Anti-Asian to Anti-Western Sentiments during Corona –The Decline of Multilateralism
After the onset of the first wave of Coronavirus, anti-Asian sentiments marked the year 2020. Anti-western sentiments seem to have gained attention in the year 2021 after the recent resurgence of the second wave of corona in India. These sentiments signal the decline of multilateralism and call for an urgent need for its revival to fight the Corona pandemic.
A surge in anti-China sentiments followed by anti-Asian sentiments in the US along with Corona marked the year 2020. According to an estimate, anti-Asian sentiments and crimes have witnessed an increase of more than 150 percent. The attachment of locations or ethnicity to the disease by calling it “Wuhan Virus” or “Chinese virus” and “plague from China” seem to have triggered this anti –Asian sentiment.
Come the second wave of Corona in 2021 in India, the dance of death and despair is going on amidst shortages of hospital beds to oxygen to medicines. The universal vaccination is the need of the hour. The recent denial by America (initially) to provide raw materials for vaccines keeping the American interest in the foreground is not aligned to its recent stance in G-7, where a declaration was given regarding the end of the “America First era”. This US stance also gave rise to anti-US and anti–Western sentiments amongst American civil society, lawmakers, and businesses.
The first wave of corona had uncovered the anti-Asian sentiments along with the reinforcement of nationalism on the world stage by the world leaders from Germany to the USA to Australia who had earlier heavily invested in globalism and multilateralism. Reiteration and strengthening of the nationalistic stand during the second wave of this deadly disease has triggered anti-Western sentiments which are an indicator of the decline of multilateralism. This development poses a serious threat to the spirit and practice of multilateralism.
It is somewhat ironic that when the world needs “more, not less, multilateralism” to fight one of the biggest global health crises (which has caused more devastations than that of World War II), countries are becoming more protective instead of working in co-operation to put a global response strategy in place. This trend could further engender and exacerbate the decline of multilateralism. The need for putting revival and reform plans of the rule-based global order in place is imminent. This system was designed for integration and not differentiation of the world, for promoting peace and prosperity of the entire globe in general and not of selected nations in particular. In other words, multilateralism was meant to resonate with the interests of all the member nations. The eruption of anti-Asian and anti-Western sentiments during two waves of Corona along with rising nationalism have heightened the need that the spirit of multilateralism must prevail now. It is this system that will facilitate ‘connectivity, cooperation, and coordination mechanisms amongst the countries required for taming this Corona monster.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the author.
Dr. Seema Joshi is Associate Professor of Economics, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, Delhi.
