Hospital Heroes Illuminate 'Christ The Redeemer' As Part Of Coronavirus Tribute - NPR

Enlarge this image

A doctor's white coat is projected onto the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Easter Sunday, to honor medical workers who are fighting to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic. Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images

The Christ the Redeemer statue towered over Rio de Janeiro in a doctor's white coat on Easter Sunday, as a tribute to health care workers who put themselves at risk every day to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic. The striking scene included messages of thanks in many languages, along with images of nurses and doctors smiling in protective gear.

The word "hope" was also projected onto the statue, along with the Portuguese phrase Fique Em Casa or "Stay at Home" — the motto of medical workers around the world who are urging people to follow social restrictions to slow the outbreak of new coronavirus cases.

Nurses, doctors and other health care workers have emerged as heroes during the pandemic, as they cope with massive influxes of new patients and fight to save lives. And due to prohibitions on hospital visitors even for patients who are on the verge of death, medical staff are now, more than ever, a conduit between those patients and their loved ones.

The acclaim for medical workers ranges from nightly rounds of cheering and applause to community-led efforts to deliver pizzas and other food to hospitals and emergency room staff.

Enlarge this image

A medical worker's image is projected onto Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The country is one of 14 nations that has confirmed at least 20,000 coronavirus cases. Buda Mendes/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Around the U.S. — which has more than 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases — people have been finding ways to express their gratitude for EMTs, nurses and other essential workers.

In Lowell, Mass., a teenage girl recently asked her father — who owns a gas station — to mark her birthday by giving free gas to medical workers. A Michigan man had the same idea, holding up a sign offering to pay for nurses' gas last week. And in Los Angeles, a roster of charities is directing donations to bring food from local restaurants to hospital staff. Similar efforts are underway in other communities, as people look for ways to thank workers on the front line of the health emergency.

Sunday marked at least the second time the Christ the Redeemer statue has been used to highlight the coronavirus crisis. Last month, the landmark was lit up with the flags of countries affected by the deadly respiratory virus, culminating in an image of the world.

Brazil's Ministry of Health is reporting 22,169 coronavirus cases, including at least 1,223 deaths.

Brazil is one of 14 countries that are reporting at least 22,000 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a COVID-19 dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, which reports coronavirus numbers in near real time.

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2020-04-13 15:38:44Z
52780723714754

Hospital Heroes Illuminate 'Christ The Redeemer' As Part Of Coronavirus Tribute - NPR

Enlarge this image

A doctor's white coat is projected onto the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Easter Sunday, to honor medical workers who are fighting to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic. Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images

The Christ the Redeemer statue towered over Rio de Janeiro in a doctor's white coat on Easter Sunday, as a tribute to health care workers who put themselves at risk every day to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic. The striking scene included messages of thanks in many languages, along with images of nurses and doctors smiling in protective gear.

The word "hope" was also projected onto the statue, along with the Portuguese phrase Fique Em Casa or "Stay at Home" — the motto of medical workers around the world who are urging people to follow social restrictions to slow the outbreak of new coronavirus cases.

Nurses, doctors and other health care workers have emerged as heroes during the pandemic, as they cope with massive influxes of new patients and fight to save lives. And due to prohibitions on hospital visitors even for patients who are on the verge of death , medical staff are now, more than ever, a conduit between those patients and their loved ones.

The acclaim for medical workers ranges from nightly rounds of cheering and applause to community-led efforts to deliver pizzas and other food to hospitals and emergency room staff.

Enlarge this image

A medical worker's image is projected onto Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The country is one of 14 nations that has confirmed at least 20,000 coronavirus cases. Buda Mendes/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Around the U.S. — which has more than 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases — people have been finding ways to express their gratitude for EMTs, nurses and other essential workers.

In Lowell, Mass., a teenage girl recently asked her father – who owns a gas station – to mark her birthday by giving free gas to medical workers. A Michigan man had the same idea, holding up a sign offering to pay for nurses' gas last week. And in Los Angeles, a roster of charities is directing donations to bring food from local restaurants to hospital staff. Similar efforts are under way in other communities, as people look for ways to thank workers on the front line of the health emergency.

Sunday marked as at least the second time the Christ the Redeemer statue has been used to highlight the coronavirus crisis. Last month, the landmark was lit up with the flags of countries affected by the deadly respiratory virus, culminating in an image of the world.

