Despite the difficulties many African immigrants faced in Guangzhou in southern China amid the city's harsh measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, students from Africa and Chinese scholars told Sputnik that they believed the issues could have resulted from the overall lack of racial sensitivity
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2020) Despite the difficulties many African immigrants faced in Guangzhou in southern China amid the city's harsh measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, students from Africa and Chinese scholars told Sputnik that they believed the issues could have resulted from the overall lack of racial sensitivity.
Raymond left his home country of Zambia to study at a top medical university in the city of Guangzhou in southern China six years ago. He was attracted by China's advancement in science and technology in recent years and the relatively low tuition fees at Chinese universities.
"I came here to study here because, in the past few years, China has advanced a lot and is gaining a lot of popularity in science and technology (thereby becoming one of the most common destinations for students), and universities here are quite affordable, even more affordable to the same course than in my own country," Raymond, who only gave his last name due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Sputnik.
Thanks to the booming trade between China and Africa in recent years, Guangzhou has attracted a large number of immigrants from Africa. The city has the largest local community of African immigrants among Chinese cities.
But the difficulties many African immigrants faced in Guangzhou in recent weeks caused concerns among residents in the city like Raymond who came from Africa.
As the rising number of imported cases of the COVID-19 became a major concern for most Chinese cities, local authorities in Guangzhou launched initiatives to curb the spread of the deadly virus. After a number of imported cases were identified among the local community of African immigrants in the city, local residents with African origins reportedly became increasingly targeted in the city's COVID-19 response measures.
As of Monday, local authorities have tested 4,553 residents of African origins and identified 111 confirmed COVID-19 cases among them, Chen Zhiying, the deputy mayor of Guangzhou, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Videos and testimonies circulated on Chinese social media showed that a number of African immigrants were forced to be evicted from their rented apartments after their landlords told them to leave without advance notice. And several residents who looked to be African immigrants appeared to have been apprehended by local police officers.
During a meeting with representatives from African countries on Monday, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong promised that local authorities in Guangdong province would continue to improve their measures to carry out all health management procedures indiscriminately. The Chinese government treats all foreigners in China equally, which has always been the country's policy and position, Chen stressed.
"Personally, I haven't suffered any maltreatment, and the school has been good for us students. But the news I see every day of what's happening outside is very disturbing and disheartening," Raymond said.
According to Raymond, even African students at his university had to try to convince school authorities to avoid targeting those with African origins during a recent round of COVID-19 tests.
"The only thing I can tell you is that last week Monday we received a notice from the school saying the officials and medical staff were coming to test Africans in our school for COVID-19 because they had found an increasing number of cases among blacks in an area of Guangzhou called Xiaobei. We didn't think this was very logical since our dormitory building accommodates students from different continents, who in one way or another come into contact, and on top of that, it's not only Africans that go to Xiaobei, lots of other people do. We suggested to the school that every international student be tested, and thankfully, the school relayed our message to the officials, and everyone got tested," he said.
When the COVID-19 outbreak first started in China in January, many overseas Chinese and people with Asian appearances complained about the racist attitude they faced over fears of the new virus in a number of Western countries.
That's why it was difficult for Raymond to understand how the Chinese could have a similar reaction toward African immigrants in Guangzhou.
"Chinese also faced similar situations elsewhere, so doing the same thing to other people would totally go against that which they complained about," he said.
Chinese scholars explained that local officials, especially those working on the frontline of epidemic control, may not have realized that their tactics could be viewed as being racist in nature.
"Many of the staff members hired to take charge of epidemic control in different communities are mostly temporary personnel. Most of them did not receive a high level of education. They also lacked professional training. That's why they may not have the kind of awareness on racial issues," Ding Xueliang, director of the Institute for China's Overseas Interests, Shenzhen University, told Sputnik.
The scholar pointed out that the interpretation of racial discrimination could also be different from that in the West.
"The standard on racial sensitivity in the West evolved through decades of handling different issues related to immigrants with different skin colors. China only started to deal with immigrants of different skin colors in recent years," he said.
Ding noted that even among many better educated young students in Chinese universities, their sensitivity on racial issues was not on par with their peers in the West.
"Even among the Chinese university students, there's lack of understanding on cultural and religious diversity. Even some of the phrases they use in the Chinese language lack the kind of racial sensitivity in the West. When I first went to the United States to study in the 1980s, as someone who was more exposed to the outside world, I also realized some of my ideas or words could have touched the local racial taboos," he said.
The scholar stressed that the modern Western standards on racial issues did not emerge in one day either.
"Even in the United States, awareness on radical issues began to improve significantly after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Those colleague professors who experienced racial tensions in their youth began to raise awareness on racial issues when they taught university students in the 1980s. That's when more and more US colleague students became more educated on racial sensitivity," he said.
Raymong, the student in Guangzhou, added that he remained hopeful that the situation will only improve in China.
"Normally it's just fine. Almost anywhere you go around the world you may find one or two people who are just racist, it was the same here in Guangzhou. You could meet a lot of good people and maybe one racist person as walk by. But the kind of reaction during the outbreak was shocking to me, especially what I saw on social media. Hope it gets better, I believe it will," he said.
Raymond said the recent tensions in Guangzhou did not change his plans on studying in China and returning to China for business after graduation in the future.
