Yeah I saw this in Cambodia when I lived there. Sihanoukville had become a Chinese enclave almost completely.

Different to the way that French colonialism worked, though. Less direct government, more influence of existing power structures and respect for the local government.

There is definitely an argument that this is plain business investment - China has a lot of foreign currency to invest because of its trade surplus, and there isn't the opportunity within China to invest it all, so it is engaging with trade partners to invest in their economies so that they can increase future trade with China.

You can also make the argument that this is not benign and China is trying to create control over foreign governments with this investment.

I'm kinda "both can be true, but either are better than how we did it"