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Unknown philosopher
Editor|Unknown philosopher
preface
Kenya in Africa asked the mainland to help build the airport, but when the mainland company built 80% of the airport, and there was still one year left before the contract agreed time, it directly tore up the contract and refused to pay.
Originally, Kenya should have paid us 21.9 billion liquidated damages according to the contract requirements, but I never expected that they just gave about 200 million yuan and wanted to send us, and the rest directly played scoundrels.
How does China respond to Kenya's vexatious behavior? Why did Kenya ask China five years after the incident, but the mainland continued to help them build an airport regardless of previous suspicions?
Old airport expansion
In 2013, Kenya's new president, Kenyanta, set his sights on the country's old Kenyatta airport.
As a tourism-dependent country, Kenya has an annual passenger flow of more than 6 million passengers, while Kenyatta Airport has only 2 million passengers, which has long been insufficient.
To this end, the Kenyan government decided to expand Kenyatta Airport and increase its capacity to 20 million passengers to meet the growing passenger demand.
The problem was that Kenya's own economic conditions were limited, and the expansion of the airport required huge funds, so the Kenyan government issued a tender to the international community, including the mainland.
The Kenyan side requires that the winning company allow Kenya to borrow money to build and pay in installments.
Looking at this request, Western countries that were originally very interested waved their hands one after another, not wanting to take this hot potato, and the cornered Kenya turned its hopes to China, hoping that China could help them.
Aware of Kenya's plight and based on the long-standing friendly relationship between the two countries, the mainland decided to accept Kenya's request to provide financing to support Kenya's airport expansion.
In this way, the two sides signed a contract worth 64 billion Kenyan shillings, stipulating that the mainland enterprise would be responsible for the construction and the Kenyan government would repay the loan in installments.
However, the kindness of the mainland was soon betrayed by Kenya.
Large-scale remorse
According to the contract, the Chinese company will build Kenyatta Airport into a large airport with an annual capacity of 20 million passengers within 4 hours, which will not only be the largest airport in the region, but also make a great contribution to the local economic development.
As soon as the news of the cooperation between China and Kenya was announced, the Kenyan people cheered, believing that the completion of the airport will bring great benefits to the country.
After the signing of the agreement, the two Chinese companies immediately began the construction of the project, they shipped a large amount of building materials and machinery from China, and gathered thousands of construction workers to carry out construction at "Chinese speed".
In the past three years, Chinese workers have overcome the scorching heat, slept in the wind, and worked around the clock, advancing the progress of airport construction to 80%.
Just when everyone expected the airport to be officially opened next year, the Kenyan government suddenly declared that the contract with the mainland was "unsustainable" and unilaterally tore up the contract, demanding that all Chinese companies evacuate.
When the news came, all the Chinese workers present were dumbfounded, unable to understand why the airport that was about to be completed was suddenly stopped.
The Kenyan government's explanation is that the airport is too large to be able to afford in Kenya. However, this explanation is untenable, the original contract has clearly stated the size parameters of the airport, and now the temporary change of mind is obviously for another reason.
According to the contract, the Kenyan government was supposed to pay 21.9 billion shillings to the Chinese company for liquidated damages, but they only paid 4.3 billion shillings, and the remaining 17.6 billion Kenya promised the Chinese to pay back after three years.
Until 2019, Kenya did not compensate China for the remaining amount as promised, and even shamelessly demanded that China return the 4.3 billion shillings it had previously given, claiming that it was the victim in the project cooperation.
China will certainly not agree to this vexatious approach, and it has even aroused the anger of the Chinese people.
The mainland believes that what Kenya has done has completely deviated from the spirit of the contract and undermined the foundation of mutual trust between China and Kenya.
Moreover, in Kenya, negative reports about mainland companies are circulating, leaving some Kenyans who do not know the truth with a bad impression of mainland companies. Internationally, there are also many countries and media that make a big fuss about this matter.
In fact, the assistance provided by the mainland to Kenya has been well-intentioned from the beginning, with the aim of helping Kenya improve its infrastructure and promote local economic development.
Mainland enterprises not only completed the project on time and with high quality, but also created a large number of local jobs, which should be a win-win cooperation, but the Kenyan government not only ignored the goodwill of the mainland, but also fired a gun of slander, which is really strange.
