A wave of anti-foreigner sentiment is washing over China. On May 15, the Beijing public security bureau launched a 100-day crackdown on illegal foreigners in China that will extend through August. The campaign will clean out the “three illegals,” the Beijing public security bureau announced on its official blog, with an accompanying clenched fist, an image used regularly for anti-crime campaigns. Foreigners that illegally enter, live, or work in China will be targeted, the notice explained, providing a tip hotline. “All citizens are encouraged to provide leads or report cases,” the notice said.
And top Chinese Internet sites Baidu and the Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo (“weibo” is the Chinese word used for microblog) launched a campaign “calling on Internet users to expose bad behavior by foreigners in China,” according to a report on the People’s Daily Online English website on May 18. “Foreign scumbags should go back to their countries. China is not the place for them to do everything they want,” the report quoted microblogger “yuxiaole” as writing.
