@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler - Where the USA is using military soft power diplomacy, China is using economic diplomacy through 'trojan horse' free trade agreements with developed 'free world' countries, economic investments (debit diplomacy) in developing countries and the Belt Road Initiative to lock in its global supply/distribution chains. China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power.
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler military threats from what? Most of PH are fine with the military from the US, they keep us safe against chinese incursions at the south china sea.
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler why does us have loans with high interests. Thats why i like US rather than china, i rather have a bank dictate to me how much i pay rather than giving my port away to china because of default😑
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler ah here we go again with wild card. Using the "yemen, afghanistan card" to change the topic, ill keep this straightforward cause i dont care how terrorism fuck those countries up. Debt trap diplomacy affected sri lankans economy, used its money to steal ports for other country, helping other people to build infastructure but stealing the job of the local workers, and using this diplomacy to spread anti western propaganda. Im a Filipino but we prefer western vaccines rather than china. So basically, i dont get why you fools defend china for stealing ur money
Don't think China really care if debt were repaid or not. It's more like increasing its influence in international organisations such as the UN, WTO or WHO. Also, due to colonial past in many developing nations, modern western influence maybe frowned upon
@@Joso997 China colonized the whole asia-pacific? I lived in Malaysia and in our history we were colonized by Portuguese, British then Japan but never by China. You must be on crack to say that.
@@Joso997 No, Chinese culture is very inwards and nationalist, they never really colonised anywhere except mainland China. Their whole history is very advanced and one of the richest at that time. One of the reasons that the Europeans started exploring and colonising was to find new trade routes to China. Since China was quite big and didn't need land or money, they didn't need to colonise. They focused more on internal problems. They were surrounded on all sides by deserts or jungles and didn't face much opposition. So once the Europeans came, they didn't expect them to have advanced in technology so much. The period in which the opium wars started until probably Mao, is called The Century of Humiliation in China. Only now is China engaging in the world stage, since it has toughened up to the west and acknowledged that there are other countries that can stand up to it.
@@rowdynerd6793 your history teacher sucks. All of the islands in Asia reachable by junk have been colonized by the Chinese at one time or another: Malaysia, the Phillipines, Taiwan, etc. The far ranging colonies of the European powers made in the 1500-1800 period cannot be compared because China did not have types of sea-faring vessels necessary.
I think some points have been missed : - Alot of infrastructure projects use Chinese labour / business rather than local ones. - the claim that the projects they invest in don't have use to the local economy but do have use to military - local corruption being used to get Chinas projects approved.
1. Because those countries usually lack the expertise 2. This is subjective 3. One can use that argument for literally anything if the country is somehow corrupt. By that logic it would be bad to do anything for a corrupt country with anyone. Be it with the us, Europe, China or some international organization. Yet somehow only the dealings with China are bad and because of corruption
There is a huge difference in a county taking on a dept to improve the life of their citizens and a country taking on a dept to pay for their glorious leader/party mansion
@@C104-k5m Yes and how does that matter? My point is that corrupt countries will be still corrupt whether with China or any other entity. The same applies if that corrupt country does some deals with the US or Europe, yet strangely then everybody forgets that that country is corrupt. Or rather they don't care if Western powers flex their economic muscles on them to gain benefits
@@wothin no u agree. The UK, USA & EU probably do it but that doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't be done. If China is doing it, it is just as wrong as any other country and should be condemned. So that's why we should ask if it's being done. Right now we are looking into China so that's why we ask if this apart of the problem and as such should be considered in the investigation. Just because everyone could or are doing it doesn't take away from the fact it's a bad thing. My point still stands
@@wothin 1. This may be true but this doesn't mean that all countries do and every country has some form of building company so why isn't China using them. We have seen multiple cases of them using very little or no local workers so while specialist can be brought in this shouldn't be the rule, more the exception. 2. It is somewhat subjective but this doesn't mean that a country with no big large buildings needs a skyscraper, or a small fishing village needs a peed water port used for large warships. We can look to the needs and what they want to grow into and see if it lines up. If it doesn't but looks perfect for a military base or fits with Chinas needs then possible evidence to the case of China's wrong doings. 3. See my prior post
The International monetary fund has been doing the same shit for years, putting smaller countries in debt traps. Please TLDR, cover the other global debt sharks.
