AfriChina

• Photographer
  Thomas Lekfeldt, Denmark
• Website
  http://www.thomaslekfeldt.com

China's enormous appetite for resources has driven a boom of investments and aid to African countries. In the Southern African country Zambia Chinese companies are building roads, hospitals, sports arenas and bridges as well as revitalizing copper mines abandoned in the country's central Copperbelt region. Furthermore, China has chosen Zambia as the place to set up its first out of five free trade zones in Africa and is investing heavily in the country. The relationship between Zambia and China has strong roots starting from Zambia's independence in 1964, shortly after which China built the Tazara Railway linking landlocked Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Today leading Zambian politicians highly welcome the wave of Chinese investments, which they claim will take Zambia, one of the poorest countries in the world, into the right direction. But the Chinese investments in Zambia have given rise to much criticism for not reaching the poorest population in Zambia, for the lack of transparency surrounding the conditions of the investments and loans and for the bad working conditions in some of the Chinese run companies.