Letters | Racist acts in China against Africans expose hypocrisy of outcry over Chinese travel bans

China has come under fire, as reports showed African communities in Guangzhou being treated inhumanely, such as being evicted from their flats and denied service at McDonald’s. They were also subject to mandatory quarantine and screening, despite having no close contact with infected persons.

Forcing people to sleep on the streets because of their skin colour is truly inhumane. Let’s remember that China complained about other nations’ travel bans not so long ago, calling them “discriminatory”.

At least banning people who came from China, the original epicentre of the outbreak, was reasonable and science-backed, since those from Wuhan were indeed more likely to be infected. This was not due to differences in race or skin colour.

Echoing China’s rhetoric, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor also called travel bans “discriminatory” on January 31. Luckily we still managed to almost completely shut down our borders, but other cities were not as fortunate.

Xenophobic incidents make it all too clear that China can also be the culprit in racist attacks. Actually, people of colour have long been stereotyped in China – just take as an example the Chinese Spring Festival Gala show in 2018, which featured an actress wearing blackface and fake buttocks. The pandemic only exacerbated the situation.