Yes, well said. Most of the comment here turn a blind eye to the blatant hypocrisy by various countries along with the IMF, World Bank etc. Just more slander from the neoconservatives propaganda playbook to hype-up anti-China sentiment.
@@Davbach01 yes can you believe people are opposed to an genocidal, imperialistic hyper ethno-nationalist dictatorship than has openly declared its intention to invade and conquer its democratic neighbor? I swear to God, the left will defend ANYTHING if its done by non-white people and countries.
It's not loan sharing though. The IMF is not a country. They have nothing to gain by making countries indebted the way China does. The IMF is not owning resource projects on Africa or some shit. It's not getting other countries to support its measures at the UN (again because it's not a country). The analogy is complete nonsense.
Winning favour of countries through investment and low cost loans, leaves countries with a feeling of being indebted to China. This is particularly beneficial for China, especially when it comes to voting in support of China when voting terms are 1 country= 1 vote.
@@jerryamoz5392 Literally the whole point of democracy is to vote for you're own needs and to attempt to reach the needs of the majority. If China gets votes by financially bullying other nations the system fails.
@@henrymccoy2306 I agree with what you say but I disagree with how you define and describe the problem. But...what do I know. It's not something I can decide or influence.
At least China is still better with a win-win policy than the west that would ruin your country without any benefit. This debt-trap is a BS propaganda that already debunk
especially most of the stuff that US accusing of were done by US and his allies before, just read the stuff about CIA and things their do in their homeland in ww2
Take a look at what the US has done in the world in the last hundred years and compare that bloody record with the US. The US has killed hundreds of millions of people on every continent and the record is there for anyone who is able to read. The thing is, the US also spends millions of dollars on media presentations of China. Even so, They will not be able to stop China's rise. The Chinese are smarter and they for the long term. And really, Western civilization is filled with blood, brutality and exploitation.
The “debt-trap” theory is concocted by Brahma Chellaney, an Indian geopolitical strategist. The “debt-trap” theory is concocted by Indians, and popularized by Americans. They concoct this theory to demonize China, Chinese and BRI projects/loans. India, US, along with EU, fear losing their dominance and control over other countries which may result from these projects. Such fears are based on their selfish and geopolitical interests. However, people from all over the world, especially from developing countries have acknowledged the needs and the actual benefits of these projects/loans. They know from their first-hand experience that there is no debt-trap. Academics and researchers have reviewed these projects, and have debunked the debt-trap theory.
As it is a "global channel", I recommend you to indicated the country when you mentioned a position. For example "Secretary of State" or bipartisan senators". From where? There are secretary of state in many country. The channel cannot be global if you assume that the US is the default country.
Well said. That seems to be the standard for most people. If the US says something it is true. And we know that almost never tell the facts as they are. The record is there.
"The renminbi is the official currency of China and one of the world's reserve currencies. The yuan is the basic unit of the renminbi, but the word is also used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts. One yuan divides into ten jiao, and a jiao in turn divides into ten fen." Not exactly sure how renminbi differs from yuan, or what their analogues are in America.
Chinese language uses yuan (元) for the basic unit of practically all currencies including US dollar, Renminbi, Japan yen, Korea won, or Hong Kong dollar, so using "Renminbi" is a better option for clarity in all aspects.
Think of it like "Money" , "Dollars" and "cents" Renmimbi is a reference to their money in general. Not a specific quantity. Yuan is a reference to the larger denominator of their currency. Like "Dollars" is in. Jiao is the next lower denominator. Like "cents" Fen is another level lower. But let's be honest, I was in China for six years and never even worried jiao. So just ignore Fen.
China is now using the same strategies Britain used with gaining soft power in India. It may seem harmless now but it’s important to see the bigger picture.
China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power, so achieve this, they are using economic diplomacy through 'trojan horse' free trade agreements with developed 'free world' countries, economic investments (debit diplomacy) in developing countries and the Belt Road Initiative to lock in its global supply/distribution chains.
