UK: Foot in mouth politics
01 March 2001
Europe is currently obsessed with the foot and mouth crisis in the agricultural industry, which started with the discovery of the disease on 20 February 2001 in a slaughter?house in the county of Essex in south?east England. On 26 March, government officials accused Chinese restaurants and take?aways of illegally importing meat, claiming it was the cause of the foot and mouth crisis. The national media covered the allegations widely, causing a rapid fall in the amount of customers at Chinese catering facilities (up to 40%) creating a growing feeling of insecurity in the Chinese community, especially in the countryside.
The BSE crisis, recent outbreaks of swine fever and now foot and mouth have thrown the agricultural industry into chaos. The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) needed a scapegoat. However, there is no proof of the allegations against Chinese restaurants in relation to the initial discovery of the disease on 20 February. Other reports pointed to the likelihood of the disease being present in the UK for at least three weeks before it was first identified. In response to questions by the Chinese community regarding the allegations the government denies any responsibility. A spokesman of the MAFF said that “there was no inquiry underway into how the allegation surfaced because they were certain it had not originated from MAFF”.
Following the criminalisation of the Chinese community after the death of 58 Chinese migrants in June 2000 (see Statewatch vol 10 nos 3 & 4), the recent allegations add to the feeling of uncertainty within the Chinese community, particularly outside of London. Jon McKenzi, regional coordinator of the National Civil Rights Movement in south?west England, noted an increase in anti?Chinese sentiment in the area directly after the press coverage. Further, the allegations have directly affected the whole Chinese community economically, with 80% of the Chinese workforce being employed by the catering industry. Wing Wai Chan of the Yangzhou Association, which represents Chinese caterers, called on the government to clarify the situation, saying that Chinese caterers believed the original allegation came from the Agriculture ministry.
On 8 April 2001, a demonstration of about one thousand people took place in London's Chinese district of Soho to protest against the allegations. Jack Tan, an editor of Dimsum, a British Chinese community website, said that the community felt stereotyped as a foreign community living like the enemy within. “The fact is that the Chinese community has been in this country for close on to 200 years and since then we have been feeding the British public, doing their laundry, we've been creating jobs”, he added. “This irresponsible scare?mongering has shaken the community to its foundations and threatened our livelihoods,” Jabez Lam, a chinese Community leader added.
Guardian 26, 27 & 28.3.2001, Volkskrant dossier on foot and mouth disease online, Independent 5.3.2001, 3.4.2001, BBC News Online.