Discrimination Against Blacks in Guangzhou: Exposing the Shaky Foundation of Africa-China Relations

Africa has been taken aback by the discrimination against black people currently happening in China's Guangzhou city. China, after having reportedly made headway in containing the coronavirus, is concerned that black Africans might bring a second wave of infections.  A McDonald's outlet in Guangzhou put it bluntly with a recent notice that read: "We've been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health, consciously notify the local police for medical isolation; please understand the inconvenience caused." Gabriella Dilan, a Ugandan medical student studying in Wuhan, recently told Al Jazeera's The Stream that Africans in that part of China were subjected to more days of isolation and had their medical clearances withheld for longer periods of time than did non-Africans. This, in turn, prevented Africans, for longer periods than non-Africans, from accessing banks and other facilities that would require leaving one's dwelling place.

The discrimination meted out to Africans in China is both unfortunate and ironic. The virus originated in Wuhan, China. President Donald Trump came under fire for calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," with critics arguing his terminology was racist against Chinese people. It is thus ironic that China is now attributing fears of the coronavirus to other racial groups.

What is more fundamental about this discrimination, however, is what it exposes about Africa-China relations. The close bond that many African leaders nowadays share with China is arguably opportunistic and desperate. The seeds for it were sown during the twilight years of the Soviet Union, as it withdrew from Africa upon its collapse. The post-Cold War ascendance of neoliberal democracy and market economics compelled many African countries, especially those that had had close ties to the USSR, to yield to Western-style economics and politics if they wanted to attract aid and investment. However, the political conditionalities imposed by many Western aid-donors did not sit well with those African leaders who were accustomed to one-party politics. Even in recent years, African leaders in countries such as Uganda were not shy about changing constitutions to extend their term limits in power. For such countries, China's unqualified, "no-strings-attached" foreign policy is almost irresistibly attractive. Yet Africa's close relationship with China, seen from this perspective, is more of an escape from Western tutelage and censure than a genuine preference for China. At the 2015 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in South Africa, Zimbabwe's then-president Robert Mugabe fawned over China and President Xi Jinping personally. He described Xi as a "God-sent" person doing great things for Africa that the continent's former colonizers could not. Such state-level adulation often masks the challenges that come with other dimensions of Africa-China relations. One of the most important of these dimensions is the everyday interactions of ordinary Africans and Chinese.

The anti-black discrimination currently happening in Wuhan and Guangzhou is a salutary lesson for those desperate African leaders seeking to avoid addressing the downsides of Africa-China relations. The Chinese government and elite have also been ineffectual and deliberately evasive in tackling tensions between its citizens and African students and expatriates. As an example, Victor Gao, a former Chinese diplomat and current Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization, recently avoided responding to the undeniable incidents of discrimination against Africans. Instead, he boasted about China's close relationship with Africa and decried racism in the United States. Such official evasion bodes ill for Africa-China relations, in that a country (China) that carries itself with an air of infallibility and an instinctual hostility toward uncomfortable facts comes across as callous to those who endure its shortcomings and excesses.

It is thus somewhat understandable when China's critics in America, such as Donald Trump and Senators Lindsay Graham and Marco Rubio, claim that China has not been fully truthful about the origins, gravity, and containment of the coronavirus. These allegations partly stem from China's impulsive antipathy to admitting shortcomings in its affairs. Whether allegations of obfuscation are true or not, Beijing's refusal to even acknowledge something as blatant as the discrimination currently happening against Africans in China should serve as a warning shot to African governments about the nature of their seemingly favorite partner. Africa's clamor to demonstrate to the West that the continent now has alternative sources of aid and investment in the form of China should not tempt Africans into an unthinking espousal of China and its politics. After all, through its rapacious capitalism and current racial discrimination, China is demonstrating the attitude that Africa had come to associate with former colonizers and the West in general.

It is admirable that African diplomats in China have written a letter of protest to the Chinese government. Africa and China have to realize that interaction between them is now entering unchartered terrain with more actors involved. The scholarships that China provides for African students have widened and deepened personal interactions between Africans and Chinese. In addition, the number of Africans going to China for business and work is increasing. Understandably, these developments bring challenges for people whose interactions have hitherto been limited to the level of state diplomats. What is not understandable is Beijing's unwillingness to admit that some Africans have been subjected to racism in China. Without the needed admission, China will not be able to deal with the problem. Beijing's continued refusal will not only perpetuate discrimination against Africans in China, but also likely inflame anti-Chinese sentiment against the many Chinese who currently live and work in Africa.

Emmanuel Matambo is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He was a Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding Scholar at the Wilson Center Africa Program during the fall 2019 term. 

Photo source: Baohan Straight Street, an African area in the Dengfeng Subdistrict of Guangzhou, China. Credit: Anna Frodesiak. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:African_area,_Guangzhou_-_02.jpg. License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en.