It's time to make new friends

When I was learning to drive in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, my instructor once broke the silence with a short but astonishing remark, one I am unlikely to forget: "Chinese workers in construction sites in Africa are prisoners."

I was stunned. It was impossible. I talked with him about the topic for a long time, but he seemed confident that it was a valid fact, even though he failed to provide a single example.

I didn't expect that someone would raise a question related to my instructor's "valid fact" at an occasion as formal as an international forum. However, I was in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, covering a forum about investing in Africa, when a man asked during a Q&A session, "Why can't Chinese companies employ local laborers instead of bringing prisoners to Africa?"