I guess the Chinese also read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.
How China's “debt traps” work
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Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#12"They got land and money but lost in the end because now other countries don't like them" is not such a strong argument for having lost in the end, because, well, uhh... how many times has that happened?
The part you're missing is that they poured millions/billions into said projects. Taking those outlays into account it's very reasonable to conclude that they lost, even if they got some money/land.
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#13So if this is all accurate we should see a decline in new BRI projects and a preference for IMF and World Bank financing over institutions where China plays a larger role like the NDB. Let’s wait and see.
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#14I guess the Chinese also read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.
Except if you read the article it's arguing that the opposite happened.
>Note that although this is a debt trap, it isn’t really a case of “debt-trap diplomacy”, as some people accuse. Debt-trap diplomacy is where you get a country to owe you money, and you force it to make geopolitical concessions in exchange for loan forbearance. China doesn’t appear to be doing that; instead it appears to simply be walking away with as much of the money as it can, and thumbing its nose as it walks away, and leaving developing countries bitter and resentful.
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#15"David Graeber: Oh, absolutely. After all, the alter-globalization movement grew out of a broad global reaction to the Washington consensus, which was never any sort of consensus, but rather, a vision of the world forcibly imposed on the global South through the third world debt crisis. I was involved in “drop the debt” campaigns of various sorts since at least 2000. What got me interested in some of the philosophica…
Of course, the US is widely known for repossessing airports[1], seaports[2], and railways[3], then displacing local workers by flying in your own people. That totally happens all the time - its just that US biased media hiding it from you. The era of this kind of lazy anti-Westernism is over, China is only out for itself, and it will drag countries into its sphere of influence any way it can. "But what about this american thing?" I don't really have the time or need to respond to the thoughts of an "American anarchist activist" which is in all likelihood a nice euphemism for foreign agent or useful idiot.
[1] https://www.africanliberty.org/2018/09/10/like-zambia-sri-la...
[2] https://saharareporters.com/2021/11/26/china-takes-over-ugan...
[3]https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/kenya-ch...
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#16I guess the Chinese also read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.
Except if you read the article it's arguing that the opposite happened. >Note that although this is a debt trap, it isn’t really a case of “debt-trap diplomacy”, as some people accuse. Debt-trap diplomacy is where you get a country to owe you money, and you force it to make geopolitical concessions in exchange for loan forbearance. China doesn’t appear to be doing that; instead it appears to simply be walking away wi…
Eh, China is using its influence in global "democratic" institutions to align votes towards outcomes it favors.
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except if you read the article it's arguing that the opposite happened. >Note that although this is a debt trap, it isn’t really a case of “debt-trap diplomacy”, as some people accuse. Debt-trap diplomacy is where you get a country to owe you money, and you force it to make geopolitical concessions in exchange for loan forbearance. China doesn’t appear to be doing that; instead it appears to simply be walking away wi…
Eh, China is using its influence in global "democratic" institutions to align votes towards outcomes it favors.
Again, from the article:
>But in the long run, this is almost certain to hurt China’s image in the world. Back when the money was flowing, the countries of the Global South saw China in a highly positive light — after all, the West’s money always comes with strings attached.
>But because the Belt and Road was so ill-conceived, this warm fuzzy feeling always had an expiration date. Now that the Belt and Road has basically failed, and the cash faucet has been shut off, delight at China’s seeming largesse is clearly going to be replaced with resentment and distrust. Acting like a mafia loanshark is not generally a way to win friends and influence people.
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#18The multipolar World looks like the uni polar, it's just more of its crap.
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#19"They got land and money but lost in the end because now other countries don't like them" is not such a strong argument for having lost in the end, because, well, uhh... how many times has that happened?
The part you're missing is that they poured millions/billions into said projects. Taking those outlays into account it's very reasonable to conclude that they lost, even if they got some money/land.
?
China won, all that money invested was almost all to Chinese construction overcapacity. So that capacity was exported to useless prestige projects.
Poor countries paid the bill ( mostly) and China is paid twice (foreign loans going to Chinese workers is a double win).
Re: How China's “debt traps” work
#20"David Graeber: Oh, absolutely. After all, the alter-globalization movement grew out of a broad global reaction to the Washington consensus, which was never any sort of consensus, but rather, a vision of the world forcibly imposed on the global South through the third world debt crisis. I was involved in “drop the debt” campaigns of various sorts since at least 2000. What got me interested in some of the philosophica…
Of course, the US is widely known for repossessing airports[1], seaports[2], and railways[3], then displacing local workers by flying in your own people. That totally happens all the time - its just that US biased media hiding it from you. The era of this kind of lazy anti-Westernism is over, China is only out for itself, and it will drag countries into its sphere of influence any way it can. "But what about this ame…
This is a very humorous comment for you to have made. OP posted a quote from David Graeber that precedes China's Belt-and-Road plans by years. Graeber was instead writing about the West's use of debt to further exploit the global south, and how debt has long had a supposed moral dimension that makes renegotiating it (in the literal and metaphorical sense) exceedingly difficult.
As someone who sporadically did political organizing with David Graeber, I assure you he was sharply critical of US policy as it pertained to exploiting developing countries. He also happened to be a professor of anthropology at Yale and the London School of Economics. How you have determined he was a "foreign agent or useful idiot" is curious. But I know David would have found it as funny as I do.