ladies political figures. Others recommended violent punishment for her.
Advocates stated they’re involved that this rhetoric is a part of an extended historical past of concern and discrimination that has proliferated for generations in regard to Asian communities, particularly Chinese language immigrants. Consultants who spoke to NBC Information stated Asian individuals within the U.S. are sometimes handled as perpetual outsiders, which may inspire violence in some circumstances.
The “advocates” highlighted the thought that possibly Chinese language spies should not be prosecuted? Wokeness abounds:
Rhetoric that may result in violence
The feedback made about Wang are a part of this bigger narrative, stated Russell Mark Jeung, professor of Asian American research at San Francisco State College.
In early 2020, the revelation that Covid could have initially surfaced in China precipitated a wave of anti-Asian violence within the U.S. and all over the world. It was not the primary time suspicion of Asian individuals generated a violent backlash.
Starting with the so-called yellow peril stereotype popularized within the nineteenth century, which depicted Asians as an existential and cultural menace to the West, Chinese language immigrants have lengthy endured accusations of espionage, disloyalty and malice, Jeung stated….
“It goes past the allegations in opposition to this one particular person and, as an alternative, paints a complete group broadly as suspicious, disloyal foreigners,” stated Dahni Ok. Tsuboi, CEO of advocacy group Asian People Advancing Justice Southern California. “That sort of collective blame is harmful, not only for the Asian American group, however for all of us, all People.”
The NBC reporters famous that Mayor Wang was honored by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) in 2024 for her management and “tireless efforts to enhance the lives of Arcadia residents.” Oopsy. However Chu was additionally hitting the Yellow Peril notes:
Chu additionally pushed again in opposition to anti-Asian sentiment that shortly started to flow into on-line and in some media shops.
“The Asian American group has already weathered stigma, prejudice, and violence, fueled by rhetoric from President Trump and his administration,” the assertion learn partly. “We noticed this within the violent anti-Asian hate crimes throughout COVID-19, and the unfair concentrating on of students of Chinese language descent in Trump’s ‘China Initiative’ program — each of which I’ve fought in opposition to in Congress.”
