Referring to a Sankei Shimbun article, this piece examines the discriminatory treatment of African residents in China under coronavirus measures, the unusual backlash from African countries, China’s Belt and Road diplomacy, massive loans to African nations, and the “debt trap.” It also criticizes NHK watch9 for invoking Africa while failing to report these crucial facts.

April 19, 2020
Between 2000 and 2017, China lent a total of 43 billion dollars, about 15.3 trillion yen, to African countries.
Some countries have fallen into the “debt trap,” in which, struggling to repay their debts, they are confronted by China with political demands.
The following is from today’s Sankei Shimbun.
The dark turn in China’s Africa diplomacy.
Novel coronavirus: unusual backlash over “discriminatory treatment.”
Cairo, Takao Sato; Beijing, Yoshiaki Nishimi.
The emphasis in the text and the passages marked with ＊ are mine.
African countries are intensifying their backlash, saying that African residents in China have been subjected to discriminatory treatment in connection with China’s measures against the novel coronavirus.
China has made enormous investments in Africa, which it regards as an important base for its huge economic-zone initiative, the Belt and Road, and has strengthened its ties there.
It is extremely unusual for African countries to openly criticize China.
Xi Jinping’s leadership is facing an unexpected “stumble” in its diplomacy toward Africa.
See page one.
According to Reuters and other sources, on the 10th, ambassadors of African countries stationed in China sent a letter to Wang Yi, China’s state councilor and foreign minister, demanding improvement, saying that Africans living in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and elsewhere were being discriminated against in connection with coronavirus infections.
＊Needless to say, Wakuda of NHK’s watch9, who brought up Africa the day before yesterday for the sake of sanctimonious remarks, should have informed the Japanese people of precisely this fact. All the more so if she is a graduate of the University of Tokyo.＊
In Guangzhou, posts and videos appeared one after another on social media saying that African students and others had been forcibly made to undergo virus infection tests, had been driven out of the apartments where they lived and the hotels where they were staying, and had spent the night on the streets.
The Nigerian parliament and Ghana’s foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassadors and expressed concern, while media in Uganda, South Africa, and other countries also reported critically on the developments in China.
The U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou also posted on its website a document warning African Americans not to approach the center of Guangzhou city.
It pointed out that “Chinese police have ordered restaurants not to allow people of African descent to use them.”
It also warned that authorities may demand compulsory testing and quarantine at one’s own expense without warning.
On the 13th, Zhao Lijian, spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, merely stated that “China does not discriminate against African brothers” and that Guangzhou had introduced “new measures,” while avoiding confirmation of the facts.
In Guangzhou, there is an area called “Africa Town,” where traders and others from Africa gather.
Among Africans in China there are some illegal residents who have overstayed their visas, and there have also been cases in the past in which people were arrested for the sale of illegal drugs.
There are not a few Chinese who hold complicated feelings.
Meanwhile, on the 9th, the World Bank announced a new forecast that, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the region south of the Sahara Desert will enter its first recession in 25 years this year.
China is said to have lent a total of 43 billion dollars, about 15.3 trillion yen, to African countries between 2000 and 2017.
Some countries have fallen into the “debt trap,” in which, struggling to repay their debts, they are confronted by China with political demands.
Voices are emerging from Western experts calling on China to freeze debt repayments and take other measures.