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1. China has been building out their railroad net for years now, both internally and reaching outwards 2. Those synergize with the loans. They are not "some" l
by hosh 4y ago
1. China has been building out their railroad net for years now, both internally and reaching outwards
2. Those synergize with the loans. They are not "some" loans
3. Cultural exports have been going on for a while, though it has not been as successful as South Korea or Japan
4. China has been seriously wooing back Western-educated citizens to head R&D in a variety areas, for the past ten years or so. Quality-of-life, career advancements, respect and social status exceeds that of staying in the West. That's more the sufficient to successfully bring expertise back.
5. China has been adding more people into the international computing and network standards community. They are starting to influence that.
6. China has been developing its naval power. While it has yet to field a fully operational carrier group, its drone carrier program is probably further along than the US Navy
7. China needs to secure a supply of crude oil, since they are a net importer. The SE Asian shipping corridor, of which the Taiwanese strait anchors one end of it, is going to be hotly contested.
8. Along with some other countries, China has been involved in creation of an alternate world reserve currency. That is not yet successful as far as I know.
I think the general nationalist sentiment among Chinese citizens is along the lines of, "we were once a superpower, why shouldn't we be again?". And, the culture tends to be more amendable to thinking generationally; that is, the benefits may not be realized in this generation, but that's ok.
- smcl 4y agoAmong other things, right now I don't think Quality-of-life is particularly high if you run the risk of suddenly being locked down in place or thrown in a covid hospital (friend of mine went through both, sounded very unpleasant indeed)
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoYa, China's Zero COVID policy has reversed this trend for sure. It isn't just getting lockdown that people are worried about, but the inability to freely travel without a long quarantine at the end of the trip.
- Zigurd 4y agoTBF China hasn't got a lot of choice. They do not have a highly effective vaccine. Millions of people in China would die if COVID were allowed to spread. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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- prottog 4y agoI'm not advocating that millions of people die in a vacuum, but millions of people risking death so that the other billion people in China could live a normal life is at least worth considering the trade-off. The median age of a Covid death in the US, with its obese and unhealthy population, is around the average life expectancy with some room for error. I can't imagine that China fares worse in that regard.
- Zigurd 4y agoThe Chinese government would likely consider letting COVID rip through the population if they could survive the consequences of an overwhelmed health system and the numbers of dead.
- smcl 4y agoSo that's what is surprising to me, because I figured the CCP had a fairly tight grip on power and is in no danger of being overthrown. My naive guess as an outsider was that it's face-saving for those at the very top - to make an about-turn now would be embarrassing and an admission of defeat. And that only a few specific heads that would roll, but the government itself would remain largely intact
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago> TBF China hasn't got a lot of choice. I wouldn't doubt that this is true. But individuals can make choices, especially mobile techies.
- foobarian 4y ago> 7. China needs to secure a supply of crude oil Wonder how that's coming along. I'm sure those African countries will stand up for China even when they can't get any oil.
- smcl 4y agoWould Russia not be a more natural source of this? I know they're not exactly best pals but China is maybe one of the closer countries to Russia outside of Belarus and Syria rn.
- foobarian 4y agoI wonder how they would pay for it. The world market operates in US dollars so presumably they'd have to set up some kind of bilateral arrangement and I doubt Russians would accept Yuan.
- hosh 4y agoYes they would. Russia was one of countries working with China to create an alternate reserve currency. (https://coercioncode.com/2022/07/25/russia-and-china-announce-a-new-global-reserve-currency/ https://coercioncode.com/2022/07/25/russia-and-china-announc... ) Sanctions on Russia over Ukraine is accelerating this. This isn’t the first attempt. Yuan is already increasingly held by central banks (https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/dollar-vs-yuan-reserve-currency-central-banks-foreign-exchange-geopolitics-2022-7?op=1 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/dollar-v...) but I was thinking of a composite currency that included the Yuan. I don’t remember the article talking about this Also keep in mind that Russia is not a part of OPEC, though they had historically worked with OPEC until the sanctions over invading Ukraine.
- hosh 4y agoOil and other trade between Russia and China has increased since sanctions against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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