From Granta via Reason here is a little thing by Lindsey Hilsum on Chinese businesses in Africa. It’s really just a little journalistic squib mostly about how the author was surprised to find Chinese in Africa. The author has clearly not read The Star Raft. She points out, correctly, that the Chinese economy is expanding all over the place and that the Chinese demand for raw materials is being felt all over. The author points out that the Chinese are popular with charming governments like that of the Sudan because they are not all hung up on human rights.
It occurred to me that another reason the Chinese may be doing so well is that the chief barriers to doing business in Africa are supposedly corruption, chaos and a kleptocratic state. I would suspect that these would be things that would not frighten a Chinese businessman the same way they would an American.
