The Telegraph has an excellent article and photo essay on Hu Jintao’s visit to Zambia, site of the troubled Chinese-run Chambishi copper mine. Last July, Zambian workers rioted in a wage dispute with Chinese managers that ended in the death of six workers. This weekend, Hu was forced at the last moment to cancel a scheduled visit to the mine when his handlers learned that workers were planning further protests over low pay and dangerous working conditions.
Hu came to Africa promising aid and economic development without the embarrassing lectures to African leaders about eliminating corruption and improving human rights and working conditions in their countries. Maybe it’s the Chinese that need the lecture. A Chinese state-owned company, the Chinese Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Company, reopened the Chambishi Mine eight years ago but workers say that conditions at the site and in neighboring towns have never been worse. “The sprawling plant is now decked in Maoist-style slogans urging workers to make “vigorous efforts to make the company prosperous”, yet the way it is run is capitalism at its most raw.
As well as the mine’s questionable safety record, workers’ benefits have been slashed, unions discouraged and employees are