May 23 — In early April, a persistent phenomenon of Chinese mistreatment of Africans reared its ugly head. It was unexpected at such a particularly difficult and strange time as the world remained in the midst of grappling with the Coronavirus. The recent wave of mistreatment of Africans was inspired by claims that Africans were responsible for new imported cases of COVID-19 in Guangzhou. But the claims have remained callous as most of the targeted Africans had no recent travel history, and the Chinese city of Wuhan was the epicenter of the virus.
The treatment meted out on Africans in Guangzhou by Chinese local authorities and some Chinese was a toxic mix of inhumanity, wickedness and insanity, victims who spoke to Ubuntu Times disclosed. It smacked of pure racism. Some Africans were forcefully evicted from their homes and abandoned to take refuge on the streets, under the biting night cold. Others were compelled to undergo multiple screening, while some were forced to quarantine in certain lodging facilities at their own cost. “Africans have been subjected to high levels of scrutiny, suspicion, anger, and discrimination in Guangzhou,” Keith B. Richburg, Director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Human rights activists and organizations couldn’t be indifferent to the abuse. “Chinese authorities claim ‘zero tolerance’ for discrimination, but what they are doing to Africans in Guangzhou is a textbook case of just that,” Yaqiu Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch said. “Beijing should immediately investigate and hold accountable all officials and others responsible for discriminatory treatment.”
Others like Carine Kaneza Nantulya, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch have called on African governments to urge the Chinese government to cease all discrimination against Africans in China. “African governments should also press China to enforce measures to prevent discrimination in the future,” she said.
The pressure on the Chinese government over the Guangzhou incident seemed to have been too much. And then, Beijing said it will take steps to lay the matter to rest through new anti-discrimination regulations. But this remedy to many an African in China is merely a strategy to douse diplomatic tensions between the Asian giant and Africa.
China’s political system, which works towards the economic empowerment of the country, has characteristics which breed gross rights violation. Being critical of the Chinese government is the last thing any person based in Mainland China will want to do. So, in the aftermath of the Guangzhou incident, many Africans Ubuntu Times contacted were reticent for fear of victimization.
An African in Shandong province, who asked not to be named, said local police officers unjustifiably detained him and a friend. “They came to our apartment and asked us to follow them to the station. When we got there, they said we had not registered our presence in the town with the police district. We showed relevant documentation to prove we had done the right thing but no one cared to listen to us. They locked us up,” the African said. Both of them ended up paying a ‘fine’ of ¥ 1,200 (about $ 170) each before regaining freedom.
Chinese Dark Side in Africa
Mistreatment and racial discrimination/attack against Africans seem to be deeply ingrained in all aspects of Chinese national life. China’s infamous racist detergent ad — considered as the most racist TV commercial ever made — puts this in practical context. In the 2016 TV commercial, a Chinese detergent is forced into the mouth of a dirty-looking black man by a Chinese lady. The black man is then pushed into a washing machine only to emerge as a sparkling white Asian man.
China isn’t doing much to suppress the mistreatment and racial discrimination/attack against Africans and other black people. This can probably be accounted for by its lack of diversity — the country remains reluctant to boost long-term immigration. And the laxity in checking against racism is encouraging Chinese nationals to go haywire, even more on the African continent.
In April 2020, two Tanzanians were rescued off the coast of South Africa after being thrown out of a Chinese vessel into shark-invested waters. The Chinese captain of the cargo ship and his six crew members later pleaded guilty in a Durban court for attempting to murder the two black stowaways on grounds that they could infect them with the Coronavirus. Such mistreatment of Africans by Chinese in Africa isn’t new. There are indications it could only get worse.
Nowadays in much of Africa, the Chinese build more infrastructure than any other country; be it foreign or African. Chinese banks, especially the EXIM Bank of China, are financing billions of dollars in new loans, aid packages, and other deals to build badly-needed infrastructure across the continent as Africa looks forward to becoming the global powerhouse of the future by 2063. And it is Chinese companies that are doing most of the engineering and construction work.
