China... Has arrived.

I am sure this will be one of many posts.
Tanzania embraced socialism under founding president Nyerere begining the end of the 1960s- The communist powers of China and Russia went up against the west to exert influence over Tanzania. China contributed to aid development projects including Dar es Salaam's international airport- ultimately western powers won over and we know what happened- multilateral and bilateral aid organizations kicked in over the decades preaching deregulation, free markets and cut in government spending with a mixed success.
Meanwhile China grew to a major economic power it is today going head to head with western powers in the development game- I could go on about countless development projects that China has now undertaken in Africa in exhange for resources to meet China's growing demand- but I will touch on some to highlight new challenges and opportunities:

- Take a walk around the kariakoo neighborhood of Dar es Salaam and you will see many chinese residents living in apartments among the lower to middle class communities- in many cases, they are the only middle class in some areas. There seems to be no known estimates of how many Chinese residents there are in the city yet alone the country, but it is safe to assume it is on par or more than tradional westerners working at NGOs and multinational organizations. There are even quite a few tourists arriving recently.

- They are working at small businesses from car panel beating shops to flooding the market with cheap and often fake Chinese imports and even some higher value work such as contractors in construction and of course big factories too. You don't see any working at any NGOs or religious groups.

- Tanzanians remain welcoming yet growing cautious and suspicious, in some cases fearing them- as I noted they bring in cheap and often fake Chinese manufactured goods flooding the market. It is rumored that many of them are chinese political prisoners sent to Africa on projects. On a lighter note- thugs used to robbing white expats in broad day light have tried it o with the chinese and have been beaten- they now fear these "Kung-Fu" wielding people.

-Then there is the impact on wildlife- alarmingly elephant poaching is on the rise to meet a demand for ivory in china and other asian countries- reducing a 1/10th of populations. Recently seized ivory tusk DNA testing shows the majority originating from Selous Games Reserve in Southern Tanzania. It is thought these poachers are part of sophisticated Chinese and other Asian organized traffickers.

This illustrates that the Chinese are here and here to stay and well intergrated into the formal and informal parts of the economy, not in and normal ex-pat integration of NGO and multinationals we have seen over decades. It will be interesting to see how this affects the economies of African countries such as Tanzania- will we continue to deal with fake goods from mundane cheap electronics to life saving treatment drugs? Will the growing Chinese owned small businesses, provide greater employment opportunities for locals vs just the Chinese? How will Africa work with the Chinese for a sustainable partnership to protect resources, curb poaching and respect human rights?

-- Post From My iPhone