Translation Tuesday: A Chinese Farmer’s Story of Wasteland Reclamation in Africa

By Laiyin Yuan

Author: Xu Wenting, Wang Bo
Translator: Laiyin Yuan
Published on: 05/03/2015
Source: Xinhua News
Original text (in Chinese): http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2015-05/03/c_1115160424.htm

As the saying goes “Chinese people will never change their Chinese stomach”. Chinese people in Africa are always looking for better Chinese culinary ingredients, and Chinese farmers are lookign to tap into that market.
----Laiyin Yuan (Translator)

For Cao Huizhong, a Chinese vegetable grower living in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC], the first thing after getting up every morning is to take a look at his Chinese cabbages in the field. Row upon row of green leaves growing on the land, his cabbages are slightly different from their Chinese relatives: bigger leaves but thinner bodies. This is his tenth crop of experimental Chinese cabbages.

“It is not ideal, but they finally look like Chinese cabbages. We should keep improving the process,” he said.

Translation Tuesday: An Overseas Chinese Company Constructs the New Century's Longest Railway

By Joseph Webster

Author: Fan Xi, Pang Shuguang
Translator: Joseph Webster
Published on: 08/13/2014
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Original text (in Chinese): http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-08/13/c_1112064589.htm 

According to Xinhua the new Benguela railroad will: “greatly reduce the cost of exporting copper and other natural resources in Southern Africa. Through integration with the railway networks in Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique and other neighboring countries, Southern African regional rail interoperability will be achieved, thus forming a large international railway passage between the Atlantic and Indian Ocean that will promote regional economic development.” The article notes that technology transfer and local jobs will increase as a result of railway construction, but also stresses that the construction standards and operating materials were supplied by Chinese companies.
--- Joseph Webster (translator)

Reporters were informed by the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited that, after the Tanzania-Zambia Railway was built in the 1970s with Chinese aid, our country will construct the world’s longest transcontinental overseas railroad of the new century. The Benguela rail line will cross the whole territory of Angola, will be completed on August 13, and it will be officially open for operation within the year.

Forecasting: Why stories of China teaming up with the U.S. over Inga-3 are overblown

A lot of hay was made during the U.S.-Africa Summit about China possibly teaming up with the U.S. over the Inga-3 dam. I was quite unhappy with the quality of this coverage, as anyone could find out that this very project has been in the works for months with a quick Google search (this is the first thing that popped up for me), making this announcement not particularly newsworthy. I have a sneaking suspicion that, since the initial consortium of Chinese companies who will probably win the bid are SOEs with good relations with China's EXIM bank, and that Sicomines looks to be moving ahead in the DRC, and that Sinohydro is involved with both projects, that this is a public relations move by Chinese officials to lock in a certain amount of U.S. financing and construction and threaten the dam project with shutdown if the IMF looks to renegotiate Sicomines again. It also made China look particularly magnanimous during the summit while Chinese-language outlets were slamming the entire concept. Considering some of the rumored reasons why the Inga 3 collaboration shut down last time (happy to tell you in private), I am quite skeptical of the viability of this project.

… And some Congolese perspective on the China-DRC relationship

The Cowries and Rice team of Winslow Robertson and Dr. Nkemjika Kalu were painfully aware that they were discussing the DRC while having no Congolese voices. They were put in touch with Gaïus Kowene, a Congolese freelance journalist, filmmaker, and blogger. He volunteers in media and communication department at the cultural center Yolé!Africa, in Goma, DR Congo. He is also Goma correspondent of Radio Netherlands Worldwide and works with many local and international news agencies. He shared some of his perspectives on the subject in this (very difficult to produce) podcast.

PS Hongxiang Huang was the cohost and he asked some great questions but due to a glitch his contribution could not be uploaded :[

Recommendations

Sources

DRC: Peace talks with rebels resumed by Gaïus Kowene

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African Development Jobs

Mighty Mike

The Africa Daily

Some (limited) Chinese perspective on the China-DRC connection, amongst other things

So what do Chinese people think about China-Democratic Republic of Congo relations? We are not totally sure, so host Winslow Robertson (Dr. Nkemjika Kalu made a prior commitment) asks Africa-China journalist extraordinaire Hongxiang Huang for his thoughts. Though neither Huang or Winslow are DRC experts, they do try to place Hongxiang's experiences within a DRC framework. Does it actually work? Listen and find out!

