Zambia is a southern African country with rich reserves of copper and cobalt. Edgar Lungu ran the country from 2015 to 2021. His successor and political rival, Hakainde Hichilema, took over—elected in 2021 partly on the back of public anger over alleged corruption and profligate borrowing involving deals with China under the previous administration. Lungu had Hichilema jailed on spurious charges; after taking office, Hichilema's administration curtailed Lungu's post-presidential perks and charged members of his family with corruption offences. Even so, Hichilema still sees Chinese investments as crucial for the economy.
China has poured billions into Zambian mines. In September 2025 a Chinese state firm agreed to invest $1.4bn in an upgrade to the 1,860km Tazara railway between Zambia and the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania—a project originally built by China in the 1970s. The upgrade was the focus of a trip to Zambia in November 2025 by Li Qiang, China's prime minister, the highest-ranking Chinese visitor in more than 18 years.
China built the Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital on the outskirts of Lusaka, named after a late Zambian president, and paid for an expansion in 2020 that more than quintupled its capacity. A rotating team of Chinese doctors helps make it one of the country's best medical facilities.
In February 2025 the collapse of a dam at a Chinese copper mine caused a massive spill of toxic waste and a political uproar.
International Resources Holding, an Emirati conglomerate, bought a majority stake in a Zambian copper mine in 2024. Rostam Azizi, a Tanzanian industrialist, plans to invest $500m in Zambian industry over two years, starting with the supply and distribution of liquefied petroleum gas. Hichilema, a former businessman and one of the few world leaders with an MBA, says there has been a "sea change" in how deals are done in Africa: rather than things being done to Africa, deals are increasingly "partnerships".
America used to supply the country with more than 80% of its funding for combating HIV, pledging more than $360m in 2025 before Donald Trump pulled the plug via cuts to PEPFAR. By America's own reckoning, its aid accounted for one-third of Zambia's spending on public health. Compared with that, China's support is tiny: it donated 5,000 HIV test kits worth maybe a few thousand dollars.
The only way housework could be done in this place was with a shovel or, for preference, a match.