Chinese roads into Africa - Howard French

Howard French via Wikipedia

Former New York Times correspondent Howard French tells Radio Open Source extensively of how China is successfully building inroads into Africa, after the failure of the West.

I was struck every time I got on a plane: the Westerners tend to be rich American tourists on their way to seeing lions and giraffes; or aid workers and NGO people — coming with a mission to minister to Africans about capacity-building or democracy and what my father used to do: public health. I say none of this with scorn, but the Chinese have a very different mission. The Chinese that I saw on the planes — and by the way, ten years ago I saw no Chinese; now they’re maybe a fifth of all the passengers — are all, almost to a person, business people. They’ve pulled up their stakes wherever they lived — in Szechuan province or Hunan province — and they have come to make it in Africa. And they’re not leaving until they do. Whatever it takes for them to make a breakthrough in farming or in small industry, they’re going to work 20 hours a day till they make it.

Much more at Radio Open Source.

Howard French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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