China’s ambassador to Sierra Leone, Hu Zhangliang, paid a visit on Monday to the Foreign Ministry to rally support with the government for a controversial development project to build a fish port in the environmentally pristine Black Johnson beach area. After the meeting, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Mamadi Gobeh Kamara reportedly gave her blessing to the project, according to Xinhua.

A full week after the project was revealed, China is still facing steadily mounting criticism from environmental activists who contend the proposed port would be “hugely damaging to the environment.”