Bullying of Chinese engineer in Egypt is an individual case: Chinese official

CAIRO - 12 March 2020: Spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Cairo Jiao Jinshian said on Thursday that the bullying incident of the Chinese engineer in Cairo is an individual case and the driver's reaction was caused by fear, adding that he visited the engineer to check on him.

In a statement on Jinshian's official Facebook page, the spokesperson added that Egypt is one of the first countries that helped China in its fight against the virus, as it sent China huge medical aid.

He also said that the new coronavirus poses a public health threat to the international community and to all mankind, and China has been keen to combat it from the start.

In the past few days, a video of a Chinese engineer bullied while walking on the Ring Road circulated. The video witnessed a wave of criticism from the Egyptian media.

The Chinese spokesperson emphasized the strength of the bilateral relationships between Egypt and China, pointing out that the Egyptian officials extended their apologies to the Chinese engineer, and that the engineer expressed his appreciation for the support he received from the Egyptian friends, a thing that made him feel warm and comfortable.

The police are trying to locate two men who bullied a Chinese man in Cairo under the premise of coronavirus, as the driver who forced him out of the car was arrested Wednesday.

The Chinese ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang visited the Chinese visitor in his Giza hotel on Wednesday to lift his spirits after the bullying incident.

A Chinese journalist in Egypt, Fayhaa Wang, posted a video of a group of Egyptians visiting the bullying victim in his hotel, offering him flowers and apologizing in Arabic and Chinese. Wang wrote on Facebook that the Chinese ambassador told the man the incident is not representative of the Egyptian people.

Earlier this week, two men noticed an Asian looking man in the backseat of a car, and the Egyptian driver was holding tissues against his mouth and nose. They began filming the man, and pushing the driver to kick the Chinese man out of the car. He got out of the car on the highway Ring Road, and tried to stop any car to take him, but the two men followed him and telling people to "run from corona."

The man looked rather confused, with him trying to avoid the two men and stop cars honking at him to get away from the middle of the road.

One of the two men posted the video on Facebook, saying "detecting a coronavirus case on the Ring Road," with the impression that he thought the video was funny. But the backlash on the video was huge, he soon had to delete his Facebook account. The identity of the two men is now known to the police, but are yet to be detained.

Numerous Egyptians shared the video, expressing their empathy with the Chinese man, lamenting the reactions of the people in the video and apologizing to the Chinese people. Arabic hashtags dubbed "together against coronavirus" and "no to racism" were trending in Egypt.

The driver told the police he was taking the Chinese man from a hotel in Maadi to Abbasiya, when he noticed that the passenger was "coughing forcefully," so he forced him to leave the car. The driver then headed home and is in quarantine in a hospital in Abbasiya.

A Chinese journalist in Egypt, Fayhaa Wang, posted a video of a group of Egyptians visiting the bullying victim in his hotel, offering him flowers and apologizing in Arabic and Chinese. Wang wrote on Facebook that the Chinese ambassador told the man the incident is not representative of the Egyptian people.