Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 149 posts

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#131

Post by alexanderstears »

Boothroid wrote: post #80
factsaresacred wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> executives voluntarily transferred that to the (then) third world in order to maximize short term profits They gave China their secret sauce (well, actually, China demanded it as a prerequisite) in return for access to one billion new customers. China then cloned the tech and under-priced the foreign competition. See: High-speed rail, wind-turbines etc. Can't say if it was the 'right' thing to do for Western compan…

The US did similar to Europe back in the 1800s, and plenty of evidence to suggest they are still at it today e.g. NSA etc.

Not trying to be confrontational but is there any evidence that that NSA is engaged in industrial espionage?

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#132

Post by Waterluvian »

scandox wrote: post #89

Found this quote from Ai Weiwei in yesterday's Guardian very interesting: “Can China be a global power? I don’t think so. It can gain an advantage, that’s true. But it doesn’t have soul. It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust its own people. So it has no self-identity in the sense that it has never accepted human rights as common values. No freedom of speech, no independent judicial system. If those don’t exist, how…

Hm. Never thought much about that before. China's becoming exceedingly good at building and selling other people's IP. But I haven't looked to see if China is a source for any great novel IP. Are they?

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#133

Post by pkhagah »

puranjay wrote: post #71
icegreentea2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese equity stake in the airport and port will likely result in significant Chinese operation of those ports. And surely, that's got to have India thinking a little bit - it means that the PLAAF/PLAN now have a potential forward operating base literally in their backyard. And if China can continue to assert leverage on Sri Lanka, then they might even be able to forward base onto Sri Lanka itself without official a…

How do you see China countering India's cultural hegemony in the region? Much of the culture in the Indian sub-continent is borrowed from Indian culture. Shouldn't this be some insulation from Chinese influence?

Loans and sanctions. China helped SriLanka in UN when human rights issues came up. Also India's cultural influence is not an answer to everything. It has limited influence. Myanmar for example evicted Indians forcefully in 60's. Bangladesh and Nepal are trying to balance China and India influence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_Indians

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#134

Post by maxxxxx »

forapurpose wrote: post #56
api wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bush II is still easily the worst president of the last 100 years, at least. Trump has yet to come close to the Iraq disaster, though he has at least 3 more years so who knows. Obama wasn't bad but his problem was that he governed as if the country were not in decline. He was a prosperous times president when we needed a turnaround artist.

We're veering off topic, but you forgot the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, torture, and mass surveillance.

I don't think Obama was that great but the economic crisis was already under way when Obama came in.

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#135

Post by nl »

navinsylvester wrote: post #111
nl wrote: post #29

Pushing countries deeper into debt, even inadvertently, may give China leverage in the short run, but it risks losing the good will essential to OBOR’s long-term success. For all the big projects China is engaged in around the world — high-speed rail in Laos, a military base in Djibouti, highways in Kenya — arguably its most perilous step so far may be taking control of the foundering Hambantota port. This is a good…

Srilanka is stone throw away from India. I don't think Srilanka will ever allow a military base for China and antagonize India. When Chinese submarines were allowed to dock twice in Srilankan port that was the last straw. Indian secret service RAW allegedly played an important role in toppling the oppressive, corrupt and Chinese leaning Rajapakse government[1]. I guess that is one serious warning to ignore. [1] https…

Indeed, India is very concerned. I believe the current port leasing conditions say it isn't to be used as a military base.

But things change. China spends a lot of money and it isn't clear how this will play out.

Five years ago people thought it was impossible they would control the South China Sea. Now the it's close to the de-facto position, and the US only conducts an occasional freedom of navigation operation to pretend otherwise.

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#136

Post by reaperducer »

princeb wrote: post #10

A number of Chinese businesses are setting up 100%-Chinese factory compounds overseas. These compounds are located in a foreign country, but they are fully financed by Chinese, built by Chinese, employ only Chinese, have accommodation for the Chinese employees, have a completely sustaining internal economy where employees can buy food and entertainment and send mail, posts, banking, remittance, insurance, through Chi…

I know there are at least two in Italy, and they're coming to the United States. One is under construction in the desert just north of Las Vegas. (Apex area, IIRC - near the now abandoned Faraday Future Chinese electric car factory. The groundbreaking was on local TV news.)

This gives companies ability to get the coveted "Made in USA" label on their products, but they're built by Chinese nationals in a Chinese-owned factory in a Chinese-only compound to Chinese quality standards.

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#137

Post by Dravidian »

selimthegrim wrote: post #117
Dravidian wrote: post #16

China's investment in Pakistan, Srilanka, Myanmar is clearly aimed to impose strategic advantage over India. Especially in Srilanka, apart from economic activities; they funded & trained Srilankan army to conduct one of the worst genocide on their ethnic tamil population in 4th elam war. Sadly neither the international community nor the Indian government did nothing to prevent it from happening on the contrary they e…

Indian government is probably still mad abut IPKF and Rajiv Gandhi

The then govt run by widow of Rajiv probably yes.

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#138

Post by rohit2412 »

mcguire wrote: post #130
whazor wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is better as well, once citizens have more welfare they have more power to acquire human rights.

It's a very long game, though. The end results of the British Empire seem to be a net positive, although in most cases it took several hundred years and numerous wars. On the other hand, the Spanish empire doesn't seem to have been so beneficial.

For Britain? Yes.

India doesn't agree with your thesis.

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#139

Post by mamon »

danmaz74 wrote: post #106
mamon wrote: post #52

This reminds me of an airport in Radom (Poland). It was built few years ago, because it was an opportunity to get some money from EU (and for local politicians to get some bribes :) ). For the first two years airport was unused - the only airline that signet contract got bankrupt. Currently it has another airline operating and serves 10k passengers per year. That's what happens when EU starts giving away money.

A very big difference is that EU convergence funds aren't debt you need to repay later - while those Chinese investments are. Those countries are getting into deep debt, sometimes to build things they don't need.

There's a catch with convergence funds: EU never pays 100% of the bill. Average is closer to 50%, I think, so it is enough to tempt politicians into unnecessary investments, and not enough to be completely harmless for local community budget (there are cities in Poland with debt to yearly income ratio of 80-90 %).

Re: What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

#140

Post by forapurpose »

maxxxxx wrote: post #134
forapurpose wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're veering off topic, but you forgot the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, torture, and mass surveillance.

I don't think Obama was that great but the economic crisis was already under way when Obama came in.

Yes, I was referring to his predecessor.
Post reply on HN