Fact-check: Were Nigerians Assaulted by Chinese in a Container?

Fact-check: Were Nigerians Assaulted by Chinese in a Container? 

Claim:  A viral video shows two black men being assaulted in a container by a suspected Chinese national. It was claimed that the incident was in Nigeria and the victims were Nigerians. 

Full Text: The 26 seconds short video has a text accompanying it thus: “???????? This Is Happening Right Inside Our Great Independent Nigeria & Our Citizens Are Brutally Turned In Dehumanised Slaves By Chinese Employers/Companies????????Pls Let This Video-Clip Go Viral Until It Gets To The Appropriate Authorities To Take Appropriate Actions To Teach Them Bitter Lesson Urgently. This Must Not Be Tolerated In This Country????????????”.

In the video, the workers can be seen sitting in a container-like space while a Chinese man yells at them and hits them mercilessly with a leather belt as they cover their heads to avoid injury.

The video has gained over 12 million views and has initiated discussions and debates about racism and slavery.

According to a Mumbai based newspaper, Free Press Journal in India, this isn’t the first report of such incidents. The Newspaper reported that last April, news agency ANI highlighted the mistreatment of African workers by Chinese project managers. According to Geneva Daily, local workers are subjected to abuse, forced labor, and low wages.

The viral video was also posted on a YouTube channel, Mirror Now, an Indian, English-language news channel owned by The Times Group. 

Also posting the video is a China  based newspaper, Global South Project, with the caption, “video of Chinese Man Whipping Two AfricaYoung Men goes Viral”.

Verification: To confirm if the claim of the assaulted African being Nigerians is actually true, PRNigeria fact-check broke the video into intermittent screenshots, then subjected them to image reverse search.

Our investigation revealed that the video was first shared by Dom Lucre, an American Inventor, journalist and political commentator,  on his verified X page, formerly, Twitter.

“Dom Lucre wrote: “This disturbing footage of a Chinese employer in Africa treating his employees like Trans Atlantic slaves is going viral across the internet. 

“Viewers have begun discussing on how it appears the Chinese are ‘fare more racist than the White man’ in Africa.

The video attracted 18.5 million views, 43.7k reposts, 6,231k  quotes and and 102k likes.

However, despite the fact that the video sparked a lot of controversies and debates globally, the exact location or country that the unfortunate incident happened is not revealed.

Further investigation by PRNigeria fact-check using keywords search also revealed that the incident happened in one of the African countries, but without specifically identifying the exact country, but also linking the video to Dom Lucre as the first person to share it. 

Conclusion: From the facts gathered, the exact country where the incident of the assault of Africans by a Chinese man happened is unidentified.

PRNigeria therefore concludes that the claim that the assaulted Africans are Nigerians is unverified and lacks sufficient evidence.

By PRNigeria