Chinese in the eyes of the African people

Chinese in the eyes of the African people

By Liu Zhirong

I spent the last few years in Africa in close contact with African people from all walks of life.
What do they think of the Chinese people, who came to Africa rather late on an economic expedition?

Their general impression of the Chinese people is that they are hard-working.
Be it engineering or doing business, Chinese people barely rest on weekends or holidays.
They work from 7 am to 6:30 pm, plus overtime at night.


“You Chinese work very hard,” said Mr. Balay, a government official in an Ethiopian city.
“That’s the main reason your country develops so fast. People in Ethiopia lack that spirit.”


Though poor, the African people have a completely different work attitude.
They have long ago adopted the “two-day weekend” policy.
If you want them to stay for 10 minutes extra after work,
they’ll ask for overtime, and sue if they don’t get it.
Even though overtime pays much higher than their regular salaries,
they don’t want to work extra hours.
They’d rather enjoy the free time as granted by law.
They can’t understand why Chinese people work so hard or where all the fun is.


Chinese products are cheap.
Here in Africa most of the garments, home appliances, hardware and motorcycles are made in China.
A fellow Chinese was buying goods for his company and asked a local shop owner if there was anything cheap in his store.
The shop owner didn’t even hesitate: “Sure, ‘made in China’ is cheap.”
In Africa, “made in China” stands for cheap and low-quality.


Last month a Cameroonian official, Mr. Samba, and I were driving through Douala, the economic center of Cameroon.
I pointed to the stores on both sides of the street and said proudly: “Look, 80 percent of the products are made in China.”
Mr. Samba replied: “Yet how come there’re no Chinese cars running around in Africa?”
Even Chinese companies in Africa would rather choose Toyota or Mitsubishi than Chinese brands because the quality is just poor.

Chinese people generally lack legal awareness. Some Chinese companies neglect the laws in Africa.
For example, they don’t sign contracts, don’t pay for insurances,
pay less than minimum wage, force employees to work on holidays, don’t pay overtime or fire people whenever they want.
As a result, they are constantly caught in conflicts or lawsuits with local employees.

A Chinese construction company in Africa was served 150 subpoenas in one day
because it fired employees without following legal procedures and the employees all sued.
Chinese people must learn the laws when they come to Africa so that they won’t find themselves in trouble.

Chinese people don’t pay enough attention to the image.
For example, many take off their shoes in the car and put their bare feet against the windshield.
Chinese companies in Africa usually have simple, even shabby offices.
Some construction companies and department stores have poor furnishings or decoration, and the employees don’t have manners.
It could create a negative impression that all Chinese people are sloppy.

Many Chinese people disrupt the market.
Serge Michel, contributor to the book La Chinafrique,
thinks that Chinese companies are forcing out European ones from the African market with their extremely low bid prices.

In a bid on a wastewater treatment project in Senegal,
the Chinese offered a price less than one third of the French bidders’.
The French bidders were furious.
In order to reduce the loss or make a profit out of the low bid price, some companies lower construction standards,
violate contracts, cut corners or use substandard materials, making it impossible to guarantee the quality of the work.

Chinese people don’t stick together.
In Africa, Chinese people from different companies barely greet each other on the street.
Although thousands of miles away from home, they don’t feel close to each other.
For Chinese businessmen in the same African city, competition might cause great conflicts.
They might turn against each other. Gang problems are also serious.
People from different regions of China form their own little circles and attack each other.

We are on others’ territory, and we must mind others’ feelings.
To enjoy a long-term benefit in Africa, we should have self-respect and discipline,
be self-motivated and behave ourselves.
We should leave a good impression so that the African people welcome us.



The author is director of Woreta— Woldiya Project launched by World Bank in Ethiopia. This article was translated by Xuyang Jingjing