Originally published on February 7, 2020. This article introduces an essay by cultural anthropologist and Shizuoka University professor Yang Haiying, published in the Sankei Shimbun’s “Sound Argument” column, and discusses how the spread of the novel coronavirus, the reemergence of the Yellow Peril discourse, premodern customs within Chinese civilization, and information control under dictatorship have intensified global distrust.

February 7, 2020
Unlike democratic countries that actively disclose information, in China, a dictatorship, the truth of the matter will absolutely never come to light.
The following is from an essay by Yang Haiying, cultural anthropologist and professor at Shizuoka University, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun “Sound Argument” under the title “Distrust Expanding Through China’s Information Control.”
It is an essay that not only the Japanese people but people all over the world must read.
The Coronavirus and the Yellow Peril Theory
After the Sino-Japanese War at the end of the 19th century, German Emperor Wilhelm II（1859–1941）spoke of the Yellow Peril and sounded an alarm to Europe.
According to him, if the power of the yellow race surpassed that of white people, the threat of bringing calamity to the world would increase.
At that time, the “yellow race” to be guarded against implied the Japanese and the Chinese, but with the passage of time, the content of the Yellow Peril theory has gradually changed.
In recent years, it often refers to China’s outward expansion accompanying the enormous political and economic policy known as the “Belt and Road Initiative,” promoted by Xi Jinping, the world’s greatest dictatorial leader.
Recently, it has reappeared in a form linked to the phenomenon of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and has come to rage throughout the world.
What is the problem with Chinese civilization, which provides grounds for the view that China is the source of infectious diseases and may pose a major threat to the world and to humanity?
Not only the current coronavirus, but also the precedent of SARS（severe acute respiratory syndrome）, which spread from the end of 2002, has led to the rise of a Yellow Peril theory that sees infectious diseases as being produced there.
In the case of SARS, it is widely accepted that its source was in Guangdong Province, where there is a custom of eating wild animals such as masked palm civets and rats.
In the case of the new pneumonia caused by the current coronavirus, the origin of the pathogen has not yet been completely identified, but medical personnel have pointed out that it may be bats, which people in Hubei Province and elsewhere dearly love.
There is also footage of Chinese people routinely eating masked palm civets, bats, and the like, accelerating the spread of the image of “yellow people who eat strange animals.”
In Chinese characters, bat is written as 蝙蝠, and it is homophonous with “遍福,” that is, “blessings everywhere.”
The masked palm civet is written as “果狸,” and is interpreted as “過利,” meaning “bringing excessive profit.”
Such folk ideas unique to Chinese civilization are incompatible with Western modern civilization, which is characterized by a scientific and rational spirit.
They have become material for criticism as premodern and contrary to progress.
A Society Where the Truth of the Matter Is Not Known
What further creates distrust toward a society in which premodern customs have taken root is surely the dictatorial regime.
There is even a theory that the coronavirus may be a kind of biological weapon.
One cause of such rumors is the lack of transparency surrounding research in China.
The year before last, a Chinese researcher announced that twins had been born from fertilized eggs whose genomes had been edited, drawing criticism.
The fact that a national biological research institute exists near the seafood market regarded as the source of the coronavirus also seems to have stirred suspicion and paranoia.
Unlike democratic countries that actively disclose information, in China, a dictatorship, the truth of the matter will absolutely never come to light.
What caused the infection to spread?
What part of Chinese civilization is premodern?
Because such ordinary discussions are not permitted, the image of the “bizarre yellow race” is being amplified.
The selfish behavior of Chinese people after the outbreak of a serious crisis such as a new infectious disease has also drawn public disapproval.
The outrageous panic-buying of masks is one example.
When I was a child, I lived on the grasslands of Mongolia.
In 1964, the Yellow River flooded south of the Great Wall in China Proper, and countless Chinese refugees flowed into Inner Mongolia.
Those who came near our home captured and ate grassland rats one after another.
After putting the rat meat into their stomachs, they stretched the skins over tree branches and dried them.
What dexterous people they were; as a child, I was astonished to witness the scene of them skinning such tiny rats.
It was said that even the skins could be turned into money.
Contrary to Xi’s Promise
However, the reaction of the elderly Mongols was different.
They warned that eating rats would cause disease.
Before long, some of them began dying one after another.
It was because they had contracted the plague.
The Chinese, having contracted the plague and become even poorer, began to lay hands on Mongolian livestock.
Seeing their livestock decrease as one animal after another was stolen, the pastoral Mongols were at a loss.
That was not all.
When the Cultural Revolution was launched in 1966, the Chinese suddenly changed and began systematically killing Mongols and plundering their property.
Even according to government-approved figures alone, the number of Mongols killed throughout the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region reached 27,900.
When the Chinese fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs, the Mongols welcomed them warmly.
And yet, kindness was repaid with enmity.
“China does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, nor does it export poverty.”
When Xi Jinping assumed the post of state president, he boasted in this way.
The facts are rather the exact opposite.
By promoting the Belt and Road policy and creating numerous debtor countries, is that not splendid interference in internal affairs?
With both information and response falling behind, China has caused the global spread of the new pneumonia, just as it did with SARS, and yet it does not even try to take responsibility.
It is the countries of the world that are being troubled by the reemergence of the Yellow Peril theory.
China must make efforts to dispel it.