China Will Not Tolerate Chinese Companies Mistreating Nigerian Workers – Wang Yi

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi has come out to warn Chinese companies operating in Nigeria to strictly obey the labour laws of the country as well as local customs.

He recently revealed this in Abuja while responding to questions from newsmen shortly after a closed-door meeting with Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama.

According to him, he has been hearing rumors about alleged mistreatment of Nigerian workers by some Chinese companies, and the government of China would not tolerate such issues if they occur.

He added that even if he knows most of the Chinese companies in Nigeria are obeying the laws of the land, there are established diplomatic channels to keep the stubborn ones in check.

His words, “We make this clear to each and every Chinese company doing business in Nigeria, Nigerian laws must be strictly abided by, local customs shall be respected.

“We believe most of the Chinese companies here are doing well in this regard but there can be a few exceptions because of this or that kind of reasons they might have some labour issues.

“This is not something the Chinese government wants to see and whenever such issues occur we have diplomatic channels to communicate to make sure that the situation is properly handled to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Nigerian workers.”

“China firmly supports Africa’s fight against COVID-19, when China was hit by the coronavirus, we received firm support from our African brothers and such support we always cherish.

“On our part, China has contributed supplies to 53 African countries and the African Union, for some of them, this has helped met their immediate needs.

“China remains a developing country, China’s cooperation with Nigeria is South South cooperation. What makes this different from North South Cooperation is that the former is all about mutual help and support between friends.”