This is not the first time that such incidents have been reported. In April last year, news agency ANI carried a report that highlighted the ill treatment of African workers by Chinese project managers.

Here is the video (Twitter link, 26 sec)

A video claiming to show a Chinese man whipping African workers has gained massive traction on social media. In the accompanying caption, journalist Dom Lucre, who shared the video on X, wrote the employees are being treated like “trans-Atlantic slaves”. In the clip, the employees are sitting in what looks like a container and the Chinese man is yelling at them. He then takes out a stick and starts mercilessly beating the workers who cover their heads to avoid any serious injury.

Mr Lucre has said in the caption that Chinese are “far more racist than the White man in Africa”.

“Everyone rails against America while completely ignoring the human rights abuses going on all over the world,” commented one user. “Every race has owned slaves, and every race has evil people among them. It’s time for all the good people, who make up the majority in each race, to stand together against those in all races who are evil,” said another.

“You don’t beat your employees and those are just boys. It is sick and disgusting!” a third user said.

This is not the first time that such incidents have been reported. In April last year, news agency ANI carried a report that highlighted the ill treatment of African workers by Chinese project managers.

Quoting Geneva Daily, the news agency said that local workers in Africa are abused and forcefully made to work under dire conditions and given wages that are way below contract pay.

The report also said that these employees are often made to work for long hours.

In 2022, a court in the central African country of Rwanda sentenced Chinese man Sun Shujun to 20 years in jail after a video of him whipping a worker spread across the internet.

The case angered many Africans. Following the decision, the Chinese embassy in the Rwandan capital of Kigali made a rare statement. It warned its citizens in Rwanda to follow local laws.

A year before that, a Kenyan worker was awarded more than $25,000 by a court after he was beaten by his Chinese restaurant employer.

China has cultivated trade partnership with African nations, which are known for their rich mineral resources.

    • @[email protected]OP
      2•8 months ago

      As Richard Carney, Associate professor of global studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, says, the “growth of autocracies will expand Chinese global influence via Belt and Road Initiative”:

      […] when rulers in autocracies with semi-competitive elections […] have a weak hold on power, their desire for Chinese spending is amplified. This relates to clientelism, or the delivery of goods and services in exchange for political support.

      A higher level of state control in autocracies grants political leaders greater influence over the allocation of clientelist benefits, which aids leaders’ reelection efforts.

      […]

      For decades, the World Bank and affiliated regional development banks were the only game in town for development financing to low- and middle-income countries. Consequently, these global lenders could demand liberalizing reforms that were sometimes contrary to the interests of incumbent rulers, especially autocrats.

      China’s rise has created an attractive alternative for autocratic regimes, especially since it does not impose the same kinds of conditions that often require loosening state controls on the corporate sector and reducing clientelism. Between 2014 and 2019, I find that 77% of total BRI spending on construction projects went to autocracies, and primarily to those with semi-competitive elections.