Generational Dynamics World View

[Ragnarök_62]

(11-09-2018, 11:50 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: *** 10-Nov-18 World View -- China and India compete for influence in Sri Lanka and Maldives constitutional crises



Today, Sri Lanka is still in so much debt that it will never be paid
back.  Still, because of Sri Lanka's strategic importance, both India
and China want to be build the new infrastructure projects.  The
constitutional crisis may appear to be a domestic matter, but it has
important geopolitical implication.  Times of Sri Lanka and Reuters and
Channel News Asia

****
**** New Maldives government begins untangling previous government's secret deals with China
****

The first thing Solih did after winning the elect was to meewith with
the Chinese ambassador, where he learned that the Maldives owed the
Chinese $3 billion, not the $1.5 billion he had previously been told.
That’s more revenue than Maldives' government raises in two years – a
staggering figure that makes the Maldives a prime example of how
Chinese loans have swamped smaller economies with loans that can't be
repaid.


----<snip>
Details of the debt – and how much might have been stolen – will only
begin to emerge after Solih takes office on November 17 and his aides
gain complete access to documents Yameen’s government hid from
lawmakers and the public. But information already collected by Solih’s
transition team indicates the liabilities are greater than initially
believed and will soon outpace the country's ability to pay.

It's amazing how China has gotten away with "debt trap diplomacy" in
country after country.  They loan a country to build infrastructure
proects that will strategically benefit China and only marginally
benefit the local population.  The require that the loan money be used
to purchase parts and services from Chinese firms, and that almost all
workers must be Chinese.  So instead of benefiting the local factories
and workers, the money goes back to China to benefit factories and
people there.  And then the country still has to repay the loan, which
means that they're repaying the loan twice.

<snip>

Debt trap diplomacy isn't as bad as USA regime change policy. Debt trapped countries aren't bombed and don't seem to incur as many deaths as Regime change targets.  Since it's diplomacy, there's a chance other countries can just tell China no, without too severe of consequences.  US diplomacy, as such isn't really diplomacy, but rather a ultimatum to do something. In fact the US uses diplomacy to issue ultimatums to say countries in Latin America to submit to transnational companies strip mine their economies. Sanctions are also another form of diplomacy the US employs. The purpose of sanctions is to ruin the target country's economy, So, all in all, China is far nicer to the World community than the US. At least China's foreign policy seems to help some workers. US foreign policy screws US workers by protecting foreign labor sources.