It's only neo-colonialism when white people do it
Chinese scholar calls for political reform, criticising ‘tight control’ over Covid-19. A day later, police come for him - "A constitutional scholar has been taken away by China’s authorities after writing an open letter to representatives of the country’s legislature, criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreakand calling for freedom of speech.Zhang Xuezhong was removed from his Shanghai home on Sunday night, according to multiple sources. His letter, posted on WeChat on Saturday and addressed to deputies of the National People’s Congress (NPC), was widely circulated online as China prepares to convene its most important parliamentary sessions in less than two weeks’ time... Zhang, who teaches an online constitutional class, was removed from his teaching post at East China University of Political Science and Law in 2013 because of his critical commentary on China’s constitution, and was expelled from the faculty four months later. The university accused him of “forcibly spreading his political views to the school staff and teachers, and also using his position to spread his political views among students”.A defence lawyer for Chinese activists including human rights lawyer Guo Feixiong and civil rights activist Liu Ping, Zhang was stripped of his lawyer’s licence last year after the authorities said he was no longer employed by his law firm."
After COVID-19, we can't return to business as usual with China - "The Chinse Communist Party (CCP) does seem to be a continued threat, as it apparently wants to keep profiting from the poor and unsuspecting, putting them in debt, and enslaving entire economies to what appears to be a remarkable mercantilist plan to make China the world’s only high-technology industrial economy, with all other economies weakened to the point of merely providing raw resources and agriculture. An indicator for China’s apparent plan can be found in Li Keqiang’s views...
"China, having already developed its industrial and technological base, no longer needed the United States. He dismissed U.S. concerns over unfair trade and economic practices, indicating that the U.S. role in the future global economy would merely be to provide China with raw materials, agricultural products, and energy to fuel its production of the world’s cutting-edge industrial and consumer products.“
If this is how China sees even the United States, one of the world’s largest and most technologically-sophisticated of economies, China must think even worse of countries in the rest of the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Given Li Keqiang’s logic, it should now be obvious that the trillion-dollar Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) was never meant to develop a diverse and mutually-beneficial world economy, but rather, to derail competitors’ technological development. Rather than countries seeking economic strength and independence through building up their manufacturing and technology industries, China apparently seeks to deflect them towards infrastructure construction, including ports, roads and railways that are most useful in the extraction of natural resources for export to China.The CCP kills two or even three birds with one stone by burdening these countries with high-interest, short-term debt that the debtor nations end up repaying with collateral like ports and local industries. All the while, China enriches itself by exporting excess infrastructure capacity. China then becomes the single global hub of industry and technology to a global economy of satrap nations subsisting on agriculture and resource extraction for export. China returns to its glorious imperial past, leaving the rest of us as subjects. China could only have secured these horrible infrastructure deals through bribing and threatening political leaders around the world. “The new vanguard of the Chinese Communist Party is a delegation of bankers and party officials with duffel bags full of cash,” writes McMaster. “Corruption enables a new form of colonial-like control that extends far beyond strategic shipping routes in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, and elsewhere.” China’s bad BRI deals and more required lying to the world’s public and bribing their officials. After helping develop China economically for decades through low-interest development loans from the World Bank, international subsidies including cheap shipping rates, and privileged access to global markets through its developing nation status at the World Trade Organization, China has betrayed that trust by stealing technology and bribing politicians. With the economic success that resulted, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) built a military capable of challenging the U.S. and dominating Asia. Looking back, our decades of constructive engagement with China since the opening in 1972, when President Nixon first met Chairman Mao, appear incredibly naive."
An Unprecedented Rupture in China-Africa Relations - "China-Africa relations face an unprecedented crisis after several days of evictions and maltreatment of African migrants by landlords and local authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.Beginning late Thursday China time, photos, videos, and other accounts began to surface on Twitter and Facebook depicting young African migrants being forced to leave their homes and hotels. These evictions largely took place in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district. The district includes the neighborhoods of Xiaobei and Guangyuanxi, home to the largest African diaspora populations in China, and Asia at large.A key turning point occurred on Friday, when photos of young men forced to sleep outside on the street, visibly cold and wearing surgical masks to protect them from COVID-19, started going viral on Facebook and Twitter.The reaction in Africa was immediate and furious. African social media users took to Twitter under the hashtag #ChinaMustExplain to vent their anger, frustration and concern. Sensing the severity of the crisis and the surging outrage, African politicians began to call in Chinese ambassadors to their foreign ministries to express their concern. Normally, these types of diplomatic exchanges are conducted far from the public eye. At most, spokespeople might issue a pro forma statement afterward. Not this time. African foreign ministers and legislative leaders have tweeted angry statements that included photos of these sessions. There was even an unprecedented video of China’s ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, being dressed down by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila... During most of Saturday, official Chinese media and spokespeople were largely silent on the issue. None of the country’s English language international news outlets including CGTN, Global Times and Xinhua reported on the story, all of the normally boisterous Chinese diplomatic Twitter feeds in Africa did not mention the issue and China’s official spokespeople, including Zhao, did not comment on the issue...
