Asian-American lawmakers in the US Congress have condemned a right-wing podcast that called for the forced internment of Chinese-Americans during a hypothetical war with Beijing, warning that such rhetoric fuelled hate against the community.
The joint statement was released by congresswomen Grace Meng, chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (Capac), and Judy Chu, Capac’s chairwoman emerita, as well as congressman Ted Lieu, vice-chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
The backlash was sparked by comments made on Timcast IRL, a pro-Trump video podcast with 2.77 million subscribers on YouTube hosted by commentator Tim Pool.
During an episode posted on August 14, social media influencer Ian Crossland openly floated the idea of wartime confinement.
“If there was a war between the Chinese and the Americans, and the Chinese landed in, like, Alaska and started coming through Canada, what – do you think we should intern all the Chinese-Americans we can find? Because it kind of seems like we should,” Crossland said.
Crossland claimed he did not want to implicate all Chinese-Americans because “that’s horrific”, but proceeded to question their allegiance.
