Chinese anti-foreigner sentiment played up as police crackdown on illegals

There are always stories of foreigners behaving badly in China, as well as behaving admirably. Just before the stories I'm about to list broke out, there were popular stories of a Brazilian in Dongguan fighting pick-pockets and an American sharing a meal with a beggar. However, in the past two weeks there have been a flurry of anti-foreign stories and what's different is that almost all of them have turned into major stories, including front page news.

First was "British Man Beat Up For Sexually Assaulting Chinese Girl," which appears
followed by Chinese Girls Beat Up by Suspected Korean Men in Chengdu KFC (turns out they are ethnic Korean, Chinese citizens)
followed by Beijing Symphony Axes Russian Cellist After Foot Video

Mr. Vedernikov was filmed by a passenger on May 14 on a train from Shenyang to Beijing annoying a female passenger sitting in front of him. The video showed him touching the head of the passenger with his bare feet, then insulting her in Chinese when she protested and threw water bottles at him.

and the latest CCTV Yang Rui’s Anti-Foreigner Rant, Chinese Netizen Reactions

The Ministry of Public Security must clean out foreign garbage, arresting foreign thugs and protect ignorant/innocent girls, with Wudaokou and Sanlitun being the disaster areas [worst places]. Behead the snake heads [human traffickers], the unemployed Americans and Europeans who come to China to make money, trafficking in people, misleading the public and encouraging them to emigrate. Identify the foreign spies, who find a Chinese woman to cohabitate with, while their job is to collect intelligence, drawing maps and perfecting GPS [coordinates] for Japan, Korea, Europe, and America under the guise of being tourists. Drive out the foreign shrew, shut down Al-Jazeera’s Beijing Office, let those who demonize China shut their mouths and fuck off!

As I said, individually these stories aren't very suprising, but the cluster and national media attention to them may be an orchestrated campaign to support a 3-month crackdown on illegals.

Beijing Pledges to ‘Clean Out’ Illegal Foreigners

Beijing has launched a 100-day campaign to “clean out” foreigners living or working illegally in the city amid a fervent online debate over the behavior, both good and bad, of outsiders inChina.

Also see: Disquieting Days for Foreigners in China

I don't think this is the Chinese government trying to funnel negative mood into anti-foreign sentiment, but it is allowing it to bubble to the surface as it conducts a crackdown. The simplest explanation is that anti-foreign sentiment will help with the 3-month illegal crackdown.