The countries are accepting the loans on their own free will and have the sovereign right to do so. If this is such a big problem the West wants to fix, they should offer to pay off the Chinese loan at a lower interest rate.
If it was a western bank that lent billions of dollars to people in developing countries to build hospitals, roads, railways, ports etc at ultra low interest rates and then forgive those loans when they can't be repaid would be given a benevolent award! But alas no such western bank exists. The western countries with long histories of colonisation of 3rd world countries like Sri Lanka and India by military force and rule over those countries for many years should take a good hard look at itself when it points the finger at China about its motives. The same western countries with over a thousand military bases littered across the globe taken by force or other dubious means and who have it's prisons currently filled with Indigenous peoples should look at themselves before pointing the finger at China.
Problem with Chinese loans is that the interest is high and often times those projects are waste of money as the project in Sri Lanka was. (which is why they called it waste of money) The previous govt accepted the loan for Infrastructure project that China proposed and built which turned out to be a waste and next govt ended up giving the port. The burden should be on China for proposing and building a failed project but it's often on citizens of the country it's built in
But... they video just said that in the case of Sri Lanka, the money was being used to pay off US debt, which had higher interest rate - do you have any source that contradicts this?
@@raccoonious4038 I will have to look for it but this was something that I read a couple of years ago. Maybe I was a victim of media manipulation then but the other things I have talked about how the whole project was brainchild of China can easily be verified
If someone tells you that Sri Lanka is a victim of China’s debt trap, don’t let them fool you. Here are the key facts to consider when analyzing the current debt crisis in Sri Lanka, and for that matter, similar events in developing countries. Q1 - Is China the biggest lender to Sri Lanka. Answer - no, 47% of its foreign debts are in form of Eurobonds and many of these are Western Institutional Investors such as UBS, JP Morgan, Blackrock, etc. Outside of this category, ADB is the single largest lender at 13%, followed by China and Japan, each at 10% apiece, and then World Bank at 9%. In other words, saying China is exploiting Sri Lanka through ‘debt trap’ is completely false, or misleading at best. Q2 - Is China causing the debt crisis in Sri Lanka or is it helping to address such debt crisis. Perhaps we can use the Hambantota Port to illustrate this as it is often cited as the exemplary debt trap case or China involved in predatory lending. Sri Lanka’s bloating foreign debt problem already appeared in the 2010s. In 2017, China (through Export & Import Bank of China, China Development Bank) was called in to refinance its previous debts to Sri Lanka as well as facilitate the latter in servicing other foreign debt payments. A JV between Sri Lanka’s state-owned Port Authority and China Merchant Bank was formed in 2017 to run the said 99-year lease of Hambantota Port requiring China’s side to provide new USD900 million funds. Without which (ie the emergency funding), the country would have faced serious debt distress. In other words, this port-lease / emergency fund was not causing the country’s debt issue, but rather alleviating it. Q3 - When these developing countries can’t keep up the debt payments, what would China normally do? As a matter of fact, China has assisted these countries by debt cancellation and debt restructuring (including reliefs such as extending maturity, interest rate reductions, refinancing, and extensions). Beneficiary countries include African countries as well as countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative (see D. Brautigam’s clip for details). Q4 - Where did the borrowed money go? Let's again use the Sri Lanka case. The foreign debt is being spent on infrastructures - in this case, Hambantota Port. As with all infrastructure investments, such spending enhances the future productivity and living standards of its nationals. Meantime, such spending also aids domestic employment. Most importantly, the money trails can be easily tracked and traced (for instance, railways or power plants). On the contrary, funds provided by the Eurobond Market have been mostly applied to cover the country's trade deficit and to meet fiscal deficits. In some developing countries where corruptions are prevalent, some of these funds may be misappropriated, ending in the pockets of its political leaders and oligarchs. Q5 - What is the impact of rising international interest rates on Sri Lanka’s foreign debt? Interest rates hiking means that the refinancing costs of Sri Lanka's foreign debts will be on the rise, making its dire financial situation even worse. Worse still, Sri Lanka is importing inflation as its currency devaluates (on the contrary, USD appreciates with rising interest rates). Foreign goods, as well as commodities like oil and gas, are made more expensive, resulting in acute food and energy shortages. In conclusion, the debt trap is not caused by China, but rather by western lenders. They are making it worse for Sri Lanka as these Western Countries are raising interest rates, making it more difficult for the country to service its interest payments and refinance maturing debts. Deborah Brautigam, a well-known scholar, has covered China ’s ‘debt trap’ myth extensively. She specifically addressed the Sri Lanka case in her clip (see the 15:20 mark onward). ruclips.net/video/q5SvFjlu9ZM/видео.html
but, china isn't a loan shark though. a loan shark indebts a party with limited amount of money and high interest rate. china is loaning as much money with low interest rate. china is more like the federal reserve or old-century banks.
