Zambia: Under Chinese influence | Reporters Plus • FRANCE 24 English

Piano number two turned to journalists and here on France 24 China's presence in Africa is key to economic development on both sides and Chinese investment in Zambia perhaps highlights this the most, although it creates jobs and wealth of two degrees for the local population, there is also resentment, but The relationship between Zambia and China is new. It began when Zambians were literally fighting for their independence from Britain, financed and armed by the Chinese. Today there is a growing sense that China's

influence

surpasses that of the local population and that could affect the political landscape. also ramirelangwa nikolajiman and yisong with this, how is the collision going this week?

Our district's collection is not too bad, obviously, Tanzania, that's the one we have to collect because it's over a hundred and seven thousand dollars, so Eric was saying it's absolutely good, I think she's a woman. pregnant now I think so oh yes the lady she is really a foreign landscaper landscaper this time with the camera everyone is very good all these people will have to tell you foreigners oh we just bought this additional land for the future expanding our CEO also very good The person is kind people that's why I want to work with him to work for him forever that's why I'm here they are friendly they like to learn but they also forget very quickly it's our material we have our mind here it's a cow gas station we make gas to heat the towers here is the control room of the gas station and there you can see the police post that we are building for the community here there is no police post that's why the community comes, the councilor tells us no, can you help us? builder?

Please post uh and our CEO Mr. Huang decided that yes, no problem, we will build one even if it is a little far away. We are building, we have already started to make a base for the hospital for the community as well. Yes, and the school also after the hospital here, where the investor will earn some money, but we are also considering how the situation of our Zambian people is, so it is very sensitive to talk about the Chinese

influence

in Zamka today because of the connections they have. I have very influential, very powerful people who I don't think any of us want to cross paths with.

I think that in developing countries there is corruption just like in developed countries. In the United States it is called lobbying and here it is called I have corrupted you to change the law. You know that the reality now is that you are better off, you are safer being Chinese in Zambia than in Zambia I'm sorry, there was no response from the requested number the embers don't want to talk, they don't talk, no I don't talk, I meet the Chinese ambassador very close Often, we have lunch, we have dinner, we have one, but he never says anything in public, they understand that no one likes them, so why should they pretend that they are foreigners?

The whole farm we fed almost uh 300 350 somewhere there. and our plan is in the future maybe maybe 2022 we can reach 3000 somewhere foreign one is um our watchman's son they are friends this is eldada nahim we are supposed to go to school now for coffee 19 just that farm six months you come came to

zambia

i think you speak some local languages ​​feet foreigner you are foreigner those are

chinese

you can find this name written in

chinese

everywhere chinese everywhere chinese so we are controlled by chinese so ah this time life is very bad businesses are closed down due to coronavirus violence oh the government they are doing nothing they are busy telling us about life these are going to be very tough elections people want change because they are really suffering for these people they are busy deceiving us this government has zero tolerance against corruption, the patriotic front is a pro-poor political party, it is a party of peasants, ordinary Zambians, farmers, workers, students, so it is a party of patriots and not psychopaths, not from those who want to steal from the people to embezzle the government. they are very sure that his excellency president edgar chagallon will emerge victorious one two three one two three sound check china is not taking anything away from

zambia

in fact china has helped us more than the west wow china has invested billions of its own money in our mining in our infrastructure in our communications and transportation China is investing billions of dollars in our energy infrastructure so China is giving us a better deal and also China is helping us with technology transfer.

China will continue to be our partner. This is my wife. every country needs investment, the challenge I can honestly tell you is that many of the agreements that Zambia has with China are not transparent, they put a lot of money into roads, they put a lot of money into hospitals and the problem with that is that most of these projects were too expensive, you know, there was a lot of corruption and contract awarding, you know, friends you know and associates you know, so instead of a road costing 10 dollars, roads cost 50 dollars, the government hasn't revealed, you know, really , you know, 100 percent how far our relationship with China goes, how much we owe China, you know, the external debt is over 10 billion dollars and all that, but we know that the total debt is greater than that, Chinese companies They are present in many sectors in which they are.

Everywhere we need an economy that protects some of the sectors, you know, local people like to bring chicken to the market, even if they are not nerds, they just clean and still have cheaper, that's why people just go buy chickens Chinese and what they do, they can even start selling the chicken at four weeks and what they do, they stimulate their chickens too much, mixing them and the chicken after reaching five weeks, they start giving them only water with food without energy, But the Chinese continue to give it vitamin Z, their chicken is cheaper. it is very expensive we our chickens are big we are selling them at a high price look at them they say they love the chinese the relationship between zambia and china started long before zambia became independent as freedom fighters when they were fighting to gain independence from colonial rule British needed the support of countries that could provide them support and China was one of those countries that provided support to the Zambian freedom fighters.

