China to take over Kenya's ports over unpaid debts

Historically and contemporaneously

Case in Point:

Syria, while horrific, is more a regional clusterf8ck of rival tribes jello wrestling compared to the continental sized damage China is doing in Africa and Asia.

Oh right, that’s what the British said about their wars and famines back in the day too. Its called “pissing down your neck and telling you that you are on fire”

Meh, it’s more like people in the 1990s saying Slobodan Milosevic was Hitler.

Well I think we can probably agree that Hitler was on another level of bad. But if you want to say that a plan for a dam that hasn’t actually been built is a huge catastrophe, while a war that has actually killed hundreds of thousands of people - and that stems directly from geopolitical meddling - is jello wrestling then please do.

OK, we’re getting OT here, but I have to respond for clarity on “a” dam “not yet built” as you say.

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/06/639280566/china-reshapes-the-vital-mekong-river-to-power-its-expansion

NPR has a whole “China Unbound” series you might want to give a listen. I have and find them relevant to this discussion.

From the article:
For over a decade, China has been building hydropower stations on its stretch of the Mekong River. Ten dams have gone up so far, with several more planned, according to the Stimson Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

“This is a situation I feel can degenerate,” says Thitinan, who has been studying the Mekong and China’s growing influence along it.

“If more dams are built and water is more scarce, then … China can use its upstream position as a leverage and even as a coercive instrument,” he says.

Thitinan notes that roughly 60 million people downstream — in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam — depend on the river for most of their food and/or income. He says the dams are already affecting the region.

Phongsee Sriattana, 52, runs a fishing tackle shop in the Thai village of Sob Ruak. She says the river’s water levels and fish stocks have changed dramatically since China began building its dams. The closest one is in Jinghong, 180 miles upriver, in China’s Yunnan province.

“When I was younger, I would go to the river with my mother to catch fish,” she says. “And there were so many they just jumped into our drip net. And I’d scoop them into my bucket.”

But that is not the case since the Chinese built dams upstream, she says. “When the Chinese want to send goods downstream, they release the water,” she says. “When they don’t need to sail their boats, they keep the water in their dams.”

Now, it would be untoward and deflective on your part to suggest that the dead in Syria “cannot compare” to the 60 million in SE Asia that are about to be squeezed hard by China into buying the cheap crap they need to sell to keep the Chinese “dream” alive. I do not discount their deaths in any way. I am suggesting that in a geopolitical sense, what happens in Syria is a local problem, which won’t be resolved with or without outside interference. There are too many players and too many archaic British lines in the sand. However, what China is doing, setting up economic/military port/airport “bases” from China to the Middle East and Africa to secure their oil and resource routes, and pinching off SE Asia in order to hold them hostage economically, well, that effects more than a billion people.

In good faith I will ask my Sudanese friend about China and get back to you. :+1:

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China is doing this globally and countries are eating it up like an unlimited credit limit on you credit card. Remember that housing boom back in the recent recession. Right now China is the banker and most all of our governments are the moronic fools borrowing without long term thought. Its nice to point at Africa, but they are ripping resources all over (Canada, Australia, south America, Africa) Europe.less so as there are less natural .resources to steal. But they give in with other treats, look at the the massive transport scam they have going across Asia and Europe, they ate it right up!

People don’t seem to get that China isn’t your friend. They treat their own like.shit, what makes.people think they are going to be treated better given ingrained racism and lack of a Fuck for even their own people. Its silly and makes me.sad people are so naive about this concept…its been happening for kind of a long time

At least stop buying their shit and support some other slave labor force that isn’t bent on world domination.

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I must admit, any time I see this (I’m not from 非洲 directly, but the Caribbean) it strikes a nerve as well. I have less knowledge in China’s other world affairs, but this is pretty silly. I take it, since both have countries with subpar governments so-to-speak, they have some interest in each other?

China buys, rents or gets their hands on agricultural land in Africa and exports the crops to China. Oh wait, people in some African countries go hungry? China probably exports instant noodles to Africa.

So you are speculating which of the following:

  1. The US lures Vanatu into a collateral-secured debt sufficiently large enough that payback is unrealistic, resulting in confiscation of the collateral, i.e. the Luganville wharf.

–or–

  1. The US purchases the Luganville wharf directly from Vanatu.

???

The US gives them some freedom over there and takes it lol.

FIFY

China lover?

Shocking stuff.

I really don’t get your logic. Modern Chinese scumbaggery is good for gander because of historical European colonial goose scumbaggery? No one is denying the past here, yet China seems to be the one hellbent on repeating it. China best watch its step or Vietnam may have kick its arse…yet again. :popcorn:

Yeah, he was no fan of China. They’re essentially renting three generations of Africans…probably with an option to buy. The quality of the crap they sell Africans is laughable, from clothing to electronics.

FIFY

What I did was point out Belgium genocidal influence in Africa. There is a difference between that and loving China.

Absolutely not what I said. What I said was that China is not the worst offender. Why do I have to keep repeating that? Maybe you could find someone who wants to justify China’s role in Africa and have your conversation with that person.

Ongoing conflict, Somali civil war, 500,000 dead. one side backed by the US

Libian civil war, kicked of by Nato, tens of thousands dead

For someone who seems to hold an interest in modern geopolitics, it is surprising that you dismiss the possible and most probable long term negative effects China’s aggressive expansionism will have.

China’s use of “Commodity based loans” for example is a euphemism for economic colonialism and nothing could be clearer than the 99 year “leases” they are obtaining from poor, unstable countries full of stuff they need to situate themselves for the oil and trade route war of the future, which will happen when their awful domestic, economic and social policies start to implode.

You can’t say what you say, they aren’t the worst, and then walk away. No one is having the influence China is having these days, and I’ll say it again, the conflicts in Africa and the Middle East would be happening if there were no foreigners involved. The Sykes-Picot Agreement "borders"are being erased and there’s a bottleneck of violence that’s bubbling out. The fact that China wants to reestablish the Age of Empires is a bad baaaaaad sign, and everything they are doing suggests that that is their goal. 99 year leases? gftooh.

When did I do that?