During the time I was in Chad and the DRC, we rarely saw the Chinese. We knew they were around doing many things, but we rarely saw them. The only Chinese I saw were the owners and some staff at Chinese restuarants, and the staff at a Chinese army hospital in Kindu and a Chinese navy base near Bukavu. The army and navy people I never saw outside the confines of their perimeters.

We went to a Chinese restaurant in N'Djamena and the owner and some of the waitress' were Chinese. N'Djamena is pretty close to nowhere, but there they were. I was impressed.