Information reaching Happyghana.com indicates that China’s Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Shi Ting Wang has been invited by Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway to a closed-door meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
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Since Monday 6th April 2020, reports on international and local news platforms suggests that some Africans in China’s Guangdong Province were evicted from their hotels and apartments as the local authorities in the province embarked on a mass forcible testing of Africans for the Coronavirus. The intensity of these reports heightened on Thursday, 9th April when videos and images of the alleged cases went viral on African messaging platforms in China as well as on social media platforms. It is therefore believed that the invitation of the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana by Hon Shirley Ayorkor Botchway is in relation to the reports and cases of alleged discrimination.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana is not the first to be summoned by a host country in 2020 on Coronavirus associated issues. In March this year, an Assistant Secretary of State in the USA summoned China’s Ambassador in Washington Ambassador Cui Tiankai to the State Department. The summon was triggered by a Chinese official’s tweet on issues relating to Coronavirus.
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However, in a special COVID-19 dialogue by Happy FM on Wednesday; 6th April, Ambassador Shi Ting Wang debunked reports of targeted testing of Coronavirus in China’s Guangdong province against Africans and said that even if mass testing was being carried out, the scope would not include only Africans. He stated “I am not aware of the regulation you mentioned just now. If there is a similar regulation, I can assure you, it is not only for Africans. It is for all foreigners in China regardless of where they come from. It is criminal to discriminate against certain group of people.”
Watch China’s Ambassador to Ghana’s response when asked by the host about forcible tenant etc.
On Friday, Nigeria’s Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, also invited the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Zhou Pingjian to communicate the government’s concern
about allegations of maltreatment of Nigerians in Guangzhou.