French versus Chinese, Africa up for grabs | M6 | Enquête Exclusive

Roads, hospitals, stadiums… for 15 years now, Chinese companies have been constructing all over Africa. Construction sites financed by Beijing or obtained through tenders that defy all competition against Chinese companies. In Cameroon, a French-speaking country, there are more than 5 times as many Chinese as French. Mr Peng builds roads. He is prepared to make major sacrifices to earn double what he could in China. And Mr Yan, the king of Chinatown, Douala, has got his hands on some fifteen stores in a neighbourhood where we find Chinese restaurants and even a traditional Chinese clinic. The Chinese presence has also revived trafficking… such as that in ivory. How do Cameroonians view this new conqueror? How do the French in Africa face up to this competition? To fuel its expansion, China also needs oil, wood, minerals and food products. We go deep into the Equatorial forest, where Chinese farmers are growing rice, and to Kribi, a tiny port on the Gulf of Guinea where Chinese trawlers live an uneasy existence alongside the local fishermen. And Beijing is sparing nothing to win minds. In Cameroon, as in 15 African countries, school children can now learn Chinese at the Confucius Institute. The best of them will go to China to study or go into business.