China's Sierra Leone - Through a Western Eye

A dairy:

Austin, and the others at the table, had no illusions about China, or its role in Africa. "It's good, and it's bad," said Austin. There were angry complaints around the table about how Beijing was "buying up" Sierra Leone's government, flooding the country with inferior products, and building a new foreign ministry in Freetown just to curry favour with those in power.

"China's agenda in Africa is not just economic. It's looking to be a superpower and the more countries it controls, the more it can achieve that," said Austin. He wasn't too impressed with China's journalism either - "too many barriers, too many conditions, the opposite of western journalism," he concluded. But he and his colleagues reserved most of their scorn for attitudes in their own country. "We are failing - we want everything to be put on a plate," said Austin. "Politicians here are driving us crazy. They're self-centred. They only want to enrich themselves, not develop the country. Africa can learn so much from China's determination to succeed."