the three pillars of the Chinese government’s response:
Describe the situation as “rumors”
Blame U.S. and European media outlets, specifically AFP, Reuters, and CNN, for spreading “false allegations.”
Reaffirm Zhao Lijian’s earlier message that discrimination towards anyone, foreigners and Chinese alike, is not tolerated...
None of China’s messaging so far seems to have achieved the objective of calming the situation and reassuring key African stakeholders that Beijing has things under control in Guangzhou. Chinese news articles and tweets by Chinese diplomats in Africa have largely been met with high levels of skepticism from the online community... It’s not surprising that the Chinese response to the crisis does not appear to be gaining traction among either African political elites or the broader public. Their messaging is technical, official and lacks any hint of acknowledgment that something has gone wrong. For Africans, seeing young men pushed out onto the streets strikes an emotional cord and therefore any meaningful resolution of this crisis will require some sort of contrition from the Chinese side in order to give African political leaders the room to move.Without an apology or some other expression of regret from Chinese officials, African presidents and prime ministers will find it very difficult to simply move on to other issues like debt relief and cooperation with China on COVID-19 prevention."
Racist acts in China against Africans expose hypocrisy of outcry over Chinese travel bans - "Let’s remember that China complainedabout other nations’ travel bans not so long ago, calling them “discriminatory”.At least banning people who came from China, the original epicentreof 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... 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"
Even McDonald’s is now turning away black customers in Guangzhou - "After a massive crackdown of Africans in Guangzhou saw peopleevicted from their apartments and hotel rooms even after they’ve tested negative for Covid-19 or completed 14-day isolation periods, many continue to be caught in a state of limbo, wandering the streets with their personal belongings, sleeping rough at night, and waiting to hear from the consulates of their respective countries...
'We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health consciously notify the local police for medical isolation, please understand the inconvenience caused. police'"
Africans in China: We face coronavirus discrimination - "African community leaders in Guangzhou believe the vast majority of the city's African population have been forced into quarantine or are sleeping on the streets."Some are in hiding," said one community leader over an encrypted social media app... The health commission began widespread testing of African nationals.The local authority says it has tested every African national in the city for the coronavirus. It found that 111 of the more than 4,500 Africans in Guangzhou tested positive... Towards the end of the century's first decade, hundreds of thousands were thought to live in the city. Many of them entering the country on short-term visas to buy goods from nearby factories and send them back to the continent.By some estimates there were more than 200,000 dwelling in the city. Some settled for the long term. Many overstayed their visas. In recent years, the numbers have dwindled. Businessmen have complained of unfair visa restrictions and unfair treatment. In 2018, small hotels in Xiao Bei Lu, a popular area for African traders, temporarily turned away Africans from several nations, they told the BBC... The Chinese government dismissed claims of racism, insisting China and Africa are friends, partners and brothers and that it has zero tolerance to racism.But many of those the BBC spoke to say they have been singled out because of their race."Ninety-eight per cent of Africans are in quarantine," said one community leader who did not want to be named... When Wuhan officially ended its lockdown on 8 April, normality began to creep back into the city.More than a week on, African students on campuses remain unable to leave the grounds of the university. They have no information of when their own lockdown will be lifted... "All of this is happening because there has been a rise in foreign imported cases, [but] the majority are from Chinese nationals," she said."Only a small percentage is made up of Africans."She received a letter from her university stating that all Africans needed to be tested. Despite being tested twice she remains in quarantine... "I know people from my church who are white and non-Africans who are not going through what we are going through - quarantine and multiple testing," she said."Quarantine hotels are like forced detention for blacks."A Nigerian businessman under quarantine said that "it was the police that removed me from my apartment and put me on the streets"."I don't have any problem with my landlord. He didn't even know I had been evicted. My children slept on the streets for many days."... Videos continue to circulate online of Africans being moved between hotels by ambulance."
