9 ms·

I think this is an urban legend, or at least a major hyperbole. The Chinese businesses (at least the ones I know in Kenya) all employ lots of locals. What is Ch

I think this is an urban legend, or at least a major hyperbole. The Chinese businesses (at least the ones I know in Kenya) all employ lots of locals. What is Chinese is management and most of the highly skilled workers. It's more about keeping the value-add than creating jobs for Chinese. We can argue that it's bad for locals, but unlike western colonialism, this happens under the rules the local governments have set them self. As the article points out - this might change if the Chinese government feels it needs to protect it's interests abroad - which could happen if a populist anti-chinese movement appears.

pm90 9y ago
Western colonialism happened pretty much among the same lines. Start as law-abiding traders, get pissed off by some local lord, build a fort, train a local army. Local army is better supplied and trained than local lords army, so now you engage in military games (either protection or outright conquest). Certainly I don't see this happening in any of the African countries. What China can do is what most Western countries do today to get debtor countries in line: refuse access to credit, or increase the interest rates on future loans. I'm interested to see if China plays regime-changing games that the US and (then) Soviet Union did when its interests were under threat. So far, it doesn't seem to be employing that strategy, but I wonder if they will...