Complaints of the treatment given to African citizens in China, mostly in Guangdong Province, in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis, have reached African Governments and diplomacy. African ambassadors to Beijing have voiced discontent with the situation to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). And they warn of a “possible backlash” against Chinese in Africa.
In a letter sent on 10th April to the Chinese MFA and the International Department of the Communist Party of China, the African Group of Ambassadors in Beijing “strongly protests” the “ongoing forceful testing and quarantine and maltreatment of African Nationals in China and in Guangdong Province in particular”.
The letter, that followed a meeting with a selected group of African Ambassadors held on 9th April, “appreciates the excellent relations between China” and African countries and the “collaborative effort in the ongoing fight against the
COVID-19 pandemic and the various assistance extended by the Communist Party of China. But, it adds in the letter seen by CL Brief, this was followed by “worrisome” acts of discrimination and stigmatization of Africans whereby they are made to forcefully, and in a very crude manner” to undergo epidemic investigation and Nucleic Acid Test, fourteen (14) days quarantine even if they had not travelled outside their jurisdictions, not come into contact with infected persons, not had close contact or showing any symptoms of the COVID-19.
Pictures of Africans being forcefully questioned by police in the streets of Chinese cities or sleeping on the sidewalks, allegedly after being forcefully evicted by their landlords, have quickly disseminated in social networks and generated mass protests in countries like Nigeria and South Africa.
According to official data which does not include undocumented immigrants, at least 15,000 Africans live in the city of Guangzhou, but other recent estimates point to totals, included undocumented, above the hundreds of thousands.
The city’s Xiaobei district is known as “Little Africa”, such is the concentration of African immigrants there, mostly from West African nations such as Nigeria or Senegal.
In the letter to Chinese authorities, the ambassadors underscore that Africans in China “have at all times adhered to the laws of China, particularly within the period of this outbreak”. “We have not and cannot recall Chinese authorities reporting a case where our nationals have violated the anti-pandemic laws and regulations of the China Government”, they say.
“Therefore, 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”, the ambassadors add. According to the letter, African nationals ejected including Togolese, Nigerians, and Benenois “from their hotels in the middle of the night only because they are Africans”. Also, a group of African students studying in Sun-Yat Sen University in Guangzhou “were made to undergo the Nucleic Acid Test, in spite of the fact that they had no travel history within the stated period”, while their non African colleagues are left out.
“There were also cases of African men married to Chinese ladies and they were demanded to take the COVID-19 test and their Chinese families left out. In some cases the men were pulled out of their families and quarantined in hotels alone”, the letter says.
The ambassadors also enumerate forced evictions of Africans from their various apartments, some with infant children, seizure of passports of African nationals in violation of international practices and conventions, “persistent harassment and humiliation of African nationals by subjecting them to unwarranted medical examinations after testing negative for the COVID-19, and forced into quarantine, irrespective of their negative status”, along with threats of revocation of visas, arrest, detention and deportation of African legal migrants “for no cogent reason which infringes on their human rights”.
“From the foregoing the impression is being created as though the spread of the virus is caused by Africans contrary to the fact that, in China and indeed globally, Africans are the least exposed to COVID-19”, says the letter. “We would also want to bring to your attention the possible backlash in our home countries of this obvious human rights violation”, it adds.
“The Group of African Ambassadors in Beijing immediately demands the cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans in Guangdong Province in particular and the whole
of China and also demands that Africans are treated the same as Chinese and other nationals in the fight against COVID-19”, say the ambassadors.
Addressing a question about allegations of discrimination against African migrants in Guangzhou, Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said on 10th April that China rejects “differential treatment”, and has “zero tolerance for discrimination”. While Chinese media were silent on the issue in the following days, on 12th April, Global Times published a story describing the situation as “rumors”, blaming U.S. and European media outlets – specifically AFP, Reuters, and CNN – for spreading “false allegations” and underlining that discrimination is not tolerated. The same message was followed up during the day on social networks by China’s diplomats in Africa, some of which did interviews with local media.
