Beijing’s ban on gatherings of foreigners in restaurants raises eyebrows, and questions
Philip J. Cunningham says Beijing’s ban on foreigners congregating in restaurants may be rooted in the fear that they could be a terrorist target, but clampdowns based on racial differences come across as intolerant
Any time authorities start setting up roadblocks to free movement and association based on racial identity, or just “differentness”, alarm bells start ringing, especially to Westerners who cannot and should not forget the horror of the master lesson provided by Nazi Germany. Growing up in a largely Jewish area of New York, I learned to be vigilant in the face of prejudice and intolerance, even in petty acts, and even in isolation. Working in China and Japan taught me that prejudice is real, but also imagined. It gets magnified by one’s minority status. Sometimes it is malevolent, sometimes inadvertent and unintended.
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“Pizza-gate” is about as petty as a potentially disturbing crackdown can get. Only a handful of Beijing bar owners posted signs limiting foreigners and it was made clear it was for a short, designated time frame. But the damage was done, because foreigners in China, like elsewhere, are hypersensitive to exclusion. Foreigners in China often feel excluded, even under the most welcoming circumstances, if only because of the yawning gap of language, culture and social differences with the host country.
The clumsy edict proscribing attendance of “more than 10 foreigners” is the crux of problem. What is a foreigner in this context? Is the “security” measure directed primarily at Caucasians? Asians? Chinese holders of foreign passports? Why 10? Who’s counting? Who defines what foreign means?
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This sort of cyclical self-policing has a long history in China, but it might seem irrational or offensive to observers who see the law as a constant, not something that is over- or under-enforced according to whim.
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Even so, it’s not a good idea to single out foreigners without explanation. It is better to close the entire venue for the duration of the threat than to ban entry by race or appearance.
The temporary ban is hopefully not a sign of more prejudicial things to come. Beijing expats have responded with humour and sarcasm, but the move has raised eyebrows in foreign capitals. Given the current mainstream media mood that sees every little dispute between China and the West as a clash of civilisations, it is possible for something inadvertent and petty to be misconstrued as evidence of growing fascism. A kerfuffle it might be, but it has already lent weight to the litany of more serious complaints about China in the world media.
Philip J. Cunningham is the author of Tiananmen Moon