The Communist Party of China dismissed a bombshell BBC report revealing a lucrative industry in which Chinese citizens sell demeaning videos of African children online in a statement on Thursday, calling the most incendiary of these videos an “isolated case by a fool.”
In its documentary Racism for Sale, BBC journalist Runako Celina traced the origins of a viral video on China’s government-controlled Weibo social media site that showed a group of African children shouting in Mandarin, “I am a black monster and I have a low IQ.” The children appear clearly unaware of what they are saying.
In another video featured by the BBC, African children sing a song with the lyrics, “yellow skin and dark eyes are the most beautiful color.”
The video went viral in 2020 on a Weibo page called “Jokes About Black People Club.” While the video itself is two years old, this week’s BBC report revealed the first documented proof, including interviews with the exploited children, of where and when the video was filmed: that year in the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Celina found a man named Lu Ke, who made the children refer to him as “Susu,” or “uncle,” who appeared responsible for the video, though he denied it.
Personalized videos of African children sending happy birthday greetings, congratulating newlyweds, or engaging in sexualized dancing have become a profitable industry for Chinese people in poorer parts of the continent, according to the BBC, adding to growing concerns that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure program in which China targets economically vulnerable states with predatory loans, has also unleashed a wave of racist abuse by Chinese citizens around the world.
The “black monster” video scandal follows years of reports of outrageous racist behavior by Chinese businessmen in Africa as part of the BRI. Among the most high-profile scandals was the revelation of a video of a Chinese businessman calling Kenyans, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, “monkey people” in 2018; the gang-beating of a Kenyan engineer working on a BRI by Chinese laborers; and the use of “apartheid” facilities at work stations for BRI projects throughout Africa. China regularly refers to the steady stream of reports of racism against black people both within and outside China as “isolated incidents.”
The BBC report found that locals in Malawi believed Lu Ke to be a charity worker in town to teach children Mandarin and Chinese culture. Chinese video producers like Lu, according to the children’s parents, take the children out of school under the pretext of teaching them Mandarin but do not teach them anything, leaving them essentially without an education.
The Malawians did not know that the videos were for profit. They did testify to the British public broadcaster that they knew that he beat the children — sometimes with sticks — when they did not perform enthusiastically enough in the videos.
Confronted by the BBC, Lu Ke initially denied making the “black monster” video and claimed that he was making Weibo videos of African children for the “public good.” He then claimed that accusations that he made the video were a case of “mistaken identity” before accusing Malawians generally of being racist against Chinese people.
In response to the report, the Chinese Embassy in Malawi initially dismissed the video as old news.
“We strongly condemn racism in any form, by anyone or happening anywhere. We also noted that the video was shot in 2020,” the embassy stated, according to the local outlet Malawi24.
The statement prompted outrage in Malawi as it did not include an apology or indication of further action to prevent such incidents in the future. Malawian Foreign Minister Nancy Tembo said her country was “disgusted, disrespected, and deeply pained” by the report.
On Thursday, the embassy issued another statement acknowledging the outrage, but once again not apologizing or promising any significant action. On the contrary, the statement distanced Lu from the Chinese government.
“The Chinese community in Malawi has voiced their condemnation to racism in strong words,” the statement read in part, according to Voice of America. “the isolated case by a fool individual does not change the whole picture.”
Chinese diplomat Wu Peng, who runs the Foreign Ministry’s African affairs department, issued a statement indirectly addressing the incident by claiming that China and Malawi would “continue to crack down on such racial discrimination videos in the future,” without elaborating. Wu was visiting Malawi at the time.
Malawian police vowed to launch an investigation into any potentially criminal behavior involving the videos, including child abuse. Malawi24 found in an online poll that nationals enthusiastically want Lu Ke prosecuted for child exploitation and hate crimes. The poll also found that Malawians were not interested in deporting Lu back to China without facing justice in their country. Deportation is a common method of handling instances of Chinese racism in Africa; for example, Liu Jiaqi, the man caught on video calling all Kenyans “monkey people,” was simply deported home and it is not clear if he faced any consequences for his insults.
Reports have not clarified Lu Ke’s whereabouts at press time.