Recommendations

• Winslow
• Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger China by Edward Wong
• Bloomberg boots ‘China leak’ scribe by leak’ scribe by Keith J. Kelly
•  Hongxiang Huang
• China and Congo: Friends in Need by Global Witness
• Blood in the Mobile by Ole Tornbjerg

Sources

Brought to you by:

African Development Jobs

Mighty Mike

The Africa Daily

What's the deal with Sicomines?

Continuing in their mad attempt to talk about one country for a whole month, hosts Winslow Robertson and Dr. Nkemjika Kalu continue their discussion about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this time focusing on the famous Sicomines deal between two large Chinese companies and the Congolese government. They have recruited Ms. Johanna Jansson, a PhD candidate at Roskilde University and the most knowledgable researcher about Sicomines, to talk on the show and share her considerable knowledge. Listen as she effortlessly parries Winslow's feeble attempts to get her into a debate! What a scholar! What a pro!

Recommendations

• Winslow
• Why is the Horn different? by Christopher Clapham
•  Dr. Kalu
• Africa Agency in International Politics by William Brown and Sophie Harman
• The Partnership of Free Speech & Good Governance in Africa by Winnie Mitullah and Paul Kamau
• Johanna Jansson
• China's Congo Plan: What the Economic Superpower Sees in the World's Poorest Nation by Jacob Kushner

Sources

China's Congo Plan: What the Economic Superpower Sees in the World's Poorest Nation by Jacob Kushner

The Chinese-Congo Sicomine Project: New Analysis by Deborah Brautigam

The Sicomines Agreement: Change and Continuity in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s International Relations by Johanna Jansson

The Sicomines agreement revisited: prudent Chinese banks and risk-taking Chinese companies by Johanna Jansson

Brought to you by:

African Development Jobs

Mighty Mike

The Africa Daily

The Chinese as Foreigner in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Join your hosts Winslow Robertson and Dr. Nkemjika Kalu as they bite off more than they could chew and try to talk intelligently about the Democratic Republic of the Congo for an entire month, starting with discussing the idea of the Chinese as foreigner in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This big topic required two guests, and they were lucky to get them: Prof. Laura Seay, Assistant Professor of Government at Colby College and all-around DRC maven; and Jacob Kushner, who just wrote a fantastic book about recent Chinese interaction with the DRC and its peoples.

PS Unsurprisingly, we were hit with some pretty big technical difficulties so we apologize in advance!

Recommendations

• Winslow
• [INTERVIEW] Facetime interview with Ojukwu Emma, leader of the Nigerian community in Guangzhou, China by Roberto Castillo
•  Dr. Kalu
• King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild
• Jacob Kushner
• The Sicomines agreement revisited: prudent Chinese banks and risk-taking Chinese companies Sicomines by Johanna Jansson
• China, Zambia, and a Clash in a Coal Mine by Alexis Okeowo
• Tropical Africa by Henry Drummond
•  Prof. Laura Seay
• Conflicting Missions: Havanna, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 by Piero Gleijeses
• The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo by Aleida Guevara March (Foreword),  Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Richard Gott (Introduction), and Patrick Camiller (Translator)
• China's Congo Plan: What the Economic Superpower Sees in the World's Poorest Nation by Jacob Kushner

Sources

China's Congo Plan: What the Economic Superpower Sees in the World's Poorest Nation by Jacob Kushner

Brought to you by:

African Development Jobs

Mighty Mike

The Africa Daily

Link of the Day: DRC Journalist Jailed After Story on Chinese-Run Hospital

The Committee to Protect Journalists just put up a sad piece about a DRC journalist jailed after story on Chinese-run hospital. I do not know what the Sino-African implications of such actions will be. However, I do feel that China has been given cover for much of its African activities from African journalists giving it the benefit of the doubt, at least in English-speaking media outlets. While China did not do the jailing, it does not look good for the country to appear above criticism. All those at-times shrill accusations of a nefarious Chinese plot to have African governments spy and jail their citizens might not sound as far-fetched anymore.