Anti-Asian hate, the new outbreak threatening the world

Attack on New York subway highlights rise of discrimination

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A woman wears a mask -- now often used as a measure against the new coronavirus -- as she waits for a train in Bangkok. © Reuters

SORA TAKAHASHI and YIFAN YU, Nikkei staff writers

NEW YORK/PALO ALTO, U.S. -- The deadly coronavirus outbreak in China has fueled an upsurge in anti-Asian discrimination, hate speech and even violence elsewhere in the world, much of it reaching a global audience on social media.

A shocking video posted to Twitter on Tuesday shows a man attacking a mask-wearing Asian woman at a Manhattan subway station while cursing at her and shouting, "Don't touch me!" The man called her "diseased," according to Tony He, a New York resident who posted the video.

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