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Beware of the Chinese Chicken Trope in Zambia

by Eric Olander

A fascinating on-air skirmish broke out on the FRANCE 24 talk show The Debate last week during a conversation over Chinese investment and influence in Zambia. One of the show’s guests, acclaimed China-Zambia scholar Solange Guo Chatelard took the network’s correspondent, Nicolas Germain, to task for referencing the supposedly distortive effect of Chinese migrants in the Zambian live chicken market.

Chatelard, an associate researcher at Université Libre in Brussels, explained how the Zambian government dealt with the presence of Chinese migrants selling live chickens in the markets years ago and criticized Germain for propagating a “trope” that is not supported by the facts.

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