Factors associated with the perception of resentment towards the Chinese in Latin America during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction

Resentment towards the Chinese population was perceived during the first months of the pandemic because the pandemic/disease started in that country.

Objective

To determine the factors associated with the perception of resentment towards the Chinese in Latin America during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology

Analytical cross-sectional study conducted during the second semester of the pandemic in more than a dozen countries. Four questions were asked about the perception of resentment towards the Chinese (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.88); those with the highest scores on the sum of the four questions were considered to have "more resentment towards the Chinese," and descriptive and analytical statistics were obtained.

Results

Of the 7721 respondents, in the multivariate analysis, it was found that there was a difference according to the country; compared to Peru, those who had more resentment towards the Chinese were those residing in Paraguay (aPR: 1.29; 95%CI: 1.17–1.42; p-value < 0.001) and Bolivia (aPR: 1.52; 95%CI: 1.37–1.68; p-value < 0.001), while Chile (aPR: 0.78; 95%CI: 0.69–0.88; p-value < 0.001) had less resentment: 0.69–0.88; p-value < 0.001), Mexico (aPR: 0.68; 95%CI: 0.57–0.80; p-value < 0.001), Panama (aPR: 0.71; 95%CI: 0.59–0.86; p-value < 0.001) and Costa Rica (aPR: 0.64; 95%CI: 0.49–0.85; p-value = 0.002).

Discussion

There was a significant difference in resentment for each country.