I've just come back from the DRC, where I stayed in a superb Chinese hotel in Kinshasa and to my amazement the roads were excellent and traffic not the usual African nightmare. The hotel was built in the time of Mobutu and had become derelict; the Chinese arrived, put up barriers around it and started work. They employed no Congolese and nobody knew what they were doing until two years later when they took down the barriers and announced it was a five star hotel. Here's how all this is achieved:
Chinese contractor puts in a bid "at cost", i.e. half the cost of the bid submitted by French or Belgian contractors. Naturally the price is then inflated by 30 - 50 percent, the extra to be paid back into the bank account of the minister who signs the contract. Chinese contractor turns up with thousands of Chinese workers and finishes the job in record time. At the end of the job the workers, who are all convicts from Chinese prisons, are free to go. They disappear into the local population, learn the language, marry and start small businesses. China rids herself of a few thousand convicts and in return for doing the job "at cost" gets unhindered access to all The Congo's cobalt (important for electonics, 80% of it comes from the DRC) as well as all the other valuable minerals exposed by the Rift valley. Thus most of Africa is being mortgaged to China in exchange for a few million dollars in some ministers' bank accounts.
Now ask yourself why Britain is relaxing the visa rules for Chinese visitors.
Chinese contractor puts in a bid "at cost", i.e. half the cost of the bid submitted by French or Belgian contractors. Naturally the price is then inflated by 30 - 50 percent, the extra to be paid back into the bank account of the minister who signs the contract. Chinese contractor turns up with thousands of Chinese workers and finishes the job in record time. At the end of the job the workers, who are all convicts from Chinese prisons, are free to go. They disappear into the local population, learn the language, marry and start small businesses. China rids herself of a few thousand convicts and in return for doing the job "at cost" gets unhindered access to all The Congo's cobalt (important for electonics, 80% of it comes from the DRC) as well as all the other valuable minerals exposed by the Rift valley. Thus most of Africa is being mortgaged to China in exchange for a few million dollars in some ministers' bank accounts.
Now ask yourself why Britain is relaxing the visa rules for Chinese visitors.
