Anti-Chinese sentiment in Lesotho

LESOTHO: Anti-Chinese resentment flares
IRINnews.org - New York,NY,USA
MASERU, 24 January 2008 (IRIN) - For 14 years, Mathabo Mabekhla was one of Lesotho's most successful entrepreneurs. Her ladies' clothing boutique sold dresses, blouses and slacks imported from neighbouring South Africa ... dwindling sales forced her to shut down last year, for which she blames the country's growing community of Chinese retailers. "Chinese are selling very cheap and not good quality things, and they are killing Basotho businesses," said Mabekhla, 59. She now sells cigarettes and beaded jewellery on the sidewalk ... Anti-Chinese sentiment is on the rise in Lesotho, making it the latest site of such ethnic hostilities in Africa ... Mabekhla's reaction, stoked by opposition parties and local radio stations, is readily echoed from the streets of Maseru to remote villages. "If this government was not in power and we had a new government, we'd just take all the Chinese nicely out to the airport and send them back home," she said ... For more than a decade, immigrants from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have fuelled Lesotho's economy, as apparel manufacturers from Asia were drawn by tax incentives and rent discounts to attract foreign direct investment. Today these textile factories are the country's biggest employers, providing more than 40,000 jobs, according to the country's Ministry of Trade and Industry.  But the people who came to run these factories have in turn sponsored family members to come to Lesotho, where an estimated 5,000 Chinese now live. Many have set up general stores stocked with low-cost, imported goods, even in the most remote rural villages of the mountain kingdom. Backed by a formidable supply and distribution network with direct ties to China, these shops often squeeze out local retailers. So, while ethnic Chinese make up less than 0.5 percent of the country's population of 2 million, they have become the country's most successful business community ...