International Law

Peter Hitchens on the "Wicked Chinese Empire" in Africa

Quotes like those below make for great reading. The proclamations of friendship between China and African nations, common in the 1960s and 70s, based upon on a common penury and "revolutionary ideals," have long since vanished, replaced by mountains of cash.

China's cynical new version of imperialism in Africa is a wicked enterprise.

There are persistent rumours, which cropped up in almost every conversation I had in Zambia, that many of the imported Chinese workforce are convicted criminals whom China wants to offload in Africa. I was unable to confirm this but, given China's enormous gulag and the harshness of life for many migrant workers, it is certainly not impossible.

The limitation of the article -- not a weakness -- is the insistence that the writer's personal experience is repeated throughout Chinese business communities in Zambia and Africa. Nonetheless, I found many of the writer's assertions to be plausible. Confirmation of this story is essential. First-hand accounts would be extremely welcome, especially from Chinese who've lived and worked in these colonies. Readers aware of other such articles are more than welcome to pass those stories on to me.

If any of this is true, the writer is himself quite an interesting individual.

Full post as published by Asia Business Intelligence on June 01, 2009 (boomark / email).