China Signs $1.4 Billion Mao-Era African-Rail Revamp Deal

China signed a deal with Zambia and Tanzania for the revitalization of a railway connecting the central African copperbelt with an Indian Ocean port.

The revamp of the line — which Mao Zedong’s China financed and helped build in the 1970s — will cost about $1.4 billion, Zambia’s transport ministry said in a statement announcing the signing on Monday.