Why Kenya is fighting backwards?
In fact, the reason why Kenya is so capricious is mainly because it is seduced by Western forces.
Some Western countries do not want China to successfully build the largest airport here, after all, after China makes a name for itself with this project, it will mean that it will be more and more difficult for Western countries to suppress China.
However, these countries did not choose to block the project at the beginning, but waited until 2016, when the airport project was about to be completed, and then intervened in various means to destroy it.
It is not difficult to understand that the West's approach is to wait for the fisherman to reap the benefits, and wait for the mainland to expand the airport to enough for Kenya, or even more than enough.
On the other hand, the Kenyan president also has many political opponents, and these people will take the opportunity to attack the president-backed project.
It is also said that the expansion of this airport occupies too much land, and it is also said that it has destroyed the local environment, and all kinds of stumbling blocks in the open and in the dark.
Kenya is trustworthy
China's assistance has been consistent
In 2017 and 2018, Kenya was hit by drought and locust plagues, leaving 2.2 million people without access to clean water, destroying vast amounts of farmland by locusts, and making life difficult and food insufficient.
Since 2018, the mainland has sent 12,000 tons worth of food aid worth US$12 million to Kenya in eight shipments.
This aid did not end until 2022, which shows that China's support for Kenya is continuous and long-lasting.
During the special period of the new crown epidemic, China still worked tirelessly to provide Kenya with a large amount of food aid to help Kenya tide over the difficulties.
The mainland also takes into account the deep traditional friendship between the two peoples, because as early as the Tang Dynasty, China sent envoys to visit Kenya and left a record of Kenya.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He also came to Kenya, and in 2013, a Chinese artifact was found in Kenya, which is a testimony of the exchanges between the two countries.
Moreover, in 1964, when Kenya had just declared its independence, there was news that China and Kenya had established diplomatic relations, and it can be said that the relationship between the two countries has a long history, and based on this traditional friendship, China actively participated in Kenya's infrastructure construction and helped Kenya's economy take off.
The construction of the Mombasa railway and the port of Mombasa by Chinese companies has greatly reduced Kenya's logistics costs by 40%, increased transportation by 200%, and contributed more than 2 percentage points to GDP growth, in addition, Chinese companies have built Kenyatta Airport by 80%.
However, some Western media with ulterior motives deliberately play up the "China threat theory" and trick the Kenyan government into adopting unfriendly policies towards China.
Kenya also did not "live up" to the efforts of these Western countries, tearing up the contract three years after the construction of Chinese companies.
How resolute Kenya was at breaking up the contract between the two countries, and how humble it had to be when it came to China.
Just five years after Kenya swept away the construction teams of Chinese companies, Kenyatta Airport was overloaded, and the Kenyan government had to ask China again to reexpand and promise to repay all the arrears.
In the face of Kenya's request, many people shouted "don't help them, maybe they are thinking about the mainland" and "no matter how you look at it, it is not a wise choice to help them continue to complete the airport project".
Despite all the opposition, the mainland agreed to Kenya to help them continue with the airport expansion project, and the mainland did so with its own considerations.
On the one hand, the mainland was facing a lot of foreign exchange pressure, and Kenya could help us alleviate that pressure.
In addition, through Kenya's various previous searches, many countries are paying attention to the development of this matter, and this time can take this opportunity to make the mainland's infrastructure strength internationally famous.
Moreover, China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of international order. Although the Kenyan government was once seduced by the Western media, the deep friendship between the Chinese and Kenyan peoples is strong.
Therefore, China will continue to treat the Kenyan people in a friendly manner and provide economic and technical assistance within its capacity.
epilogue
Vain relations and the primacy of interests seem to be the common norms for all States to act.
However, if we judge friends and enemies based on a momentary mistake, the outlook may not be optimistic, and in the face of conflicts of interest, we should understand different positions with a tolerant attitude and maintain a long-term perspective.
The road to development is long, and it is inevitable that brothers will stumble when they are divided, but as long as we have good intentions and meet each other halfway, the landscape is not forever separated.
There is still a long way to go, and we will continue to deepen mutual trust, resolve differences, and safeguard national interests while not forgetting our original intention.
As responsible major countries, we should help each other and pool our wisdom and efforts, so that the world can become a better place.
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