SAN FRANCISCO (NYTIMES) - Shopkeepers, landlords and restaurant workers in America's oldest and largest Chinatown reacted with a mixture of anger and apprehension Tuesday (Aug 2) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought the hillside neighborhood in San Francisco to its knees, and only in recent months has the area seen something of a rebound.
Now, some say they fear that the trip by Mrs Pelosi, their representative in Congress, could inflame anti-Chinese sentiment and trigger attacks on Asian Americans.
"At this moment we don't want to create any more negative feelings against the Chinese," said Mr Melvin Lee, a property developer and community leader. "That's the main concern."
A spate of stabbings, robberies and fatal attacks against Asian Americans in the city over the past two years created waves of fear that still grip the community.
Grocery stores, restaurants and shops that were once open late into the night now close at 5-6pm. Social gatherings that once convened in the evenings now take place in the afternoons.
"People are scared to be out," said Mr Henry Chen, owner of AA Bakery, which has locations around the city. One of his shops on the edge of Chinatown stayed open until 11pm before the pandemic. It now closes at 5pm.
"I don't want my employees to be out too late," Mr Chen said. "They take the bus home and you never know what could happen."
Mr Stephen Chan, the owner of a jewelry store in Chinatown that specializes in jade, said he had been robbed 10 times over the past three years, usually by someone who came into the store and grabbed low-value items.
He called Mrs Pelosi's trip to Taiwan "pointless" and compared it to former President Donald Trump's description of the coronavirus as the Chinese virus. In both cases, he said, "Americans were pouring oil over the fire."
Across Chinatown on Tuesday, Chinese flags fluttered above the rooftops, often alongside the American flag. Only a few buildings flew Taiwan's flag, and the headquarters of the main Taiwanese association in Chinatown, the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, was closed.
Across the street at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, a politically powerful umbrella organization of Chinese organizations in the city, Mr Wing Ho Lau, the executive secretary, said he was not ready to draw a link between Mrs Pelosi's visit and the prospect of further violence against Asian Americans in San Francisco. But he said there was little doubt where local sympathies lay on the question of Mrs Pelosi's trip.
"In the 1970s it was 2 per cent support for China and 98 per cent for Taiwan," he said. "Now it's the other way around."
