This is the fourth installment of a series of reports from several countries looking at the question of how to cope with China--a nation that has rapidly grown into a military and economic power, while ruling its people with an iron fist.

Employees of Gabon's Ivindo National Park, about 400 kilometers east of the capital of Libreville, are at their wits' end. Their frustration stems from the fact that a Chinese company has built a road for industrial use in the national park.

"It's a presidential project, so no one can oppose it," one park employee grumbled.

Construction of the road began around last July, with no public notification, in the north of the park.

The 45-kilometer road opened this month, cutting a swath through the rain forest in the park, in anticipation of construction beginning on a hydraulic power dam set to be built near the park's waterfalls, some of the largest in Africa.