Cambridge Chinese community fearful over hate crimes

Some members of the city's Chinese community are frightened after apparent racial attacks in the Mill Road area.

A leader of a city's Chinese community has said some people are afraid to walk alone because of fear of racially-motivated attacks.

Police said there had been "a significant, but short, increase in hate crime targeted at the Chinese community" in Cambridge.

Dr Wei Sun, chairman of the Cambridge Chinese Community Centre, said the attacks had been worrying.

Three teenagers have been arrested in connection with a series of incidents.

Cambridgeshire Police said it received 259 reports of racially aggravated crimes in the county between August and October, an increase of 8% on the same period last year.

There have been a number of assaults on people in Cambridge's Mill Road area.

One of the attacks took place at the Co-op on Mill Road

One man had his nose broken and a woman was verbally abused.

Three teenage boys were arrested in connection with the attack on the man in September and released on bail until 23 December.

Chinese student Grace (not her real name) was walking with a friend along Mill Road one evening last month when they were abused by a group of teenagers, she said.

"I felt something hit my head and looked around and it was a few pieces of bread," she said.

"My friend asked why they'd done that and they started getting very aggressive towards us."

She said the group called her "ugly", pushed her friend, threatened to break her phone and said: "We just want to destroy your face."

Grace said: "I would say [it] was definitely racially targeted, and later they said, 'You guys are immigrants and we have lived here for a very long time.'"

Grace said she had been afraid to go out after dark and was now "very anxious".

'It's continuing'

Dr Sun said Grace was not alone in her fears and that the community had noticed more abuse since the coronavirus pandemic.

She said a Chinese man had been attacked in September in the road's Co-op, but after police arrested three teenagers in connection with a series of racially aggravated incidents, people were "relieved".

"But it's continuing, and many members share the same worry as Grace - they don't want to walk alone in the evening or even the daytime, so that's quite a worrying thing," he said.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman said: "Earlier this year Cambridge experienced a significant, but short, increase in hate crime targeted at the Chinese community.

"We have developed much closer relationships with the Chinese community, building on our existing network of community leaders.

"We work hard to encourage victims to come forward so we can take action against those who choose to discriminate and commit hate crimes."