Zambia is preparing to put into action of the largest Mandarin- teaching programme in Africa. Zambia government has signed a memorandum about that is targeted increasing of Chinese culture throughout the world with China’s Confucius Institute and has announced that they would get started Mandarin education at more than 1000 scholls from 2020.
The government is thought that the barriers of communication and cultural will remove via this programme and thus the cooperation and trade will boom between China and Zambia. On this issue, Fred Musonda, president of the Chingola branch of the Zambia Chamber of Commerce & Industry said: “In the past we used to learn French as a second language in schools, but that never worked for anybody,” says Musonda. “This may be different … the Chinese have a stronger influence in the world economy and the population and distribution of Chinese people around the world is much wider than the French … Anybody with Chinese as a second language will have an advantage in communicating around the world.”
Zambia will be the fourth country on continent under Chinese impact after Kenya, Uganda and the Republic of South Africa. Someones comments this programme is a part of Economic Cooperation but critics worry from Chinese domination. Because China’s debt trap diplomacy is risky for Zambia and %30 of Zambia’s external debt is to China. Sishuwa Sishuwa, a historical and political analyst at the University of Zambia, labels Confucius Institute a Trojan horse for Chinese influence and said : ‘’ The Chinese — who already enjoy considerable presence in the country’s strategic economic sectors are now moving to ‘capture’ Zambia’s future, starting at secondary school,” he says.
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