Guangzhou is home to most Africans in China. The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic led to skirmishes in the city over the enforcement of the rules on the virus. IKENNA EMEWU probes the skirmishes.
Guangzhou has the reputation of housing most Africans in China. About 320,000 Africans live in and pass through the large commercial city to the rest of China in less than a year.
So much have been said, reported, watched, heard and read about the skirmishes in Guangzhou involving Chinese authorities and their enforcement of the rules and order for the control of the spread of the coronavirus in the city of Guangzhou.
In the melee, Afri-China Media Centre (ACMC) decided to reach out to the parties in the drama from the various divides and possibly tell the full story for the first time since only a balanced report would help to mend the cracks and move on again in peaceful coexistence.
How trouble started
One of the first Chinese to give us an account after hearing and reading from African sources was Mr. Luo Jun, the Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Guangdong Province which Guangzhou is its capital city.
He recalled in his written response that “Guangzhou is still faced with major risks arising from imported COVID-19 cases. On April 5, 2020, Yuexiu and Baiyun Districts of the city were elevated to medium-risk areas. There is still the risk of transmission caused by scattered locally transmitted and imported cases.
To reduce the risk of transmission, protect lives and health of all people including foreigners, ensure public security in Guangzhou, and to realize the objective of “early detection, early reporting, early isolation and early treatment”, the city carried out a community health screening and monitoring scheme.
Tracing African COVID-19 cases
Under this scheme, on April 9 Liwan District found eight African nationals staying in a place outside a clothing and shoes market, and learnt that they didn’t have places to stay in. At around 7.30 pm, staff from Liwan convinced them to get on the district’s van to the designated hotel by the authorities called Maohua Hotel.
They were calm and cooperative in providing their information. When the van arrived in the second place where three more people in similar conditions were found, the three persons were emotional but got on the van after the staff’s persuasion.
There were eleven African nationals on board. One of them told others to listen to him and not to check-in at the hotel. Liwan staff on board and an English interpreter talked to him and asked him to calm down.
He made a phone call and in the meantime kept asking the interpreter to repeat the address of Maohua and raised different questions which got answered.
The group refused to get off the van when they arrived at the hotel at 9.30 pm. The interpreter explained to them the importance of centralised medical observation, policies on people entering the province, and tried to calm them down.
One from the group said that he had to take down the information of every one of the group before getting off and checking in. The staff in the field agreed.
Seized passports?
They checked in one by one, handing their passports to hotel staff for check-in. When five finished checking-in at 10.30 pm, with three in rooms and two still at the lobby, a man stormed in and stopped others from checking in.
He requested the five persons who checked in to gather at the hotel entrance quickly and that their passports be returned. He claimed to be the Acting Consul General of Nigeria in Guangzhou. An assistant escorted him.
Facing that, staff and officials on field had a discussion and retrieved the passports which were being used for check-in, explaining that it was a routine for check-in and passports would be returned after the procedure. He suddenly flew into more rage and seized passports from working staff.
He rejected further communication and asked for the presence of the foreign affairs office. Another African man appeared and joined the group when ACG was shouting at local staff.
Mr. Liu Baochun, Director-General of Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office, arrived at 10.30 pm and identified the man as Mr. Lawal Dayo Razaq, Acting Consul General of Nigeria in Guangzhou. ACG Razaq questioned DG Liu on the decision to quarantine African people, blaming that local staff took Nigerian people from their homes and labelling it as harassment and discrimination.
DG Liu listened and explained that the government treated Chinese and foreigners equally. With the number of locally confirmed cases dropping, there was an increase of imported cases, as a responsible move, Guangzhou decided to test foreigners in the city and did find a certain number of foreign cases.
It was to protect foreigners from the virus. Schools were about to reopen and the city had the responsibility to ensure a good environment. Chinese people made a lot of sacrifices, with joint efforts from both China and foreigners. Chinese people coming back to the province form Hubei were also required to quarantine for 14 days.
ACG Razaq wasn’t convinced, saying the exercise was discrimination. He proposed lockdown of the whole city with everyone both Chinese and foreigners staying at home and no activities for 14 days.
He requested that his nationals should go home and refused DG Liu’s request to talk to Nigerian people to check whether they had places to go, saying that DG Liu could only talk to him. When DG Liu agreed to let them go, ACG Razaq refused and pointing at his watch saying it was too late to go home.
DG Liu explained that some people didn’t have places to go and wanted to stay at the hotel for one night. A local government helped negotiate for discounted charges for the hotel. There were 13 African people in addition to two Consulate officials.
DG Liu explained and negotiated, at 1.30 am after which ACG Lawal agreed to let the 13 people stay at Maohua hotel for only one night, and passports should be kept in their possession.
After Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office officials left, ACG Lawal asked for the English interpreter’s company in checking the hotel rooms.
The English interpreter was a young lady and it was her first time to the hotel, so she asked for the presence of one hotel staffers, a request that was rejected by Lawal.
When they arrived on the floor where the 13 persons were lodged, the ACG found some protective equipment and daily necessities on the chair at the entrance of each room and was raged. He kicked off the supplies and accused the local authority of treating his people as criminals.