'They see my blue eyes then jump back' – China sees a new wave of xenophobia - "An American king with a group of foreigners in a park in Beijing saw a woman grab her child and run the other way. Others have described being called “foreign trash”. A recent online article, under an image of ship stacked with refuse being pushed away from China’s coast, was headlined: “Beware of a second outbreak started by foreign garbage.”... “There is an effect when state media are reporting this is a foreign virus,” said Jeremiah Jenne, an American historian living in Beijing. “It is a new variation of a familiar theme: don’t trust foreigners. If there is another flare-up in China, the blame will fall on people coming from outside.”... Some say the focus on foreigners – surprising given that 90% of imported cases were Chinese passport holders, according to the country’s foreign ministry – is the leadership’s attempt to shore up its image... A British-Canadian software engineer living in Shenzhen described being stopped several times by police and asked for her papers, something that did not happen before.The issue is being replicated across Asia. In Vietnam, hostility toward foreigners has reached such a level that the Vietnamese ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement calling for it to stop... In Thailand, a since-deleted Twitter account operated by the country’s health minister reportedly said the country had to be “more careful of westerners than Asians” because they “never shower” or wear masks. He later denied writing the tweets. In Taiwan, some restaurants have reportedly said they will not serve foreign diners."
Chinese museum accused of racism over photos pairing Africans with animals - "The exhibit titled This Is Africa at the Hubei Provincial Museum in the city of Wuhan displayed a series of diptychs, each one containing a photo of an African person paired with the face of an animal. In a particularly striking example, a child with his mouth wide open was paired with a gorilla and other works included baboons and cheetahs. The exhibit was eventually removed after complaints by Africans, including some living in China, the curator said. All the photographs were taken by Yu Huiping, a construction magnate who has travelled to Africa more than 20 times, has previously won awards for his work and is vice-chairman of the Hubei Photographers Association... Wang Yuejun, one of the exhibit’s curators, said that comparisons to animals were typically seen as a compliment in Chinese culture, pointing to the zodiac signs that identify people with animals according to their birth year... China’s most popular chat app, WeChat, was forced to apologise this week after its software used the English N-word to translate a Chinese phrase that commonly means “black foreigner”... Over the summer China’s state news agency published a video during a border standoff with India featuring an offensive parody of a Sikh man, complete with a turban and fake beard."
Why is The Lion King okay?
The coronavirus crisis has exposed China's long history of racism | Hsiao-Hung Pai - "In an echo of apartheid South Africa or segregation-era United States, a colour bar was imposed across the city: Africans were refused entry by hospitals, hotels, supermarkets, shops and food outlets. At one hospital, even a pregnant woman was denied access. In a department store, an African woman was stopped at the entrance while her white friend was allowed in... To outsiders, this horrendous racism may appear “unprecedented”. But ethnic minorities in China would find it all too familiar. In Shaoguan, not far from Guangzhou, the racist murder of two Uighur workers in 2009 triggered a series of events, such as the Ürümqi Incident, which led to further repression in the north-western region of Xinjiang."
Anti-Blackness in China and Why Critical Race Theory Falls Short - "How do you talk about racism when the perpetrator isn’t white?... Social justice advocates rushed forth to condemn this on social media, but found themselves unable to draw on the standard arsenal of critiques about whiteness. Because racist acts committed by people of color do not conform to the mainstream narratives of social justice, it is difficult to talk about these acts using the standard language of critical race theory. The terminology that we use to discuss race relations in the United States centers on the dynamic between Caucasians and people of color, and often excludes the latter group from being potential perpetrators of racism themselves... critical race theory’s conception of anti-blackness as stemming from the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the continuing subjugation that followed does not adequately describe anti-blackness in China... While critical race theory is helpful for understanding many of the causes and manifestations of racism in the west, the common narratives espoused by critical race theorists do not comprehensively explain all acts of racial prejudice in the world—nor even in our own societies. We must not allow a limited definition of racism to pressure us into brushing aside racism by non-white perpetrators and imposing a western notion of race relations on situations to which it is not relevant. When we define racism in a way that is mostly designed to admonish one particular group, we will inevitably underplay racism committed by other groups. As an Asian-American woman, I want to be able to criticize racism from my own community. Similarly, I want to be able to criticize racism that I experience from other non-white communities. A definition of racism that exclusively incriminates white perpetrators makes it much harder to do this... If racism continues to be defined as power plus prejudice, it will be difficult to label many instances of racial tension as racism, especially when they involve people of color themselves: one particularly salient example was the racially-motivated hate crime committed in Texas by a Latino man, who stabbed an Asian-American family of three because he “thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with the coronavirus.”"
In other words, anti-racism is not about combating racism - just shitting on white people
Could Han Chauvinism Turn the ‘Chinese Dream’ into a ‘Chinese Nightmare’? - "Xi’s Chinese Dream can be seen as the spiritual dimension for which an increasingly wealthy and educated Chinese society is yearning. While various Chinese groups (armed forces, farmers, officials, businessmen, etc.) have their own distinct interpretations of what the Chinese Dream means and how it should be achieved, there is little controversy over its ultimate goal: “fulfilling the great renaissance of the Chinese race,” i.e. the Han race. Hence, the Chinese Dream is essentially a nationalistic ambition. And while love and pride for one’s own culture, history, and country are not problematic per se, if not managed adequately, nationalism can nurture an undesirable sentiment: chauvinism, in this case, Han chauvinism... Communist Party of China’s (CPC) leaders such as Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and President Xi have warned about the threat that Han chauvinism poses. As early as 1938, and often thereafter, Chairman Mao cautioned Han officials about prevailing Hanism as a source of interethnic conflict and the need to eliminate it in order to achieve ethnic unity, the very foundation on which China’s stability should stand... To correct Han chauvinism, Chairman Mao advised Han officials to be more humble, to listen to ethnic minorities’ grievances, and to accept their criticism. As for Premier Deng Xiaoping, he believed that Han chauvinism should be eliminated before asking minorities to do the same with their own chauvinisms... Despite China’s globalization, the Han continue to consider other cultures as inferior, resulting, for example, in the Han feeling that their culture and history is far superior to those of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang territory in northwest China. As a consequence of their discriminatory treatment by the Han, the Uyghurs feel that their identity is under attack and that they are being treated as second-class citizens in their own homeland. Han chauvinism seems to have been growing stronger in Xinjiang, particularly since the Urumqi riots in 2009, and it is dangerously undermining Beijing’s efforts to achieve harmonious inter-ethnic relations by impairing Han officials from understanding Xinjiang’s socioeconomic, political, religious, and security tensions... Furthermore, Chinese chauvinism has already started poisoning China’s personal relations in foreign countries. For example, Chinese businessmen and officials traveling to Central Asian countries ignore local traditions and values, resulting in increasing tensions with the local populations. Kazak, Kirgiz, and Tajik already feel uneasy, if not fearful, of the increasing presence and influence of Chinese in their respective countries. If unchecked, one can argue that Chinese chauvinism could turn President Xi’s Chinese Dream into a domestic and international Chinese nightmare by having long term detrimental effects on the global perception of China. In turn, negative perception could gravely undermine well-intended massive development projects such as the “One Belt, One Road Initiative.”"
Chinese nationalist internet warriors creating diplomatic disputes for China - "An article circulating on the Chinese internet that claims that other countries “yearn to return to China” (渴望回归中国) has touched a raw nerve among China’s neighbouring countries, and is threatening to escalate into a diplomatic issue. Chinese academics warn that the Covid-19 pandemic has driven public opinion around the world to degenerate into hysterics. China can easily face a disadvantage in handling its external relations if callow nationalists gain control of the Internet... Kazakhstan is not the only country that China we-media has claimed to be “yearning to return to China”. Articles alleging that neighbouring countries such as India, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Vietnam “yearn to return to China” have sprung up on the Chinese internet over the past two months."
Xinjiang and the Stability Paradox - "The use of stability as a marker in Xinjiang has started to raise questions about the counterproductive effects of maintaining stability at all costs. Beijing’s obsession with stability maintenance in Xinjiang has been criticized as being incommensurate with the actual links between Uyghur separatists and international terrorist groups, raising questions about the capabilities of Uyghur separatists. Indeed, Beijing’s discursive turn was most pronounced following the Global War on Terror, which saw Beijing’s post-2001 reframing of the Uyghur threat from Uyghur separatism to Uyghur terrorism... It is possible that Beijing’s willingness to sacrifice its human rights reputation for the sake of ensuring stability along its frontiers has less to do with the Uyghurs than it has to do with the Han population. In this case, it is the Han Chinese that are the audience of the securitization."
