China Herald: The Chinese way of building in Africa

Chinese building projects are popping up all over Africa. But mostly those construction projects are no partnerships with locals, but Chinese ventures tend to be all Chinese, author Howard French of China's Second Continent tells Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera:

But while China is building new infrastructure across Africa, journalist Howard French points out that, rather than partnering with local companies, many of the infrastructure projects are funded, designed and implemented by the Chinese, using Chinese materials. “I’ve been on projects where even the people pushing wheelbarrows are Chinese.”

“Win-win is a propaganda slogan,” he says. “It’s not an accurate description of this sort of arrangement. Imperialism evolves. It’s different from age to age. The circumstances change. What doesn’t change is the balance of power between the two parties that are engaged in the Imperialism.”

In discussing new Chinese-built ports, he adds, “This is what imperial powers do. They build ports so that they can send their goods to that country and so that they can export from that country to their markets the things that they need from that country.”

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