The interpreter was shocked and scared but managed to explain that all people living there were treated equally, and it was for the sake of health and safety.
Eventually, 10 of the 13 persons checked into the hotel had Nigerian passports, two Cote d’Ivoire nationals and one Benin Republic, citizen.
Figures
As of 24:00 April 18, there were 16 confirmed cases COVID-19 who are Nigerians and 61 asymptomatic cases of Nigerians in Guangdong Province. The total number is 77.
Two Nigerians speak
It was tougher getting Nigerians to talk to us as the two contacts we had were not sure why they were being interviewed. It was on the last day of gathering this information we found out that one was actually in isolation in one of the facilities of the government.
Also, the two had applied for evacuation by the Nigerian government and separately feared an interview may jeopardise their chances of leaving China through the assistance of the Consulate.
They also expressed the concern that from the experiences of law enforcement that brought them to where they were and not yet sure of their health status since they had not completed the 14 days quarantine to be issued a paper for a clean bill of health or otherwise if they test positive, they were not in a very good frame of mind to talk.
After assurances of safeguarding their interest and identity, one of them later sent a written account of what he encountered via email two days after.
But in a brief chat with him on a voice call, he had admitted in line with the information we had that some 300 Nigerians had applied to be evacuated. We heard the figure was a little less than 300, but he confirmed that since his name is also on the list, he saw a number far more than 300.
Responding to our question on the reason that large number wanted to exit China and how harsh the situation from the government had been, he said most of the people on the list have issues with the legality of their stay in the country as their immigration documents were either irregular from the beginning or had expired for those that entered the country with valid documents and had not renewed their stay.
He said the renewed onslaught occasioned by the coronavirus control measures has made it much more difficult to even retain their rented apartments or live in hotels. With the tougher measures to pick out people from places who have not got clean health certification, living in China presents a lot of uncertainties that make them prefer to return home.
And to some of them, the opportunity of evacuation is long-awaited and was embraced to create an easier channel for them to leave the country where they had been somehow stuck.
Luo Jun, the Deputy Director-General admitted the office got reports and complaints of racist attacks and victimisations but said it was not a government ordered position and therefore since such behaviours exist everywhere, they should not be visited on the government of China.
Luo said the city authorities regret any discrimination allegations and asked for the understanding of Africans insisting that whatever racism on display was an individual behaviour. He cited an instance where the Sina Weibo social media platform, China’s equivalent of the tweeter blocked over 180 accounts of Chinese users who sent racial messages against Africans and the black people.
Eviction from homes, hotels
Regarding the eviction from homes, most of them arose from the immigration issues and when it started, it was a hotel where some Africans that had arrived China and were caught up in the lockdown had completed their quarantine and insisted on leaving on the last day before the authorities that put them there arrived.
Because they stepped out contrary to the instruction of waiting for the officers to come and certify them fit, the same officers insisted there was a violation and since they mixed with the outsiders, they weren’t sure of their fitness and must complete another 14 days.
The altercation made them insist they won’t take another 14 days at which point the authorities instructed the hotel management not to allow them back in.
Foreign Ministry speaks
To get a complete report, it was necessary to talk to the Nigerian Consulate in Guangzhou, especially the Acting Consul General, Mr. Razaq Lawal who was in the middle of it for his countrymen. But Lawal could not bulge. To our inquiry to speak with him, he simply replied: “Good evening from China.
Many thanks for the support always. Please and please you can invite the Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs for the interview on the matter. I am just an obedient servant. Best regards.”
So we had to turn to Abuja to clear the issues. The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Ferdinand Nwonye picked his call at the first ring and gave the position of the ministry.
Nwonye said: “We are constantly in touch with the Chinese Embassy here and with our embassy in Beijing, so we are doing our best to find a solution to the issues raised.
After our past meetings with the Chinese embassy here we have found that what we need are specific cases of discrimination against our people by the Chinese authorities or individuals.
What we hear are generalisations and all we want is that Mr. K should file a formal complaint before Chinese authorities that on a particular day, he or she approached property owner, P who refused to rent him or her an apartment based on race or nationality.
With that, we would pursue a targeted case and get it trashed out. But when we hear they maltreat Africans, we can’t work on that until we have pieces of evidence. You know also that while there are the general complaints of being thrown out, many Nigerians still live in homes in that city.
As some complaint of being rejected in some restaurants, some Nigerians are still accepted there. So we need to pin these things to specific instances.
“Again, I don’t know if you heard the case of two Nigerian COVID-19 patients who were hospitalised and one of them allegedly involved in the assault of a health officer.
For instance, it happened in Nigeria and a Chinese did that to a Nigerian lady nurse, would Nigerians feel happy about it? And if eventually, the Chinese authorities decide to prosecute such act, would they be wrong?
“Every country is at war over the Coronavirus pandemic. It is when the war is over that normalcy returns.
The pandemic itself is an abnormal situation and many countries find diverse ways to tackle it, including China and Nigeria and I, have to admit some of the measures would involve infringing on rights though temporarily until the challenge is taken care of. So we have to bear with certain things now .
Nigeria and China don’t have issues that would lead to such a big misunderstanding and we are handling it the best we can.”
- Emewu is of the Africa/China Press Centre
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