Brazil's Ministry of Health is reporting 22,169 coronavirus cases, including at least 1,223 deaths.

Brazil is one of 14 countries that are reporting at least 22,000 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a COVID-19 dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, which reports coronavirus numbers in near real time.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMimAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5ucHIub3JnL3NlY3Rpb25zL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy8yMDIwLzA0LzEzLzgzMzE4MjI1MS9ob3NwaXRhbC1oZXJvZXMtaWxsdW1pbmF0ZS1jaHJpc3QtdGhlLXJlZGVlbWVyLWFzLXBhcnQtb2YtY29yb25hdmlydXMtdHJpYnV0ZdIBAA?oc=5

2020-04-13 15:15:10Z
52780723714754

Africans in China allege racism as fear of new virus cases unleashes xenophobia - The Washington Post

Alex Plavevski EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock An African man stands in a hotel entrance under lockdown in Guangzhou, China, on April 8.

Africans living in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou say they have been evicted from their apartments and refused entry to restaurants as part of a xenophobic campaign against black people that is ostensibly aimed at curbing the transmission of coronavirus.

Other black residents in a part of the city known as “Little Africa” are being forced to remain inside their apartments — even if they have not traveled anywhere that would warrant quarantine — and submit to coronavirus tests.

The Chinese authorities’ actions triggered protests from African governments — an embarrassment for Beijing as it seeks to woo African states with promises of loans and investment — and prompted U.S. diplomats over the weekend to warn African Americans to avoid the Guangzhou area.

“People are not happy because they’re being forced out of their apartments and into hotels where they have to pay [$30] a night for 28 days,” said Maximus Ogbonna, the president of a Nigerian community group in Guangzhou.

Ogbonna is in quarantine — for a second time — in his apartment, with a camera installed over the door so police can monitor him. He completed a 14-day quarantine in March after returning from Nigeria but was told by local officials on April 8 that he had to do another 14 days in isolation, although he had tested negative for the virus and had not traveled elsewhere.

[Five-step plan for reopening business gets put to the test in China]

The focus on African residents comes amid broader restrictions on foreigners in China as officials, having curtailed the coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Wuhan in November, grow concerned about a second wave of infections from abroad.

China last month banned entry to all foreigners, although some 90 percent of new cases had been Chinese citizens returning from places such as Italy, Iran and the United States. Among the 98 new infections from abroad reported Monday, all but a few were Chinese nationals arriving from Russia.

In Guangdong province, of which Guangzhou is the capital, 183 people have returned from abroad with the virus since it began spreading outside China. Twenty-two were from Africa, according to official figures. Some 30,000 foreigners live in Guangzhou, including about 4,500 Africans.

The Chinese government appears conscious of the need to be acting against a second wave, analysts say, and foreigners are an easy target.

Residents in Beijing and Shanghai have reported incidents of bars and restaurants refusing entry to foreigners. But in Guangzhou, home to the largest African diaspora in Asia, it appears to be wider and more systematic.

Photos and videos posted on social media over the weekend showed Africans sleeping on sidewalks or waiting under shop awnings after being ordered out of their apartments and hotel rooms. Others showed Nigerian diplomats delivering food in the pouring rain to evicted compatriots, and Chinese police in riot gear herding African men along a street.

One widely shared video showed a McDonald’s employee holding a sign stating that “from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.”

“If this is about the virus, then why aren’t all foreigners being treated the same?” Ogbonna said.

A McDonald’s China spokeswoman confirmed that black people were refused entry to a Guangzhou restaurant on Saturday evening. “McDonald’s China apologizes unreservedly to the individual and our customers,” said the spokeswoman, Regina Hui, adding that the restaurant had been ordered to stop such actions.

[Taiwan rejects WHO chief’s claim of racist campaign against him]

These incidents prompted the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to warn African Americans about discrimination. Police had ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin, it wrote in an advisory to Americans in China. Local officials were implementing mandatory coronavirus tests followed by mandatory self-quarantine “for anyone with ‘African contacts,’ regardless of recent travel history or previous quarantine completion,” the consulate wrote.

Recent developments appear to have inflamed anti-foreigner sentiment in China.

