ENGBeyond the Pandemic: The Struggles of African Nationals in China
Recent racist anti-African incidents in China are just a manifestation of deeply rooted attitudes vis-à-vis ‘blackness’ in China that predate and will likely outlive the coronavirus pandemic.
This piece appeared in 'Africa is a Country' under the title: China and Africa: A trial by pandemic?
“We are
being systematically discriminated against as blacks and African nationals,” a
Ghanaian student I spoke to and who has been under forced quarantine in
Guangzhou concluded with a shaking voice. And though he has no recent travel
history and no particular exposure to the virus, he was forced to take the
coronavirus test, which came in negative, unsurprisingly. His was not an
isolated incident of discrimination and blatant racism based on skin color and
passport.
For the last
few weeks, the Chinese province of Guangdong and especially its provincial
capital, Guangzhou, became the focus of news reports and social media posts on
widespread discriminations and mistreatments of African nationals in the city.
Evictions from homes and hotels, people sleeping on the streets, the police
forcefully dragging black individuals, forced-quarantine, involuntary and
repeated COVID-19 tests, etcetera are some of the accusations that have been
widely circulating. But the unprecedented level of outcries and indignations from
African countries have also brought to surface China-Africa relations more
broadly, with many quick to predict the looming end of the buoyant
relationship.
In addition
to a rise in imported COVID-19 cases, the targeted discriminations and racism
against African nationals started after reports emerged that five Nigerian nationals in the southern
city of Guangzhou, who tested positive for Covid-19, had broken a mandatory
quarantine and been to multiple restaurants and other public places, and thus
infecting many others in the process. Yet, since the coronavirus knows neither
skin color nor national boundaries, it is surprising and particularly troubling
that the crackdowns on these mischief-makers would be extended only to African nationals
in the city, regardless of their travel history and risks of
exposure. For example, though they were not the only foreign nationals in the
group, two of my African colleagues at Peking University received repeated
calls from the Guangzhou police. They had participated in a two-day class trip
to the city in early December, long before the coronavirus became a health
concern even in Wuhan. Yet the calls are believed to be part of ‘contact
tracing’.
In a rare
move, African ambassadors in Beijing issued a joint complaint to China’s foreign
minister, arguing that “the singling out of Africans for compulsory testing and
quarantine, in our view, has no scientific or logical basis and amounts to
racism towards Africans in China.” Yet, while Chinese state media described the
incidents as “small rifts,” the government, in a typical
fashion, initially tried to deny the reports, instead characterizing them as
“rumors,” “misunderstandings,” and stories fabricated and spread by Western
media—an attempt to make
the issue a new point of contention with the West (read the US). But for those
familiar with Beijing’s responses to crises as sensitive as this one, the move
is not surprising. In a usual fashion, the government was first slow to react
to the outcry, before moving in full force to dismiss the existence of the
crisis while also calling out on ill-intention forces (read Western media and
their governments) for trying to drive a ‘wedge’ between Beijing and its
African counterparts. To anxious African governments, China was keen to reaffirm
the principle of equality and equal treatment towards all.
Therefore,
instead of promptly acknowledging the wrongdoing and working to solve the
problem and alleviate the pain inflicted to African nationals in the city,
there is a widespread feeling that the Chinese authorities have focused more on
downplaying the issue or completely denying its occurrence. The official,
polished diplomatic language will have us believe, for example, that China has zero-tolerance for racism and skin-color-based
discrimination. Yet, everyday reality tells a different story. Racism against
black people or Africans in China has become so commonplace as to be banal. In
fact, China may applaud itself for establishing a friendly relationship with many
African governments, but systematic discriminations and
repeated ill-treatment of African nationals in China are also well-documented. Thus, there is a
clear contradiction between the lived and the experienced reality for Africans living in China and the way their governments
and Chinese leaders interact. Given the current context with the coronavirus
pandemic, some have explained the quickness with which many African governments
has accepted Beijing’s reassurances, given China’s overall importance to
Africa’s fight against the pandemic. But the fact of the matter remains that
African government officials have never been comfortable and willing to
officially address these issues, as they are perceived as rather too embarrassing
for what is believed to a brotherly/sisterly relationship between China and
Africa.
In Guangzhou
specifically, recent incidents are just a manifestation or a symptom of a
deeply rooted issue vis-à-vis ‘blackness’ in China that existed long before
COVID-19 and will likely survive the pandemic, despite the recently announced measures
to combat discrimination in Guangdong province. And though some seem to celebrate “the rising African
agency… that is spilling over in the [Sino-African] relationship,” one
genuinely wonders how long that will last. For one, Beijing is happiest, as
always, to have the incidents quickly forgotten (at least by African leaders)
while African governments are also concerned with mobilizing more support and
resources in their efforts to address the consequences of the coronavirus
pandemic in the continent, including appeals for medical aid and debt relief.
Unsurprisingly, there is an apparent calm on the surface despite the boiling
currents deep below in the China-Africa relationship.
In early
March, I wrote a piece on how the
coronavirus has ignited deep-rooted stereotypes about Chinese and how it was
wrong to associate it with particular geography or race because it knows not
such social constructs. And I am now reiterating the same call with equal
vigor. The best way, indeed, the only way to effectively defeat the ongoing
pandemic is by working together, collaboratively. So, beyond the staged official PR visits with TV and
camera crews, it is encouraging and commendable to see many people, including
Chinese nationals, join hands to bring comforts to the affected individuals
throughout the city.
For both
Chinese and African government officials, however, these crises should serve as
an opportunity for a fact-check, especially with regard to the much-touted
people-to-people exchange in China-Africa relations. And neither Beijing’s
denials nor African governments’ disquieting silence is helpful for that purpose.