What's new

In Africa, Chinese Developers Are Building A Mini-China

TaiShang

ELITE MEMBER
Joined
Apr 30, 2014
Messages
27,848
Reaction score
70
Country
China
Location
Taiwan, Province Of China
In Africa, Chinese Developers Are Building A Mini-China

A photo investigation of the Chinese-sponsored apartments, highways, factories—and even entire cities—that are sprouting up in Africa at an astounding pace.

On the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, a small sign points to "Beijing Road," where a new housing development called the Great Wall Apartments looks like the concrete towers you'd find in a Chinese city.

Across Africa, Chinese developers are building highways, light rail systems, apartment buildings, and entire cities. A new photo series from the Go West Project, a think tank focused on emerging megacities, looks at Chinese influence in seven African cities.

3050167-inline-s-img0425-in-africa-chinese-developers-are-building-a-mini-china.jpg


"We know the Chinese urban model, and we also know that China's trying to export that model to other parts of the world," says Michiel Hulshof, a Netherlands-based urban strategist who collaborates with Daan Roggeveen, an Shanghai-based architect, on the Go West Project. "Africa's sort of striking in that sense."

Next to Lagos, Nigeria, Chinese developers have built a walled-off "special economic zone"—basically a separate city, with separate rules designed to attract investors—based on a model they've used inside China for the last 30 years. After Shenzhen became a special economic zone in the 1980s, it went from a small town of 20,000 to, by some counts, 15 million today.

3050167-inline-s-gwp-aa-214-in-africa-chinese-developers-are-building-a-mini-china.jpg


"Now Shenzhen's the factory of the world," says Hulshof. "And that special economic zone is now being tried out in Africa."

Hulshof and Roggeveen visited two of the new developments, and also went to an meeting in London where a Chinese developer pitched the idea to investors. "The story is, 'Lagos is a very dangerous, chaotic city where nothing works, it's corrupt, so we're going to do that completely different,'" Hulshof says. Inside a locked border, the new development will have its own airport, its own reliable electric grid, its own harbor, and even its own police force.

3050167-inline-s-gwp-nbo-714-in-africa-chinese-developers-are-building-a-mini-china.jpg


In another special economic zone outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the researchers visited a Chinese shoe factory with Chinese managers, Chinese equipment, and local workers. (Interestingly, the quality control team is Brazilian, the shoes are being made for an American brand, and are being sold to Europeans.)

Chinese influence also goes beyond physical infrastructure. Now it's possible to pick up a copy of China Daily, China's state-run newspaper, in some African cities, and watch CCTV, China's state-run news channel. Some cities have Chinese language schools, and some African students are given grants to go study in China. In markets, Africans can buy Chinese bikes and mobile phones that aren't sold in other parts of the world.

3050167-inline-s-gwp-nbo-226-in-africa-chinese-developers-are-building-a-mini-china.jpg


Development is happening quickly, though not as quickly as megacities grew in China. Of 50 economic zones planned nine years ago, only six have been built. Developers are struggling to adapt to the differences in various African cultures and differences in governance.

"I think from Chinese point of view, the biggest danger is corruption in African countries," says Hulshof. "But another problem they will run into is democracy . . . which makes it more difficult to develop in the top-down way that Chinese companies are used to. If people own land, you can't just kick them out."

Though the pace and scale of Chinese influence has been criticized by some—Hillary Clinton has called it "new colonialism"—the researchers saw that the people they spoke with in Africa were generally positive about the changes, at least for now.

"It's too early to tell how this will turn out," says Hulshof. "But it's quite interesting."
 
United States gained its respect through the rebuild of West Europe and East Asia after WWII. If China can help African development while United States turns more and more countries into battleground, the change of the world order is clearly coming. China has become the largest trade partner. United states has lost to China in trade. It has started to shift its foreign policy to military, which is quickening this process.

If not due to the distance and the culture, investment in Africa is a much better choice than Vietnam, especially in those China-friendly countries such as Tanzania, Zambia and kenya in East Africa. Mao was clearly very visionary, started to build China-Africa relation as early as 1960s.

China-Africa Trade is $280 billions while China-ASEAN trade is $500 billions. With US pivotal to Asia, there is highly possible that China-Africa trade will surpass China-ASEAN trade and China-South Korea trade will surpass China-Japan trade.
 
United States gained its respect through the rebuild of West Europe and East Asia after WWII. If China can help African development while United States turns more and more countries into battleground, the change of the world order is clearly coming. China has become the largest trade partner. United states has lost to China in trade. It has started to shift its foreign policy to military, which is quickening this process.

If not due to the distance and the culture, investment in Africa is a much better choice than Vietnam, especially in those China-friendly countries such as Tanzania, Zambia and kenya in East Africa. Mao was clearly very visionary, started to build China-Africa relation as early as 1960s.

China-Africa Trade is $280 billions while China-ASEAN trade is $500 billions. With US pivotal to Asia, there is highly possible that China-Africa trade will surpass China-ASEAN trade and China-South Korea trade will surpass China-Japan trade.

To reach the goals of what you suggested China needs to have more military muscle and clear policy to use the muscle. First of all let the US know that China has stockpiled enough nukes and is capable of destroying the US even in the second strike. Nuclear upper hand is the only thing that US relys on in making their aggressive foreign policy to China.

Sign a military alliance treaty with the Russians. If one of the two is being attacked by nukes the other should also consider to be attacked.
 
United States gained its respect through the rebuild of West Europe and East Asia after WWII. If China can help African development while United States turns more and more countries into battleground, the change of the world order is clearly coming. China has become the largest trade partner. United states has lost to China in trade. It has started to shift its foreign policy to military, which is quickening this process.