With the rolling out of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as well as the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese companies have been at the fore of major construction works in Africa such as the construction of roads, bridges, stadia, dams and public buildings. This trend is widely expected to continue as Beijing turns to its new development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to focus more of its economic diplomacy on building infrastructure.
Although the Chinese are making a huge contribution to Africa’s infrastructure development, this comes at a great cost. The quality of some Chinese-built structures is also questionable. There have been reports of Chinese-built structures that quickly develop cracks after construction, roads that quickly fall apart, structures built by Chinese contractors that wreak havoc on its users and so on. Also, Chinese infrastructure and investment companies operating in Africa, especially in some priority landscapes, have been noted for flouting Guidelines of Sustainable Infrastructure for Chinese International Contractors (SIG); something they won’t dare back home.
The SIG guidelines were developed by the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA), to which most member companies are or have subsidiaries operating in Africa. However, Chinese companies constructing major infrastructures in Africa have come under fire for highly disrespecting human rights and environmental exigencies inherent in the execution of their projects. Cases abound like in 2014 when the China Water and Electricity Corporation in charge of constructing the Lom-Pangar dam was accused of violating the rights of workers. There were also industrial strike actions in protest of the high-handedness of the China First Highway Engineering Corporation constructing the Douala-Yaounde double carriageway. The China Harbor Engineering Corporation (CHEC) was also indicted for not respecting its corporate social responsibility in the construction of the Kribi deep seaport.
Since 2011, a company with links to China has been keen on threatening Cameroon’s biodiversity and the survival of indigenous people. Sud-Cameroun Hevea (Sudcam) has destroyed almost 25,000 acres — the size of Paris — of dense tropical rainforest for a plantation to satisfy its appetite for rubber. Besides displacing locals and depriving them of their land and livelihood, the monoculture plantation has touched the Dja Faunal Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Locals in remote villages in Cameroon have also been among the Africans to be mistreated by Chinese, who in most cases often enter the country illegally or overstay their visas. In the mining localities east of Cameroon, Chinese miners frequently beat up locals, seize their wives and lands and operate like demi-gods as they mine away millions of francs CFA in precious stones. In 2017, a Chinese who had a minor disagreement with a Cameroonian pulled out a short gun and opened fire. The local died! They often bribe local officials to get away with such impunity.
In Kenya early this year, a Chinese chef, who didn’t hold a work permit, was caught on camera flogging his employee — a waiter — over allegations of reporting late to work. The victim later said he was fired for the same offense. The victim said, for over six months, he amongst other Kenyan workers had been enduring the Chinese beating with a special cane made of wires for fear of losing their jobs. “He [Chinese chef] is very harsh and arrogant. As you can see there are no jobs in Kenya. All employees had to bend low in order to keep the job. I, personally, was whipped more than once but, this time, it was worse,” the victim told K24 Tv back then.
No Easy Way Out
Any form of racism or mistreatment anywhere is unacceptable. But that of Chinese, particularly in Africa, is one too many.
According to Hannah Wanjie Ryder, CEO of Development Reimagined; the first-ever Kenyan wholly foreign-owned international development and diplomacy firm in China, the Chinese government has a clear policy — that any form of racism and discrimination is not acceptable. “However, Chinese people are human. There is no country in the world, no society in the world, that does not have some form of racism and discrimination, especially towards black and African people but also others. China has one of the smallest international migrant communities in the world. Thus, what matters is how quickly and seriously the Chinese government acts to remind and educate [its] citizens of, and enforce, its official position, both in China or abroad,” she told Ubuntu Times.
Ryder confirms Africans across the world are treated unequally, be it in terms of visa policies, access to health, and even to jobs and business opportunities. “Whether as a diplomat or business leader, I have had personal experience of this unequal treatment around the world. China is not an exception. And usually, these issues are too many and complex for African leaders to respond to every time, they must prioritize.”
The CEO of Development Reimagined argues that because of the evidence of the magnitude of the problem, what African leaders must now do going forwards is encourage their key trade and investment partners — such as China — to demonstrate their commitment to Africa by making their countries a friendly and conducive business environment for Africans in particular. “Without this commitment, it will be very hard for economic relationships with African countries and people to evolve for the better,” she said.