Five Nigerians reportedly tested positive in Guangzhou last week and, according to Chinese state media, they broke their quarantine and infected the owner of a local restaurant and his eight-year-old daughter. A Nigerian man who tested positive for coronavirus after arriving in Guangzhou was accused of assaulting a nurse while trying to escape from quarantine at a hospital.

Governments across Africa, as well as the African Union, have been summoning Chinese ambassadors for remonstrations about the treatment of their citizens.

https://twitter.com/SpeakerGbaja/status/1248658784924426240?s=20">

“As a government, we will not allow Chinese or other nationals to be maltreated just as we will not allow Nigerians to be maltreated in other countries,” the speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, wrote on Twitter after complaining to the Chinese ambassador in Abuja, Zhou Pingjian.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, condemned the “ill-treatment and racial discrimination” against Ghanaians and other Africans in China.

[Infrared cameras, personal towels: China factories go to extremes to fend off virus]

In Beijing, Chinese officials said that the actions were motivated by concern for “the life and health of foreign nationals in China.”

“We treat all foreigners in China equally and we reject discrimination,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday. “In response to the African side’s concerns regarding their citizens in Guangdong, provincial authorities have rolled out new measures and we believe that by working together, we can resolve this properly.”

While Zhao talked about China and Africa as “brothers and friends,” this view is not shared by many in Africa.

“Kenya and the rest of Africa feel deeply betrayed by China,” the country’s Daily Nation newspaper wrote in an editorial, saying that Africa supported China during the coronavirus outbreak yet Chinese people had “turned against Africans in their midst.”

“This is the height of treachery and defies social relations and human rights, let alone international protocols. It is racist and objectionable,” the paper wrote.

China’s ruling Communist Party has been courting African nations as part of its global effort to win political influence and commercial contracts. In addition to promoting its Belt and Road infrastructure projects on the continent, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in aid and loans for Africa during a summit in Beijing in 2018.

Hit by the coronavirus outbreak, African nations are now pushing China to forgive some of the debt they have built up in recent decades. Beijing is likely to endorse a temporary freeze on debt payments by African countries as part of an expected agreement by the Group of 20 major economies this week, Reuters reported Monday.

Read more

As Wuhan reopens, China revs engine to move past coronavirus. But it’s stuck in second gear.

As Wuhan’s lockdown ends, residents leave messages for the dead doctor who sounded the alarm on coronavirus

China probes tycoon who labeled Xi a ‘clown’ over fumbled coronavirus response

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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2020-04-13 13:46:47Z
52780720502211

Africans in China allege racism as fear of new virus cases unleashes xenophobia - The Washington Post

Alex Plavevski EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock An African man stands in a hotel entrance under lockdown in Guangzhou, China, on April 8.

Africans living in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou say they have been evicted from their apartments and refused entry to restaurants as part of a xenophobic campaign against black people that is ostensibly aimed at curbing the transmission of coronavirus.

Other black residents in a part of the city known as “Little Africa” are being forced to remain inside their apartments — even if they have not traveled anywhere that would warrant quarantine — and submit to coronavirus tests.

The Chinese authorities’ actions triggered protests from African governments — an embarrassment for Beijing as it seeks to woo African states with promises of loans and investment — and prompted U.S. diplomats over the weekend to warn African Americans to avoid the Guangzhou area.

“People are not happy because they’re being forced out of their apartments and into hotels where they have to pay [$30] a night for 28 days,” said Maximus Ogbonna, the president of a Nigerian community group in Guangzhou.

Ogbonna is in quarantine — for a second time — in his apartment, with a camera installed over the door so police can monitor him. He completed a 14-day quarantine in March after returning from Nigeria but was told by local officials on April 8 that he had to do another 14 days in isolation, although he had tested negative for the virus and had not traveled elsewhere.

[Five-step plan for reopening business gets put to the test in China]

The focus on African residents comes amid broader restrictions on foreigners in China as officials, having curtailed the coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Wuhan in November, grow concerned about a second wave of infections from abroad.

China last month banned entry to all foreigners, although some 90 percent of new cases had been Chinese citizens returning from places such as Italy, Iran and the United States. Among the 98 new infections from abroad reported Monday, all but a few were Chinese nationals arriving from Russia.

