page_title: U.S. immigration policy toward the People's Republic of China
section_title: The "Yellow Peril"
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. immigration policy toward the People's Republic of China / Public attitudes at home / The "Yellow Peril"
context_page_description: With the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, American immigration policy towards Chinese emigrants and the highly controversial subject of foreign policy with regard to the PRC became invariably connected. The United States government was presented with the dilemma of what to do with two separate "Chinas". Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China wanted be seen as the legitimate government and both parties believed that immigration would assist them in doing so.
  During the 1940s and 1950s, the United States, the Republic of China, and eventually the PRC consistently used the movement of people, their laws controlling their borders, citizen services, and their interactions with the Chinese diaspora to promote the legitimacy and positive image of their respective governments internationally. Overseas Chinese were seen as extremely pertinent to either side claiming legitimacy, as both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China realized the political and social clout held by those overseas Chinese Americans.
context_section_description: Due to the fact that the United States was deep in the midst of the Cold War, the establishment of the People's Republic of China rekindled many of the racial feelings of animosity many Americans felt towards Chinese-Americans. Feelings, many thought had died out with the exclusion period in the late 19th century. Many Americans distrusted newly arriving Chinese immigrants and suspected them of having communist sympathies or simply being communists.
  The long extinct ideas of Chinese immigrants swarming the country en masse began to resurface and the term "Yellow Peril" appeared in the conscience of the American vocabulary once more. With more progressive immigration reforms towards Chinese immigrants a resurfacing of xenophobic feelings soon followed.
  Just as the United States began to loosen many laws regarding Chinese immigration, anti-communist xenophobia and hysteria brought about a resurgence of the idea of a "yellow peril". That the massive influx of Chinese immigrants (who at the time came mostly from non-communist regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cambodia, and Laos) would somehow pose a threat to the security of the American people.
caption: 1899 editorial cartoon with caption: "The Yellow Terror in all his glory."
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