Struggling Chadians Dream Of a Better Life -- in China

ABECHE, Chad -- It was midmorning in one of the poorest countries on earth, and the daily traffic of battered trucks, motorcycles and donkeys bounced along the lumpy sand streets of this hot desert town.

Behind the white archways of the old colonial market, Abdulkarim Mahamat, 24, was selling soap and batteries to the few customers who dropped by. Things were rather slow, and the young man explained how he often imagines himself elsewhere -- flying off to a promising new land of cheap socks and smoothly paved roads.

"If I can go to China, life will be better than it is now," he said, adding that he has started saving up for his ticket. "I'll make a lot of money, and life will change. I can return to school, build a nice house and have a family. People say that China is a good place and everything is cheap."

As resource-hungry China cultivates relationships with countries across Africa -- most recently here, for oil -- African leaders are debating the merits of that growing influence. Skeptics are troubled, for instance, by China's role in enabling governments such as Sudan's, which is accused of carrying out a brutal campaign of violence in its western Darfur region.

But as that debate goes on, something less tangible is happening on the ground, even in this remote, conflict-ridden region where electricity and plumbing are still luxuries:

The idea of China as a symbol of potential prosperity is taking hold, seeping into the consciousness of ordinary Africans and occupying a place that the United States, and to some extent European countries, once claimed.

Around here, the American dream is something quaint and unrealistic, while a new kind of Chinese dream, more pragmatic and attainable, seems ascendant.

"The United States is a nice place to visit," said Ahmet Mohamet Ali, a trader who had just returned from his first trip to China. "China is a place to do business."

Besides massive road projects, oil contracts and other deals China has struck across the continent, there are smaller signs that the country is beginning to penetrate African societies.

On Fridays in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, for instance, a reliable line forms at the gates of the Chinese Embassy's visa section. In the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, it is relatively easy to find university students heading off to China for business or language courses.

Rebels in Ethiopia's Ogaden region deemed China's influence significant enough to target a Chinese-run oil facility there this year.

Here in landlocked Chad, the notion of China is still rather nascent, as the government only last year fulfilled China's prerequisite for doing serious business, recognizing China and severing ties with its rival, Taiwan.