If not due to the distance and the culture, investment in Africa is a much better choice than Vietnam, especially in those China-friendly countries such as Tanzania, Zambia and kenya in East Africa. Mao was clearly very visionary, started to build China-Africa relation as early as 1960s.

China-Africa Trade is $280 billions while China-ASEAN trade is $500 billions. With US pivotal to Asia, there is highly possible that China-Africa trade will surpass China-ASEAN trade and China-South Korea trade will surpass China-Japan trade.
The West and East Asia are too smart. Even w/o US guidance. They will succeed.
 
Africa is definitely one of the most important geographies in China's global vision, especially the vast Sub-Saharan (SSA) region. Despite a low GDP per capita (but still higher than India & South Asian average) the SSA hosts massive natural reserves e.g. arable land, minerals, energy, tourist parks, let alone the continent (including the Arab countries in the north e.g. Egypt) as a whole.


With the right stimulus, this 30 million sqkm continent will continue to lead the world in economic growth. The billion-strong population will become both powerful producer as well as booming consumer for businesses across the globe.

 
Last edited:
Africa is definitely one of the most important geographies in China's global vision, especially the vast Sub-Saharan (SSA) region. Despite a low GDP per capita (but still higher than India & South Asian average) the SSA hosts massive natural reserves e.g. arable land, minerals, energy, tourist parks, let alone the continent (including the Arab countries in the north e.g. Egypt) as a whole.


With the right stimulus, this 30 million sqkm continent will continue to lead the world in economic growth. The billion-strong population will become both powerful producer as well as booming consumer for businesses across the globe.

But India is the fastest, we are the only hope of 21st century.
 
But India is the fastest

No I am afraid, the fastest was South Sudan, they recorded 36.2% GDP growth last year, check official data below.

GDP growth (annual %) | Data | Table
  1. South Sudan 36.2
  2. Turkmenistan 10.3
  3. Ethiopia 9.9
  4. Congo, Dem. Rep. 9.0
  5. Cote d'Ivoire 9.0
  6. Myanmar 8.5
  7. Uzbekistan 8.1
  8. Palau 8.0
  9. Mongolia 7.8
  10. Maldives 7.6
But India is the fastest, we are the only hope of 21st century.

Can't compare to Africa (even Sub-Saharan Africa), which has higher economic base (GDP per capita), faster growth rate, far richer natural reserves. Based on these data, I can't see india surpassing Sub-Saharan Africa anytime soon, or will it ever happen.
 
Last edited:
No I am afraid, the fastest was South Sudan, they recorded 36.2% GDP growth last year, check official data below.

GDP growth (annual %) | Data | Table
  1. South Sudan 36.2
  2. Turkmenistan 10.3
  3. Ethiopia 9.9
  4. Congo, Dem. Rep. 9.0
  5. Cote d'Ivoire 9.0
  6. Myanmar 8.5
  7. Uzbekistan 8.1
  8. Palau 8.0
  9. Mongolia 7.8
  10. Maldives 7.6


Can't compare to Africa (even Sub-Saharan Africa), which has higher economic base (GDP per capita), faster growth rate, and much far richer natural reserves.
We have the highest PPP growth.
PPP is much more accurate than nominal GDP.
 
Africa is definitely one of the most important geographies in China's global vision, especially the vast Sub-Saharan (SSA) region. Despite a low GDP per capita (but still higher than India & South Asian average) the SSA hosts massive natural reserves e.g. arable land, minerals, energy, tourist parks, let alone the continent (including the Arab countries in the north e.g. Egypt) as a whole.


With the right stimulus, this 30 million sqkm continent will continue to lead the world in economic growth. The billion-strong population will become both powerful producer as well as booming consumer for businesses across the globe.

India-Africa summit was a huge success, China-Africa relation is stagnant due to your shrinking economy.
We can provide more to Africa, money, technology and expertise, to help Africa become the next India.
 
Port, factories, jobs to locals, then an enclave, own police and finally a standing military, for decades disguised as perimeter guards, ... that's how the East India Company colonised India. Is Africa listening?
 
Other than constructing infrastructure, SEZ (Special Economic Zone) is an expanded version of Industrial Zone (Industrial Parks, Corridor, etc) to meet several strategic objectives.
  1. They would increase demand for Chinese-made machinery and equipment, while making it easier to provide postsales product support
  2. By producing overseas and exporting to Europe or North America, Chinese companies would be able to avoid trade frictions and barriers imposed on exports from China.
  3. The zones would assist China’s efforts to boost its own domestic restructuring and move up the value chain at home.
  4. They were intended to create economies of scale for overseas investment, and in particular, to assist less experienced small and midsize enterprises to venture overseas “in groups.”
  5. They were viewed as a way to transfer one element of China’s own success to other developing countries, a strategy helpful for recipient countries, while also benefiting China.
By 2009 some of the countries that have SEZ established include: Pakistan (Haier-Ruba Home Appliance Industrial Zon), Zambia, Thailand, Cambodia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Russia (St. Peterburg Baltic Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, Ussuriysk Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, Tomsk Siberia Industrial and Trade Cooperation Zone), Venezuela, Vietnam, Mexico, Ethiopia, Egypt, Algeria, South Korea, Indonesia,etc.

132346051_31n.jpg

The China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is one example, lead investment by China-Africa TEDA Investment Co, Ltd.Like all SEZ's, this zone is industrial in nature, it's all about manufacturing i.e. "Made in Egypt". Major firms here include Jushi Egypt Fiberglass Industry, XD High Voltage Equipment Company and Muyang Egypt Industry. The zone is under expansion now, ultimately it will bring 150~180 Chinese companies here, total investment US$2+ billion, creating 40,000 local jobs, generate significant tax revenues for Egyptian budget as well as their Forex reserves.
Egypt: Country Can Play Key Role in 'Belt and Road' Project


Links for in-depth reading:
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom