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Sunday 29 November 2009
Guangzhou’s African bind
To heal wounds caused by a protest by up to 200 Africans in July, Guangzhou police are offering a two-month amnesty and talks with leaders of their community to resolve differences.
City holds talks to heal racial tensions between police and continent’s traders
SCMP 29 November 2009
To heal wounds caused by a protest by up to 200 Africans in July, Guangzhou police are offering a two-month amnesty and talks with leaders of their community to resolve differences.
On July 15, two Nigerians were injured, one seriously, after they tried to evade passport checks conducted by the police.
This led to a rare protest by about 200 Africans at a city police station against what they called excessive checks. It resulted in hours of traffic jams on major roads.
“The police are offering an amnesty in November and December to overstayers to come forward and go home,” said Brenya Atta Oselwusu, head of the Ghanaian businessmen’s association in Guangzhou.
“Also, we have had regular contacts with the police since then, in which each side listens carefully to the other. We do not want the incidents in July to happen again.”
The July events brought to national attention the largest presence of Africans in Guangzhou since the Tang dynasty: about 20,000 live there long-term and tens of thousands more visit regularly to do business. It was a wake-up call to the government that, like other major countries, China will have a large and growing foreign population.
“How to manage foreigners is a very big challenge for China,” said Dr Li Zhigang, an associate professor in the department of urban and regional planning at Sun Yat-sen University. “Until now, it has been management at the border. But, as our cities internationalise, we will have more and more foreign residents.”
Legislators in Beijing are considering a new law on immigration to address this issue.
The surge in African residents is a result of the mainland’s entry into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 and the sharp increase in trade between China and Africa.
Businesspeople moved to the mainland to buy Chinese clothes, shoes, electrical appliances and other goods to export to their home countries. Some set up offices, companies and shops, while others come for short stays.
Guangzhou and Yiwu, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, have attracted the most Africans because they are centres of production of daily necessities. Some moved from Hong Kong to conduct the trade themselves and not through third parties. Since 2003, bilateral trade has increased by more than 40 per cent a year, with China becoming Africa’s second-biggest trading partner and largest provider of credit.
The number of African residents in Guangzhou peaked in 2007, before the police tightened controls on foreigners ahead of the Olympics. The financial crisis, the rise of the renminbi and the move of Chinese traders to Africa, to conduct business themselves, have also slowed the flow.
They are concentrated in several areas - known as “Chocolate City” - such as Xiaobei Lu and the Canaan Export Clothes Wholesale Trade Centre, a warren of stalls close to the city’s railway station. The stalls sell jeans, T-shirts, ties, shoes, sportswear, fake and real hair, and other goods tailored for African consumers; there are large-size dresses with colourful designs and baggy trousers with picture patches. People from all over the continent barter with the traders and pile the merchandise into plastic bags and wooden boxes.
Adverts offer shipment, by air or sea, to Lagos, Lome, Cotonou, Dakar, Libreville and other cities many locals have never heard of.
If Guangdong is the “factory of the world”, then Guangzhou is the world’s department store.
There are also services offering help with documents and visas, the biggest headache for Africans - a police notice on the wall, in English and Chinese, tells people to have their passports with them at all times, ready for inspection.
The city’s residents see the Africans as a mixed blessing. Their orders have boosted the city’s economy by millions of dollars, as has their personal spending on rent, food and daily necessities. But not everyone welcomes them.
“I will not take blacks as passengers,” Huang Jin, a taxi driver, said. “They argue over one or two yuan, get out in places where it is not allowed and sometimes get angry. In the evenings, some are drunk and fall asleep in the cab. Some deal in drugs, commit robberies and have overstayed their visa.”
Some speak little or no Chinese, and this can lead to misunderstandings and bad feeling.
These negative images have been reinforced by reports in the city’s media of crimes committed by Africans, of overstayers who threw away their passports and pretended to speak no English, and of buildings being taken over by them, with the Chinese tenants leaving. Li said that only a limited number of people dealt directly with Africans, such as their business partners, taxi drivers and workers in restaurants and barber shops.
