Chinese-New Zealand teenager seriously injured in racist attack

Amid a spate of reports of crimes against Asians in New Zealand, a Chinese-born student was brutally attacked on a public bus in Auckland on the morning of June 28.

An Auckland Transport bus (Photo by atmetro.fandom.com / CC BY-SA 1.0)

Jason, 16, suffered serious facial injuries after a woman hit him with a metal bar while shouting racist abuse. The unprovoked attack left the teenager with three of his teeth knocked out and two others damaged, sparking a wave of anger and concern on social media.

Jason was travelling by bus to Panmure in South Auckland when “a woman started verbally abusing me and then immediately started physically abusing me,” he told the New Zealand Herald“I was just listening to music and browsing on my phone and then it happened. She just got up and hit me.”

Jason said that although there were more than 10 people on the bus, only one intervened. “A 75-year-old gentleman in the back helped me get the woman under control and into the middle,” he explained. The woman jumped off at the bus stop and ran away, leaving her meter-long pole behind.

Jason has lived in New Zealand for seven years and said this was the first time he had experienced a racially motivated attack. He described the woman as about 40 years old, tall and dressed all in black. “I’m a bit scared, this time it was a stick, next time nobody knows what will happen, maybe a knife?” he said. Police have made one arrest.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said he would seek advice on whether Auckland Transport staff were following “correct procedures”. “Listening to Jason, I get the impression that the bus driver’s main concern was continuing his journey… We don’t want this to happen again,” he said. A First Union spokesman responded that drivers were not trained to intervene in violent confrontations like police officers and were putting themselves at risk.

Focusing on the driver’s actions is an attempt to distract from the problem of racist attacks on Chinese and other Asians.

In February, New Zealand police reported that the number of “hate” incidents officially reported to authorities increased by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023. Of the 9,351 incidents reported, 83 percent were racially motivated insults, and more than a third were directed against people of Asian descent.

The Department of Justice recently reported that the proportion of Asian adults who were victims of crimes such as fraud, deception and violence increased from 24 percent to 30 percent between 2018 and 2023. Among Asian adults, the proportion of Chinese crime victims increased from 19 percent to 29 percent, surpassing the Indian community.

According to the Global timesThe Chinese embassy expressed its “grave concern” to New Zealand authorities over the attack on Jason, as well as another alleged incident in which “a Chinese tourist in New Zealand was handcuffed and ‘roughly searched’ by three New Zealand police officers who were arresting a suspect.” The tourist received no explanation or apology for his treatment.

The increasing attacks on Chinese people – who make up just five percent of New Zealand’s population – coincide with an escalating anti-Chinese propaganda campaign being pushed by the country’s media and political establishment. The aim is to steer public sentiment in line with US-led war preparations against China, in which New Zealand – a key ally of US imperialism in the Indo-Pacific – is increasingly involved.

During an official visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to New Zealand last month, Things published an online documentary entitled “The Long Game” alleging widespread “Chinese interference,” followed by numerous articles on the subject. Things spoke to Chinese dissidents who claimed they had been “attacked and intimidated” by members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in New Zealand.

The series repeated the methods of a similar Things campaign in 2021 that repeated false allegations of a “genocide” against the Uighurs in China amid calls for a more aggressive stance toward Beijing.

This “reporting” was never motivated by genuine concern about the repressive measures of the Chinese police state, which are primarily aimed at the working class. The mainstream media have for years constructed a “human rights” justification for imperialist aggression, the same kind used to justify the criminal US wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, in which New Zealand participated.

In response to the recent Things Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong issued a statement saying the investigation contained “baseless slander and misinformation.”

Wang warned that commentators with “malicious intent” would “ultimately harm New Zealand’s interests. They would end up lifting a stone and letting it fall at their own feet.” ThingsThe 40 Fingers’ main source, prominent NATO-funded pro-American academic Anne-Marie Brady, responded that this was a “threat” designed to silence critics, politicians and journalists.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters, leader of the anti-immigrant, anti-Chinese NZ First party, endorsed the documentary, saying the investigation was “unusually competent” and it was “worth reading and listening to.” The opposition Labour Party’s foreign affairs spokesman David Parker also praised the documentary.

The pro-Labour party plays a particularly despicable role Daily Blogwhich Brady praised and Thingss documentation – including unsubstantiated claims that Chinese-born National Party MP Nancy Lu is a spy. The blog regularly accuses Beijing of being New Zealand’s “economic overlord” and calls for tighter immigration restrictions. Editor Martyn Bradbury has endorsed the Wuhan “lab lie”, blamed China for the COVID-19 pandemic and claimed a pro-Beijing “fifth column” within New Zealand’s Chinese community is preparing for a period of social unrest.

Anti-immigrant chauvinism is also propagated by nationalist Māori politicians, such as former MP Hone Harawira, leader of the Mana Party. He stated in 2017 that “any Chinese person who brings meth (methamphetamine) or precursors to this country” should be jailed for life, deported or “executed”. He said this did not apply to other ethnic groups, only to Chinese people.

Labour bears a particular responsibility for the attacks on immigrants. The Labour Party, led by Jacinda Ardern, entered the 2017 election with a promise to drastically reduce the number of immigrants. Together with its ally, the Greens, Labour then formed a coalition government with the racist NZ First Party, whose leader Peters was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister by Ardern.

The last Labour government claimed the country needed to prepare for war with China. The British intelligence agency SIS published its first unclassified national threat assessment in August last year. It said the country was under siege by “foreign intelligence services that are constantly and opportunistically conducting espionage operations.” The names given in particular included China, Iran and Russia.

Attempts to stoke xenophobia and racism – including the current government’s anti-Māori demagogy – also aim to divide the working class and prevent the development of a unified movement against the war and the deepening social crisis.

With the full support of the unions and the Labor-led opposition, the right-wing coalition government has launched a brutal offensive against the social standing of the working class over the past six months. Over 6,000 public sector jobs have been cut, and more are to come. ANZ Bank predicts that a further 40,000 people will lose their jobs by the end of the year as unemployment soars.

The working class must defend immigrants and oppose all attempts to stoke racial conflict. This is an indispensable part of the struggle to build a socialist movement that unites workers of all backgrounds and nationalities against capitalism, which is the root cause of war, poverty and inequality.

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