Thursday, April 16, 2020

China-Africa Relations Face An ‘Unprecedented Rupture’


africa 2


Recall that China has its own version of the master race fairy tale to indoctrinate school children with.  It was difficult to maintain with the West kicking in the front door while running roughshod all over the world.  It was all there though and it meant doubling down on anti Black.


So yes, this marriage was due for some rocky moments.


In the meantime we have rumbles of a second wave of infections of cov 12.  China is testing out restarting their economy.  We need to watch in order to know the next step.


China-Africa Relations Face An ‘Unprecedented Rupture’



APRIL 13, 2020




African migrants in Guangzhou have in recent weeks faced a “rising tide of discrimination driven by both coronavirus-fueled xenophobia and deep-rooted prejudice against black people in China,” SupChina’s Jiayun Feng reported last Wednesday.


Then, the evictions started. Eric Olander at the China Africa Project writes that the recent treatment of Africans in Guangzhou has led to an “unprecedented rupture” in China-Africa relations over the weekend.


Beginning late Thursday China time, photos, videos, and other accounts began to surface on Twitter and Facebook depicting young African migrants being forced to leave their homes and hotels. These evictions largely took place in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district.…


A key turning point occurred on Friday, when photos of young men forced to sleep outside on the street, visibly cold and wearing surgical masks to protect them from COVID-19, started going viral on Facebook and Twitter.


The reaction in Africa was immediate and furious. African social media users took to Twitter under the hashtag #ChinaMustExplain to vent their anger, frustration and concern. Sensing the severity of the crisis and the surging outrage, African politicians began to call in Chinese ambassadors to their foreign ministries to express their concern.


A few examples: The Chairperson of the African Union Commission expressed his “extreme concern at allegations of maltreatment of Africans in Guangzhou,” and the Nigerian Foreign Minister tweeted almost the exact same thing. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ghana wrote to “highly condemn this act of ill-treatment and racial discrimination.”


There was also “an unprecedented video of China’s ambassador to Nigeria, Zhōu Píngjiàn 周平剑, being dressed down by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila,” Olander notes.


Beijing reacted slowly. On Sunday, April 12, CGTN Africa published “Foreign Ministry spokesperson remarks on Guangdong’s anti-epidemic measures concerning African citizens in China,” which contains a series of stock phrases that Chinese diplomats across Africa are now repeating. Beijing’s official remarks contain no apology, or even acknowledgment that something has gone wrong, but instead, accusations that the U.S. has made “false, immoral, and irresponsible” accusations of mistreatment of Africans in China, and that the U.S. is “driving the wedge between China & Africa.”


More details on what is happening in Guangzhou can be found in these reports: 




africa 2

No comments: