US president Joe Biden will pledge to crack down on xenophobia against Asian-Americans in the wake of an increase in violence and harassment during the pandemic fuelled by Donald Trump’s frequent references to the “China virus”
Mr Biden is set to sign a memorandum on Tuesday acknowledging the “harm” of the hate crimes against Asian-Americans over the past year and directing federal agencies to explore whether any of their own “documents and outputs” had contributed to the discrimination.
The move by Mr Biden comes after Mr Trump and some of his senior officials routinely described the coronavirus as the “China virus”, a label was blamed for fuelling racism against Asian-Americans and Pacific islanders.