Trump administration. Recently, the Biden administration has introduced the COVID‑19 Hate Crimes Act to combat violent crimes and discrimination against Asians. Nonetheless, the problem of hate crimes will likely not be solved anytime soon, because the hatred motivating those offenders can be seen as a reflection of the escalating political tensions between the US and China. The COVID‑19 pandemic is the most significant global event since World War II. Different academic disciplines are assessing the impact of the pandemic on all aspects of social life from a variety of perspectives. Criminologists are not only studying the impact of the pandemic on crimes but also on the means of crime control. As humanity lives in an era of increasing surveillance and self‑monitoring, how did the COVID‑19 pandemic accelerate this process in a world that is moving toward what some scholars call ‘surveillance capitalism’? From lockdowns to vaccinations, governments around the world have gone to great lengths to control the pandemic. Some populations will comply, while others may directly or indirectly challenge these measures. What factors contribute to the coping strategies of different populations and how did this pandemic renew our understanding of the relationship between the state and society? These are the questions my research team and I are trying to address; we hope to share more findings with you in the future. ACADEMIC RESEARCH • 學術研究 2021 UMAGAZINE 24 • 澳大新語 54 infection is no longer the sole motivation; racial prejudices also play a significant role. The short‑lived discrimination against Africans in Guangzhou, China, and the ongoing discrimination against Asians in the United States are manifestations of resurging racism during the pandemic. Varying degrees of racial prejudices exist in most societies. Under normal circumstances, such prejudices may not be pronounced. However, racism becomes apparent if there is a specific triggering time and event, and in this case, the COVID‑19 pandemic was the trigger mechanism. Since individual discrimination and hate crimes often do not occur in a vacuum, political and ideological conflicts between countries and regions should not be neglected. The discrimination against mainland Chinese in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and against Asians in the US were fuelled by pre‑existing political and ideological conflicts. We found that before the WHO officially named the virus COVID‑19, the stigmatised name ‘Wuhan pneumonia’ was used in many regions. However, after the WHO name designation, no media in Macao used ‘Wuhan pneumonia’, while in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese media, it is still used to this day. The labelling of the virus reflects the harmonious relations between mainland China and Macao and the relatively tense relationships with Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the US, political factors still influence the population’s perception of China and the pandemic even after the 徐建華，澳大社會學系副教授、系主任，研究興趣包括犯罪與越軌社會學、警務、被害人學、城市社會學以及 澳門社會研究。 Xu Jianhua is an associate professor and head of the Department of Sociology at UM. His research interests include the sociology of crime and deviance, policing, victimology, urban sociology, and Macao studies.
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