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A BBC Africa documentary has shaken Sino-African relations by exposing a scheme to sell racist videos on Chinese e-commerce platforms. Led by journalists Runako Celina and Henry Mhango, the investigation showed that Chinese people traveled to poor villages in Africa and paid US$0.50 (R$2.50) a day for black children to record racist terms in videos that would be marketed online.
The videos were offered on sites like Taobao, owned by giant Alibaba (also owner of AliExpress). In one of them, several young people repeat in Chinese “I am a black ghost with a low IQ”, clearly not knowing the meaning of what they were saying. The term black ghost/demon (黑鬼, or hēi guǐ) is the racist and pejorative Chinese equivalent for “creole”.
In other videos, groups of young black men sing songs in Chinese that extol the “superiority and beauty of yellow skin and black eyes.” A Malawi boy who went viral on Chinese social media was recorded dozens of times in personalized messages sold for values from 200 yen (R$150).
The boy’s family told the BBC that he was obliged to record the videos and that the Chinese man responsible for the productions, known in the village as Susu (uncle in Mandarin), pinched him when he mispronounced words.
Malawi’s Minister of Gender, Disability, Children and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati reacted to the report calling the practice an “insult to the Malawian nation”, ordering a government investigation into the matter.
Realizing the destructive potential of the denunciation for Sino-African relations, China quickly reacted.
Director-General of the Department of African Affairs at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wu Peng, said on Twitter that he “is against discrimination” and that China has been “repressing these illegal acts online in recent years”. He promised more effective measures to “punish videos of racial discrimination in the future”.
why it matters: the african continent is the destination of most Chinese investments and represents the centerpiece of the global ambitions of the asian country. However, cases of discrimination and racism against blacks in China have increasingly appeared on the region’s agenda with Beijing.
In 2020, videos went viral of Nigerians being kicked out of restaurants and hotels in Guangzhou (Canton), in the south of the country, stigmatized for allegedly “spreading Covid” around the place. Nigeria called the situation “distressing, disturbing and unacceptable”.
China hastened to resolve the matter and apologized for what had happened, which seemed to have calmed tempers. It remains to be seen whether the strategy will work in this new case.
what also matters
China has reduced the amount of harmful particles in the air by 40% in seven years. The data was released by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago in an unprecedented report. The reduction means that between 2013 and 2020, the Chinese removed nearly as much pollution from the air as the United States has since 1970.
Led by Professor Michael Greenstone, the study showed that the cut in pollution levels was achieved thanks to restrictions on the use of fossil fuel cars and the reduction of dependence on coal burning in the national energy matrix.
To Bloomberg, the researchers applauded China’s success, noting that it “is a strong indication of the opportunities that may arise for nations that impose strong anti-pollution policies”.
Even so, there is work to be done. The institute showed that, even with the advance, Beijing remains three times more polluted than Los Angeles, record holder in the United States. The national average of particles in the air also remains high, beating six times the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization.
The Chinese province of Henan is being accused of rigging the health code system to contain protesters seeking redress after bank fraud. The health code is an application that records Covid tests, vaccinations and displacement of all residents in China, functioning as a kind of “pass”.
According to the Sixth Tone portal, the Henan Department of Public Security had purposely changed the status of protesters from other provinces from “green” (low risk) to “red” (high risk).
At least 12 protesters told the report that their status changed as soon as they tried to scan codes to access train stations or hotels. Thus, many were prevented from traveling, and those who managed to arrive were threatened with the possibility of quarantine.
The strategy turned on the yellow light in the country. On social media, several Chinese expressed fear that the health platform will begin to be used as an even more effective way of controlling movements.
keep an eye
Led by Cuba, 69 member countries of the UN Human Rights Council have joined a joint declaration that repudiates “external interference in matters relating to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet”. The text demands “respect for the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”, especially the “right of the people of each State to independently choose the path of development in accordance with their national conditions”.
why it matters: the move was a reaction to criticism from Western countries of the visit of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to Xinjiang. The United States, Canada, Australia and several Western European countries accuse Bachelet of being “soft” with human rights violations in China, especially in the repression of the Uighur ethnic minority.
The declaration will not change the way the West views such violations, but it certainly pierces the bubble and shows that China is far from isolated on the international stage in terms of the most sensitive points of its domestic policy.
to go deep
- Applications for the Hangzhou Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award are open until the 30th. The city will offer up to US$ 800,000 (R$ 4 million) for innovative startup ideas that can be implemented locally, in addition to mentoring, installation of physical headquarters, media exposure and subsidized credit lines. (free, in English)
- In the month of LGBTQIA+ Pride, SupChina recalls the legacy of the famous Shanghai Parade, held since 2009 and interrupted two years ago due to the pandemic. (porous paywall, in English)
- The Confucius Institute of Unesp promotes on the 6th of July an online event to discuss Chinese-Brazilian children’s literature. The guest list includes cartoonist Maurício de Sousa, philosopher Gabriel Chalita and Chinese writers Qin Wenjun and Yin Jianling. (free, in Portuguese and Mandarin)
