Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Politico/AP.
The Coronavirus outbreak, and the reaction to it, may drive a wedge between Africa and China. Politico. China has long had ambitions in Africa and has invested billions of dollars in the region in order to help secure the natural resources found there. However, China's recent reaction to the Coronavirus, which involved harsh measures against Africans living in China has set off a firestorm. Out and out discrimination against Africans in China was observed with Africans being evicted from homes and refused service from restaurants. China also seems less likely to write off debt as African countries are suffering massive economic damage from the virus and the response to it. This has not only angered African citizens but also their leadership with many of them offering up rare public criticism of China. Complicating things is the fact that the pandemic has damaged trade and slowed many of the infrastructure projects in the region.
My Comment:
I'm a little late on this post as this controversy erupted a couple days ago, but I thought it was worth covering. China has been engaging in soft colonialism in Africa for some time now and for the most part it's been tolerated or even praised by the people that live there. However, it seems to be clear that the Africans are getting an idea of what the people of China actually think of them.
It's hard to argue that it wasn't racism that was motivating these restrictions of Black Africans in China. China is, fairly dubiously, blaming its continued Coronavirus cases on foreign travelers. There is some truth to this but it should be noted that Africa's outbreak problem is a lot less than the outbreaks in America and Europe and I haven't seen any reports of White people getting harassed in China. Though I think there is a case to be made for China cutting off travel to Africa, punishing Black people who just happen to be in China at the time seems to be pretty stupid.
How much of this is the Chinese government's fault is unclear. My guess is that it was likely the Chinese people themselves that did this without government sanction. China has a fairly strong reputation of being racist so I doubt that this was the kind of thing that came from the top. And I am guessing that the people that did these things are going to have a very rough time of it, China won't tolerate citizens that embarrass them internationally. Seeing them punished might quell this anger over the perceived racism.
But the anger over the rest of China's actions? I think that will last longer. China has been acting like a friend to Africa for awhile and I think the Africans are discovering that when the chips are down, they Chinese aren't going to bail them out. There is basically no way that the Chinese are going to forgive any debt, especially considering the economic damage that the pandemic has done to their economy. And China's number one priority will be restarting their economy, not propping up Africa's.
I also think the Politico article ignored the most obvious thing Africa has to be angry about. It's largely China's fault that the virus came to Africa in the first place. Regardless if the virus was an accidental release from a lab or not, it still originated in China and China did not do everything possible to keep it from spreading. And Africans have heard the same thing Americans and Europeans have heard and I think they will blame China as well.
But will it last? I don't think so. Africa is a needy place and it doesn't seem likely that anyone else will step in and give them the loans and expertise that they need other than China. Even if they have to put up with racism and other nasty things from China, what choice do these African countries have? Europe and America aren't going to waste their money there, so it's probably China or no one. And that means China will likely continue to get away with what they have done.
No comments:
Post a Comment