Since this thread is about Namibia, I'll keep the examples of China's infiltration to Africa, limited to Namibia but what they do under their "One Belt, One Road" initiative is the same wherever they go.
1. The first wave hit in 2009-10 or so. The Chinese offered to build a cement factory N. of Windhoek. They "loaned" the Namibian govt the money with the stipulation that the govt would hire a Chinese contractor to build it, AND they had to allow 25k Chinese workers in to build the plant and operate it. In exchange, the Chinese would "train" the locals how to build it, operate it, eventually manage it and the Chinese would leave. Prior to this, there was not a single Chinese shop, store, restaurant or even an Asian face to be found in Windhoek.
Plant gets built, but now some 10-years on, the Chinese still own the cement factory, they still do all the management and the vast majority of the workers are still from China. Can't swing a dead cat now in Windhoek or most any other city, without hitting a Chinese shop, restaurant, market etc. The Chinese population has grown to over 250k in a total population of only 2.5m
2. Next project was the Namibian govt decided to build a new National Museum in Windhoek. It's now on top of the hill near the first church in Namibia. They hired a North Korean company to build it despite UN restrictions on NORK's doing international business.
3. The city of Walvis Bay on the Coast is a major seaport for container shipping as well as seafood. Mid 2010's, the Chinese offered to "loan" big bucks, a few hundred million US, to the govt to expand, improve and modernize the port facilities. The catch was, they had to add a military wharf and docking facilities etc and now the Chinese keep a frigate and crew based there 24/7/365.
4. One of the oldest, longest running and largest uranium mines in the world,, Rossing Uranium. was purchased a couple of years ago by the Chinese. It's located just E, of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.
5. The latest "project" the Chinese did was renovate the Namibian Presidential house and grounds in Windhoek and the vacation home and grounds in Swakopmund.
6, It's also an interesting situation in there seems to be a direct correlation between the increase in Chinese in a given country (especially African countries) and the increase in poaching with nearly all of the animal remains ending up in China. Wonder why that is?
I have a small bank account in Namibia, it's easier to just wire some money over to my account and draw it out as needed instead of carrying cash. One day I was in the branch in downtown Windhoek waiting for a teller and a couple of Chinese guy come in with a briefcase between them. They walk straight up to an empty teller window and set the briefcase up and a teller magically appears. She asked them "how much today". The open the briefcase and say 2.38 million. IT WAS US DOLLARS!! I [bleep] you not!! The teller starts running it thru the bill counter like it was just another day.
This same/similar scenario is being played out in virtually every country the Chinese are doing their "One Belt, One Road" infiltration initiative. In Kenya for example, they "loaned" big bucks to the Kenyan govt to expand, improve, modernize the port in Mombasa and the rail line from there to Nairobi. A few years later, they Kenyan govt couldn't make their first "payment" so the Chinese said no problem, just turn the port and rail line over to us, we'll run it and give you a token percentage of the profit.
The "One Belt, One Road" [bleep] is not just limited to the African continent. They've done the same thing all over the world
One Belt, One Road and the results are always the same. My one hope is that these countries would make a stand and tell the Chinese that because of what they did with the Rona and the economic damage its done to their individual countries, they tell the Chinese they intend to "nationalize" those projects (something communists understand) as reoperations for the economic damage they caused, and kick they all out of their countries. Unfortunately, it's not likely to happen as the payoffs to the various political leaders will just increase and the status quo will remain and Africa will continue it slow spiral down the drain.
I'm sure everyone who's been there a few times, has friends their have similar stories, regarding mines/mining, logging etc. That's why I say, if you can go, go now or as soon as you can. There are still beautiful and "wild" places to see and explore and hunt but, make no misstate, they are disappearing so "make a plan".
