Dehradun: Uttarakhand entrepreneur Dev Raturi, who has been living in China for 21 years and calls it “his second home”, told TOI from Xi’an on Friday that he has decided to send his wife and two sons back to India after “a wave of AI-generated racist videos and social media attacks targeting him and the Indian community in China”.“My sons will be admitted to a boarding school in Dehradun. As of now, I’ll be staying in China to run my business. I’m not scared of the online attacks as I did nothing wrong. I have always been a law abiding resident here. This country has given me a lot… However, I have decided to send my wife and two sons back home, before things get worse,” Raturi said, adding that the trio will possibly board a flight on Saturday.Based in Xi’an city, Raturi had started his career there as a waiter in an Indian restaurant before he learnt Mandarin and started his own eatery chain.His rags to riches story earned him a chapter in the textbook of local school syllabus in 2023, which was first highlighted by TOI the same year. He then started getting roles in Chinese films. “There have been targeted attacks on the Indian community in China, including on me and my business, with AI-generated videos posted on local social media. This has been going on for the last 20 days with many asking Indians to leave China while accusing them of harming their tourist places with completely unverified claims,” Raturi added. He claimed that those running the “racist campaign” made certain false allegations against him including “employing only Indian staff in his restaurants, importing all ingredients from India and evading taxes”. Refuting the allegations, he said, “All of these are false. I presently run a chain of eight Indian restaurants — three in Xi’an and one each in Kunming, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Wuhan and Zhangzhou. Each restaurant has a staff of around 8-10 people of which 60% are local Chinese. Some of them have been working with us for over adecade. I have been following local rules and regulations with all due diligence while paying the applicable taxes.” One of his Chinese staff members, Zhang Dan, who has been working with him as an accountant since 2013, termed the online attacks “completely wrong”. “Dev has been working in our country, following all rules and contributing to the Chinese economy and the society,” Dan told TOI. He further said that he has contacted local police and authorities there on the “racial slurs”, and they have assured him of proper action.
