Dictionary

Chinaperson en · NOUN

Etymology

From China + person. Coined by American political candidate Don Blankenship on April 23, 2018, during a live interview for West Virginia radio station 106.3 "The River". A few days later, Blankenship's campaign team went on to release a televised attack ad with the first-known attestation of the plural form "Chinapeople".

Meanings

1. (offensive, uncommon) A Chinese person.
   • In a radio interview earlier this week, Don Blankenship, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in West Virginia, accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of having foreign-policy conflicts of interest, based on McConnell's marriage to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. But Blankenship's comments attracted attention not just for what he had to say—intimating that McConnell's wife and her family has some insidious influence on him—but how he said it. 2018 April 26, Ben Zimmer, “'Chinaperson' and the Sanitization of a Racial Slur”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2023, Politics:
   • But with "Cocaine Mitch" specifically and his attacks on McConnell generally, he may have stumbled into an effective strategy, of launching both corruption-focused and racist attacks at the unpopular majority leader and his family. 2018 May 7, Andrew Prokop, “Cocaine Mitch: Don Blankenship's factually dubious attack on McConnell, explained”, in Vox, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2024, Politics:
   • It's not hard to understand why the Republican establishment might be uncomfortable with Blankenship as a candidate. His team has run several controversial TV ads, including one that referred to the family of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, as "Chinapersons." Later, Blanksenhip defended the ad by saying it wasn't racist because he never mentioned any of the races, which according to him, are "Negro, White Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian." 2018 May 6, Nathalie Baptiste, “This Ex-Con Coal Baron Is Reportedly Within Striking Distance of West Virginia's GOP Senate Nomination”, in Mother Jones, archived from the original on 02 Dec 2023, Politics:

Forms

Hyponyms

Chinawoman

Synonyms

Chinaman