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Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

nation.co.ke

81–90 of 266 posts

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#81
post #67

Could the USA or an european nation offer to pay the loan in exchange for taking over the port? Itd be cool to swoop in on this deal.

Greece should have thought of that: - Provide unfettered economic access to China for 20 years in exchange for having the country's debt paid by them. - Seed a few alarmist articles. - Wait until USA and EU go crazy over that and summarily agree on a debt write-off.

Greece already leases the port of Piraeus to China. Didn't help much, our country's richest families are shipping magnates.

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#82
post #42

I'd say it's worth it for Kenya, these are huge money-losing projects anyway,

China has two major projects to dam up the white nile and the blue nile upstream from Egypt and Sudan (who curreently use 90% of the Nile water) Ethiopia, and Kenya will take control of the Nile and the two countries that currently consume 90% of the Nile water will be starved into submission by their Chinese landlords through taxes and fees over water. China needs a port for their Navy so they can 'protect' their 'i…

>China needs a port for their Navy

China already has a naval base in Djibouti near the American one.

And it's not like if China want to use the port to park their military vessels, Kenya somehow would refuse them.

I mean China literally operates their vital railway and terminals.

As for their culture, I'm afraid it's already done. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/africa/ethiopia-gov...

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#83

As with any sales there could be that factor of China trying to sell more of their product/services(just like US does to sell weapons in various nations) but I find it strange that people are trying to politicize it being debt trap and trying to garner sympathy towards the defaulter than towards the victim who didn't get paid.

It's because it's very clear that China's intent with such loans is to create a casus belli for such seizures or create complete economic reliance. Nobody is going to sympathise with a predatory loanshark when they don't get paid and use it as an excuse to grab what they really wanted all along.

> It's because it's very clear that China's intent with such loans is to create a casus belli for such seizures or create complete economic reliance.

Do you have actual evidence that this was the intention?

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#84
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in Africa myself. And yes, China is getting more involved in more projects than it used to but it's only because their terms are more favorable than our darling western powers'. African countries are not some teenager girl who is being duped into doing something they don't see themselves.

Your inappropriate metaphor; no one else's.

It's entirely appropriate. HN should fix its attitude on this issue.

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so china taking over the port is bad but it's OK if USA does it because they will make it a freedom port?

If my IP can be protected, then yes it is probably infinite times better for it to be a Freedom Trade Port than the Port of The Dictator's Party

Because IP is so much more valuable than lives the Chinese helped save while the west offered nothing (except for even way worse deals through the IMF and WB).

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#87

West African American here (Ghanaian - American). This article actually isn't true, while the Kenyan Chinese pact that led to the construction of the Nairobi - Mombasa Port does have clauses related to penalties around lack of payment, there has been no actual announcement or any signs of China declaring possession of the Mombasa Port. In fact, the big issue in Mombasa right now is actually revolving around a Kenyan…

6 months ago the target was Russia. Basically blamed for everything. Now it's China.

Funny that the China bashing articles started to appear more frequently at the same time the US government switched aim from Russia to China too.

Coincidence?

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#88
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greece should have thought of that: - Provide unfettered economic access to China for 20 years in exchange for having the country's debt paid by them. - Seed a few alarmist articles. - Wait until USA and EU go crazy over that and summarily agree on a debt write-off.

Greece already leases the port of Piraeus to China. Didn't help much, our country's richest families are shipping magnates.

I mean Greece is selling EU permanent residency to Chinese for 250K euros (property purchse), you can take with you all your parents and kids, best of all, it doesn't require you to actually live there to get it.

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#89

As with any sales there could be that factor of China trying to sell more of their product/services(just like US does to sell weapons in various nations) but I find it strange that people are trying to politicize it being debt trap and trying to garner sympathy towards the defaulter than towards the victim who didn't get paid.

It's because it's very clear that China's intent with such loans is to create a casus belli for such seizures or create complete economic reliance. Nobody is going to sympathise with a predatory loanshark when they don't get paid and use it as an excuse to grab what they really wanted all along.

[deleted]

Re: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

#90
post #36

I know nothing about it, but comments to that article (in Google Cache) seems to view the article as alarmist: for example, say that the grace period is until 2023, so we are talking years, not weeks before something happens. No idea if it is true or not, more info/references would be great. Can someone give more insight?

I'm an African myself, but while Chinese model is different from the aid model we are familiar with, it's helping solve so many problems that we had no alternatives for. China is willing to come in with loans without political strings attached. Yes, there are collaterals but Africa has its own negotiators too, and we know the deal we get is much better than any other country or institution would be willing to give.

No political strings attached? You mean, they just takeover and don't need political strings?

They benefit far more, their own workers do 80% of the work and nothing is helping the local economy. The loans also have to be paid back to China ( because they lend the money).

This is a very good way to create growth on the shoulder of others.

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