Perceived China Threat, Conspiracy Belief, and Public Support for Restrictive Immigration Control During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Author: Ji Hye Kim,Jihye Park
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/21533687221125818
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Perceived China Threat,

Conspiracy Belief, and Public

Support for Restrictive

Immigration Control During

the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ji Hye Kim

1,*

and Jihye Park

2,*

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an unprecedented increase in the

level of political blame attributed to China for the health crisis and other associated

xenophobic discourses. Although previous research has revealed the effects of per-

ceived outgroup threats on popular support for policies that control outgroups,

threats posed by foreign countries have received little empirical attention. This

study advances previous research by focusing on the independent effects of the per-

ceived China threat to public support for restrictive immigration control during the

COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample drawn from the 2020 American National

Election Studies, the results showed that the perceived China threat substantially

heightened public support for restrictive immigration control. More importantly,

demand for restrictive immigration control intensif‌ied when individuals had stronger

perceptions of threats and conspiracy beliefs about the virus leak from a Chinese lab.

Taken together, our f‌indings demonstrate the roles of politically constructed threats

and conspiracy beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing new mechanisms of

popular attitudes toward social control.

Keywords

Perceived China threat, conspiracy belief, U.S. immigration control, public opinion in

the United States, COVID-19

1

Department of Sociology, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

2

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA

*

The authors contributed equally and are listed alphabetically.

Corresponding Author:

Ji Hye Kim, Dasan Hall 638, 35 Baekboem-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04107, Republic of Korea.

Email: jihyekim@sogang.ac.kr

Article

Race and Justice

2023, Vol. 13(1) 130-152

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/21533687221125818

journals.sagepub.com/home/raj

Introduction

In March 2020, former President Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national

emergency in the United States (Trump, 2020). The public health crisis has posed a

threat to the economy, politics, and everyday life for Americans (Tessler et al.,

2020). With the virus purportedly originating in Wuhan, China, U.S. politicians

have blamed China for its inadequate initial response to the virus (Rubin &

Agostinone-Wilson, 2021). Although perceptions of the China threat to the United

States have a long history (e.g., Broomf‌ield, 2003; Gertz, 2002; Roy, 1996), U.S. polit-

ical leaders and media during the ongoing pandemic have amplif‌ied the threat by refer-

ring to COVID-19 using fear-provoking names such as the “Chinese Virus”and

“Kung Flu”(Costello, 2020).

Informed by intergroup conf‌lict theory, perceived threats from outgroups may

increase public support for social control of outgroups to secure the current social

order (Blalock, 1967; Blumer, 1958; Bobo, 1983). Consistent with this logic, previous

studies have shown how threats posed by Blacks, Latinos, and immigrants strengthen

public support for restrictive immigration control (Berg, 2013; Chiricos et al., 2014;

Pickett et al., 2014; Rocha & Espino, 2008; Stupi et al., 2016); yet, less is known

about the role of perceived threats from foreign countries. Thus, this study investigates

whether the perceived China threat

1

–constructed and intensif‌ied through political and

media endorsement during the COVID-19 pandemic –has independent effects on the

public’s attitudes toward restrictive forms of immigration policy.

Perceived threat can be elevated by other factors, which require further empirical

attention. During the ongoing pandemic, one conspiracy theory (i.e., the lab-leak con-

spiracy theory) claimed that a Chinese lab intentionally created and leaked the new

virus (Maxmen, 2022; Schaeffer, 2020). Viewing the pandemic situation through

the lab-leak lens could make the public perceive threats from China to a greater

extent, leading them to support more punitive control of outgroup members.

Accordingly, our research investigates the joint effects of perceived China threats

and the conspiracy beliefs on public support for restrictive immigration policy

during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research is timely as it explains how perceptions

of a pandemic-specif‌ic threat and a political plot may shape popular opinion about out-

group control.

Using data from the 2020 American National Election Studies (ANES), the current

study addresses the abovementioned research goals. Our empirical f‌indings show that,

as hypothesized, perceptions of the China threat signif‌icantly impact public support for

restrictive immigration control. We also f‌ind that the association between perceived

China threat and preferences for restrictive immigration control is stronger among con-

spiracy theory believers, suggesting that politicians may disseminate conspiracy theo-

ries to mobilize public support for social issues. Taken together, our f‌indings highlight

the pivotal role of the China threat in popular attitudes toward immigration control

issues in the ongoing pandemic. Overall, our results reveal new mechanisms of

social control by clarifying the threat perceptions and conspiracy beliefs about a par-

ticular country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kim and Park 131