Coronavirus: anti-Chinese social media ‘more scary than Covid-19’ in Indonesia

As the novel coronavirus sweeps Indonesia, fears are growing not only that it could overwhelm the health care system, but that it will cause widespread discrimination in a country that has long struggled with anti-Chinese sentiment.

“Social media is more scary than Covid-19,” said Endar, the owner of Ho Teh Tiam, a traditional Chinese tea shop in the city of Medan, North Sumatra, referring to the disease caused by the virus. Endar, who is ethnic Chinese, said the anti-Chinese sentiment he had seen online and calls on apps like Instagram for the expulsion of Chinese workers in Indonesia were “worse than the actual health crisis”. “That’s what we’re really afraid of,” he said. “That hate crimes could mushroom from social media. We have to try and get through this together. We need to focus on the real problem: the virus.”

Racist attacks and discrimination against ethnic Chinese have risen worldwide since the discovery of the novel coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, but are particularly worrying in Indonesia, given the historical animosities.