Africans in Beijing harassed as Olympics approach
GEOFFREY YORK

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

July 18, 2008 at 7:10 PM EDT

BEIJING — Chinese police officials have forced some Beijing bar owners to sign secret pledges promising to prohibit blacks from entering their bars during the Olympics next month, a Hong Kong newspaper says.

The police denied the report Friday, and most bars denied any knowledge of the pledges. But many African residents of Beijing say they are facing harassment from police and discrimination from bars as the Olympics approach.

“Bar owners near the Workers Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises,” the South China Morning Post reported Friday.

It quoted the co-owner of a bar who said that a group of police had recently visited his establishment to order it “not to serve black people or Mongolians.”

In the famed Sanlitun bar district of Beijing, some bar owners have been required to sign pledges agreeing to ban a variety of activities, including dancing and serving black customers, the newspaper said.

Africans and Mongolians are often perceived as criminals in Beijing. Until this year, a number of young African men were openly selling drugs in the Sanlitun district, and many Mongolian women were working as prostitutes in the city.

Both groups are among the targets of China's security crackdown in the lead-up to the Olympics, along with thousands of Tibetans, Uyghurs, migrant workers, petitioners and social activists who are seen as potential troublemakers or protesters.

In a notorious incident last September, dozens of black people were detained by police in a raid on bars in the Sanlitun district.

Witnesses said the police rounded up all the black people they could find, up to three dozen in total, and beat some of them with rubber truncheons.

Grenada's ambassador to China filed a complaint to the Foreign Ministry, saying that his son suffered a concussion and needed hospital treatment after he was clubbed on the head by police during the raid.

Africans have been coming to Beijing for decades as university students or traders. But many were forced to leave China this year because of new visa restrictions that made it difficult to renew their paperwork.

In interviews Friday, a number of Africans said they are facing discriminatory rules from Beijing's bars and nightclubs as the Olympics approach.

A woman from Liberia, who is co-owner of a hair salon in Beijing, said she was outraged when she visited a popular Beijing nightclub and found that the entrance fee for black people was twice as high as for other foreigners.

Even if they managed to enter the club, the black patrons were prohibited from sitting at the tables, she said.

In another incident, she said, an African-owned bar was raided this week by police with dogs, and the customers were required to provide urine samples for drug tests.

“When the police come, you have to run,” she said. “I've lived in Holland and the United States and it was never like this. There's no human rights here. It's racist and it makes me feel very bad.”

If the police are now ordering bars to prohibit black people from entering, it is highly unfair, she said. “Every race has good people and bad people. You can't blame all blacks for drugs. If a person is not causing a problem, you shouldn't bother them.”

Two Nigerian businessmen said they were required to show their passports before being allowed to enter a Beijing nightclub last weekend. Black people who could not produce their passports were barred from entering the club, but other foreigners were not required to show their passports, they said.

“This had never happened before to me,” one of the Nigerians said. “I was very angry. This is racism.”

The Africans spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing more harassment from the police if they are identified. The Nigerians, interviewed at a bar, asked that the bar not be identified because they were worried that it could be raided if the police learned that Africans congregate there.

Don't think its true, seriously doubt officials are telling bars to not permit Black people and Mongolians (.lol) overt racism wouldn't impress their covert racist friends. They'll be doing anything to make themselves look good rather than bad.

Like anywhere else in the world i'm in no doubt that there is racism in China but this article sounds fabricated in that there are no facts in it at all.

I appreciate that the article I put up is lacking in the evidence department, however the following articles are from a different source and posted one day later (from the first article). As in the previous article people interviewed remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, make of it what you will.

Police deny bar owners' claims of restrictions on blacks in Sanlitun

BEIJING 2008
Tom Miller in Beijing
Jul 19, 2008

Police in Beijing's popular Sanlitun bar district deny they are conducting a racist campaign ahead of the Olympics, as another bar owner revealed he had been ordered not to let in blacks.
"They made us sign and chop a document saying we would not allow black people in [during the Olympics]," the owner said. "But no one is willing to say so because we'll all get deported ... and have our business shut."

Asked yesterday whether they had told landlords not to let blacks in bars, an officer at the Sanlitun police station had a one-word answer: "No."

The bar owner said police had given landlords a list of dos and don'ts during the Olympics. "We simply can't let them in [during the Olympics], it's what I was told," he said.

"It's [the restrictions on blacks] definitely happening. It will all happen in 24 hours."

His revelation comes after the Post reported yesterday how another bar owner had been verbally warned by Public Security Bureau officers not to serve customers of Mongolian and African descent, while other bars had been ordered to sign chopped pledges to keep to curfews, not allow the illegal sale of drugs, and refuse certain customers.

His revelation comes after the Post reported yesterday how another bar owner had been verbally warned by Public Security Bureau officers not to serve customers of Mongolian and African descent, while other bars had been ordered to sign chopped pledges to keep to curfews, not allow the illegal sale of drugs, and refuse certain customers.

"They [local police] call meetings, and everyone has to go, or else ... If you don't go, they'll come back and shut you down," he said. Further investigation found that not all bars in the newly revamped area known for its nightlife had been ordered to refuse black customers, suggesting police are targeting specific bars.

"Black guys can come in and drink as long as they have valid visas," another bar manager in Sanlitun said. "But we have been told to watch out for black guys acting suspiciously, such as constantly talking on their mobile phones. The aim is to crack down on drug dealing."

Tony Perkins, an African-American sports presenter for China Central Television, said he had not experienced any racism during his six months in China while working for the state TV station, but he said he was concerned by the bar owners' complaints.

