Rome (AFP)

Several well-known figures in the Chinese community in Italy on Thursday denounced "indiscriminate discrimination" and "latent racism" on the part of Italians frightened by the coronavirus epidemic and the risks of contagion.

According to the National Statistics Institute (Istat), the Chinese community in Italy counted around 300,000 people at the end of December 2018.

Francesco Wu, member of the management of Confcommercio of Milan, the trade union of the traders of the economic capital of Italy, thus denounced a "latent racism" of certain Italians who recommend to remove their children from the Chinese children for fear of the new coronaviruses.

Asked by the daily La Stampa that moms in Milan called on contact groups or Facebook pages to stay away from Chinese children and businesses, Mr. Wu, considered to be the spokesperson for the Chinese community of Milan (36,000 people) strongly protested:

"It’s an extremely unpleasant, absurd thing that causes anger. It’s totally unjustified and it hurts even more because it involves children. It’s something that originally had a mixture of ignorance and latent racism, "he lamented.

The municipal health officials sent a letter to the schools concerned stating that "there is no need to introduce measures restricting the presence of Chinese children within school communities".

Stressing that the Chinese community in Milan is from a coastal region of China, far from the city of Wuhan, the main source of the new coronavirus, Mr. Wu invited "the mayor (Giuseppe Sala, Editor's note) or another political official of the city to speak out and take a stand against this disinformation. "

"We fear episodes of discrimination, and some have already happened," Marco Wong, a city councilor in Prato, told AFP on the phone. "But discrimination is not only social, it is also economic, with a sharp drop in frequentation of Chinese restaurants," deplored Mr. Wong, recalling the "important" role of Chinese and mixed, Italian-Chinese companies, in the local economy.

- "Any sense" -

The mayor of Milan said Wednesday that "Chinese tourism brings to Milan around 300 million euros of revenue each month between hotels, shopping and restaurants: today we are at -40% compared to the period of 'before the new coronavirus ".

Hu Lanbo, a Chinese journalist who arrived in Italy 30 years ago and has been running the monthly magazine "Cina in Italia" (China in Italy) for over 10 years, sent an open letter "to Italian friends".

"To believe that one can catch the new coronavirus at the mere sight of a Chinese person really makes no sense. Please do not discriminate indiscriminately against all Chinese people, especially if they are children" , she wrote in her review.

According to a report from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy for the year 2018, the Chinese community in Italy owns around 52,000 businesses and 67% of the workforce works in commerce and catering.

More than half of the Chinese in Italy live in the north of the peninsula but a large percentage, 16%, is concentrated between the neighboring cities of Florence and Prato, in Tuscany, which are home to a flourishing textile industry.

Italy, like many other countries in the world, has taken security measures to prevent the possible spread of the new coronavirus.

A cruise ship with about 7,000 people on board including 6,000 passengers was thus Thursday awaiting to dock in front of the port of Civitavecchia, near Rome, a Chinese couple presenting suspicious symptoms of cough and high fever.

Doctors went on board to carry out examinations, the results of which should be known during the day, a specialized hospital told AFP.

© 2020 AFP