In Guangdong province, of which Guangzhou is the capital, 183 people have returned from abroad with the virus since it began spreading outside China. Twenty-two were from Africa, according to official figures. Some 30,000 foreigners live in Guangzhou, including about 4,500 Africans.

The Chinese government appears conscious of the need to be acting against a second wave, analysts say, and foreigners are an easy target.

Residents in Beijing and Shanghai have reported incidents of bars and restaurants refusing entry to foreigners. But in Guangzhou, home to the largest African diaspora in Asia, it appears to be wider and more systematic.

Photos and videos posted on social media over the weekend showed Africans sleeping on sidewalks or waiting under shop awnings after being ordered out of their apartments and hotel rooms. Others showed Nigerian diplomats delivering food in the pouring rain to evicted compatriots, and Chinese police in riot gear herding African men along a street.

One widely shared video showed a McDonald’s employee holding a sign stating that “from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.”

“If this is about the virus, then why aren’t all foreigners being treated the same?” Ogbonna said.

A McDonald’s China spokeswoman confirmed that black people were refused entry to a Guangzhou restaurant on Saturday evening. “McDonald’s China apologizes unreservedly to the individual and our customers,” said the spokeswoman, Regina Hui, adding that the restaurant had been ordered to stop such actions.

[Taiwan rejects WHO chief’s claim of racist campaign against him]

These incidents prompted the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to warn African Americans about discrimination. Police had ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin, it wrote in an advisory to Americans in China. Local officials were implementing mandatory coronavirus tests followed by mandatory self-quarantine “for anyone with ‘African contacts,’ regardless of recent travel history or previous quarantine completion,” the consulate wrote.

Recent developments appear to have inflamed anti-foreigner sentiment in China.

Five Nigerians reportedly tested positive in Guangzhou last week and, according to Chinese state media, they broke their quarantine and infected the owner of a local restaurant and his eight-year-old daughter. A Nigerian man who tested positive for coronavirus after arriving in Guangzhou was accused of assaulting a nurse while trying to escape from quarantine at a hospital.

Governments across Africa, as well as the African Union, have been summoning Chinese ambassadors for remonstrations about the treatment of their citizens.

https://twitter.com/SpeakerGbaja/status/1248658784924426240?s=20">

“As a government, we will not allow Chinese or other nationals to be maltreated just as we will not allow Nigerians to be maltreated in other countries,” the speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, wrote on Twitter after complaining to the Chinese ambassador in Abuja, Zhou Pingjian.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, condemned the “ill-treatment and racial discrimination” against Ghanaians and other Africans in China.

[Infrared cameras, personal towels: China factories go to extremes to fend off virus]

In Beijing, Chinese officials said that the actions were motivated by concern for “the life and health of foreign nationals in China.”

“We treat all foreigners in China equally and we reject discrimination,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday. “In response to the African side’s concerns regarding their citizens in Guangdong, provincial authorities have rolled out new measures and we believe that by working together, we can resolve this properly.”

While Zhao talked about China and Africa as “brothers and friends,” this view is not shared by many in Africa.

“Kenya and the rest of Africa feel deeply betrayed by China,” the country’s Daily Nation newspaper wrote in an editorial, saying that Africa supported China during the coronavirus outbreak yet Chinese people had “turned against Africans in their midst.”

“This is the height of treachery and defies social relations and human rights, let alone international protocols. It is racist and objectionable,” the paper wrote.

China’s ruling Communist Party has been courting African nations as part of its global effort to win political influence and commercial contracts. In addition to promoting its Belt and Road infrastructure projects on the continent, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in aid and loans for Africa during a summit in Beijing in 2018.

Hit by the coronavirus outbreak, African nations are now pushing China to forgive some of the debt they have built up in recent decades. Beijing is likely to endorse a temporary freeze on debt payments by African countries as part of an expected agreement by the Group of 20 major economies this week, Reuters reported Monday.

Read more

As Wuhan reopens, China revs engine to move past coronavirus. But it’s stuck in second gear.

As Wuhan’s lockdown ends, residents leave messages for the dead doctor who sounded the alarm on coronavirus

China probes tycoon who labeled Xi a ‘clown’ over fumbled coronavirus response

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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2020-04-13 13:15:10Z
52780720502211

Africans in China allege racism as fear of new virus cases unleashes xenophobia - The Washington Post

Alex Plavevski EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock An African man stands in a hotel entrance under lockdown in Guangzhou, China, on April 8.

