Racist China!

A Chinese commercial for a laundry detergent is running on the TV screen. In it, the detergent is applied to a black man who is then dumped into a washing machine and — pronto— he emerges washed, bleached and comes out as a Chinese. Apparently, there is supposed to be something dirty about the black complexion which must be washed off with the Chinese detergent!

Although the Beijing government distanced itself from that commercial, recent events have shown that the Chinese are probably worse than South African Boers in their commitment to Chinese-style apartheid. Unlike white racists in the US and Western Europe, the Chinese advertise their own racism and brutally shove it down the gullet of Africans and all dark-skinned people.

The US Embassy in Beijing recently issued a travel advisory warning African-Americans to avoid Guangzhou due to discrimination: “In response to an increase in COVID-19 infections, officials in the Guangzhou metropolitan area escalated scrutiny of foreign nationals. As part of this campaign, police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin… African-Americans have also reported that some businesses and hotels refuse to do business with them.  The US Consulate General advises African-Americans… to avoid the Guangzhou metropolitan area until further notice… The Chinese legal system can be opaque, and the interpretation and enforcement of local laws may be arbitrary. The judiciary does not enjoy independence from political influence….”

The COVID-19 pandemic which originated from Wuhan, China, is the latest excuse used by the Chinese to exhibit their worst claustrophobic instincts. Under the unscientific suspicion that Africans were spreading the disease, a blanket ban has promptly been placed on all black people. Like in the apartheid era in South Africa, bold posters are conspicuously pasted outside malls, restaurants, stores and other public places warning black people to stay away.

Some Africans resident in Guangzhou are now virtually destitute and are looking for any opportunity to return home. Many of them claim they are treated like lepers in public and targeted for additional COVID-19 tests without ever seeing the results. The police and public health bureau in Guangzhou claimed that officials had responded to false rumour that 300,000 black people in Guangzhou were setting off a second epidemic.

How can black people be so accused when it is widely suspected that the origin of COVID-19 is linked to the Chinese propensity of eating anything with four legs except a table — maggots, scorpions, millepedes, roaches, bats, lizards, worms, etc.

“I’ve been sleeping under the bridge for four days with no food to eat… I cannot buy food anywhere, no shops or restaurants will serve me,” cried Tony Mathias, an exchange student from Uganda who had been evicted from his apartment. “We’re like beggars on the street”!

There are videos of Africans being horrendously assaulted, dehumanised and generally treated like animals in China.  There are also clips showing how African-Americans were denied entry into malls and hotels proving the point that the discrimination is not about nationality but about race.

There is also a lot of video evidence of Chinese nationals within Africa treating their local African employees like garbage, even administering brutal corporal punishment!

In the midst of all these, China is making unprecedented inroads into Africa. All over the continent, they are exploiting our traditional generosity, even in the remotest African villages — retailing goods, mining minerals, building infrastructure and running companies. If things go on at the current pace, China will economically overthrow Europe and America in African trade and investment within the next decade.

And many people on the continent are beginning to wonder how we opened our doors to such squint-eyed racists to the extent that most of our major cities are dotted with Chinese restaurants and goods.

Although the US leadership of the world is rife with all sorts of problems, including racism, it is clear now that the Chinese are no better alternative. Indeed, the in-your-face racism of China shows that all that the country can ever achieve is economic success, not global leadership.

African countries must now wake up. AU Chair, President Cyril Ramaphosa, should rouse the continent’s leaders to take up the historic challenge of cutting the Chinese to size before it becomes too late. If we are not wanted in their country, then they have no business walking free on our streets in whatever capacity. Civil society organisations also should join the fray. This battle goes to the very root, the very essence, of our being.

Black people are being assailed from every quarter. The other day, Dr. Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital, Paris, and Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group, suggested testing out COVID-19 vaccines in African countries “where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation”.

The World Health Organisation promptly responded to that racist comment: “It was a disgrace, appalling, to hear during the 21st century… that kind of remark. We condemn this in the strongest terms possible, and we assure you that this will not happen.”

Wake up Africa! We laughed at the strange ways of whites from Europe until they enslaved us many moons ago. Now the Chinese who Americans used to derisively call ‘Fu Manchu’ want to make us their perennial punching bag.

Can we sink any lower than this?

This Chinese apartheid is no longer funny. In my books, one good turn deserves another. And one bad turn deserves reciprocity.