Originally posted by winton
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On the good side, China is indeed investing money in places where it is sometimes needed and is building some useful infrastructure....though its quality & longevity is yet to be tested. The other side of that coin is that the Chinese are already beginning to wear out their welcome. In Ethiopia that has taken less than a decade. Some professionals resent that Chinese companies prefer to keep higher end work 'in house', mostly hiring locals for the shitty jobs. Some of the lower end workers are unhappy about the attitudes of their supervisors, who expect African workers to behave the same way as Chinese workers for less pay. Yet others see Chinese forming closed communities & engaging with locals as little as possible. Some feel that the racial attitudes of the Chinese they encounter are similar that of Europeans generations ago. On one flight I talked with a Japanese water engineer who is always quick to make it clear to Africans he meets that he is Japanese, not Chinese. Makes his life a lot easier. Process the implications of that for a moment.
Now, that is a nation where China is not propping up a brutal dictator (Ethiopia's dictatorship is fairly civilized) or stitching up dodgy deals for precious resources AFAIK. Resentment is more widespread than you think. At some point China is going to start pushing for more of a return on its investment that the locals are prepared to give. Your confidence that China is so much more popular than the US or Europe is based on China having been active in the region for a very short space of time. The people I'm talking to who have seen this up close are tipping that China is buying many fewer friends than it thinks it is and for a much shorter time. Africans have generations more experience at dealing with cashed up foreigners with a superior attitude & stuff all experience in Africa.
Originally posted by winton
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