She spent two decades as a policy adviser on Africa, most recently as an aid official in the Obama administration. An Italian contractor joined the group of companies that formed a consortium, too. The main problem was the big advantages enjoyed by the competition: two Chinese energy companies, one of them a state oil giant with Beijing’s support. China is aggressively seeking investments and contracts around the world, and perhaps nowhere is this more visible than Africa, where Chinese companies have won contracts to build dams, roads, stadiums, airports and railways. In country after country, governments have borrowed heavily from China to pay for these projects.

Source: New York Times January 13, 2019 07:52 UTC