Africans living in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou say they have been evicted from their apartments and refused entry to restaurants as part of a xenophobic campaign against black people that is ostensibly aimed at curbing the transmission of coronavirus.

Other black residents in a part of the city known as “Little Africa” are being forced to remain inside their apartments — even if they have not traveled anywhere that would warrant quarantine — and submit to coronavirus tests.

The Chinese authorities’ actions triggered protests from African governments — an embarrassment for Beijing as it seeks to woo African states with promises of loans and investment — and prompted U.S. diplomats over the weekend to warn African Americans to avoid the Guangzhou area.

“People are not happy because they’re being forced out of their apartments and into hotels where they have to pay [$30] a night for 28 days,” said Maximus Ogbonna, the president of a Nigerian community group in Guangzhou.

Ogbonna is in quarantine — for a second time — in his apartment, with a camera installed over the door so police can monitor him. He completed a 14-day quarantine in March after returning from Nigeria but was told by local officials on April 8 that he had to do another 14 days in isolation, although he had tested negative for the virus and had not traveled elsewhere.

[Five-step plan for reopening business gets put to the test in China]

The focus on African residents comes amid broader restrictions on foreigners in China as officials, having curtailed the coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Wuhan in November, grow concerned about a second wave of infections from abroad.

China last month banned entry to all foreigners, although some 90 percent of new cases had been Chinese citizens returning from places such as Italy, Iran and the United States. Among the 98 new infections from abroad reported Monday, all but a few were Chinese nationals arriving from Russia.

In Guangdong province, of which Guangzhou is the capital, 183 people have returned from abroad with the virus since it began spreading outside China. Twenty-two were from Africa, according to official figures. Some 30,000 foreigners live in Guangzhou, including about 4,500 Africans.

The Chinese government appears conscious of the need to be acting against a second wave, analysts say, and foreigners are an easy target.

Residents in Beijing and Shanghai have reported incidents of bars and restaurants refusing entry to foreigners. But in Guangzhou, home to the largest African diaspora in Asia, it appears to be wider and more systematic.

Photos and videos posted on social media over the weekend showed Africans sleeping on sidewalks or waiting under shop awnings after being ordered out of their apartments and hotel rooms. Others showed Nigerian diplomats delivering food in the pouring rain to evicted compatriots, and Chinese police in riot gear herding African men along a street.

One widely shared video showed a McDonald’s employee holding a sign stating that “from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.”

“If this is about the virus, then why aren’t all foreigners being treated the same?” Ogbonna said.

A McDonald’s China spokeswoman confirmed that black people were refused entry to a Guangzhou restaurant on Saturday evening. “McDonald’s China apologizes unreservedly to the individual and our customers,” said the spokeswoman, Regina Hui, adding that the restaurant had been ordered to stop such actions.

[Taiwan rejects WHO chief’s claim of racist campaign against him]

These incidents prompted the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to warn African Americans about discrimination. Police had ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin, it wrote in an advisory to Americans in China. Local officials were implementing mandatory coronavirus tests followed by mandatory self-quarantine “for anyone with ‘African contacts,’ regardless of recent travel history or previous quarantine completion,” the consulate wrote.

Recent developments appear to have inflamed anti-foreigner sentiment in China.

Five Nigerians reportedly tested positive in Guangzhou last week and, according to Chinese state media, they broke their quarantine and infected the owner of a local restaurant and his eight-year-old daughter. A Nigerian man who tested positive for coronavirus after arriving in Guangzhou was accused of assaulting a nurse while trying to escape from quarantine at a hospital.

Governments across Africa, as well as the African Union, have been summoning Chinese ambassadors for remonstrations about the treatment of their citizens.

https://twitter.com/SpeakerGbaja/status/1248658784924426240?s=20">

“As a government, we will not allow Chinese or other nationals to be maltreated just as we will not allow Nigerians to be maltreated in other countries,” the speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, wrote on Twitter after complaining to the Chinese ambassador in Abuja, Zhou Pingjian.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, condemned the “ill-treatment and racial discrimination” against Ghanaians and other Africans in China.

[Infrared cameras, personal towels: China factories go to extremes to fend off virus]

In Beijing, Chinese officials said that the actions were motivated by concern for “the life and health of foreign nationals in China.”

