China vows to crack down on online racism, spurred by new details of video featuring Malawi children
- Malawian foreign minister says her country feels ‘disgusted, disrespected and deeply pained’ by video in which children repeat demeaning words in Chinese
- European academic says Beijing is wise to take this seriously now while it harms China’s image abroad
A BBC investigation aired early this week found that a video in which a group of children are being told to chant phrases in Chinese was shot in Malawi by Chinese national Lu Ke, who allegedly takes hundreds of videos a day to sell.
In the video, the children are told to repeat the words: “I am a black monster and my IQ is low”.
The children, who are allegedly paid half a dollar a day, sing and chant without realising the words are offensive. The video caused outrage across the world in 2020 when it was published online but it had not been established where it was shot.
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Chinese ordering of birthday greetings from African children divides opinions
On a visit to Malawi on Tuesday, Wu Peng, director general of the Chinese foreign ministry’s African affairs department, said he had reached an agreement with the Malawian foreign minister that both countries have zero tolerance of racism.
