Probably the same way you'd get Steve Jobs to work for you for $1 per year. Have that be part of a much larger package and this is thrown in just to meet the legal requirements of compensation.
China has built railways and roads all the way to Sihanoukville (google this, tons of articles). If you look on a map, this gives them great shipping access to South Africa that doesn't involve dealing with Myanmar or Thailand. It totally destroyed the small town and surrounding area. Turned Sihanoukville into fighting, gambling and whores like straight out of a Western.
In order to do this, they bought up all the land from the locals. To power it all, they built dams along various rivers including the Mekong. Part of it was promises of providing electricity to communities, but it is really just a money grab.
It is all an utter eco disaster. Nobody cares cause it is all "developing nations". Tunnels straight through mountains (or just level them entirely). Zero concern destroyed forests. Buying up all the land from the locals so they could move their own families in and then charge the locals rent.
Property prices got pushed up such that locals can't even afford land in their own country. The dams have screwed up natural water flows so now there are drought and floods. Nam Ngum Reservoir in Laos shows up on Google maps full of blue water, but if you go there, it is empty.
There is interesting economics around USD in Cambodia too... becomes a great place for China to launder USD. They have their own currency, which is conveniently 1:0.25. The rare time you spend local currency, you get change in quarters.
None of this gets much news coverage, but google a bit and you'll find it all. Stuff like this...
You weren't kidding, the Chinese literally built casinos in Sihanoukville. Imagine Vegas on a small village. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened in Las Vegas (a city found by a railroad) in 1931 when Nevada legalized gambling and the Hoover dam was under construction next door. And then again in 1951 when the US government started literally detonating nukes so close you could watch the mushroom cloud!
I saw a Chinese guy pulling a woman out of a casino by her hair and punching her in the face in the middle of the street. Whole town was nuts and really depressing. Probably the worst place I've ever been in that area.
A building collapsed (due to poor construction)...
I went out to Koh Rong Island. It was supposed to be this beautiful place and it was a total dump with garbage everywhere. Sadly it seems I missed it by about 5 years.
None of this bodes well.
And you're right, history repeats itself. This definitely isn't just China.
I sold everything I owned and moved to Vietnam in 2016 from SF Bay Area. Travel in Cambodia and Laos was obvious, but I took it to a more extreme level by motorbike and living out of hotels and small rentals for 2 years. =) Extremely fortunate to get to the most remote parts of all of those countries and really experience things. Opened my eyes a lot.
China has been heavily investing in African countries via a targeted strategic loan program called the Belt and Road initiative[0]. It's entirely possible that China owns the rights to the area via one of these loans.
