Susan Li responds to spa shootings, attacks on Asian Americans: 'Something that needs to stop'

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Susan Li speaks out against uptick in Asian-American bias

FOX Business correspondent says the violence 'needs to stop' on 'Your World'

There can be no disputing an increase in racist sentiment against Asian Americans, FOX Business correspondent Susan Li told "Your World" Friday following the deadly shootings at three spas in Georgia. 

"It's been a tough week for the Asian American community," said Li, who was born in China and raised in Canada from the age of 2. "The motives are still playing out in this Atlanta shooting, but in journalism, we deal with facts. The fact is, six out of the eight victims are Asian women.

"It's a fact that anti-Asian violence has surged 150% over the past year, according to one California study. It's a fact that the Asian community is now fearful after these shootings, regardless of motive."

Officials said they’re still investigating whether the killings were hate crimes amid a wave of attacks and harassment of Asian Americans nationwide. Georgia authorities said suspect Robert Long told police that his actions were not racially motivated, but rather a case of him lashing out at sources of temptation for a "sex addiction."

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Li told host Charles Payne that a sense of collective fear has been "percolating" in the Asian-American community since the onset of the coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns in the United States last year.

"When I've walked in Chinatown or I've had relatives tell me of their stories passing by, people have shouted, 'Virus!' at them or some other derogatory term which I don't think I want to share on television," she said.

"It's something that needs to stop. Hopefully there's something coming from the White House and maybe something from Congress in denouncement, and heightened policing would be great."

Li recalled that as a child, students of Asian descent were sometimes taunted on the playground, but the atmosphere has grown worse as some blame Asian people for the downturn in the economy and lost jobs.

"For some reason over the past year, you have just heard this replay of things that you felt and hoped were in the past," she said.

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"Obviously COVID has been horrendous for everybody the past 12 months. But, for the entire community, we're standing up for ourselves finally, because Asians have been called the 'model minority'. We've been silenced.

"We've been taught to not cause problems. But I like the fact that it's been galvanized and we're getting together, we're all standing as one hoping for a voice to say, 'Please stop. We're all in this together. We're all Americans, and we want to be part of this community.'"

Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.