“They live mostly among themselves. These negative stories in the media absolutely do not represent the majority. Most are businesspeople, from the middle and upper classes in Africa, with regular jobs, salaries and apartments,” he said.
“The Guangzhou media are more critical and reported the same way about migrant workers. They misled the public about the Africans and that had a very serious impact. Local officials would repeat the stories.”
Such stories influenced the police, who increased their searches. “The police often ask us for our documents,” said Olivier Ano, a trader from Ivory Coast who has lived in Guangzhou for five years.
One black American, who teaches at a university in Zhuhai, said that each time she entered of left China, she was stopped at the border and searched. Her US passport was inspected meticulously. “I have got used to it and do not get angry anymore. I do not speak any Chinese. If you do, they will ask more questions.”
It was these factors that led to the July incident - the police checking the validity of visas because they believed some had expired, and the Nigerians believing they were being singled out.
Since the incident occurred just 10 days after the deadly riots in Urumqi, the Guangzhou government became nervous and decided to take action. It has instituted regular meetings with representatives of the African community, allowing each side to explain their point of view.
Some Africans moved to the suburbs and the neighbouring cities of Foshan and Nanhai, where visa controls are less strict.
Oselwusu said many frictions were due to misunderstandings. “We need grass-roots co-operation and dialogue ... In an international city, you need to know how to co-operate with foreigners. It needs foreigners to grow.”
For its part, the Guangzhou media has since July adopted a more positive tone. There have been no further clashes between Africans and police.
Olivier Ano, a trader from Ivory Coast, said that in July, the police were doing their job.
“But why did things reach that stage? Learning Chinese is difficult and some people dislike foreigners, as is the case everywhere. Chinese often make racist remarks and we respond, of course.”
He said that, while there were associations representing businesspeople from different countries on the continent, they were working towards establishing a body to represent all Africans.
The July 15 incident exacerbated the ill feeling between Africans and the police. But, in the long term, it may turn out to be positive in improving race relations and helping Guangzhou become the international metropolis that it would like to be.
2 comments:
Guangzhou’s African bind
City holds talks to heal racial tensions between police and continent’s traders
SCMP
29 November 2009
To heal wounds caused by a protest by up to 200 Africans in July, Guangzhou police are offering a two-month amnesty and talks with leaders of their community to resolve differences.
On July 15, two Nigerians were injured, one seriously, after they tried to evade passport checks conducted by the police.
This led to a rare protest by about 200 Africans at a city police station against what they called excessive checks. It resulted in hours of traffic jams on major roads.
“The police are offering an amnesty in November and December to overstayers to come forward and go home,” said Brenya Atta Oselwusu, head of the Ghanaian businessmen’s association in Guangzhou.
“Also, we have had regular contacts with the police since then, in which each side listens carefully to the other. We do not want the incidents in July to happen again.”
The July events brought to national attention the largest presence of Africans in Guangzhou since the Tang dynasty: about 20,000 live there long-term and tens of thousands more visit regularly to do business. It was a wake-up call to the government that, like other major countries, China will have a large and growing foreign population.
“How to manage foreigners is a very big challenge for China,” said Dr Li Zhigang, an associate professor in the department of urban and regional planning at Sun Yat-sen University. “Until now, it has been management at the border. But, as our cities internationalise, we will have more and more foreign residents.”
Legislators in Beijing are considering a new law on immigration to address this issue.
The surge in African residents is a result of the mainland’s entry into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 and the sharp increase in trade between China and Africa.
Businesspeople moved to the mainland to buy Chinese clothes, shoes, electrical appliances and other goods to export to their home countries. Some set up offices, companies and shops, while others come for short stays.
Guangzhou and Yiwu, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, have attracted the most Africans because they are centres of production of daily necessities. Some moved from Hong Kong to conduct the trade themselves and not through third parties. Since 2003, bilateral trade has increased by more than 40 per cent a year, with China becoming Africa’s second-biggest trading partner and largest provider of credit.
