China touts ‘martyrs’ killed working on Zambia infrastructure projects as symbol of friendship
- China’s role in southern Africa has prompted a growing backlash, but Beijing says workers’ ‘sacrifice’ shows depth of its commitment
- Plan for new cemetery for construction workers hailed as symbol of ties between the two countries
China is planning to build a cemetery in Zambia that honours Chinese construction workers killed working on the country’s infrastructure projects as “martyrs”.
The announcement comes amid a growing backlash over Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in Africa and fears that poorer countries are being forced to take on unsustainable debts to fund them.
But Li Guiguang, a deputy director of the newly established Ministry of Veterans Affairs, said the new cemetery in the capital Lusaka would help to symbolise the long-term friendship between China and Africa.
“In African countries like Tanzania, Zambia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Algeria, there are already cemeteries for the Chinese specialists who sacrifice their lives for foreign aid [projects]),” Li told People’s Liberation Army Daily last week.
Thousands of Chinese engineers and construction workers are currently in Zambia and dozens have been killed working on the infrastructure projects.
China has been involved in infracture projects in Zambia since the 1960s when the country, formerly known as North Rhodesia, declared independence from Britain.