IN BETWEEN the burned-out shells of former shops and homes, on a dusty, near-empty street in central Dili, was an amazing sight. Bright red, sparkling clean with engine purring - it was a Hong Kong taxi.
The incongruity of the red car, still carrying the Hong Kong licence plates and plaque allowing for five passengers, cannot be overstated. The Hong Kong cab could not have looked more out of place.
But the story of how it and seven of its 'compatriots' come to be plying the streets of Dili and the scenic coastal roads out of town, offers just one aspect of a multi-faceted Chinese resurgence in East Timor.
Other aspects include the plethora of restaurants and hotels set up to service United Nations workers, prospective foreign investors and the occasional deluge of election observers or journalist 'hack-packs'; the supermarkets offering practical items for the new frontier such as screwdriver sets and ice boxes; and the bay-front electronic stores. Almost all of these business are backed by Chinese money of various kinds. And almost all of the thriving small- and medium-sized businesses can be traced back to Chinese investors or management.
'You've got to hand it to the Chinese spirit for commerce in strange places,' said one international staff member of the UN Transitional Administration for East Timor (Untaet). 'This place is barely functioning in any truly commercial sense and most people keen on coming here take one or two looks around and give up. Yet here we have thriving competition between Chinese business people from around the world.'
A Dili-based diplomat agreed, adding the competition was not only commercial. One glance at the extensive renovation work underway on a bungalow near the sea in Dili's embassy district suggests that Beijing is taking Dili seriously too.