“We treat all foreigners in China equally and we reject discrimination,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday. “In response to the African side’s concerns regarding their citizens in Guangdong, provincial authorities have rolled out new measures and we believe that by working together, we can resolve this properly.”

While Zhao talked about China and Africa as “brothers and friends,” this view is not shared by many in Africa.

“Kenya and the rest of Africa feel deeply betrayed by China,” the country’s Daily Nation newspaper wrote in an editorial, saying that Africa supported China during the coronavirus outbreak yet Chinese people had “turned against Africans in their midst.”

“This is the height of treachery and defies social relations and human rights, let alone international protocols. It is racist and objectionable,” the paper wrote.

China’s ruling Communist Party has been courting African nations as part of its global effort to win political influence and commercial contracts. In addition to promoting its Belt and Road infrastructure projects on the continent, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in aid and loans for Africa during a summit in Beijing in 2018.

Hit by the coronavirus outbreak, African nations are now pushing China to forgive some of the debt they have built up in recent decades. Beijing is likely to endorse a temporary freeze on debt payments by African countries as part of an expected agreement by the Group of 20 major economies this week, Reuters reported Monday.

Read more

As Wuhan reopens, China revs engine to move past coronavirus. But it’s stuck in second gear.

As Wuhan’s lockdown ends, residents leave messages for the dead doctor who sounded the alarm on coronavirus

China probes tycoon who labeled Xi a ‘clown’ over fumbled coronavirus response

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Let's block ads! (Why?)

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2020-04-13 12:34:33Z
52780720502211

Africans in China allege racism as fear of new virus cases unleashes xenophobia - The Washington Post

Alex Plavevski EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock An African man stands in a hotel entrance under lockdown in Guangzhou, China, on April 8.

Africans living in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou say they have been evicted from their apartments and refused entry to restaurants as part of a xenophobic campaign against black people that is ostensibly aimed at curbing the transmission of coronavirus.

Other black residents in a part of the city known as “Little Africa” are being forced to remain inside their apartments — even if they have not traveled anywhere that would warrant quarantine — and submit to coronavirus tests.

The Chinese authorities’ actions triggered protests from African governments — an embarrassment for Beijing as it seeks to woo African states with promises of loans and investment — and prompted U.S. diplomats over the weekend to warn African Americans to avoid the Guangzhou area.

“People are not happy because they’re being forced out of their apartments and into hotels where they have to pay [$30] a night for 28 days,” said Maximus Ogbonna, the president of a Nigerian community group in Guangzhou.

Ogbonna is in quarantine — for a second time — in his apartment, with a camera installed over the door so police can monitor him. He completed a 14-day quarantine in March after returning from Nigeria but was told by local officials on April 8 that he had to do another 14 days in isolation, although he had tested negative for the virus and had not traveled elsewhere.

[Five-step plan for reopening business gets put to the test in China]

The focus on African residents comes amid broader restrictions on foreigners in China as officials, having curtailed the coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Wuhan in November, grow concerned about a second wave of infections from abroad.

China last month banned entry to all foreigners, although some 90 percent of new cases had been Chinese citizens returning from places such as Italy, Iran and the United States. Among the 98 new infections from abroad reported Monday, all but a few were Chinese nationals arriving from Russia.

In Guangdong province, of which Guangzhou is the capital, 183 people have returned from abroad with the virus since it began spreading outside China. Twenty-two were from Africa, according to official figures. Some 30,000 foreigners live in Guangzhou, including about 4,500 Africans.

The Chinese government appears conscious of the need to be acting against a second wave, analysts say, and foreigners are an easy target.

Residents in Beijing and Shanghai have reported incidents of bars and restaurants refusing entry to foreigners. But in Guangzhou, home to the largest African diaspora in Asia, it appears to be wider and more systematic.

Photos and videos posted on social media over the weekend showed Africans sleeping on sidewalks or waiting under shop awnings after being ordered out of their apartments and hotel rooms. Others showed Nigerian diplomats delivering food in the pouring rain to evicted compatriots, and Chinese police in riot gear herding African men along a street.

One widely shared video showed a McDonald’s employee holding a sign stating that “from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.”

“If this is about the virus, then why aren’t all foreigners being treated the same?” Ogbonna said.

