Beijing police round up and beat African expats
· Diplomat's son among victims at nightclub
· Deep bias combines with crackdown on drugs

At least 20 black men, including students, tourists and the son of a Caribbean diplomat, were arrested in a popular nightclub district of Beijing on Friday, several of the group being severely beaten on suspicion of dealing drugs, witnesses said.
African expatriates in Beijing and witnesses claim the episode revealed a pervasive prejudice toward dark-skinned foreigners in China.

According to five bystanders, teams of police, dressed in black jumpsuits and reportedly wielding batons and taser guns, cordoned off a street in the popular Sanlitun nightclub district at around midnight and rounded up almost all the black men there. Many of the men were beaten.

The raid took place in front of hundreds of stunned expatriates outside the packed bars and clubs of the neighbourhood, which is popular with Beijing's burgeoning foreign community.

"I saw a guy being beaten by these kids. He wasn't doing anything. He wasn't fighting back," said one witness, a white American college graduate working in Beijing.

"I have not really ever seen anything so brutal," said another American. "There was blood on the streets. They were basically beating up any black person they could find."

Beijing police yesterday declined to confirm or deny the incident.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/26/china.internationalcrime