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Between the two largest cities in Kenya, one the capital and one it's primary port, hardly seems like "Nowhere". Stopped in the middle of what was planned, cert

Between the two largest cities in Kenya, one the capital and one it's primary port, hardly seems like "Nowhere". Stopped in the middle of what was planned, certainly. And shutting down financing after that turned out unprofitable (or, as the article implies - The debt-load makes it unprofitable) is hardly something that you can blame China for. I don't know what this article is trying to say. It dances around calling the initial plan a scam, yet it also implies that their backing off is somehow worse. Much as I hate to say it, it sounds like a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for China. And perhaps that's the real message that this article is trying to convey, but lacking any evidence to actually support such. Had they gone through it would have been a terrible sunk cost. Had they never oversold the infrastructure, it would have been fine - The line is replacing colonial-era lines, not adding routes that weren't viable before. But instead, they're let off the hook for setting up a hangman's noose and encouraging Kenya to put their head here.

reaperducer 7y ago
What you're missing is the context. This isn't the only Belt and Road project that's not everything China promised. It's one of a number that have come up recently. This article mentions at least four others, and I've seen others in other publications (a failed power station in Kazakstan most recently). Considering the amount of money involved in Belt and Road it makes sense for a financial publication like Bloomberg to publish this article.
AmericanChopper 7y ago
> I don't know what this article is trying to say. It dances around calling the initial plan a scam, yet it also implies that their backing off is somehow worse. It kinda is a scam. If it’s not viable today, then it wasn’t viable when the project started. Now Kenya is left with the worst of both worlds. They have all the debt they took on to get the project this far, without any of the economic benefits of having finished it. They’ve also taken on the opportunity cost of not instead working on improving existing infrastructure, which they’ll now have to do anyway. These loans are basically foreign government subsidies for Chinese construction firms. China still win even if Kenya default, because most of the debt Kenya took on went directly back to Chinese firms anyway. China is investing in infrastructure all over the world, and really the message here is you should probably not do business with them.

reaperducer 7y ago

What you're missing is the context. This isn't the only Belt and Road project that's not everything China promised. It's one of a number that have come up recently. This article mentions at least four others, and I've seen others in other publications (a failed power station in Kazakstan most recently). Considering the amount of money involved in Belt and Road it makes sense for a financial publication like Bloomberg to publish this article.

AmericanChopper 7y ago

> I don't know what this article is trying to say. It dances around calling the initial plan a scam, yet it also implies that their backing off is somehow worse. It kinda is a scam. If it’s not viable today, then it wasn’t viable when the project started. Now Kenya is left with the worst of both worlds. They have all the debt they took on to get the project this far, without any of the economic benefits of having finished it. They’ve also taken on the opportunity cost of not instead working on improving existing infrastructure, which they’ll now have to do anyway. These loans are basically foreign government subsidies for Chinese construction firms. China still win even if Kenya default, because most of the debt Kenya took on went directly back to Chinese firms anyway. China is investing in infrastructure all over the world, and really the message here is you should probably not do business with them.