Police arrested a Chinese cameraman on charges of racism and child abuse in Malawi, in Southeast Africa. Lu Ke was living in the country when the BBC’s Africa Eye program revealed he was using local children for personalized celebration videos, many with racist content in a language they don’t understand.
These videos were sold for up to R$350 on social media platforms in China.
The defendant denies making videos of derogatory content and claims that he made them to spread Chinese culture in the local community.
But in one of them, for example, a group of children is instructed by the cameraman to repeat racial insults such as “I’m a black monster! I have a low IQ” in Mandarin.
Lu Ke admitted to producing the videos as they were filmed (not identified as such) on a hidden camera by a journalist, but quickly denied it.
Image: BBC
During the conversation, she said, “Never pity them, you must remember this. Never pity them. No matter what your family is, never pity them. That’s how you should treat blacks.”
In one of the conversations recorded with a hidden camera, he appears to have recorded more than 380 videos in one day and boasted something that would represent a revenue of at least $11,000 in less than 24 hours.
The incident began to be investigated by Malawian police last week after the BBC released the material, but the Chinese cameraman was on the run for days until he was found in the city of Chipata in neighboring Zambia.
According to Pasqually Zulu, Spokesperson for the Department of Immigration and Naturalization, the two countries are negotiating the deportation of Lu Ke to Malawi to continue the investigation.
When the incident came to light, senior Chinese diplomat Wu Peng said he had discussed the issue with his Malawian counterparts, emphasizing that China opposes all forms of discrimination and that the country is taking steps to eliminate such discrimination. social media content.
“China has been fighting these illegal online acts for the past few years,” he tweeted. “And we will continue to fight these racist videos in the future.”
Tips leading to the person responsible for the videos
These defamatory videos linked to a popular content category in China started popping up on social media in February 2020.
After months of painstaking research and forensic analysis of the video, reporters Runako Celina and Henry Mhango from the TV show’s crew African Eye, He managed to find some answers from the BBC to try to uncover the story behind the recording.
Experts (with the support of investigative reporter Henry Mhango) were able to determine, through geographic, topographical, and signal elements, that the IQ video was recorded in a small town in Malawi in Southeast Africa.
Image: BBC
Mhango discovered that Lu Ke had come to live in the area a few years ago and had recorded hundreds of videos with the locals.
According to the inhabitants of the city, they greeted him, believing that he had come to teach the little ones to speak Mandarin.
Also, journalists say it’s not uncommon to see Chinese citizens in Malawi today.
Due to Beijing’s efforts to expand its influence in Africa through investments in infrastructure and the presence of Chinese companies and technologies, locals have become accustomed to the presence of foreigners in the country.
This has also led some residents to believe that through the videos, Lu Ke can bring economic aid from China to improve the conditions of the poor population. However, they were disappointed when they learned of the producer’s true intentions from the BBC.
‘This text was originally published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-61878979.‘
source: Noticias
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