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China is exploiting them. They're not doing it out of kindness, or for some moral self-aggrandizing.
by blackearl 7y ago
China is exploiting them. They're not doing it out of kindness, or for some moral self-aggrandizing.
- EchoAce 7y agoUnfortunately this may prove to be way more effective than “doing it out of kindness” like we do.
- corporate_shi11 7y agoIt's common that something feels good and seems nice but ends up being unproductive or even counterproductive in the long run.
- agumonkey 7y agoThey're most probably installing levers everywhere on the planet. Now how they're gonna use it is to be seen. Of course without opposing forces China will be free to exploit them to their limit but maybe they won't.
- vorpalhex 7y agoYet even this exploitative relationship may prove much more helpful than the grain and occasional squad of observers the US or UN sends. It's a funny sort of problem isn't it - perhaps the only way to get genuine investment in these areas is an almost parasitic relationship. More interesting would be if this forces the US or other western countries to more aggressively step up to the plate...
- blackearl 7y agoIf the US or Europe was digging in as blatantly as China we'd be accused of going back to our colonial roots. Good thing China has so many other controversies surrounding them, it makes their activity in Africa look generous by comparison.
- tristor 7y agoThe West will never step aggressively to the plate. We aren’t allowed to by our own domestic politics. One of the major reasons China can become so directly and aggressively involved is they aren’t white. They don’t have a history of African colonialism, Apartheid, or slavery in Africa. They’ve done all these (or similar) and worse, but not in Africa and not in a way which found domestic disapproval. If the West ever entered Africa the way China has the politicians leading it would destroyed at home. It’s more domestic politics and history than geopolitics.
- cambalache 7y agoLet me guess, you are western and white, I ask because only a person of your demographic would dare to say that the Chinese has done even worse than the African slave trade, if you are going to mention the great leap forward I can easily mention WW1 and WW2 so I dont know where your sense of smug superiority comes from. I am not chinese by the way, nor "white".
- true_religion 7y agoIt’s not worse in totality, as in we are summit up your sins to see who goes to heaven. It’s worse in brutality for a specific case. The argument that you are trying to have doesn’t exist here.
- tristor 7y agoWe have no quarrel here. As you’ve clearly demonstrated, these topics are touchy subjects in the West. China is unrepentant about its history and has no issues being exploitative if it gets them ahead. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not trying to make some cosmic moral comparison of all the various atrocities ever committed in human history and by whom.
- rumanator 7y ago> Yet even this exploitative relationship may prove much more helpful than the grain and occasional squad of observers the US or UN sends. Any economic program set forth by the West and any decisive intervention to stabilize a country is promptly accused of being neocolonialism. I recall a few years ago there was a military coup in Guinea Bissau and the West stepped in to stabilize the country by getting the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries (Portuguese acronym CPLP) involved and send ground troops. Even so, it was decided that the ground troops needed to be from Angola and leave Portugal to handle logistics because having Portuguese troops on the ground would help the narrative that the former colonizer was controlling the fallen democratic government as a sockpuppet.
- froops 7y agoAt least the intent is transparent. "we're here to help ourselves, but it will help you too" is a lot less suspicious than "we're here because we care..."