The number of African residents in Guangzhou peaked in 2007, before the police tightened controls on foreigners ahead of the Olympics. The financial crisis, the rise of the renminbi and the move of Chinese traders to Africa, to conduct business themselves, have also slowed the flow.
They are concentrated in several areas - known as “Chocolate City” - such as Xiaobei Lu and the Canaan Export Clothes Wholesale Trade Centre, a warren of stalls close to the city’s railway station. The stalls sell jeans, T-shirts, ties, shoes, sportswear, fake and real hair, and other goods tailored for African consumers; there are large-size dresses with colourful designs and baggy trousers with picture patches. People from all over the continent barter with the traders and pile the merchandise into plastic bags and wooden boxes.
Adverts offer shipment, by air or sea, to Lagos, Lome, Cotonou, Dakar, Libreville and other cities many locals have never heard of.
If Guangdong is the “factory of the world”, then Guangzhou is the world’s department store.
There are also services offering help with documents and visas, the biggest headache for Africans - a police notice on the wall, in English and Chinese, tells people to have their passports with them at all times, ready for inspection.
The city’s residents see the Africans as a mixed blessing. Their orders have boosted the city’s economy by millions of dollars, as has their personal spending on rent, food and daily necessities. But not everyone welcomes them.
“I will not take blacks as passengers,” Huang Jin, a taxi driver, said. “They argue over one or two yuan, get out in places where it is not allowed and sometimes get angry. In the evenings, some are drunk and fall asleep in the cab. Some deal in drugs, commit robberies and have overstayed their visa.”
Some speak little or no Chinese, and this can lead to misunderstandings and bad feeling.
These negative images have been reinforced by reports in the city’s media of crimes committed by Africans, of overstayers who threw away their passports and pretended to speak no English, and of buildings being taken over by them, with the Chinese tenants leaving. Li said that only a limited number of people dealt directly with Africans, such as their business partners, taxi drivers and workers in restaurants and barber shops.
“They live mostly among themselves. These negative stories in the media absolutely do not represent the majority. Most are businesspeople, from the middle and upper classes in Africa, with regular jobs, salaries and apartments,” he said.
“The Guangzhou media are more critical and reported the same way about migrant workers. They misled the public about the Africans and that had a very serious impact. Local officials would repeat the stories.”
Such stories influenced the police, who increased their searches. “The police often ask us for our documents,” said Olivier Ano, a trader from Ivory Coast who has lived in Guangzhou for five years.
One black American, who teaches at a university in Zhuhai, said that each time she entered of left China, she was stopped at the border and searched. Her US passport was inspected meticulously. “I have got used to it and do not get angry anymore. I do not speak any Chinese. If you do, they will ask more questions.”
It was these factors that led to the July incident - the police checking the validity of visas because they believed some had expired, and the Nigerians believing they were being singled out.
Since the incident occurred just 10 days after the deadly riots in Urumqi, the Guangzhou government became nervous and decided to take action. It has instituted regular meetings with representatives of the African community, allowing each side to explain their point of view.
Some Africans moved to the suburbs and the neighbouring cities of Foshan and Nanhai, where visa controls are less strict.
Oselwusu said many frictions were due to misunderstandings. “We need grass-roots co-operation and dialogue ... In an international city, you need to know how to co-operate with foreigners. It needs foreigners to grow.”
For its part, the Guangzhou media has since July adopted a more positive tone. There have been no further clashes between Africans and police.
Olivier Ano, a trader from Ivory Coast, said that in July, the police were doing their job.
“But why did things reach that stage? Learning Chinese is difficult and some people dislike foreigners, as is the case everywhere. Chinese often make racist remarks and we respond, of course.”
He said that, while there were associations representing businesspeople from different countries on the continent, they were working towards establishing a body to represent all Africans.
The July 15 incident exacerbated the ill feeling between Africans and the police. But, in the long term, it may turn out to be positive in improving race relations and helping Guangzhou become the international metropolis that it would like to be.
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