It's worth pointing out that debt trap diplomacy was pioneered by the US backed IMF. While China has been exploitative, it goes without saying, that the US has been even moreso.
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I checked the comments because I wanted some good sources on the what-abouts. Preferably from the countries affected. The link to Graeber supports the idea that debt, like power, is destined to be abused. It's not really telling me that the outcome was pre-meditated by the national leaders of the US or China.
It's not just internationally. China has done that to its own people. Or worse. Look at Evergrand and Sunac. The government of China let developers sell un-built apartments to future residents. The residents not only paid down payments, but took on a mortgage obligation for an un-built building . "The majority of new properties in China — about 90% — are sold before being completed." - CNN. This produced a terrible i…
"The majority of new properties in China — about 90% — are sold before being completed." - CNN" Not sure if this is some kind of joke. Many countries have laws that permit selling appartments when they are about 80% complete. Some have lower, some higher percentages. Just your average low-tier negative CNN propaganda, I guess.
i was gonna say - a lot of places you can put a bunch of cash down for an apartment that only exists as a picture on a sign somewhere.
I've recently rode through a Belt&Road project: The Lao high-speed train. In my opinion, it shows the complete failure of the Chinese government. The high-speed train is a reasonably great train that goes through dozens (hundreds?) of mountains and rivers (through tunnels and bridges). It does that while enabling you to work from the comfort of your chair. And while it's not high-speed (as in 300Km/h), it is reasonab…
I'm not sure if it's comparable, but the Japanese Shinkansen had similar issues when it's first built. A lot of the stations didn't go through the existing central stations due to costs and other logistical problems. This is why there are a lot of stations that the Shinkansen goes through that are called "Shin-XXX" (e.g. Shin Osaka). During a period of fast economic growth this isn't a big issue because the areas aro…
Excellent example. My onetime Japanese distributor was walking distance from Shin-Yokohama station and I would never have guessed the history
>Shin-Yokohama Station opened on 1 October 1964, with the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen.[4] At the time, the surrounding area was completely rural, and the site was selected as it was the intersection of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen tracks with the existing Yokohama Line
I've recently rode through a Belt&Road project: The Lao high-speed train. In my opinion, it shows the complete failure of the Chinese government. The high-speed train is a reasonably great train that goes through dozens (hundreds?) of mountains and rivers (through tunnels and bridges). It does that while enabling you to work from the comfort of your chair. And while it's not high-speed (as in 300Km/h), it is reasonab…
I visited northern Laos in 2013. Speaking to people along the construction route, many didn't even know what a train was. None had ever seen one before.
I only saw a single paved road in the country, which I hitchhiked on from the Chinese border to Luang Prabang. Most drivers on the road were Chinese, but none were coming to visit Laos; they were driving through to Thailand.
So I came to understand this train was built to connect Thailand and China, rather than for Laos.
This article makes me think about "tofu-dreg projects" [0]
Poor quality construction work prevalent in mainland china. If you
look for content with this keyword, you will find jaw dropping
videos of constructions workers bending or breaking "rebar" with their hands,
Owners chipping away concrete in high-rise buildings like its sand, etc.
Of course some of this can be propaganda, but considering it has a local name,
there must be truth to it.
It's worth pointing out that debt trap diplomacy was pioneered by the US backed IMF. While China has been exploitative, it goes without saying, that the US has been even moreso.
Since you went ahead and said what "goes without saying", how about you go further and actually demonstrate/document/prove what you say?
In case you don't see the comment above, a few books that I know cover this topic include "Superimperialism" (Hudson), "Silent Coup" (Kennard), and "The Divide" (Hickel).
I don't see how you can drag someone's credentials to prove he isn't a useful idiot. Malcolm Caldwell, famous for being the very embodiment of a useful idiot was a research fellow at UCL. Other defenders of the Red Khmers had even more impressive credentials. Need I remind you who was the writer of "Distortions at Fourth Hand" and "Manufacturing Consent"? By definition, all useful idiots have impressive credentials.…
> Other defenders of the Red Khmers Are you talking about the entire Western block where in the 80 when western powers brought support to the milicia in order to piss off the Soviet Union-backed Vietnam, or what?
I've recently rode through a Belt&Road project: The Lao high-speed train. In my opinion, it shows the complete failure of the Chinese government. The high-speed train is a reasonably great train that goes through dozens (hundreds?) of mountains and rivers (through tunnels and bridges). It does that while enabling you to work from the comfort of your chair. And while it's not high-speed (as in 300Km/h), it is reasonab…
It seems like everything you said applies to Airports as well. Hardly any of them are anywhere near where you'd actually want to be (city center). Over the decades, the infrastructure will build up to connect the airport to the city. In my home (Vancouver) they weren't connected by a train for 73 years. Airports of course also have enormous 'processing' time. It's normal to arrive 2 hours early.
Airports often replace multiple days of travel via other means though. In that context, 1-2 hours isn’t a big difference.
It's not just internationally. China has done that to its own people. Or worse. Look at Evergrand and Sunac. The government of China let developers sell un-built apartments to future residents. The residents not only paid down payments, but took on a mortgage obligation for an un-built building . "The majority of new properties in China — about 90% — are sold before being completed." - CNN. This produced a terrible i…
> The residents not only paid down payments, but took on a mortgage obligation for an un-built building. So what? They had a choice between paying more money for already built house now or paying less money but accepting the risks of developer's failure. > This produced a terrible incentive for developers to do huge numbers of housing starts and then not finish the building. Ugh, it's not like venture investing when…
Why don’t poor people just get more money? It would solve most of their problems.
? 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).
Clearly the Chinese construction companies that got the contracts won, but to the extent that the loans aren't paid back its money from Chinese taxpayers going to the people who own those companies. Japan had a big problem with this sort of corruption when they organized their foreign aid this way, which is why they no longer do.
The mostly state owned companies? :)
And getting back the money from loans is also a win.