4 ms·

It says nothing about China's influence. It just means China likes to throw good money after the bad. Just look at the loans it made to Cambodia, Nigeria, Ira

It says nothing about China's influence. It just means China likes to throw good money after the bad. Just look at the loans it made to Cambodia, Nigeria, Iran, etc http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/21P46wlPXj00K8VUKMu9oN/Chinas-debttrap-diplomacy.html http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/21P46wlPXj00K8VUKMu9oN/China...

QAPereo 9y ago
Part of that is waste, but surely a lot is corruption, and people dumping money offshore any way they can? It's all the same to the Chinese economy, but the motives are distinct.
nl 9y ago
It's not good money after bad if China isn't in it for making a monetary profit.
- adventured 9y ago
  Sure it is. If you keep subsidizing a nation perpetually in a money-losing approach to buying favor like that, your favor loses value as they take your largesse for granted (guaranteed to happen across all of human nature), yet you keep bleeding large sums of capital forever for no further gain. Buying favor that way for China will cost trillions of dollars over time and gain them little. China will realize that if they don't already and will switch to the US system of military partnerships and distribution (it's cheaper, it builds up your nation's global military capabilities, you turn around and sell military hardware to the nations you're dealing with, and your partners become over-dependent on you for their security which completes the lock-in). You can already see some early efforts in that direction from China. Going forward, most of their foreign capital adventurism will likely redirect back toward practical investments, eg in natural resources.
  - nl 9y ago
    This is true, but it's worth noting the US also loans money for arms sales. China has strong and influential alliances all over Africa and the Pacific, partly because of their aid and loans program. There's a reason they sell the Asian Development Bank as an alternative to the US dominated World Bank. It's also instructive how quickly close US allies (including the UK and Australia) expressed interest in working with China on it.

QAPereo 9y ago

Part of that is waste, but surely a lot is corruption, and people dumping money offshore any way they can? It's all the same to the Chinese economy, but the motives are distinct.

nl 9y ago

It's not good money after bad if China isn't in it for making a monetary profit.

adventured 9y ago
Sure it is. If you keep subsidizing a nation perpetually in a money-losing approach to buying favor like that, your favor loses value as they take your largesse for granted (guaranteed to happen across all of human nature), yet you keep bleeding large sums of capital forever for no further gain. Buying favor that way for China will cost trillions of dollars over time and gain them little. China will realize that if they don't already and will switch to the US system of military partnerships and distribution (it's cheaper, it builds up your nation's global military capabilities, you turn around and sell military hardware to the nations you're dealing with, and your partners become over-dependent on you for their security which completes the lock-in). You can already see some early efforts in that direction from China. Going forward, most of their foreign capital adventurism will likely redirect back toward practical investments, eg in natural resources.
- nl 9y ago
  This is true, but it's worth noting the US also loans money for arms sales. China has strong and influential alliances all over Africa and the Pacific, partly because of their aid and loans program. There's a reason they sell the Asian Development Bank as an alternative to the US dominated World Bank. It's also instructive how quickly close US allies (including the UK and Australia) expressed interest in working with China on it.