A McDonald’s China spokeswoman confirmed that black people were refused entry to a Guangzhou restaurant on Saturday evening. “McDonald’s China apologizes unreservedly to the individual and our customers,” said the spokeswoman, Regina Hui, adding that the restaurant had been ordered to stop such actions.

[Taiwan rejects WHO chief’s claim of racist campaign against him]

These incidents prompted the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to warn African Americans about discrimination. Police had ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin, it wrote in an advisory to Americans in China. Local officials were implementing mandatory coronavirus tests followed by mandatory self-quarantine “for anyone with ‘African contacts,’ regardless of recent travel history or previous quarantine completion,” the consulate wrote.

Recent developments appear to have inflamed anti-foreigner sentiment in China.

Five Nigerians reportedly tested positive in Guangzhou last week and, according to Chinese state media, they broke their quarantine and infected the owner of a local restaurant and his eight-year-old daughter. A Nigerian man who tested positive for coronavirus after arriving in Guangzhou was accused of assaulting a nurse while trying to escape from quarantine at a hospital.

Governments across Africa, as well as the African Union, have been summoning Chinese ambassadors for remonstrations about the treatment of their citizens.

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“As a government, we will not allow Chinese or other nationals to be maltreated just as we will not allow Nigerians to be maltreated in other countries,” the speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, wrote on Twitter after complaining to the Chinese ambassador in Abuja, Zhou Pingjian.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, condemned the “ill-treatment and racial discrimination” against Ghanaians and other Africans in China.

[Infrared cameras, personal towels: China factories go to extremes to fend off virus]

In Beijing, Chinese officials said that the actions were motivated by concern for “the life and health of foreign nationals in China.”

“We treat all foreigners in China equally and we reject discrimination,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday. “In response to the African side’s concerns regarding their citizens in Guangdong, provincial authorities have rolled out new measures and we believe that by working together, we can resolve this properly.”

While Zhao talked about China and Africa as “brothers and friends,” this view is not shared by many in Africa.

“Kenya and the rest of Africa feel deeply betrayed by China,” the country’s Daily Nation newspaper wrote in an editorial, saying that Africa supported China during the coronavirus outbreak yet Chinese people had “turned against Africans in their midst.”

“This is the height of treachery and defies social relations and human rights, let alone international protocols. It is racist and objectionable,” the paper wrote.

China’s ruling Communist Party has been courting African nations as part of its global effort to win political influence and commercial contracts. In addition to promoting its Belt and Road infrastructure projects on the continent, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in aid and loans for Africa during a summit in Beijing in 2018.

Hit by the coronavirus outbreak, African nations are now pushing China to forgive some of the debt they have built up in recent decades. Beijing is likely to endorse a temporary freeze on debt payments by African countries as part of an expected agreement by the Group of 20 major economies this week, Reuters reported Monday.

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Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2020-04-13 12:10:38Z
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Beijing faces a diplomatic crisis after reports of mistreatment of Africans in China causes outrage - CNN

African students and expatriates in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were last week subject to forced coronavirus testing and arbitrary 14-day self-quarantine, regardless of recent travel history, amid heightened fears of imported infections.

Large numbers of African nationals were also left homeless, after being evicted by landlords and rejected by hotels in the city.

Having reportedly contained the virus within China, concerns have grown in recent weeks over a so-called second wave, brought into the country by overseas travelers.

In Africa, however, governments, media outlets and citizens reacted angrily to the apparent rise in anti-foreigner sentiment, as videos of Africans being harassed by police, sleeping on the streets or being locked into their homes under quarantine circulated online.

On Saturday, the front page of Kenya's biggest newspaper lead with the headline, "Kenyans in China: Rescue us from hell," as a member of the country's parliament called for Chinese nationals to leave Kenya immediately. TV stations in Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria also ran stories on the alleged mistreatment.

The fallout threatens to undermine China's diplomatic efforts in Africa. In recent years, African nations have become key diplomatic and trade partners to Beijing, with China's trade with Africa worth $208 billion in 2019, according to official figures from China's General Administration of Customs.

In a statement released Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied China had been singling out foreigners.

"We are still facing great risks of imported cases and domestic resurgence. Particularly, as the pandemic spreads all over the world, imported cases are causing mounting pressure," said Zhao.

"All foreigners are treated equally. We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination," he added.

