The (Re)surgence of Sinophobia in the Australian Far-Right: Online Racism, Social Media, and the Weaponization of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

In this article I critically examine the role of the Australian far-right in the racialisation of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Discourse-Historical Analysis of (n = 133) Facebook posts from Australia’s most prominent far-right populist party, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, revealed a range of discursive strategies, linguistic and rhetorical devices, and multimodal semiotic practices were employed to scapegoat China and Chinese-Australians throughout the pandemic. The findings highlight the unique role played by the Australian far-right in the racialisation of the health crisis which engendered a wave of Sinophobic and anti-Asian racism on a global scale. This research furthers our empirical understanding of how crises are exploited by the far-right to advance their racial politics in the twenty-first century.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• far-right: online racism: critical discourse analysis: Sinophobia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Aborigine is an inappropriate and outmoded term when referring to Indigenous Peoples. More accurate and respectful terminology ‘that accounts for the individuality’ of Indigenous Peoples includes: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, First Nations peoples, or preferably, the specific nation group being discussed (Roberts et al. 2021: 2).