As voices to investigate the failure, intentional or not is still unclear, of the Chinese government to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and serious allegations of a coverup to withhold vital information about the virus from the rest of the world mounts, China is allegedly imposing blatant racists policies against Africans.
As France24 reports, Africans in southern China’s largest city say they have become targets of suspicion and subjected to forced evictions, arbitrary quarantines and mass coronavirus testing as the country steps up its fight against imported infections.
China says it has largely curbed its Covid-19 outbreak but a recent cluster of cases linked to the Nigerian community in Guangzhou sparked the alleged discrimination by locals and virus prevention officials.
Local authorities in the industrial centre of 15 million said at least eight people diagnosed with the illness had spent time in the city’s Yuexiu district, known as “Little Africa”.
Five were Nigerian nationals who faced widespread anger after reports surfaced that they had broken a mandatory quarantine and been to eight restaurants and other public places instead of staying home.
Recently a sign in a McDonald’s read “Notice: We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant,” reads a sign outside McDonald’s in Guangzhou. It advised that all black patrons “notify the local police” and seek “medical isolation”.
McDonald’s has since removed the sign, closed the store and issued a statement saying the notice was not representative of the chain’s “inclusive values” – but black people living in Guangzhou have told British site The Independent it is just one example of the racist abuse they have faced during the coronavirus crisis.
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Max*, who is from Sierra Leone and has lived in the southwest port city for the last five years, says Chinese authorities forced him from his home and put him in quarantine – despite having tested negative for Covid-19. “I waited outside for 14 hours in the rain, and eventually, I had to go to look for other temporary places to stay,” he says.
They told him he needed to go to the station to get an extension on his visa, but when he arrived, they refused to give him a stamp and said he wasn’t allowed to go back to the apartment.
“The police asked me to pay for the hotel… but I had no money on me,” Max says.
source france24.com
