Dear
editor,
As
press officer of the Chinese Embassy, I noticed in the past month or so a new
round of intensive misinformation about my home country, particularly on social
media, which I feel that I have to clarify, in the interests of the peoples of
both China and The Gambia. At this age of information boom, our cognitive maps
are more or less shaped by contents online and the algorithm behind them. The
pseudo-world one constructs in his mind based on such information, however, is
often quite different from reality.
A
notable example is the recent widespread stories of “African people being
maltreated in China”. Disturbing short videos of such kind shared on social
media triggered much concern, yet were later debunked by international media
with detailed analysis as fake. For example, a widely shared video showing
several Asian-faced persons beating an African was in fact recorded in another
country instead of China, and the Asians in the video were not Chinese at all;
another one displaying a street brawl between a “Chinese” couple and an African
couple was actually captured in North America and has nothing to do with China
or Chinese either. Interestingly, some of those videos were recorded years ago
and repeatedly went viral online, with different narratives each time, telling
various fabricated stories of frightening conflicts.
The
fact is that, the Chinese government has always been opposing any act of racism,
and has always been adhering to treating all foreigners equally.
Then
how come the “Guangzhou incidents”?
At
the initial stage of Guangzhou’s intensified COVID-19 containment campaign,
some foreigners found it hard to adapt to those rather strict regulations
requesting both Chinese and foreigners to equally abide by. Misunderstandings
then occurred between some non-Chinese-speaking African expatriates and
non-English/French-speaking Chinese. These communication failures were then
translated into accusations of racism. It didn’t take long before dubious
information, such as the debunked videos mentioned earlier, to sneak in,
deepening misunderstanding and intensifying outrage. It cannot be more obvious
that, forces with political motives have never been absent from the whole thing
since its very start.
Realizing
the miscommunication, Guangzhou authorities promptly improved their work. To
avoid recurrent misunderstandings out of language barriers or cultural
differences, they built effective communication mechanism with foreign
consulates-general in the city, in addition to continuing providing health
management services to all foreigners without differentiation, and offering
financial support to those in need as humanitarian aid. Besides, working groups
for each country were set up in a one-on-one manner, to account for foreigners
of different nationalities. And information has been constantly updated to
their respective diplomatic missions. Thanks to these coordination and
cooperation efforts, me and my Gambian MOFA colleagues could learn the latest
conditions of Gambian citizens in China each day, and be assured that they are
safe and sound, with minimum risks of suffering from COVID-19. This, I’m quite
certain, doesn’t happen everywhere.
Contrary
to some allegations that Africans were treated badly in China, I dare say they
are much better protected and cared for than Africans (and foreigners in
general) living in most other countries, particularly during the COVID-19
pandemic. A most simple proof is the much lower infection rate of Africans
residing in China.
Unfortunately,
while this is not the first time for a smear campaign to take place, it is
unlikely to be the last. “Infodemic” of misinformation, as UN Secretary General
pointed out, has joined COVID-19 as a common enemy we all face now. Apart from
the above incident, incendiary claims, irresponsible comments, and viciously
coined conspiracy theories are flooding our minds each day, causing even more
confusions when the pandemic has already wreaked havoc on most people’s lives.
Voices of science, of rational reflection, and of truly visionary
considerations for the common good, are somehow masked. Such situation seems so
surreal, yet it is where we are today. We are all victims. And it is certainly
not right.
What
is the way out? Solidarity! This is also a post from the twitter of WHO
Director-General.
While
it sounds like a cliché, truths are sometimes this plain and simple. If we
cannot defeat the pandemic worldwide together, lifting restrictions would cause
rounds and rounds of infection tally resurgences and more deaths. If we cannot
join hands to help the needy, humanitarian crises would sweep the world and
bring about long-term afflictions to humanity. If we cannot escape the trap of
naming and shaming, we would hate each other, despite such antagonism being
whipped up by those who are happy to see us apart. And if we cannot uphold
science and reason, we would take lies as truths, and step far away from the
right track.
That
is why China has all the time been calling for solidarity and jointly building
a community with a shared future for mankind. Chinese government and civil
groups keep offering medical supplies to assist Africa’s pandemic containment
and public health system improvement. China has donated to the WHO a sum of
$50,000,000 to support the global fight against COVID-19 and strengthen health
systems of developing countries, including The Gambia. And China’s technical
support has been helping the world better deal with the virus.
Globalization has linked us all together, and it is a trend irreversible. Only when we learn and truly know more of each other, could we have a more ideal world of unity and harmony. Some claim that COVID-19 has brought us to the end of the world as we know it. Well, I cannot predict the future, but I believe if we are united as one, people would suffer less from pandemics and “infodemics” in the post-coronavirus world, and live together with more mutual understanding and shared prosperity.
