Guide Note

According to reports in July 2008, Beijing police were to enforce a ban on serving Africans and Mongolians in one of the city's most popular entertainment districts. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, denied the existence of any such plan. The pretext for the reported ban was supposedly to crackdown on crime ahead of the 2008 Olympics.¹

Fast Facts

1. Purported ban to take place in Beijing's popular Sanlitun bar district¹
2. Originally reported by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post
3. Paper used anonymous bar owner as source²
4. Chinese mob is referred to as "black society"—may have been mistaken as ethnic reference²

The following is the official response to the reported discriminatory measure, as posted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry:

• "The report is totally groundless. We have checked with the Bureau of Public Security in Beijing, Beijing's police departments including San Li Tun police station have never in any form asked any bar under their jurisdictions not to serve guests from any or region. At present, the bars in San Li Tun and other areas are doing business and serving foreigners as usual."³