NAIROBI (Reuters) – Several African countries have demanded that China address their concerns that Africans in Guangzhou city are being mistreated and harassed amid fears there of a potential spread of coronavirus from imported cases.
In recent days Africans in the city have reported being ejected from their apartments by their landlords, being tested for coronavirus several times without being given results and being shunned and discriminated against in public. Such complaints have been made in local media, and on social media.
In a statement on Saturday, Ghana’s minister of foreign affairs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said she had summoned the Chinese ambassador to express her disappointment and demand action to address the “inhumane treatment.”
“I regret and highly condemn this…ill-treament and racial discrimination,” the minister said.
She said she had summoned Ambassador Shi Ting Wang to “register my disappointment and call for his government to immediately address the situation and bring their officials to order.”
There was no immediate response from the Chinese Embassy in Ghana to a request for comment on this.
In a tweeted statement on Saturday, the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe dismissed the accusation of Chinese deliberately targeting Africans and suggested reports of racial discrimination and harassment were being sensationalized.
“It is harmful to sensationalize isolated incidents,” the statement said. “China treats all individuals in the country, Chinese and foreign alike, as equals.”
China has ended its more than two-month lockdown in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus infections began, after containing the outbreak there but authorities are now worried about a potential second wave of infection from imported cases.
At the peak of the outbreak in Wuhan some African nations refused to evacuate their students from China, expressing confidence in Beijing’s ability to handle the outbreak.
In a press statement on Friday the Kenyan government said the “stringent testing of foreigners” that China had undertaken had “precipitated unfair responses against foreigners particularly of African origin.”
In the foreign ministry statement about the treatment of Africans in Guangzhou, Nairobi “officially expressed concern.” It added that government was working with Chinese authorities to address the matter.
On Friday, Nigerian legislator Akinola Alabi tweeted a video of a meeting between the leader of Nigeria’s lower house of parliament, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian. In it, Gbajabiamila demanded an explanation from the diplomat after showing Zhou a video of a Nigerian complaining about mistreatment in China.
The ambassador said in response to the questions from the house leader that he took the complaints “very seriously” and promised to convey them to the authorities back home.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten, Emma Rumney, Alessandra Prentice, Katharine Houreld and Christian Akorlie; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Frances Kerry)
