Of
all the foreign nationals living in China, it is the Africans who have become
victims of COVID-19 racial attacks.
The
complaints of Africans in China well before the emergence of COVID-19, of
harassment by Chinese people have come to full blown light in the attacks of
Africans in the midst of the pandemic. There is no country in the world that
went after black Africans in the fight against COVID-19 except China. It is a
shame that a security council of the UN member like China cannot still live up
to the norms of the civilized world in ending racism. It is also a shame on
China’s public diplomacy.
The
mistreatment of Africans living in China must come to an end. I hope I am wrong
that China is incapable of adjusting to racial respect for African people. Interestingly, the Africans who are looked
upon as inferior race, are peacefully and respectfully accommodating in the
continent the Chinese and all other races in the world. This is because the
African by nature is humane and relates to people in a humanly manner. In Allah
we trust.
There
has not been any reported cases whereby African nationals in China violated the
anti-pandemic laws and regulations of the government. This is therefore a case
of blatant racism towards Africans in China. It should be condemned in the
strongest terms by The Gambia and the whole of Africa.
In
an interdependent and interconnected world, racism cannot prevail over
cooperation and friendship. China knows this and cannot therefore possibly
manipulate Africa to remain silent on the mistreatment of our people in
China. China should make real efforts to
become a tolerant and accommodating society. Otherwise, China will soon see
shifting of alliances on the part of many African countries.
In
my experience, the Chinese leadership is very much interested in building
stronger ties with Africa. The problem, however, is the cultural mentality of
their people. Their perceptions of African people are culturally unfriendly. This
puts the Chinese leadership in a tight corner in terms of upholding the rights of
African people to peaceful coexistence in Chinese society. In order to keep the
relations with Africa intact, the Chinese government must come up with a
cultural reconstruction policy that would change the mind-sets of Chinese
people towards African people. It is not enough for the government of China to
dissociate itself from the recent attacks on Africans in the country in the
midst of the Coronavirus crisis which never emanated from the African continent
in the first instance. The government of China must end occurrences of racial
discrimination and intimidation of Africans living in their country period. If
they (the Chinese) make peaceful coexistence between Africans and the Chinese
impossible, they will make a major clash with Africa inevitable. This will be
hard to believe under the dynamic and visionary leadership of H.E. Xi Jun Ping.
No
one can deny the fact that China’s growing economic power has positive effects
on African countries. For many Africans the benefits are all too real. I have
personally always seen China as the greatest development partner of Africa. I
support fully the One China Policy. My inclination therefore, is a stronger and
stronger united Sino-Africa friendship and cooperation and not a crying African
partner over the mistreatment of our people in China. It is for these reasons
that I restrained my network not to start a continent-wide campaign for a
boycott of Chinese goods and businesses in Africa.
