Circulation of videos and pictures on social media of Africans allegedly kicked out of their residences and hotels, as well as claims of forced Covid-19 testing and mandatory quarantine, in Guangzhou kicked off high octane diplomatic exchanges between China and various African countries.
Citizens began calling for a stop to the racist sentiments and nudged respective governments to evacuate their nationals from China. Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives led the pack by summoning the Chinese envoy and later posted their discussions on social media — in breach of conventional diplomatic protocol. Nairobi, Kampala and Accra all sought an explanation from Beijing.
The incident punctuated a more-than-rosy camaraderie between China and Africa with the two entities having intensified synergies in the fight against Covid-19. China was not just sharing its much-needed epidemic control experience but also providing huge donations of life-saving equipment, testing kits, drugs and protective clothing to Africa.
In Africa, coronavirus provided a rallying basis for partnership. China was keen to return a favour that Africans had granted it when the Asian country was in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Most African countries did not evacuate their nationals from China. Africa also stood with Beijing in warding off racial discrimination and profiling, including in the naming of the deadly virus.
Yet, in a strange twist of fate, these pandemic-inspired hinges of Sino-African relations were coming off in Guangzhou. African governments started talking evacuation, with some analysts even predicting the end of the Sino-African honeymoon.
And as Twitter blazed with anti-China rhetoric, Chinese social media platforms were equally belching displeasure with some Africans. Pre-Guangzhou, a male African who had tested positive for the disease in the city reportedly bit a nurse in the face while attempting to escape quarantine. while a group of Covid-19-positive Africans was found to have violated quarantine regulations. Both incidences were widely shared on Chinese social media, putting the lives of millions of foreigners at risk.
Following a frenzied diplomatic reach and consultations, the affected African countries have since called a truce, blaming miscommunication on Covid-19 control rather than an institutionalised racism against foreigners in China. The authorities in Guangzhou have issued a raft of regulations against discriminative restrictions.
But on social media in China and Kenya, the people-to-people combat still rages. Many Kenyans are dissatisfied with government pronouncements on the matter, including the latest move to evacuate willing Kenyans at their own cost.
These broad-based anti-foreigner sentiments pose the biggest challenge to the relations between China and Africa. The new wave of ethnocentrisms has potential to reverse the relational gains consolidated with China, which now ranks as Africa’s largest trading partner, top investor and constructor and development projects financier. More than 400 Chinese enterprises in various sectors locally employ 50,000 Kenyans.
Sustainable cooperation between countries can’t be built solely on government-to-government relations. In this era of intense globalisation and technological infiltration, individuals, civil societies and even faith-based entities make critical agencies of cementing or eroding the building blocks of effective international relations.
Governments have greater responsibility to explain to their populations the objectives, processes and outcomes of cooperative arrangements with other nations. Embassies should not just be comfortable spaces to hang out and take exotic tea. In Guangzhou, failure of effective communication between governments and low information flow to the public were identified as major catalysts.
Biases and prejudices are often transmitted through mainstream and social media. Fact-based, context-oriented reporting would prevent isolated incidents from morphing into trends.
Citizens should stymie expressions of hate against foreigners. As Covid-19 has taught us, humanity is heavily interlinked. Many Africans live, work or study in China. Even more Chinese have found opportunities to thrive in Africa. As the World Health Organization warns that Africa could be the next hotspot, China is a major partner of the continent in confronting Covid-19.
The well-being of Chinese in Africa is predicated on that of Africans in China. Feelings of discrimination or profiling run counter to Sino-African relations.
