Viral racist treatment of Africans in China sparks uproar on Twitter

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:54 pm

As China continues diplomatic efforts to quell a recent surge in protests by African governments and the African Union, AU, there is a new round of outrage on social media after a new visibly racist video was posted on Twitter on Friday.

The 38-second video has since gone viral on the social media platform. It shows Chinese officials masked and with temperature guns blocking a black woman from entering a mall.

The video originally posted on TikTok by a user @claudi405 had a series of caption amongst which were “This is the treatment black people get in China now, they were not allowed to get inside of the shopping mall.”

As the blacks are stopped from entering a white shopper walks past the security, another white shopper tries to intervene but fails. “Chinese government says black people are not welcome, because they the cause of the corona virus,” another caption read.

The location and date of the video is not readily known. But the video feeds into the recent outrage in southern China’s Guangzhou where Africans were reportedly forcibly evicted and in some cases quarantined and tested for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, opposition voices in the southern Africa region have written to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa who doubles as Chairperson of the AU to call for an investigation into mistreatment of Africans in China.

“As Africans we are appalled by the reports of poor treatment of African nationals who are residing in China. We call for all Africans to be treated with dignity and as equal to all other residents of China,” the statement signed by five regional oppostion leaders stated.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement earlier this week said it acknowledged the concerns of African countries and stressed that the reported cases will be probed by authorities in the Guangdong Province.

Beijing also stressed historical ties between the two parties and vowed to do all it takes to maintain, bolster and consolidate them despite the current rift.

It also said the government had a zero tolerance towards discrimination and treated all persons equal.

(AFP)