Abuse of Africans in China: workers of Chinese owned coys welcome diplomatic resolution

A group of workers working with some Chinese companies in Tema have welcomed the diplomatic initiative towards the resolution of the alleged discrimination against the black race in China in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The group members who prefer anonymity in a press release on Saturday April 18, 2020 described as unfortunate the emerging videos purported to depict happenings in China against persons of African descent.

The release states that, “some of us working with Chinese have observed with grave worries videos and commentaries on social media about racial discrimination and inhumane treatment of blacks in China, particularly Guangzhou. We wish to state that the working relationship between Ghanaians and their Chinese counterparts in this country has been extremely cordial culminating in the Asians ever ready to provide financial and technical supports to, not only the private sector, but also at governmental level.”

The Chinese, the group members continued, are law abiding people who abhor flouting of laid down regulations. As such, they do not countenance the impunity with which some of our black brothers in the Asian state go contrary to accepted norms.

The Chinese in the fishing sector have, in the recent past, come under myriad of attacks due to unsubstantiated allegations against them but in all these, they have remained resolute and continue to be supportive not only of the Ghanaian fishing industry, but also other areas within the local economy.

In light of this, any misinformation will provide breeding ground for mistrust, suspicion and hatred for the Chinese who are undertaking legitimate business in Ghana. In this era of Covid-19, Chinese nationals have been subjected to the most difficult times resulting from total lockdown particularly Wuhan, but discipline led to success in the combating of the pandemic in that country.

A group of some foreign nationals reportedly went to an eatery in Guangzhou Province where an African, after testing was discovered to have contracted the Covid-19 disease.

The Chinese officials therefore decided to do contact tracing but regrettably, some of the Africans refused to go through the formalities, making false claims that they would be used for test trial of a new vaccine they have developed. A decision was, therefore, taken that those who refused the test must not be allowed to reoccupy their hotels hence some of them were ejected.

Since there were no horizontal transmission in China, it became absolutely necessary to compulsorily quarantine all persons entering China, both nationals and foreigners for 14days as required by the World Health Organization (WHO) being the mandatory period. And to make it easy for the purpose of observation, specific hotels were assigned for the quarantine in Guangzhou.

Some of the foreigners in quarantine absconded from these hotels against medical principles and sought accommodation in other areas and this is where firm instructions were issued not to accept the escapees and this led them to the streets.

With the diplomatic solution to the impasse, the group expressed gratitude since China still has quite a number of not only African students in all provinces who have been law abiding and undertaking their studies peacefully, but also the business community
In the wake of the disturbing videos emerging from China, the Ghanaian Foreign Minister, summoned the Chinese Ambassador over the issue.

After consultation with his home country, the diplomatic on Friday April 17, 2020 dismissed claims of the supposed mistreatment of persons of black race and described the videos as fake.