Is China Wiring Africa For Surveillance? 196
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Huawei has invested billions of dollars in Africa over the last two decades, providing affordable cell phones, internet access, and telecommunications networks to the continent. Over the last few months Huawei has closed major deals in Africa to get more areas on the grid. The company says it's bridging the digital divide, but others suspect it's wiring the continent for surveillance."
Re:Different approaches to aid (Score:2, Informative)
As a South African...
Firstly we will take from whoever gives it. Our politicians whine about western politicians as much as they do about the Chinese. The Chinese typically care about business more than they do about politics which makes them easier to work with. Other than stopping the Dalai Lama from visiting our country I can't think of any other strings they've pulled publicly.
Africa is natural resource rich, thats why (Score:5, Informative)
Natural resources is the name of the game. [japantimes.co.jp] And its not just China eyeing the riches.
Re:Exfiltrate Africa? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Exfiltrate Africa? (Score:2, Informative)
(me again)
Nope. Except for "Ni Hao" (hello) which I hardly ever use...and a couple of other phonemes that I've learned.
In fact, "they" seem to prefer it that way. In our office (somewhere in Europe) there's 3 lines of communication. One for, as we are called, "local staff" in our "local" language (not English); another one in English which is the crossover language; and Chinese, where all the things that we "locals" can't/don't participate....of course, we get upset and reciprocate by starting our own half of the meeting in a language most of them can't understand; which I think is not easy to do for our colleagues in the UK as they don't have that 3rd language to fall back on (yes, I know there are other languages besides English in the UK. I have friends in Wales).
When I joined the company I wanted to learn the language and had all this curiosity about chinese culture. They seem to have systematically drained any kind of interest from me.