"If this is policy, then it is a very bad policy - more so for a country holding an Olympics," he said.

Authorities order bars not to serve black people

BEIJING 2008
Tom Miller
Jul 18, 2008

In our series looking at preparations for the Games, Tom Miller reports on plans to crack down on "undesirables" in the bars of Beijing

Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, "One World, One Dream".

Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.

"Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and told me not to serve black people or Mongolians," said the co-owner of a western-style bar, who asked not to be named.

The local authorities have been cracking down on blacks and Mongolians in an attempt to stamp out drug dealing and prostitution ahead of the Games, the proprietors said.

A few months ago, police launched a violent sting on black men drinking in the Sanlitun bar district, and a notorious nightclub largely populated by Mongolian prostitutes was also shut down.

Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organisers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games.

The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.

They have been allowed to keep copies of all the pledges except those relating to blacks, implying that the authorities are wary of charges of racism.

"I am appalled," said a black British national who works in Beijing. "I understand that the government is trying to stop certain illegal activities, but I don't think blanket discrimination is going about it the right way.

"Chinese people are prejudiced, but I would have hoped that the government would set a better example as it debuts on the world stage."

Calls to Dongcheng district and Chaoyang district public security bureaus, which oversee the bar districts, went unanswered.

The authorities' attempt to keep unwanted behaviour from damaging the squeaky-clean image of the Games is the latest example of heavy-handedness that critics say is killing the party spirit of the Olympics.

During the Athens Olympics four years ago, bars and nightclubs were allowed to stay open all night. But venues in Beijing that are not being shut down during the Games will have to close at 2am and maintain tight security.

"The officials told me to inform my customers that they must at all times carry their passports or ID cards," said one bar owner.

"Security is important, but Beijing is becoming a fortress, and that's not attractive."

Rumours that all bars within 2km of an Olympic venue will need to close remain unconfirmed, with many managers complaining that they still have not been told whether they will be allowed to open or not. Several bars have been raided in the past few weeks as local police step up a campaign of low-level intimidation, according to several witness accounts.

Bar and restaurant managers in Sanlitun have been instructed to remove tables from footpaths in a crude attempt to prevent fighting in the streets.

"The local police told us to get rid of the tables because they're scared that if too many foreigners congregate outside there could be trouble," said Song Xun , who runs a burrito joint in the area.

Local musicians say that a clampdown on live music risks stifling Beijing's thriving cultural scene and giving Olympic tourists the false impression that the city is artistically anaemic.

Several popular live music venues have been shut or instructed to stop all outdoor shows, and club owners complain they have got used to strange new guests nursing a beer for hours and suspiciously observing everything around them.

"The whole music scene is angry and bewildered. It is impossible to understand how keeping tourists from seeing an open, culturally vibrant and diverse Beijing is possibly a good thing for anyone," said one well-known figure in the local music industry.

David Mitchell, a Beijing-based jazz musician, said it had become increasingly difficult for his band to find anywhere to play.

"It appears the local government is trying to control every aspect of the experience that foreigners get when they come here," he said.

"Everything is aimed at creating stability, but they don't understand that is precisely the unfounded prejudice that foreigners have of Chinese society - that it is a highly controlled and not a very cultural place. It seems completely self-defeating."

I'm not convinced by this article I have friends who have been to China and no one ever mention this Govt ochestrated discrimination..we are who we are if people like us fine if they don't fine..life goes on..you cannot let this sort of articles limit your horizons..shine your eyes...travel...explore..see for yourself

I agree whole heartedly, its just given the nature of these articles and the nature of this website I thought that it would be of interest to the people that frequent here.

if it is true, then it must have been in places where Africans are known to be drug-dealing and such, places where the government has very little control, which would still be racist considering Africans are singled out, considering the game requires two to play. have to get in on this one and hear what others are saying before i believe. we must always stand behind our brothers in need, otherwise attemtping to portray the beiging regime as anti African in this context is out of order, which is what those who are opposed to the Chinese government always do.

most Africans in China are either students or children of diplomats, and the China gov. will go out of its way to protect these, trust me.

one of the things that the western media has suspiciously never dwelt on regarding the Tianamen protests is the underlying cause of the abrasion between citizens and their gov. truth be told: it all started when Chinese men lamenting the loss of their women to African students went on a rampage attacking Africans. this is racism, and it exists everywhere. I studied in the east and witnessed similar events when the locals would attack Africans because they were taking their women.

well, in China, unlike was the case in eastern Europe where the police would tend to side with the locals, take Africans to the outskirts of town and beat the sh!t out of them, the chinese gov. stepped in and beat back their own people (who were the ones in the wrong), heavy handed. this small group of ego challenged chinese students took the frustration a step further into an all out democracy demonstration thing, another case of an inapropriate use of an event to complain about something else portraying the gov in a negative light. what's democracy got to do with jelousy?

I agree that we have to deal with it if it is true. like i figured out in the 70s, rather than spend my money where they do not want me to come in like a human being i took the inconvience and spent it where i was accepted.

i do think we need to give this time to be validated before accepting it as fact.

I think with Eastern Europeans(read Russia) back in the day and China we can see similar policies and trends..where they have bi-lateral relationships that are okay externally but Internally is like a Time-Bomb..
I have read up on some of the atrocities carried out by Chinese in Nigeria some have been highlighted and had to check themselves...bet theres so much more going on unreported.The Lebanese are just slime to me and are sort of revered in West Africa...beggars belief!!...pure exploiters
I was watching just a few hours ago Business Africa and you can see a sizeable number of Congolese-Angolans and Nigerians in China..!!!...bet there is some sort of easy visa req