Sitting in the train car’s freshly upholstered seat, Ethiopia’s transport minister Workneh Gebeyehu leaned forward as he spoke to a reporter from the state broadcaster, China Central Television.
“This is really a game changer for the economy of this land,” he said, proudly.
It was October 2016, and Gebeyehu was showing off the brand new, 472-mile train line linking Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa, to its neighbor on the Red Sea, Djibouti. Over 90 percent of Ethiopia’s international trade passes through the Port of Djibouti, and the Addis-Djibouti Railway promised to slash cargo trips from weeks to hours, ushering in a golden age of economic prosperity.
Billboards across Addis put it simpler: “New Railway. New Life.”
The Addis-Djibouti Railway promised new life for more than just the Horn of Africa. As a linchpin of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the railway’s Chinese backers hoped it would unlock the region’s economic potential, connectin
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At first glance, the recent raid on Capvision, a Shanghai consultancy, looks similar to the raids on foreign firms Mintz Group and Bain & Company. But there are reasons to separate Beijing's crackdown on Capvision. For starters, Capvision is Chinese and its shareholders and investors include a network of remarkably high profile and state-connected individuals and companies.
