Foreign employee suspended over racist comments

The Chinese Academy of Sciences on Tuesday suspended a foreign employee after racist comments about Chinese people that he posted on LinkedIn went viral.

Austrian Mark A. Kolars, who is a visual effects artist at the academy's Institute of Automation, posted comments on his LinkedIn account on Tuesday that read "not racist, just don't like dirty yellow guys, talking trash all day long… We are here to make money and you need us. Without us to begin with you would still wear rice heads".

He also went on to make claims about the genetic superiority of Europeans over Chinese, saying "they (Chinese people) can improve by diversifying their existing gene pool by blending with other races and naturally enhancing their offspring. Europe is a bench mark which China will never reach. Not smart enough. Inbreeding for too long".

Screenshots of his comments went viral on Sina Weibo and question-and-answer website Zhihu on Tuesday, prompting the institute to launch an investigation into the matter.

The institute said in an online statement issued on Tuesday afternoon that it was "extremely shocked and angry" over the posts and strongly condemned Kolars' actions.

"Abiding by Chinese laws and respecting Chinese culture is the first and foremost prerequisite for foreign employees," it said.

The institute said it had suspended Kolars and would discuss its next course of action. It will update the public on any further decisions in relation to the case.

Since the incident, Kolars has deleted his profile picture on LinkedIn, and posted an apology on the social media platform. He said the posts "were inappropriate and racist in nature and hurt the feelings of my Chinese friends and colleagues, and caused a very bad impact in the society".

Kolars then said he is sorry for the trouble he created for his family and friends, and is "willing to take all responsibilities for everything that happened".

In the past few weeks, Kolars has posted numerous inappropriate comments related to China, such as calling the nation a "rough place glued together by wannabe metropolitan cities which crumble shortly after. It is fake and has zero substance".

Kolars also said he came from the "most beautiful city in the world: Vienna" and found the lack of manners, cultural values and aesthetics of the Chinese people disturbing. "There is nothing I can learn from the Chinese focusing primarily on making a ton of money in the shortest amount of time and get the hell out of the country," one of his comments said.

When commenting on foreign media reports of horse meat falsely labeled as Australian beef being sold to China, Kolars said "Australia learned from China", playing to the stereotype that Chinese goods are faulty, inferior or fake.

Chinese netizens were furious over the comments by Kolars, who claimed to have lived and worked in China for more than two decades and holds a foreign expert green card. Many demanded he be fired and banned from entering the country again.