By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Chinese Ambassador in Sierra Leone Hu Zhangliang has appealed to the media to be fair and neutral in their reporting on the fish harbour and the Black Johnson site.
Talking to this medium, the Ambassador said since the report came out about the fish harbour that is to be built at Black Johnson the Chinese have been at the center of the report branding them all kinds of names and accusing them of wanting to destroy the country.
“I want to appeal to all please to put aside geopolitics and western sentiments and the bias that some of you in the media have against China and look at the whole saga critically before blaming China. China has never asked the Government for a piece of land to build a fish meal of a fish harbour at any time. We have enough fish harbour in China and we cannot come to Sierra Leone to build such for ourselves.”
Ambassador Hu said the fish harbour will be just like all the other projects that they have aided Sierra Leone with but nobody has ever complained. He said the Sierra Leonean Government wants a fish harbour and all what China did was to put the funds together and then ask the Government to provide the land where it should be built.
“Since 1971 when China started supporting Sierra Leone, at no point in time has the Chinese Government told the Sierra Leone Government what they want or where the project will be built. We first built the stadium. The then Government showed where they want it and we built it there. Presently, we are building a military accommodation and the Diplomatic Academy. Both grants are just the same for the fish harbour.”
The Ambassador said the land spaces for them were chosen by the Government and the military and they accepted and currently the projects are on. He said there is no complain or scepticism of substandard work being done by the Chinese, when they did not choose the site for these projects.
Amb. Hu Zhangliang said it is the same way that the Government choose the Black Johnson parcel of land for them to build the fish harbour that the report is being slanted that China wants to destroy the area.
“Please it would be nice for my friends in the media to investigate and ask the appropriate authorities why they choose Black Johnson for the project and whether the project belongs to China. We are just providing the facility for the Government as we have been doing for 50 years without complaints. The Youyi building, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Jui hospital, Jui lab, and many more were all built by China as grants and the parcel of land were marked by the Government and we came in and built the structures. So what is the difference today that we are being accused of wanting to destroy Black Johnson for our personal gains?” he asked rhetorically
He called on all to direct their grievances towards the Government rather than the Chinese that are merely helping and supporting Sierra Leone. He called on all to stop vilifying China for merely supporting development in Sierra Leone and also made it very clear that all the projects they have done in Sierra Leone are of the same standard in China.
Ambassador Hu averred that the stadium and Youyi building, the Mange Bridge that were built decades ago are still in full operations and there has never been any building default for them to be demolished.
“I do hope my friends in the media will look at China for what we are than using geopolitics and Chinese bias because of the West to judge us because we are genuine friends to Sierra Leone and Africa,” the Ambassador concluded.