China, in fact, was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Zambia due to that background. That independence was immediately followed by challenges: the closing of the border between Zambia and then Southern Rhodesia, what is now Zimbabwe. The other route that Zambia could use to export its copper was through the port of Salaam in Tanzania, so the Chinese government came on board and helped and built the Zambia and Tanzania Railway, of course, so we only have one thing because we don't involve politics, yes, no, there is no election about Zambia, me, anything else, we are just standing in the championship, the cobra foundry limited, yes, which is the biggest. corpus kills on the african continent also china's first copper smelter the purity of this product must be 98 higher than foreign the entire china wine production line is made in china some people in the west say china is becoming too much big in Africa What is your response when they say these are such big questions that it is very difficult to say?

Sorry, I'm just trying to make sure we have the numbers for the Chinese mines, how much copper goes to China? I know we don't have figures in the mining industry. It's crazy, isn't it. No one is that's why minds are very reserved. There is what is known as the extractive industry transparency initiative, but it is all lies. Yes, it's all eyes. What is the government? Know? How do they do it? I go and take a sample to the government. This is the copper. Oh, I'm exporting. So there's less copper content than what happens. So no one checks it.

They don't understand us when we try to explain to them and the lack of communication because, eh, the user prefers and they don't care that we are safe, they don't do that for us, my disadvantage is that there is too much dust when you understand that they don't listen to us, especially it is so difficult here in Zambia, our government. They said we should work eight hours. Now we are working two hours and look at the money we are receiving. Let me see. We were working eight hours. It's a shame. Listen, it's no different. I think they want to film a view in here. here is our Chinese residential area, you know, what you've seen here, we have the tennis and basketball area, you know, and we also have this whole department for Chinese employees, you know, that's why we say that we are just like a family group, here is our Zambian, you know, the staff residential area, hello, is there someone who has cleaned your house and then wants to photograph a room?

Normally most of the things from Zambia go home every day, but for this area of ​​Kobe 19, so. we just renovated as a quarantine residential area, you know, it's a simple dining room, a living room and we have a bathroom inside. It's independent. It's better than home. There is no place like home. We are all equal even to our Chinese. We know that we want to see that they are our family members, but those problems, so I think it is a problem that we must conquer together here today, it is that season, we are planting strawberries, that you are under this quarantine, so, sleeping here to the campaign, how?

How long have you been here without seeing your family since last year April until now and when do you think you will see them again I don't know mom the song yama china talks about how much control we have lost we have lost control of our own economy we have lost control of our own social and political control and when I say political control I should be able to tell you that the Chinese companies in this country are literally founders of the politicians of the bankrupt government, so they finance personal projects for these politicians they finance the campaigns they we know this we know these things as facts in this country and many people know that it is easy for me to point the finger at a Chinese investor who is abusing his workers because no matter who is who and who is watching and who is not, other investors may want to hide some of these things, so even when they have situations or cases with labor laws and their illicit transactions, they will try to hide it from the Chinese. there is no need to hide, they are doing it with such impunity as these are the untouchables, anyone can see what they are doing we see these things, you hear these stories every day as a journalist, it is very, very important to me, especially after having Growing up on the copperbelt to follow all the procedures in the mining sector, from production to unionism and people who are displaced by the environmental impact, it is very important for me to follow this and in fact I do mining stories with much more frequently than any other story.

Achimulunda is a land governance and human rights activist, he is a credible source, the story we were going to do is about the nfca and some residents, some locals who were displaced because of these mining operations, on the right side there used to be some families here who used to live here and their 10 year land tenure security was compromised was not legal so somehow they were considered squatters, they were displaced between 10 and 15 kilometers, where they are now is a remote area, the road is completely impassable, there is no public transportation so they can do their daily workouts easily it is always a challenge they have to walk to the many Koreans is foreign so this house with two bedrooms a kitchen a living room in the bathroom has two parents and seven children.

In the houses they are convinced that the quality is good, it is just the lack of fans and that they are too small for families, so they have it. My night you stopped crying because I used to hear that yesterday, the first time my wife was a foreigner, um, foreigner, foreigner. our report by romeo langla nicholas and yisong see their report again via our website

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24.com and of course we will continue to bring you all the latest African news here on

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