China’s Massive Belt and Road Initiative
Council on Foreign Relations,
by
Andrew Chatzky
&
James Mcbride
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
3/26/2020 4:39:16 PM
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived. Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the vast collection of development and investment initiatives would stretch from East Asia to Europe, significantly expanding China’s economic and political influence, Some analysts see the project as an unsettling extension of China’s rising power, and as the costs of many of the projects have skyrocketed, opposition has grown in some countries. Meanwhile, the United States shares the concern of some in Asia that the BRI could be a Trojan horse for China-led regional development and military expansion.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Mushroom 3/26/2020 4:44:21 PM (No. 358989)
In all fairness isn't this what our concept of Foreign Aid has been since WW2? We have been paying people to be nice to us. Small in the beginning, still a percentage of our over all 'budget' but still I wouldn't cry if they sent a 1 thousandth of it to me! And you might even be able to build a wall. I know it really was mostly a pay off to the War Machine, because much of that money went to provide defense products, but it was still money we could have used, or not borrowed.
6 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
MattMusson 3/26/2020 4:50:12 PM (No. 358995)
China will collapse soon. The Corona Virus is the last straw for the most over leveraged economy in history.
Say goodnight, Xi.
7 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
seamusm 3/26/2020 5:16:22 PM (No. 359011)
More like a rope and concrete approach.
3 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
bad-hair 3/26/2020 5:16:54 PM (No. 359013)
Sounds like China had better start selling their S**t to Germany. We are not having it anymore. Miss Markell tell us your real numbers and get yourself elected to the EU (did I say eeeeyuuuw). China is trying to protect itself
0 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
3XALADY 3/26/2020 5:31:05 PM (No. 359031)
#2 Probably 20 years ago I saw an article that said the US gave $$ to 110 countries. I'm sure the number hasn't gotten smaller.
1 person likes this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 3/26/2020 5:33:42 PM (No. 359034)
Over 300,000 Chinese in Italy. The Chicoms bought the luxury good manufacturers (Prada, Gucci) for the label, imported thousand of low paid Chinese workers to actually work in the factories so they could put the "Made in Italy" label on the goods and started dozens of direct flights to the Wuhan area. It's no wonder Italy saw the virus explode. Their medical infrastructure is also poor compared to most Western countries. It's also a single-payer, universal government health care. That outrageously overpriced handbag is being made by Chinese coolie labor. It might be a lesson for us if anybody in the media cares.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/26/2020 6:13:34 PM (No. 359071)
The “friendly” Chinese are not giving anything to anyone. Read the article. They make loans. They sell their goods, taking advantage of countries with shortages in critical materiel like Spain and Italy. The go into countries and set up businesses that harm the locals and exploit the countries’ natural resources…
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Bloomberg) -- China Poly Group plans to start exporting natural gas from Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden basin by mid-2019 as it continues to explore near the border with Somalia, Petroleum Minister Motuma Mekassa said.
Shipments from the Calub and Hilala fields will be exported along a 435-mi pipeline to a port complex being built in neighboring Djibouti, Motuma said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa.
“They want to export the gas to Asia,” Motuma said.
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2017/11/3/china-poly-to-see-ethiopian-gas-exports-by-2019-minister-says
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
sanspeur 3/26/2020 8:37:46 PM (No. 359204)
# 1 The US uses aid as aid .. not a wedge to enter / buy a country’s resources , markets . We do not claim any foreign land except to bury our heroes who died in freedom’s service . American cemeteries around the world lend silent testimony to our blood was shed for others .
4 people like this.
"Belt and Road Initiative"? I don't think so. Try "the Yellow Peril."
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 3/26/2020 8:45:47 PM (No. 359214)
I have known and said that China is the enemy for 20 years. They are still the enemy and we were beyond stupid to work with them at all.
Now we need to get entirely out of China, 100% out.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
MDConservative 3/26/2020 9:17:08 PM (No. 359238)
While China expands its influence even into the Americas with Belt and Road, the US is spending trillions trying to pacify the Middle East and Central Asia. China is at peace; the US in perpetual conflict for "good" that just never seems to come about.
President Washington asked people to “observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.” How trite that sentiment is...we're the Leader of the Free World! We will intervene where injustice is found. And with not many followers these days. Have the Belgians and Danes moved troops to the Polish countryside yet for NATO?
0 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 3/26/2020 9:42:50 PM (No. 359263)
Should be renamed Hammer and Sickle Initiative... starting in third world hellholes like those in Latin America.
China also demands that their workers be given immediate citizenship, no questions asked, after their project is finished. Now why would China do that?
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Harlowe 3/26/2020 10:31:35 PM (No. 359299)
An interesting and somewhat related story posted to this website on March 19th by #7 is worth reading: “Ethiopian Nomads Bleeding to Death After Arrival of Chinese Oil and Gas Firm = Gabrielle Reyes - 19 Mar 2020”
4 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/26/2020 11:10:28 PM (No. 359320)
Re #13, thanks. I wanted to refer to that article, but my memory failed and I wasn’t sure where to find it.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
This article is a “backgrounder”, intended to inform on the big picture of what Xi and Communist China are up to. Taking advantage of depressed countries around the world who are turning to them for aid - most recently (and ironically) in the COVID-19 crisis. China only to happy to step in and loan money to countries like Spain and Italy and sell them medical supplies, some substandard.. Thus these countries become indebted to China. And increasingly subject to its exertion of power.
Posted with permission of LCom Staff.