A Tale of Two Continents: In One Country

In March 2017, Pan Qinglin held up a sign claiming that all Africans move in droves at night, engage in drug trafficking, harass women, fight, and have a high rate of AIDS. While these views may be shockingly common, Qinglin is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a top advisory body for the Chinese government. He went on to elucidate that if the African population in China continues to grow, China will change from a nation-state to an immigrant country. Speaking to local Chinese media, he iterated the need for the Chinese government to control the African population across the country. In an online forum dedicated to discussions about black people, many participants agreed with Pan Qinglin that China was facing a "black invasion".

If this was about numbers, just as many in the platform would have agreed with the members who explained the trade reasons for many Africans coming to China. However, these views are heavily influenced by Anti-African stereotypes and discrimination. The year before, a Chinese TV ad featured an Asian woman stuffing a black man into a washing machine to turn him into a pale skinned Asian man. Yet, the stream of racist vitriol online makes this advert seem mild in comparison.

In April 2020, Alush, an entrepreneur from Chad tested negative for the coronavirus, but was

explicitly told by Chinese authorities to self-quarantine for 14 days because "he was

African". Another Nigerian businessman was evicted from his apartment and denied access to a local supermarket to buy food and water. Left to starve, he was forced to spend 2 weeks on the streets being denied access to transport to his country's embassy.

This article is not to detract attention from the fact that Chinese nationals have also faced Sinophobia because of the coronavirus pandemic. Political peddling of false narratives regarding the origin of the virus has led to unwarranted mistreatment of Chinese people outside of their country. Within the country, racism extends beyond Africans to tribal minorities such as the Uyghur Muslims, who have suffered oppression for the greater part of this century as part of a campaign by the Chinese government. Within concentration camps, the Uyghur detainees are forbidden from speaking their language and inhumane measures are implemented to reduce the birth rate of women and girls to reduce the Uyghur population. Effectively, there is no difference between the Nazi concentration camps

and these centres. These issues are not undermined by the content of this piece. The events against Africans in China that were streamed into people's homes through social media were not unprecedented. The pandemic has exposed systemic weaknesses within political systems, health services and various social areas globally. In China, it shed light on a problem that for many years had remained undisclosed.

Ever since the late 19th Century, China sought to revive itself in the face of European and Japanese expansion. This desire to protect itself spills into the modern-day propaganda and justification for various racist incidents in the country. As such, race, nation, and nationalism have always been embedded into the leading communist party in the country. Race relations continued to worsen during the 20th century, mostly exacerbated by incidents involving African students.

In July 1988, Chinese students in Shanghai complained about African students playing very loud music. A brawl ensued and consequently, a mob attacked the African students after rumours spread that Africans had raped Chinese women. The violence that sparked during this incident was telling of the trouble to come notably because it lasted for a full year until January 1989.

In 2007, police anti-drug crackdowns in Beijing's Sanlitun district were targeting people from Africa as suspected criminals. At least 20 black men were arrested and beaten up in front of other expatriates in Beijing as part of an effort to clean up the street in the lead up to the Olympics. No drugs were uncovered by the police following the incident.

An irrational fear of Africans taking over the world's most populous country is one of the main reasons for the discrimination against Africans. In Guangzhou - nicknamed "chocolate city" - Africans range from 150,000 to 300,000. This is because Guangzhou is a leading area for traders who come to carry out their business, which is the sole phenomenon responsible for the high number of Africans in China. Africa trades with China more than any other continent.

In 2020, trade between China and Africa fell by 10%. While this was in many ways due to the pandemic and its effect on manufacturing, retail business and travel, there was also a great fear among traders from the continent. It would be unreasonable to have expected traders to move to China while many of their fellow countrymen were being chased out of the same hotels they intended to book. This explains why during the later part of the year, when restrictions were eased, trade did not improve as would have been expected. Whereas it can be argued that the relationship between the two continents is well established, this ignores the fact that the African Union 2063 agenda focuses on a learning economy. This opens trade between Africa and many other jurisdictions more so the UK which has expressly made its interest in Africa's expanding digital market clear.

Trade will not be the only negative impact on China should racism continue to persevere especially towards Africa. Many of its adversaries in the west will be looking for a reason to criticise and take damning action against the country. As small pockets of this racially charged violence and discrimination grows, so shall the animosity from other countries in the West as well as in Asia. The unjust and racially motivated killing of George Floyd showed what happens in countries where there has been a history of racism going unchecked. It boils to a peak and has the potential to start the type of movements that radically change the social order. They bring to the forefront issues previously ignored and encourage reformist discourse. Already, the treatment of Uighur Muslims has been the focus of many global efforts to end discrimination. It has also placed greater scrutiny on China as a whole. What does this mean for the future of Africans and people affected by racism in China?

While the eyes of many in the world may focus on the racism peddled on the front pages of popular newspaper and headlining BBC news, racism no matter how slight or unreported has no place in the world. There must be a common goal to end racism and with greater scrutiny, there will be. But, it is naïve as well to think that we are not affected by such issues. Either because we are not black, not African, or not in China. If you view yourself as unaffected by horrendous acts of human rights abuse, you are probably benefiting from this systemic oppression. Unknowingly. To look at it in another way, become Alush, the entrepreneur from Chad. Thrown out of a hotel, accused of spreading a virus he does not have. All of that simply because he is who he is. That feeling right there, is why we must not simply be non-racist. We must be anti-racist!