March 11, 2021 Africans vilified the Chinese, blaming them for the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, China was blaming Africans for the pandemic, too. Viral videos in March and April 2020 showed Chinese authorities forcibly evicting Africans from their homes in Guangzhou, China, for allegedly spreading Covid-19. These actions sparked an uproar on the continent. On social media, there were calls for deporting Chinese residents in Africa. The Twitter hashtag #DeportRacistChinese trended throughout the continent. Beijing sought to improve its pandemic-era image in Africa with “mask diplomacy,” an effort to supply the continent with vaccines, medical equipment and personnel—and it worked.