Clifford Nelson
https://www.quora.com/
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Former System EngineerJan 3
Is China’s BRI a win-win for the participating nations or does China have a hidden agenda?
Originally the BRI was considered an idea of China’s that was going to bankrupt the country. Always when there is any opportunity for broadcast that China is about to collapse, that story gains a lot of traction.. That story has not disappeared. Guess
that it is actually proving to help the Chinese economy, so this story is now falling on its face, so no longer see this story,

Now the story that China is using this to do to these countries what the Western countries did to them as colonies, and then using debt to control these counties. Just what the West has been doing for centuries. But somehow this story ignores the fact
that even with Chinese investment, it is a small percentage of the debt of almost all of these countries. And the western investment in these third world countries have been there for decades, and yet seems like it did very little good for the country—
until so many of these third world countries showed little progress despite this investment. In the last couple of decade this appears to have changed in many third world countries—something changed. Could not have been western investment because that
has changed little. The only change has been Chinese investment. That means that only once China started to invest in Africa did things really change.

The only think I can think of is that western loans were made on preconditions that actually hurt the countries, so that any improvements made were counterbalanced by what the country had to give up to get those loans. China does not use this bribery
technique, unlike the West. Hundreds of years of Western involvement in these third world countries, and nothing that these countries can show for it. A couple decades of Chinese investment and there seems to be significant change for the better.


Just look at this new railway that opened up Laos. It does connect to China, but there is a railway in Thailand just across the border that will connect this railway to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. All these cities in Laos now have significantly
improved access not only to China but all these other countries. Now their products can much more economically reach those countries and the ports in those countries. They are not just stuck with using Chinese facilities. Also product can much more
economically reach these Laotian cities giving the people of those cities an improved lifestyle. In the few hundred years of first western colonization and the western investment this was never done. It appears the West really did not care at all about
improving the conditions in Laos. How can having such a railroad be considered a debt trap when it creates such new economic opportunity for Laos much more so than anything the West has ever done for Laos.

Is there a hidden agenda. What hidden agenda could there be. The Republic of China has never shown any interest in conquest of Laos. What China wants is improved market access and improved access to resources it needs. It is not doing like Japan did, and
invading other countries to get their resources, it is ensuring that there is good transportation so that China can trade for what it needs. Did Japan create railways when in invaded China or Indochina?

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