I think it was former President George W Bush years ago who referred to the People’s Republic of China as a world power comparable to the United States.
The Chinese leader coyly downplayed the president’s characterization with faux humility, “China is still a poor developing country mister president we are still struggling to find ways to feed our 1.3 billion people”[pharaprased]
Anyone fooled by that faux humility must not have been paying attention.
Since Richard Nixon added some warmth to the dormant relationship that existed between the United States and China with a visit in 1972, China has emerged as a powerhouse on the world stage, transforming its economy into a powerhouse as a result of its massive manufacturing infrastructure.
Today China stands as probably the greatest example of Capitalism’s potential to shape and improve people’s lives.
China’s emergence from poverty to the second-largest economy in the world happened the fastest of any economy in recorded history.
In 2002 speaking at Tsinghua University President George W Bush said; Thirty years ago this week, an American President arrived in China on a trip designed to end decades of estrangement and confront centuries of suspicion. President Richard Nixon showed the world that two vastly different governments could meet on the grounds of common interest, in the spirit of mutual respect. Some of the erroneous pictures of America are painted by others.
My friend, the Ambassador to China, tells me some Chinese textbooks talk of Americans of “bullying the weak and repressing the poor.” Another Chinese textbook, published just last year, teaches that special agents of the FBI are used to “repress the working people.” Now, neither of these is true — and while the words may be leftovers from a previous era, they are misleading and they’re harmful.
I disagreed mightily with the way Bush ascended to the presidency, I also disagreed with almost every policy Bush stood for and the second paragraph of his statements above was no exception.
But that is hardly the intent of this article.
(See link to full speech from President George W Bush in china in 2002;https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020222.html)
In the years since that speech, China has emerged on the world stage fully flushed with cash. They have aggressively invested in upgrading their military, and have advanced soft power across the globe through loans and infrastructural projects that should cause raised eyebrows to everyone concerned.
But China’s approach has not always been one of soft power, for example in parts of Africa.….. yea Africa, China’s actions have been tantamount to that of a loan shark engaging in Usury tactics. That has drawn condemnation from some quarters as well as strongly-worded statements of caution to other nations to be wary of china’s monetary entreatments.
Full disclosure, this writer has criticized two such warnings toward Jamaica my home country, one coming from the secretary of state Mike Pompeo & the other from the US Ambassador to Jamaica Donald Tapia.
My desire to see 20st-century infrastructure in my homeland may have inspired my chagrin at the Americans, for daring to issue warnings to Jamaica about China.
I also feel strongly that if the Americans cared enough they could have helped countries like Jamaica that have been friendly to the United States with low-interest loans, something which would have been in the best interest of the United States as it relates to Immigration.
Just today the respected Wall Street Journal reported: Beijing state giants take control of Djibouti’s trading gateway at an ocean-going crossroads between Asia and Europe.
In March of this year [ft.com] reported: Beyond the Belt and Road infrastructure projects, thousands of entrepreneurs from China are also setting up on the continent. This is certainly not good.
https://www.ft.com/content/9f5736d8-14e1-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e.
In early March of 2018 the website Quartz reported; Last year, with more than $1 billion in debt to China, Sri Lanka handed over a port to companies owned by the Chinese government. Now Djibouti, home to the US military’s main base in Africa, looks about to cede control of another key port to a Beijing-linked company, and the US is not happy about it.
In 2018 the well regarded Guardian website asked the question; China in Africa win-win or new colonialism?
Read the story here; https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/31/china-in-africa-win-win-development-or-a-new-colonialism
There are thousands of articles detailing the pitfalls of navigating the minefield of accepting Chinese money. Sufficing to say this ought to have been common knowledge to everyone including your humble servant who is like everyone else, prone to making decisions based on emotions.
I beg your forgiveness.
Beijing “encourages dependency using opaque contracts, predatory loan practices, and corrupt deals that mire nations in debt and undercut their sovereignty, denying them their long-term, self-sustaining growth,” said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on March 6. 2018. ”Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap, but its approach has led to mounting debt and few, if any, jobs in most countries,” he added.
In January 2018 when a Le Monde investigation exposed that the Chinese-financed and constructed African Union building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia had been bugged by Beijing, the outcry was muted. Microphones were found hidden in desks and walls, and data from the AU computer network was transferred back to Shanghai servers nightly for over five years, since the building’s opening in 2012.
China has long surpassed the United States as the largest trading partner with Africa. The African continent with it’s 1.216 billion people presented a wealth of opportunities for the United States as it relates to trade. Racism and other nefarious considerations on the part of the Americans enabled China to enter the space and cement itself on a continent rife with opportunities but desperately in need of help.
Although Kenya and Ethiopia were the only two African nations among the 30 countries signing economic and trade agreements at the Belt and Road Forum (Barf) in Beijing in May of 2017, China has been busy on the continent. The flagship Belt and Road project is Kenya’s 290-mile railway from the capital, Nairobi, to the port city of Mombasa, which opened to the public last year.
As African nations take advantage of China’s entreaties monetarily, it is important that African leaders ensure that corruption and graft do not once again plunge the continent into another dark period of colonization.
African people all across the globe simply cannot afford to jump from the frying pan into the fire.
The last time the enemy arrived on the continent they came with guns, it literally took five hundred years of slavery and the worst kind of inhumanity for Africans to emerge from those dark days.
African people can ill-afford to allow another enemy to come in this time with cash in hand, building highways and ports that they will never be able to afford. It is another form of enslavement & this enemy has demonstrated that like the last it has no heart.
Negotiate .….……
Mike Beckles is a former Jamaican police Detective corporal, businessman, researcher, and blogger.
He is a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog chatt-a-box.com.
He’s also a contributor to several websites.
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