#78

• OLYMPIC RACISM
• Tom Joyner Talks About This
• Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics
• BLACKS BANNED FROM BARS IN BEIJING, CHINA, DURING OLYMPICS

July 18, 2008

In a couple of weeks Beijing will turn into a party town and Sanlitun is predicted to be the epicenter of the Olympic night events. 

The South China Morning Post has however reported that the bar owners in the area were asked to refuse service to black patrons. The article reports:

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.

We checked twice just to make sure: This story comes from the SCMP and not The Onion ... in 2008 ... as the world awaits the ultra-harmonious "One World, One Dream" Olympics. Did you hear that? That was the sound of our jaw dropping.

But something about this report doesn't gel. Could this possibly be true? Could it possibly be enforced? Given the strong national ties that China has built with African nations in the last two years coupled with the fact that many Olympic athletes (and their families) hail from African descent — not to mention that such a policy would be despicable and horrendous PR for a country looking to improve its image — it sounds like, perhaps, some racist in the Beijing government went out on his own on this one.

We hope strong denials from Beijing are in the works.

Will Kobe Bryant be barred from enjoying a celebratory drink in Beijing?

UPDATE: More on the Beijing bar ban confusion

GEOFFREY YORK

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

July 18, 2008

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.”

Paramilitary policemen hold the Chinese national flag in front of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, at the Olympic Green in Beijing on Friday.

 (Joe Chan/Reuters)

Related Articles

Recent

* Beijing busy welcoming the world as it turns away its ethnic minorities
* A jittery China awaits the Games
* PM still firm on decision not to attend Olympics

From the archives

* IOC says it's time for China to deliver on promises
* China seen as reneging on media-freedom vow

The Globe and Mail

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.

SOURCE

ANOTHER ARTICLE:

Washington Post

China’s Olympics PR and Why the Chinese Just Cannot Win

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

July 22, 2008

A lot of comment continues to appear in various media about the Olympics, much of it negative. From reports in Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post about “black people not allowed into Beijing bars,” to issues over excessive clampdowns and visa issues, it seems whichever way the Chinese turn, a media angle is there to criticize.

However, much of the criticism is directed at issues that are not quite as they initially appear. The article about black people in Beijing ’s bars, which in the face of it appears racist, emanates from a different set of circumstances. Regrettably, the bar street concerned (a rather seedy area to be frank, populated by bars selling low cost happy hour beers, and a haunt of students, rather than Beijing locals or businessmen) has long had problems with drugs. The pushers and dealers are regrettably often Africans. [Oh?] What the police actually asked bar owners in the area to do was to “look out for black people behaving suspiciously on your premises, and if necessary, ask them to leave.”

Given the full context of the circumstances, it’s not as initially racist as it appears. It’s not unreasonable for the police in any country to work and make requests concerning security to bar owners and managers. Who are the perpetrators of wrongdoing here; the Chinese police, trying to crack down on drug abuse during a time when the city is full of tourists; or the drug dealers, viewing the Olympics as a prime occasion to make more money than usual? Yet it’s the Chinese police who get all the negative headlines.

Negativity has also been directed at the heavy handed manner that China has again gone about its traffic management during the Games. Commencing just a few days ago, private vehicles in Beijing were restricted to even numbered license plated cars on the streets one day, odd the next. Draconian? Hardly. It’s a time proven way to widen road capacity during a busy period and also assists with pollution issues. Years ago, when I lived in Athens , the Greeks would do the same when the pollution got too bad. People would grumble about if of course—it’s inconvenient and out of routine—but faced between that and choking, putrid air and congested traffic, it’s the lesser of two evils by far. Yet certain media take issue with it.

The same applies to checking bags and having x-ray machines installed, for the first time, on Beijing ’s subways. Passengers are required, rather like at an airport, to put baggage through an x-ray machine, and not to take drinks or food on the stations. Complaints aplenty, but why? Hong Kong’s excellent MTR system has never allowed food and drink on the subway, and surely the specter of some idiot with a vengeance carrying explosives into a crowded underground space to blow himself up is a legitimate one given today’s heightened security situation and tensions. These measures are not unreasonable. The next Olympics, in 2012 are in London and I am sure that similar measures will be in force on the underground system there.

Discussing the issue with China-based PR experts, I hear a common thread: “When a media situation becomes a no-win argument, it’s better just to say nothing,” and common agreement that in handling the media as they are, the Chinese are doing a very professional job, rather than a poor one, in their management of such stories.

