Chinese virus

English

Etymology

Chinese +‎ virus

Noun

Chinese virus (countable and uncountable, plural Chinese viruses)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Chinese,‎ virus. A pathogen or malware originating, identified, or causing outbreaks in China.
   • 1938, The Chinese Medical Journal‎^[3], volume 53, page 86:

     The Chinese virus seems to be more closely related to the marine type of Mexican virus than to the European virus.

   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer‎^[4], page 231:

     The Chinese virus has completely penetrated the fabric of the Hosaka.

   • 1990, China Report: Science and Technology‎^[5]:

     It said that the "No 1 Chinese virus," a new kind of computer virus made by a college student through modifying an imported foreign virus in South China's Guangdong Province had already spread to many of the province's important units.

   • 2008, Ciba Foundation, Novel Diarrhoea Viruses‎^[6], page 41:

     We had great difficulty with the Chinese virus at first.

   • 2009, Paul Roberts, The End of Food‎^[7], page 198:

     for the Chinese virus to find its way into the ducks of the Red River delta or Mekong Delta or the central plains of Thailand, it helps a lot if, in between those places, you have lots of hugely susceptible chickens.

2. (colloquial, sometimes offensive, dysphemistic) Synonym of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
   • 2020 March 13, Katie Rogers et al., “Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism”, in New York Times:

     Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said on Twitter that “I don’t understand why China gets upset bc we refer to the virus that originated there the ‘Chinese virus’ Spain never got upset when we referred to the Spanish flu in 1918&1919.”

   • 2021 July 15, Chris Heath, quoting Sid Miller, “The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds”, in The Atlantic:

     First it was the Chinese virus, then we had the murder hornets, then we had to close the embassy in Houston because of espionage … Now we’ve got all these mystery seeds coming in in the mail.

3. (colloquial, sometimes offensive, dysphemistic) Synonym of coronavirus, the disease COVID-19.
   • 2020 June 16, David Marcus, “Contact Tracing Is A Fiasco Rejected By Most Americans”, in The Federalist:

     There were supposed to be armies. Grand armies of contact tracers crisscrossing every county in the country on the hunt for the Chinese virus.

   • 2020 January 22, Associated Press‎^[8], headline:

     Stocks mostly recover on hope for handling of Chinese virus.

   • 2020 November 13, Natalie Pasquarella, “NJ Mom Stunned to See Sign About ‘Chinese Virus' — At A Doctor's Office”, in NBC New York:

     (quoting a sign in a doctor's office) "Dear patients: During this time period of the Chinese Virus, please observe the six foot rule of social distancing."

   • 2021 May, Yulin Hswen, Xiang Xu, Hing, Anna, Hawkins, Jared B., Brownstein, John S., Gee, Gilbert C., “Association of ‘#covid19’ Versus ‘#chinesevirus’ With Anti-Asian Sentiments on Twitter”, in American Journal of Public Health, volume 111, →DOI, page 960:

     More importantly, the number of anti-Asian hashtags rose by 797% and 17 400% for #covid19 and #chinesevirus, respectively. This represents a combined increase from about 12 000 to almost a half a million anti-Asian hashtags.

   • 2021 August 18, Maria Bartiromo, Peter Doocy, Dagen McDowell, “Biden Cuts Vacation Short, Returns to White House; […] ”, in Mornings with Maria, spoken by Donald Trump, via Fox Business Network:

     I don't even talk about it because when it COVID came in, which is the Chinese virus, when Chinese virus came in, that was so much bigger than anything else. I mean they owe us $20 trillion.

Usage notes

Particularly in the United States during COVID-19, where the term was popularized by President Trump to highlight the origins of the virus. Some members of Hong Kong’s pro democracy movement have reportedly also used the term for similar reasons.

Related terms

• China virus, Wuhan virus, Wuhanvirus, Wuhan coronavirus, Wuhan flu, kung flu

Translations

Translations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中國病毒／中国病毒, 中國病毒／中国病毒 (Zhōngguó bìngdú) (explanatory translation)

• German: chinesischer Virus m, chinesisches Virus n, China-Virus m or n, Chinavirus m or n
• Japanese: 武漢肺炎 (Bukan haien), 武漢ウイルス (Bukan uirusu)