Sunday, August 30, 2020

China's 'Debt-Trap' Diplomacy with Third-World Nations

Xi quickly followed the overland BRI with a maritime version, presumably to connect Chinese ports on the South China Sea to seaports in the Indian Ocean, continuing on to the Middle East states and ultimately reaching European ports.

The economic benefits of some of these deals between China and poor "Third World" countries in Africa and Latin America are questionable.

The BRI networks clearly intend to benefit China, either by stimulating an enormous increase in commerce, or, when debts cannot be repaid, by appropriating whatever assets China selects.

China most likely also hopes to secure political benefits through BRI arrangements.

A new, particularly ominous Western criticism is that China distributes its facial recognition technology to BRI-affiliated countries where Chinese surveillance systems have been installed, in states such as Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

The project is expected to improve traffic but will have little to no other benefits - apart from moving local resources to China.

The ultimate objective of the global dimension of China's BRI enterprise appears to be geared toward replacing the existing political, military and economic dimension of the West's liberal democratic order - again not surprisingly - with one dominated solely by the Communist Party of China.
 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16396/china-debt-trap-diplomacy 

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