Why are Chinese failing to adapt in Africa?

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By Aaron Gono

As China gave materiel support to Africa during its war of liberation; why is it failing to cultivate good public relations in areas where its interests are?

Aaron Gono.

 There is no one month which passes without reading in newspapers that a China man has done this or that to his African employee? And why that war bondage has failed to catalyze our relationship with the Chinese today?

Surely China is our all-weather friend. Like it or not? It’s Road and Belt Initiative has greatly changed the face of the continent. China with its less demands on countries it offers aid, is now a favourite; after the Bretton Woods institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have continued with their expansionist theories through the systems.

Sanctions have become number one nagging issue from the West against any perceived enemy. Zimbabwe took land and its suffering and South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice, and you can witness how its balance sheet is in the red now. That is why most third world countries want to join the BRICS grouping. They are running away from the Western bondage.

It’s not necessarily a way of just getting rid of our former colonisers. But they are always devising a way of shortchanging third world countries. Continued debt, is the new slave master. Failing to pay the Bretton Woods institutions in time always results in more economic suffering.

Chinese national pointing a gun at one of the employees at a gold mine in Gweru recently.

That’s how and where China came in to fill the void. And the West don’t take this challenge lightly. Tariffs against Chinese electrical products are the order of the day. Huawei Electronics company was reduced to nothing by the West. ” Kana wadenha mangwiro wotoshinga,” ( if you start a fight with a judo fighter you must bequeath all your possessions).

So third world countries are in a state of dilemma, continuing sharing the same blanket with the Egyptian cobra or run away. So they found succour in the Chinese’s lap. Now the Chinese are the darlings of third world leaders and why is this different attitudes with their personnel they send to Africa?  It’s either they are failing to adjust to Africa’s inept population due to cultural or geographical differences?

The recent incident which took place at a certain mine in Zimbabwe, where a gun toting Chinese employer, cocking and ready to discharge a bullet against an employee who was demanding his overdue wage or salary was disturbing. I was wondering why these guys move around armed in their workplaces? Do they think we deserve such force when we ask what is due to us? And how did they get the licenses of these arms?

Any security checks done by our Zimbabwe Republic Police in Beijing, to allow them to carry arms? Our grandfathers and fathers got such treatment from our British masters. But no one day did we witness a British master toting a gun against his employee. They could engage in a fist fights with their employees. But after the fight they could shake hands and let bygones be bygones.

The Chinese nationals have a better chance with their Karate and Kung- Fu tactics to quickly dislodge their opponents and move on. Why resorting to their Remingtongs or 45 Smith Glocks? The Zimbabwean government must act against such malfeasance or else l don’t see any good relations with Zimbabweans in the future. One thing these Chinese nationals must try to learn is the language of an area that they have interests in mining. Because l have come to realize that mining is their key adventure in third world countries.

Listening to a conversation between a Chinese and a local guy, is just boredom. You fail to grasp whether they are talking or squeaking. One day l thought they were engaging in ‘Chilapalapa’, it was not it all. That’s where distrust comes in, you live in my house but you don’t even pretend to learn my vernacular language. And the other reason of mistrust between them and us is, China was once in the same predicament Zimbabwe is in right now, economic moribund.

But the sleeping tiger has risen and they are punishing us for laziness and not willing to use our ‘medulla oblongata’. Finish and klaar. Or the new bosses are being excited by their new found rating, of being the world’s biggest second economy. The Chinese must up the ante on public relations, that is where they are outfoxed by westerners, a white man pretends to like you and you think everything is in position. The Chinese must simply copy and paste how the westerners and Africans maintain their good relationships.

If China had copied everything the west accuses it (economic espionage), why not just pass this cultural hurdle, which is denting their relations in their host countries? Mao tse Tung the great leader of the Chinese once told his foot soldiers ‘that the people are the sea. And you are fish swimming in that sea.” I hope Mr Xi Jinping never forgets to remind these guys, as it is one of elementary tenets of the Chinese Communist Party. Or simply these knuckleheads want to spoil the stew?

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