They are China‘s key trading partners but some African leaders have been angered by Beijing’s reported discrimination against their citizens.

They want answers from the Chinese government over reports that Africans are targeted because of fears they could spread coronavirus.

A recent rise in COVID-19 infections in China has been linked to foreigners.

The Chinese government is worried there could be a second wave and has stepped up its scrutiny of foreigners.

African students and expatriates have reportedly been evicted from their homes, tested for coronavirus several times and are being shunned in public.

The incidents have sparked a diplomatic dispute with the African Union, African governments and the United States.

So, is this a new form of racism? Or is it just Beijing trying to curb the pandemic?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests

Victor Gao – Vice president of the Center for China and Globalization

Gabriella Dilan – Medical student from Uganda

Keith Richburg – Director of the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre

Source : aljazeera.com/

KEY FACTS

The city of Guangzhou, which has just 463 cases of COVID-19, said that it had tallied 111 imported cases, leading to fears of a second-wave outbreak, according to the South China Morning Post; officials said 10 cases were linked to the business district known as “Little Africa,” including 5 cases linked to a single restaurant. 

Following the outbreak, Guangzhou officials announced that all residents of African descent—about 4,500 people—must quarantine for 14 days “regardless of their previous circumstances or how long they have been in Guangzhou,” reports the South China Morning Post, adding that African residents’ homes will be monitored with tracking devices that will alert officials if they “open the door.”

The ban led to reports of African residents being evicted and banned from businesses; people have taken to social media to document evicted African residents sleeping on the street, interacting with police and Nigerian diplomats delivering food to their now-homeless compatriots, causing foreign ministers of Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria to speak out in protest.

African diplomats reportedly sent a letter to China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying, “The Group of African Ambassadors in Beijing immediately demands the cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans.”

China has denied these allegations of racism, saying that Africans in Guangzhou are not being targeted, with foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian saying that the Chinese government “treats all foreign personnel in China equally, opposes any differential practices targeting specific groups of people, and has zero tolerance for discriminatory words and deeds,” according to the South China Morning Post.

The United States consulate in Guangzhou advised African Americans to stop traveling to the city on Saturday, the South China Morning Post reports.

One social media post showed a sign in a McDonald’s restaurant that read: “We have been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant”; McDonald’s has since told Forbes that once it learned of the sign, it “immediately removed the communication and temporarily closed the restaurant” as it was “not representative of our inclusive values.”

KEY BACKGROUND

Race-based tension has risen in tandem with coronavirus. In the U.S. there has been a notable increase in hostility towards Asian-Americans in online communities, vandalistic acts and dining decisions—and in President Trump’s own rhetoric, as he called COVID-19 the “Chinese virus.” Italy, the U.K., France and others have also anecdotally seen a rise in sinophobia—anti-Chinese sentiment. 

Source : Forbes