China The Fallout from Nanjing

By Michael S. Serrill

Officials called it an "isolated incident" when a brawl between African scholars and university security guards in Nanjing two weeks ago sparked street protests by Chinese students. But charges that the foreign students were beaten and tortured surfaced in Nanjing last week, and that ugly episode was followed by further anti-African demonstrations. The outburst of racism has stirred international concern and exposed a fissure in the special relationship that China once enjoyed with African nations.

After the initial Nanjing fracas, some 140 African and other foreign students were held under protective guard at a guesthouse for ten days. On Dec. 31, provincial authorities sent paramilitary police into the guesthouse to arrest "ringleaders" among the Africans. Armed policemen allegedly herded coatless students outside in zero-degree weather, then pummeled them and jabbed them with electric cattle prods.

Word of the Nanjing violence set off further outbreaks. In Hangzhou, African students boycotted classes. In Wuhan and Beijing, hundreds of Chinese students staged anti-African demonstrations. The Gambia government registered a formal protest, and diplomats from Ghana and Benin voiced displeasure over Chinese treatment of their nationals. But overall reaction from the continent was restrained, reflecting the conflicting nuances of Africa's dealings with China: gratitude for decades of Chinese support; familiarity with Chinese ; racism, which has been intensified by economic frustrations; and worries about how to protect existing links with Beijing.

Although thousands of Africans have studied in China since 1950, the relationship has frequently been marred by the hosts' cultural prejudice. The latest round of confrontation also has a more mundane source: envy. Most of the 1,400 African students currently in the country get free tuition and room and board plus a stipend from the Chinese government. They live better and eat better than their Chinese counterparts. Says a U.S. official who is a frequent visitor to China: "There is tremendous discontent ((about foreign privilege)) among students and intellectuals."

But among Africans, there is fear that Beijing's largesse to their continent will shrink. While commercial ties are strong, China has sharply reduced its economic assistance to African countries as it has concentrated on closing the gap with the industrialized West.

Some sinologists find it difficult to understand what China could gain by permitting open displays of xenophobia. But one Chinese foreign policy expert offered a pragmatic geopolitical explanation: "As of ten years ago, we changed our policy and normalized relations with the U.S.," he said. "Soon we will also normalize our relations with the U.S.S.R. So the relative importance of the African countries to China is diminishing." There is little in that view to reassure anyone worried about future anti-African resentment.

With reporting by Sandra Burton/Beijing, with other bureaus