Chinese people are growing fond of hurling racial insults and threatening Black people on social media, a survey conducted by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has shown.

Chinese social media users frequently depict black people as illiterate and underprivileged in their social media posts on the Chinese Internet, a matter considered a ticking time bomb if it goes unaddressed by the relevant authorities.

After sifting through hundreds of videos and content posted on Chinese government-approved social media platforms like Weibo, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Kuaishou from late 2021, HRW discovered that Chinese content creators have a habit of portraying themselves as wealthy and employers of labour while the Blacks are framed to be impoverished and dependent on them.

HRW senior China researcher, Yaqiu Wang, disclosed the content were aimed at generating money in most cases.

“There are clicks and viewership involved, and that usually means profit for social media content creators,” Ms Wang told VOA.

The racial discrimination has worsened to the point where Blacks are now accused of “contaminating and threatening” the Chinese race when they marry any Chinese citizen.

In extreme cases, the Chinese women get rape and death threats for showing off their Black partners on social media, with some suffering doxxing.

According to the HRW senior researcher, the Chinese government is mostly at fault for encouraging its citizens to assume that Africa is an impoverished continent.

The Chinese government, according to Ms Wang, portrays Africa as a “poor, backward” continent whose economic survival heavily depends on their investment.