A breakdown in relations

African countries are often characterized as being the weaker partner in bilateral relations with Beijing, with US officials repeatedly warning nations to be wary of so-called Chinese debt trap diplomacy, in which countries are forced to hand over key assets to service loans they can't make repayments on impairing their sovereignty.

But in recent days, African governments have been quick to demand answers from Beijing on the treatment of their citizens.

On Saturday, Nigerian lawmaker Oloye Akin Alabi posted a video on Twitter of the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, being grilled by a Nigerian politician over the mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou.

During the exchange, Zhou is made to watch videos of Africans allegedly being mistreated in China. Oloye accompanied the video with the message that his government would "not tolerate maltreatment of Nigerians in China."

The governments of Uganda and Ghana also reportedly summoned their respective Chinese ambassadors over what the Ghanaians called "the inhumane treatment being meted out."

On Saturday, in perhaps the most serious sign of continent-wide discontent, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, tweeted that he had invited the Chinese ambassador to the AU to personally discuss the allegations of mistreatment.

The Chinese reaction

On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded to the crisis, promising that provincial authorities would attach "great importance" to the concerns of some African countries and work to improve quarantine measures, including providing special accommodation for foreigners required to undergo medical observation.

However, echoing city officials in Guangzhou, Zhao did not address specific accusations that authorities had enforced a policy of mandatory testing and a 14-day quarantine on all Africans, even when they had not left China in recent months; had not been in contact with a known Covid-19 patient; had just completed a 14-day isolation; or had certificates to show they were virus-free.

Chinese state media had previously reported that five Nigerians tested had positive for the virus in Guangzhou.

Local police said on Sunday that all foreigners must strictly abide by Chinese laws and those who refuse to show identification when requested by police would face punishment. Suspicions abound that many Africans are overstaying their visas in Guangzhou, where officials said they counted 4,553 Africans legally living in the city as of last week.

On Sunday, the state-owned Global Times broke its silence on the continued diplomatic fallout, writing that "viral reports in Western media alleging Africans are being discriminated against and badly treated in the city" were "used by some Western media to provoke the problems between China and African countries."

In recent years, legions of Chinese diplomats have joined Twitter, a social media platform that is banned in China.

In Africa, CNN counted at least 25 accounts belonging to Chinese diplomats or consulates. But those Twitter accounts, which have repeatedly championed China's aid efforts in Africa in recent weeks, had been notably quiet on the issue of the African diaspora in Guangzhou.

After Zhao's statement on Sunday many began to tweet his comments.

Lina Benabdallah, assistant professor in politics at Wake Forest University, specializing in China-Africa relations, said that the "delicate" nature of the issue required a "coordinated response," as Chinese diplomats would need to prevent a backlash against the more than 1 million Chinese currently living in Africa.

"De-escalation in that sense is probably a priority," she said. "It's a sensitive thing."

People to people relations

By the end of the weekend, most of the displaced Africans in Guangzhou, mainly traders and students who make up China's largest African population, had found shelter, according to people CNN spoke to in the city.

Armies of volunteers who had assembled on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, had rallied to connect Africans with landlords and hotels who would still accept foreigners. Others had been rounded up by local authorities and taken into quarantine at government-assigned hotels, according to Africans and volunteers who spoke to CNN.

"They (the authorities) just don't want them on the street," said one volunteer, who asked not to be named for fear of government reprisals.

Shen Shiwei, a non-resident fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, said people-to-people relations were a linchpin of China's relationship with Africa, and needed to be protected.

Shen called on Chinese officials to improve communication with the African diaspora in Guangzhou, suggesting signs in English and local languages to help explain decisions in policing. "I think there are two sides to every story," he said.

Hannah Ryder, a British-Kenyan who used to work for the United Nations in China and is now CEO of a Kenyan owned company in Beijing, said these types of incidents can have a massive impact on how people in Africa view China. "If they are not handled properly they can result in far larger consequences than people sleeping on the street. They can have repercussions on international relations, trade and even diplomacy," said Ryder.

"As China has been the first to deal with and recover from Covid-19 the world can learn a lot from China's experience," she said.

"I hope that when it comes to virus-related xenophobia, China can show leadership on the best way to tackle it and be an example the world can follow."

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2020-04-13 10:13:24Z
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