China Safari

Serge Michel, Michel Beuret and Paolo Woods
June 2009     ISBN: 1568584261

"God Bless the Chinese," one senior American diplomat in Brazzaville says bluntly. "They build roads and dams, and quite frankly we don’t have what it takes to do those things anymore. All we can do is give English classes and try to sell our technology."

China Safari tells the amazing—and largely unknown—story of the rise of China's economic empire in Africa and how it will change the 21st century and eclipse the role of the West in Africa. China is now Africa’s second largest business partner with trade now at more than $100 billion a year, and growing. Where others see chaos, corruption and endless civil war, the Chinese see opportunities. With no colonial past and few political preconditions—except not recognizing Taiwan—China is bringing investment and infrastructure to a continent that the West has either exploited or been seen fit for handouts.

China seems destined to succeed where the West has failed. But is China starting to repeat the imperial arrogance of earlier colonial powers? Traveling from Beijing to Khartoum, from Algiers to Brazzaville, the authors—two leading reporters from Europe and one of the world's leading photographers—try to answer this question, unearthing the extraordinary human stories underlying China's new ventures in Africa.

Combining brilliant on-the-ground reporting, profound new insights and analysis, with extraordinary photographs that visualize the largely 'unseen' phenomenon of China in Africa, China Safari brings light to a geopolitical earthquake that rarely gets attention in the West.

"The authors of China Safari describe the ingredients that contribute to China's success in Africa...they bring their protagonists to life, describe their enthusiasm, their ardor for work, their discipline. And let's remember, by the way, that if economic power plays a role, it is the human factor that makes the difference."
—Le Soir

"A remarkable look at an urgent problem. Worth reading immediately!"
—Associated Press

"An exceptional investigation!"
—Le Monde

"The authors of China Safari chose the best method for these circumstances: they went to observe in person... The result is a fascinating book, a fusion of reportage, analysis, and historical narrative."
—Amina

"The result is remarkable. This should be widely read—especially by the elite Africans who are, almost as much as the Chinese, the subject of this book."
—Les Afriques

Serge Michel, 40, was till recently West Africa Correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde. Michel has worked as a journalist in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans and is now based in Geneva. He won the Albert Londres Prize, France's most prestigious journalistic award, for his work in Iran and is the founder of the Bondy Blog, a citizen journalism project in the suburbs of Paris. Michel has written for Aperture, Fortune, Foreign Policy, The Independent and The Sunday Times.

Michel Beuret, 39, has been writing on China and Africa for 15 years. He first went to China in 1993 and has written extensively on migration and people trafficking in both in China and Europe. After the French riots of November 2005, he set up the Bondy Blog together with Serge Michel, which quickly became one of France’s most influential blogs. At present Beuret is Foreign Editor of the prominent Swiss magazine L’Hebdo.

Paolo Woods, 39, is an award-winning photographer dedicated to long-term projects that blend documentary photography with investigative journalism. His work is regularly published in Time, Newsweek, Le Monde, Geo and many other international publications. He has published three books with Serge Michel and is currently working on a new project on Iran.