China Needs To Do More To Stop The Racist Attacks Against Africans

This statement of solidarity comes from the Africans United for Taiwan (AUT), an African-based non-governmental organisation committed to extending solidarity with Taiwan; reinforcing the international campaign for Taiwan’s re-entry into the United Nations.

In this statement, we respectfully acknowledge the concerns raised by some African leaders, groups, and individuals on the ongoing ill-treatment of Africans in communist China. Despite international outcry, it appears the authorities in China are hell-bent on attacking Africans for no good reason than because of their colour.

This solidarity statement, therefore, seeks to draw attention the worsening cases of violence meted on Africans in China, and to the increasing and alarming threats, they (Africans) face in the Asian nation, particularly in this ongoing COVID-19 germ warfare, which has caused unnecessary destruction to lives and economies of countries all over the world.

Africans in China are being criminalized and subjected to arbitrary arrests, detentions, trumped-up charges, arbitrary search operations, and cruel mob attacks, is no more news. It is notable that race-driven violence targeting blacks are part of a systematic and brutal strategy to subjugate and terrorize the African communities in China.

Africans who are already victims of race attacks in other countries say for instance in the Middle-east are more vulnerable to health problems, and do not get attention from a mainstream society dominated by the patriarchal system and access to justice hardly exists. In China, blacks are facing this particular set of challenges. The Corona pandemic only robs salt into deep injury. The international community faces this unique set of challenges within the worsening situation for blacks living in China.

The Africans United for Taiwan (AUT) is deeply and gravely concerned by this development, and the culture of impunity for human rights violations meted against blacks in China. While we acknowledge the challenges that are threatening the existence of blacks in China, we want to remind the Chinese government that the Corona pandemic outbreak had its roots in China.

Africa did not export the pandemic to China, but on the contrary, Africa has received the blight of the destruction and devastating effect of COVID-19 that started in China. When the pandemic broke out in China, Africans extended solidarity to Chinese victims and prayed for that country to win the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic.

But despite this sad story, Africans play invaluable roles within their societies and have much to contribute to, not only fight the spread of the pandemic in their own countries but also to the global fight and the global goal of defeating COVID-19. Despite the ill-thought-out assumption by well-known international players that COVID-19 may kill over ten million blacks, Africans on the continent and the diaspora are at the forefront of this struggle, to make the world free of Coronavirus. We want to believe that the motive behind these institutionalized racisms and discrimination against blacks in China is not to bury Africa’s efforts at containing the spread of the virus.

It is regrettable that African communities in China are targeted for lockdowns and forced coronavirus testing. We highly condemn this act of ill-treatment and racial discrimination in the strongest terms possible, and we call upon the United Nations to speak out against the heinous attacks and gross human rights violations meted on blacks in China; and to exert pressure on the Chinese government to seriously address these issues immediately.

The protection of Africans has always been constituent of our advocacy against institutionalized racism and discrimination against black people. We need more people to become truly aware of the continued threat Africans are facing in China since the outbreak of COVID-19. It is also the responsibility of the United Nations to defend the rights of Africans everywhere. What is at stake, at the end, is the loss of dignity of blacks and of their right to be treated equally like any other race.

God Bless Africa and Africans everywhere!

Sender:

James Baimba Fofanah

Acting Chief Executive Director

Africans United for Taiwan (AUT).