[1] The number of Chinese owned businesses, restaurants, and shops grew when Malawi embarked on official diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 2007.
[2] Protests demanding a ban on Chinese merchants in the northern city of Karonga led by a local business woman in 2012 spread throughout the country.
[3] The government in response passed a law with Chinese merchants in mind that prohibited foreign traders from operating in small towns and rural areas, limiting Chinese businesses to the 4 major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba, Mzuzu.
[1] This unstable climate has caused Chinese business owners to withdraw from public life, staffing their shops with local employees while infrequently visiting to restock.
[1] Local civil rights groups, Centre for Development of People and the Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation, were critical of the ban on Chinese merchants, calling the law xenophobic and fearing it would encourage attacks on the Chinese.