China's Silent Army

"China's Silent Army" is a fascinating and detailed examination of China's commercial expansion outside its borders. The authors spent two years travelling to over 25 countries and conducted more than 500 interviews, and their intensive research clearly paid off; the book is peppered with pithy quotations, surprising statistics and often moving anecdotes of poverty or rags-to-riches success. This captivating book takes readers from illicit casino-brothels hidden in the Laotian jungle to decimated Siberian forests, and from the glitzy malls of Dubai to grinding poverty in Mozambique. Cardenal and Araujo, the two intrepid authors, explain complex financial maneuvering clearly and insightfully, and paint an elaborate picture of how massive Chinese companies and individual, often-impoverished migrants operate around the world.