Continuing a debate along such lines can make matters far worse, as was pointed out. In the past, when China has tried to explain its position, it’s just dug itself deeper into the mire. Consider Darfur . Much has been written about the Chinese supply of arms and equipment to the government and thus adding to the problems of the civil war. When attempting to explain their position, the international media just went further on the offensive. Little matter that the trucks and arms  the government backed militia are using were sold to the Sudanese [by whom?] well before the conflict erupted. 

The perception has largely been the Chinese have directly helped fund the conflict. Mia Farrow dubbed the 2008 Games, “The Genocide Olympics,” and called for a boycott of an event “organized by mass murderers.” [Whoa!]

The Chinese then just stopped talking to the media, and instead limited their discussions over the Darfur problem with other nations, behind closed doors. The issue has now dropped quietly from the headlines.

I live in Beijing , and I can advise the ambiance there is one of emerging excitement and anticipation, and that the Games look as if they are going to be a blast. It’ll be a great occasion, and one I do not want to miss. So, when reading negative headlines about China , business, culture, and the Olympics, especially at this moment when the international world is focused on the country, consider these truisms: don’t believe everything you read in the media, and sometimes you just can’t win. These have never been truer about China , or about the Chinese, than they are right now.

* * * * *

JC's Response to this is:

Too bad the Chinese didn't have this kind of vision when the British were turning their country into an opium den a century or two, ago!

Two people I know who live and work in Shanghai are going back to their respective corners of the world, namely, Belgium and Australia.

After having lived in China for five months in 2006, I'm not sure it is where I'd want to be during the Games, when traffic will no doubt triple and getting things done will slow down to a meager crawl. Better to watch the Games on CNN on my small digital TV screen.

No Blacks, Mongolians Allowed At Beijing Bars: Report - July 19, 2008, Printed on July 24, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/wire/92102

Hong Kong's English newspaper The South China Morning Post Friday reported that Chinese authorities have issued a secret ban on blacks, Mongolians and other "social undesirables" from Beijing's bars during the Olympics.

As the content on South China Morning Post's site is for subscribers only, here is an excerpt of the article c/o the Beijing drinking blog Beijing Boyce:

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....

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.

China's preeminent English-language media analysis site Danwei didn't lend credence to the SMCP report, calling the high-level ban "unlikely." However Jeremy Goldkorn writes on Danwei that "it is highly plausible that some low level cops have issued such instructions, especially with the current state of high alert in Beijing making officials and government agencies paranoid and very nervous about foreigners."

Further investigation by Beijing Boyce, who interviewed Beijing bar owners on the alleged ban, found that low-level Beijing cops have been visiting the capital city's watering holes and warning owners and employees to keep their eye on black patrons. According to an update Saturday on Beijing Boyce:

An owner said police met with Sanlitun bar reps and told them to monitor black patrons. He said the police told the reps that drug dealers are predominantly black in the area. He said the police did not ask bar owners to ban blacks.

© 2008 All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/wire/92102/ - Source

JC,

This a article blog about Henry Li, who I told you about.  A good friend of both Matt and myself, who help me out during my ban on entering the Den bar. If anyone knows about this then Henry will.  Will try to reach him.

Carl Hill [lived in China for 11 years]

April 19, 2007

Category: Centro, Neo, Public Space, Rui Fu, Vogue 

I’d heard from several sources that Beijing bar legend Henry Li (Neo Lounge, Vogue, and Public Space) was looking to sell his latest spot, Rui Fu, and move on to other projects. I ran into Henry at Centro on Tuesday and indeed it is true: the cavernous bar that mixes historical digs with what I once dorkily penned as the combined spirt of a “plush karaoke, generic hotel casino, and modernized opium den” is up for sale. (Incidentally, my review of Rui Fu inspired this angry letter). Although I had early reservations about the place, it was a regular stop for about two months, until the never-ending theme parties scared me off — honestly, how many times can I dress up as a schoolgirl? Even so, of Rui Fu there will always be the memories."

_______________________________________

You’d think with the horrible reputation China has around the world concerning human rights violations and the situation with Tibet, they’d be on their best behavior during the Olympics.

Well…. not quite.

Bar owners in the epicenter of the Olympic nightlife have been asked to sign pledges vowing not to serve Black or Mongolian patrons, by uniformed police.

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.

I just hope there aren’t any acts of violence once black visitors are rejected when they just want to have a good time. I’m having visions of the opening scene in “Menace II Society” (clip is not work safe).

SEE VIDEO: HURRY UP AND BUY!

BLACK & WHITE? IT'S ENOUGH!

BLACK PRESENCE IN CHINA