A southern Chinese city’s pandemic controls are discriminating against Africans, setting off a diplomatic row that threatens to undermine goodwill Beijing has built on the continent through large infusions of investment and propaganda.
African nationals living in Guangzhou say they are being subjected to forced coronavirus testing, have been barred from hotels and restaurants and must observe arbitrary self-quarantines, regardless of symptoms or travel history, according to witnesses and diplomats.
Footage aired over the weekend by Kenya’s national broadcaster showed crowds of Africans sleeping on the streets, some of whom said they had been evicted by landlords and rejected by hotels.
Anger over the incidents prompted African ambassadors in Beijing to issue a rare joint complaint to China’s foreign minister on Friday.
Roughly a dozen countries around the continent—including Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria—summoned Chinese ambassadors in recent days to protest the treatment of their citizens.
“The singling out of Africans for compulsory testing and quarantine, in our view, has no scientific or logical basis and amounts to racism towards Africans in China,” the African ambassadors in Beijing said in their joint note.
The controversy threatens to overshadow weeks of glowing news coverage of Chinese medical and financial aid to the continent and undermine a decades-long policy that has transformed China into the continent’s top trading and diplomatic partner.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/african-countries-complain-of-racism-in-chinese-citys-pandemic-controls-11586808397?mod=hp_lead_pos10
... if they can't blame whitey, they don't care. 