We Seek to Promote Understanding, Not Division

A few days ago, we published a piece in which our associate editor, Irene Li, shared  her experiences and observations as a Chinese person during Covid.

A lot of foreign residents of Beijing and other parts of China took offense to her piece, claiming that Irene's personal experiences invalidated or mimized the discrimination that foreigners have experienced in China.

As per a follow up article from Joey Knotts, we recognize that foreigners often feel a sense of alienation and discrimination that is not always visible to Chinese people.

However, Irene's story was not about this issue, which as we know has been going on for a long time, not just during Covid. Her story was about sharing her experiences being singled out specifically during Covid, in hopes of showing that it isn't just foreigners that are being targeted for what appears to be selective enforcement.

The examples she lists in her piece are things foreigners have reported as having happened to them. In most of these cases, foreigners have interpreted this as happening to them specifically because they are foreign:

1. Being told by a bao'an to put away her kite when there was no one else in her immediate vicinity in a wide open park.
   
   

2. Watching as a Chinese couple were singled out at Universal Studios for not wearing their masks.
   
   

3. Having someone move away from her in the subway when she coughed.
   
   

4. Being singled out and told to hurry up and go get tested while in her community.
   
   

Many have accused Irene of showing no empathy or understanding of what foreigners are going through, while at the same time showing no empathy for her experiences.

No doubt expats are incredibly frustrated about life in China right now, this Covid situation sucks for everyone. But taking all these frustrations on one person simply for sharing their perspective is not fair. Irene simply doesn’t deserve this.

We aren’t going to apologize for allowing Irene to share her perspectives, and we're certainly not going to fire her, as some in the mob have called for.

Instead, we’d like to continue to welcome one and all to share their experiences, be they foreign or Chinese.

By the way, a note about that distinction: From its founding in 2001, the Beijinger has not been solely a media outlet for foreigners.

We've carefully defined our mission from Day 1 as serving internationally-minded people in Beijing – which we happen to do in the English language.

While the majority of our readers are foreign – something around 70 percent – from that first day our readership has been roughly 30 percent local Chinese who happen to speak English.

They too are our core constituency, and we treat them just as a part of this international community as an American, a Kenyan, or a Malaysian. That's why you will rarely, if ever, see us following the same "othering" stories you'll find in other English outlets. Our mission is to connect this community together, not to divide it.

If you'd like to write your own perspective on the issue, feel free to contact us. Or, let us know in the comments how you handle it.