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Article: Money and Mandarin lessons fuel China's move into Africa
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 15, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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From Liberia to Ethiopia, Beijing is constructing a 21st century
empire thousands of miles from home. By Daniel Howden
THIS AFTERNOON more than a dozen Liberians are expected at the
Samuel Doe sports stadium in the capital, Monrovia. In a makeshift
classroom with some plastic chairs and a whiteboard their teacher,
Li Peng, is waiting to finish the group's second week of instruction
in Mandarin Chinese. Early attendances at the free daily lessons
provided by the Chinese embassy have been poor, but officials are
blaming heavy rain rather than light interest. The class is still
struggling with the basics and few Chinese listeners apart from
their teacher would recognise the strange "hellos" ...