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Tanzania Tells China Merchants Holdings: “Take It or Leave It!”

by Eric Claude Olander
Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan President on October 31, 2016 at the State House in Nairobi. SIMON MAINA / AFP

Tanzanian President John Magufuli seems to be taking a page from Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s playbook on how to negotiate with the Chinese. Mahathir last year, if you recall, abruptly canceled a multi-billion dollar rail and oil pipeline deal with the Chinese, calling them “unfair.” Unsurprisingly, China’s critics in the US/EU jumped with excitement that finally an emerging market leader stood up and said “enough.”

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