How to deal with racial discrimination in Britain？ Embassy in Britain and Chinese lawyers’ advice

　　China Overseas Chinese Network June 2 nd Question: What should I do if I encounter racial discrimination in Britain?

　　Going out shopping was dragged to the ground, and walking in the street was thrown with sulfuric acid … Similar incidents occurred in Britain one after another. The parties have one thing in common, that is, they have Asian faces.

　　The epidemic situation of COVID-19 in the world is still grim, and the phenomenon of discrimination against Asians is constantly appearing all over the world. Recently, there have been many such incidents in Britain, and some of them have turned into hate crimes.

　　Chinese people are splashed with sulfuric acid on the streets.

　　Mr. Jing in London was attacked by two strangers with sulfuric acid in the street. Fortunately, he was wearing a leather coat and leather gloves at that time, and the injury was not fatal.

　　On the day of the incident, Mr. Jing met two men in Lu Yu, who stopped him and asked if he was "Chinese" (Chinese/Chinese). When he gave a positive answer, two men said they were lost. He kindly showed them the way, only to find that they deliberately dragged him to the corner, feeling something was wrong, so he left immediately.

　　When Mr. Jing walked to the station, he felt someone running towards him behind him. He turned around and saw one of the men throwing a bottle at his face. He subconsciously blocked it with his hands, and suddenly felt a sharp tingling sensation on his face and his gloves.

　　Later, he went to the police station. The police washed him with physiological saline and some liquids, and called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. The police also said that Mr. Jing was not the first person to encounter this situation.

　　The case of ethnic discrimination against Chinese is not the only one.

　　Attacked outside the international student store

　　A few days ago, a 19-year-old China student was attacked in Sheffield, England. On the day of the incident, the China girl had just come out from shopping. A British woman insulted her with racist words, then slapped her in the face and grabbed her hair and dragged her to the ground.

　　After the girl was pushed to the ground, she was kicked in the head by the attacker. The attacker also picked up a glass bottle and tried to hit the girl’s head. In the meantime, employees of the University of Sheffield came forward to help, stopped and knocked down the attackers.

　　On May 14th, the Consulate General of China in Manchester issued an announcement, strongly condemning the atrocities against China students, and at the same time thanking those who were brave. The Consulate General also contacted the local police station, demanding that measures be taken to bring criminals to justice and asking the school to provide support.

　　The police arrested the suspect and sent a letter to the Consulate General saying that the case had been prioritized as a criminal case. The school arranged special personnel to provide assistance to the victims.

　　Similar incidents are not uncommon.

　　China teachers were besieged by four people.

　　A teacher from China, who was teaching in a British university, was attacked by four men for no reason while jogging in a British street. Four people beat the teacher, and the victim was kicked to the ground, with serious facial injuries and a lot of blood flowing from his nose and mouth. The attackers also attacked the victims with racist words such as "China virus" and "Get out of this country", and said some foul language.

　　After the incident, the victim said in an interview that he no longer felt as safe as before. "I’m worried about what would happen if I was with my children when the incident happened."

　　Racial discrimination against Chinese people is not only manifested in violent attacks.

　　Chinese restaurants keep harassing calls.

　　Steven and his Chinese wife Joanna run a Chinese restaurant in Britain. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, they have been receiving harassing calls asking if they "supply bats". "The caller deliberately spoke to us with a cartoon China accent, which seemed interesting, but my wife and children and I felt offended." Steven said.

　　Before the outbreak, they also received a phone call asking if they had dog meat or cat meat for sale. This situation has been going on for many years.

　　Harassing phone calls virtually wastes the couple’s time, making the already struggling business worse under the epidemic.

　　Steven has reported the case to the police, hoping to stop these harassing calls from coming in, and also hoping to stop these people from making harassing calls to other restaurants.

　　How to deal with discrimination and hate crimes?

　　Zhu Xiaojiu, president of the British-Chinese Lawyers Association, suggested that when encountering racial discrimination, we must be brave enough to speak out and report it. She also called on ethnic minorities to actively participate in mainstream affairs, let the government know the real situation and arouse the government’s attention to solving the problem of discrimination.

　　If you suffer from racial discrimination, you can record or video on the premise of ensuring personal safety. When reporting and appealing, it should be noted that it is best to provide specific time and place, the appearance characteristics and behavior words of the reported object.

　　It is suggested that when friends or colleagues make inappropriate jokes, if conditions permit, kindly point out the seriousness of such remarks and the potential harm they will bring to you.

　　Racial discrimination sometimes leads to hate crimes. The British Embassy said that the British police attach great importance to hate crime cases and will give priority to handling hate crime alarms. Reports of hate crimes are usually recorded and investigated.

　　If you encounter hate crimes, you need to deal with them in the following ways:

　　1. Immediately avoid danger in an emergency, ask the surrounding people for help, and flee to a crowded or safe place.

　　2. Call 999 and 101 to seek help from the local police at the first time; International students should also report to the relevant departments of their school for help.

　　3. In case of serious personal danger or injury, please call the embassy in Britain for help at +44-20-74368294. International students can also contact the Education Office of the British Embassy at+44-20-76120250; Emergency telephone number +44-7410429777 (only for emergency contact after working hours).

　　(Source: British "Huawen Weekly" WeChat WeChat official account, website of China Embassy in the UK, website of China Consulate General in Manchester, etc.; Author: Liang Yi; ID：qiaowangzhongguo)