The following article was in today's issue of The Atlantic:
Zambians have voted out president seen as closely aligned with China, which has sent thousands of workers and managers here and to other Sub-Saharan countries.
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| Michael Sata, President of Zambia |
On the eve of Zambia's presidential elections last week, one of the most common tropes about the vote was to describe it as a referendum on China. For a long time now, Zambia has been at the leading edge of China's drive to expand its relations with the continent. Chinese have migrated to Zambia by the thousands, setting themselves up in mining, farming, commerce and small industry.
Although China is a latecomer to Zambia's decades-old copper industry, it has quickly established itself as an ambitious rival to "traditional" mining partners like Australia and South Africa. As almost everywhere in Africa these days, Chinese contractors are building highways, dams, and other large infrastructure projects. Zambia even boasts two Chinese-built special economic zones, and has recently allowed banking in the Chinese renminbi instead of the kwacha, dollar, or euro to facilitate trade with China.
But these are not the only developments that have set Zambia apart, or at least placed it ahead of the pack in terms of observable trends in its relations with China.
Zambia was one of the first African countries where the role of China and of Chinese people in the country became an explicit and potent political issue. During the campaigning for elections in 2006 and 2008, the newly elected leader, Michael Sata, made a sport of baiting China, calling its businesspeople in the country "profiteers," not investors, and denouncing Chinese for "bringing in their own people to push wheelbarrows instead of hiring local people."
"Zambia has become a province of China," Sata thundered in one campaign rally back then. "The Chinese are the most unpopular people in the country because no one trusts them. The Chinaman is coming just to invade and exploit Africa."
Read the entire article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/in-africa-an-election-rejects-chinese-involvement/245832/
About Zambia:
The Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the
Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north,
Tanzania to the north-east,
Malawi to the east,
Mozambique,
Zimbabwe,
Botswana and
Namibia to the south, and
Angola to the west. The capital city is
Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around the capital
Lusaka in the south and the
Copperbelt to the northwest.
Originally inhabited by
Khoisan peoples, the region of what is now Zambia was reached by the
Bantu expansion by ca. the 12th century. After visits by
European explorers starting in the 18th century, Zambia became the British colony of
Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from
London with the advice of the
British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the
United Kingdom and prime minister
Kenneth Kaunda became the first head of state. Zambia was governed by
Kenneth Kaunda of the socialist
United National Independence Party (UNIP) from 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a one-party state with UNIP the sole legal political party. From 1991 to 2002, Zambia was governed by president
Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government.
Levy Mwanawasa was the third President of Zambia. He presided over the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. He is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the country of corruption, and increasing standards of living from the levels left by Frederick T.J. Chiluba.
The World Bank in 2010 named Zambia as one of the world's fastest economically reforming countries. The headquarters of
COMESA are in the capital
Lusaka.
