Africa and China - 'When China Met Africa'

My sincere thanks to those who attended the September 24, 2019 Owl & Ibis meeting where we viewed and discussed the 2010 documentary, When China Met Africa. For those who have not viewed this film, it may be downloaded free on Tubi TV here.

This 75-minute film followed the activities of three people residing and working in Zambia between 2007 and 2009: a Chinese private farm owner; a Chinese private company road construction engineer; and Zambia’s Minister for Commerce, Trade, and Industry.

The documentary covered multi-faceted Chinese-Zambian social interactions in the areas of commercial farming, road building, and bilateral international development relations.

Among the concerns expressed during the O&I discussion of the film was whether China’s so-called ‘debt trap diplomacy’ was intentional or not.

The O&I gathering also voiced concern over the climate change, inequality, and potential global economic collapse consequences of the further spread of capitalist modernization within the lesser developed regions of the world. That is, the consequences of modernity being rapidly spread through public and private sector ‘international development’ via investment, trade and aid from China and the West.

The O&I group wondered: Is the push to modernity a form of unintentional ecocide, geocide, and anthropocide? The China-Zambia relationship was seen by some at the meeting as a microcosm of systemic ecological and economic dysfunction and larger global problems ahead.

Since the film’s release nine years ago, Zambia has had national elections and undergone changes in government leadership.

Specific updated information about the farming activities, road construction, and four Chinese government loans to Zambia shown in the film are not easily available.

More broadly, the following links provide updates on Minister Felix Mutati who was featured in the film and who went on to serve in other parliamentary and ministerial posts; and the current status of various loans the Chinese have made to the Zambian government over the past twelve years, Zambia’s difficulty in repaying them, and what jeopardy this loan indebtedness has placed Zambia in.

Here are the links:

Felix Mutati

Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mutati

Resistance Growing to Chinese Presence in Zambia

Deutsche Welle

April 9, 2019

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/resistance-growing-to-chinese-presence-in-zambia/a-47275927

Zambia Debates Chinese ‘Economic Slavery’

The Diplomat

January 28, 2019

https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/zambia-debates-chinese-economic-slavery/

Mines, Money, Mandarin: China in Zambia