<story><title>What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/magazine/what-the-worlds-emptiest-international-airport-says-about-chinas-influence.html?smid=fb-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>princeb</author><text>A number of Chinese businesses are setting up 100%-Chinese factory compounds overseas. These compounds are located in a foreign country, but they are fully financed by Chinese, built by Chinese, employ only Chinese, have accommodation for the Chinese employees, have a completely sustaining internal economy where employees can buy food and entertainment and send mail, posts, banking, remittance, insurance, through Chinese companies etc. so that the Chinese never leave the compound and no-one else ever enters.&lt;p&gt;The reason for these factory-compounds is because China has challenging export quotas to places like the US and EU. But concentration of manufacturing know-how remains in China. The only way for these businesses to keep selling to high-value markets is to move manufacturing to another country where there is available quota. Although the goods are 100% made by Chinese, they are 0% made in China.&lt;p&gt;The Chinese government encourages business in this area because it is good employment for the Chinese. In turn, these businesses need better infrastructure in the countries they operate in. The infrastructural investment in these other countries is a wonderful side-effect that the government is happily playing up as part of its diplomatic strategy. When the textiles and the shoes and the fabrication factories are no longer making money, hopefully the ports, the trains, the roads, the power grid will continue generating interest income for the Chinese banks. And the recipient countries of these gifts, as it were, may extract benefit from this arrangement, eventually.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>grecy</author><text>I have seen more of these than I can count in West Africa, and I am told the same is true in the East (I am going there next).&lt;p&gt;The scale of construction here is staggering - I wrote a little about it [1]. It is not only roads - it&amp;#x27;s dams, deep water ports, high-rise buildings, etc. Basically anything that requires a high degree of competency in engineering.&lt;p&gt;Western governments are now held to account when they make deals with African countries - the country must have fair votes, human rights, free speech etc. As you might guess, many African countries are not so hot on this.&lt;p&gt;China? They couldn&amp;#x27;t care less, and have no such requirements, so African governments are much happier to deal with them.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;theroadchoseme.com&amp;#x2F;chinese-road-construction&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;theroadchoseme.com&amp;#x2F;chinese-road-construction&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/magazine/what-the-worlds-emptiest-international-airport-says-about-chinas-influence.html?smid=fb-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>princeb</author><text>A number of Chinese businesses are setting up 100%-Chinese factory compounds overseas. These compounds are located in a foreign country, but they are fully financed by Chinese, built by Chinese, employ only Chinese, have accommodation for the Chinese employees, have a completely sustaining internal economy where employees can buy food and entertainment and send mail, posts, banking, remittance, insurance, through Chinese companies etc. so that the Chinese never leave the compound and no-one else ever enters.&lt;p&gt;The reason for these factory-compounds is because China has challenging export quotas to places like the US and EU. But concentration of manufacturing know-how remains in China. The only way for these businesses to keep selling to high-value markets is to move manufacturing to another country where there is available quota. Although the goods are 100% made by Chinese, they are 0% made in China.&lt;p&gt;The Chinese government encourages business in this area because it is good employment for the Chinese. In turn, these businesses need better infrastructure in the countries they operate in. The infrastructural investment in these other countries is a wonderful side-effect that the government is happily playing up as part of its diplomatic strategy. When the textiles and the shoes and the fabrication factories are no longer making money, hopefully the ports, the trains, the roads, the power grid will continue generating interest income for the Chinese banks. And the recipient countries of these gifts, as it were, may extract benefit from this arrangement, eventually.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>happosai</author><text>I think this is an urban legend, or at least a major hyperbole. The Chinese businesses (at least the ones I know in Kenya) all employ lots of locals. What is Chinese is management and most of the highly skilled workers.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s more about keeping the value-add than creating jobs for Chinese. We can argue that it&amp;#x27;s bad for locals, but unlike western colonialism, this happens under the rules the local governments have set them self. As the article points out - this might change if the Chinese government feels it needs to protect it&amp;#x27;s interests abroad - which could happen if a populist anti-chinese movement appears.</text></comment>