Li Jiong

French stayed at a Liberian hotel owned by a man named Li Jiong. Li insisted that the U.S. still controlled Liberia although French strongly disagreed. Li claimed that Americans were in every element of the government. The U.S. had made the mistake of giving Liberia money which ultimately was wasted. China learned from that and focused on building things that had enduring value.

Li held the belief like many of his fellow countrymen that most people are born as equals but it took “nuli” or hard work to succeed in life. His destiny or “yuan fen” was to get rich in Africa which was only made possible by his nuli. Li believed that the people in charge in Liberia were failures as evidenced by the nation’s 80% unemployment rate. He attributed this failure to the country’s leaders begging the U.S. and Europe...