China's imperial hand sqeezes Zambia's testicles

Zambia is a mountain of copper. China has long helped Zambia develop its infrastructure and its copper mines for the orange goal. In the mist of revolutionary times when China had not applied the onerous logic of free enterprise, Lusaka found in China a relatively good partner. But no more. China imports its own workers; its own materials for construction; its own this and own that for its own needs and the needs of its personnel that it brings from China. On the other hand, it exploits Zambian labour at a pace and a rate which could easily come out of the novels of Dickens or Zola. China is a harsh foreign helper. It has no concern for workers' health, workers' rights, workers' welfare. And why should it? Beijing doesn't care a whit for its own people back in China, so why should it care for the welfare and decent living wages for exploited Zambian copper workers. To Beijing, Zambia equals copper and that's that. For the Zambian elite, it means money but who gets the benefits from King Copper. Certainly, not the ordinary Zambian. And so we have a neat replay of imperialism of yore with a Chinese face today in Zambia.