When I studied chinese, when it came to currency, the currency is in yuan. Let's take dollars and cents. 100.50 is 100 dollars and 50 cents. But the whole currency is called US dollar. For chinese currency, 100.50 is 100 yuan 50 something (sorry I forgot what it is called). But the whole currency is called Renminbi. I hope that makes sense. Even I have some trouble understanding this but apparently that's how it is.
@@blainegabbertgabonemhofgoa6602 definently they do and actually they are bad as actually china is accused of its wrong deed but not these western countries.
I've seen a video about this before on Visual politick, but they didn't give the other side in defense of China. It was good to get another perspective on this; thanks so much for living up to your standards of neutrality 👍
VisualPolitik isn't really a reliable channel. They tend to prioritize spectacle and delivery over neutrality. I won't say they're biased for or against any country, but rather they tend to choose an 'angle' to go on for every report - and then skew the entire presentation to suit it. I'd recommend Caspian Report instead, for being more somber and reserved. VP is too into trying to make geopolitics 'sexy'.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn oh definitely, I don't expect them to be unbiased, I just like that they cover international topics that often get ignored in US news media. I'll check out Caspian Report though, thanks.
Visual political is pretty bias view toward a lot things. They don't talks about both side of views. This channel at least talks about both side arguments to inform us. I think this is more educational than others.
An interesting one is where china payed for the Darwin port on a 99 year lease to prop up the Northern Territory (Austrlaia) budget... this was huge issue as it violated federal law concerning states selling government property without considering security. However the Australian government then planned to set up a US backed port right next to it... causing the entire investment plan to crumble and setting the chinese backed company back hugely. It is not surprising that Austrlaia is part of the five eyues intelligence organisation and shares intelligence with the US... one would suspect that the federal government knew exactly what was happening before it happened and posisbly planned the entire thing to warn China against debt diplomacy.
Can’t believe a territory has the power to sell a port to a foreign country without the consent of the federal government. That’s like the state of New Jersey here in the US deciding to sell a port to a foreign adversary. Unheard of.
I think when a developing country does want improved infrastructure, there are few countries to turn to, to lend them money or to help in the investment and building of infrastructure in the country. China has shown in the last 40 years what can be achieved from improved infrastructure in its own country. Look at the high speed rail, the roads, links and developed cities that are growing. Look at how shenzhen, and how that has developed from a fishing village to a mega tech city in 30 years. They haven't wasted money and time in endless wars. If no other country shows investment interest or to help build it, China was the obvious choice.
China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power, so achieve this, they are using economic diplomacy through 'trojan horse' free trade agreements with developed 'free world' countries, economic investments (debit diplomacy) in developing countries and the Belt Road Initiative to lock in its global supply/distribution chains.
Moreover, only Japan and China gives loan for infrastructure. USA doesn’t really care unless you want a loan for gender programs, equality programs, environment programs etc. A developing 3rd world country couldn’t care less to fund these bs with debt. They want key infrastructures to boost their economy as fast as possible
Amazing seeing westerners pissed off at China when historically western states have been the ones to colonize and exploit poor African countries, not to mention how the American loans were literally higher interest rates than China's and China helped these countries pay off the American loans by giving them lower interest loans. No wonder the US feels threatened, expect another cold war soon.
@@arnowisp6244 And the Europeans still don't get it....the Chinese leave us in peace dude. If poverty means peace and freedom, then we will take poverty all day and every day. Europe's arrival was the worst thing that happened in these parts and Africans will never forget it.
@@siyabongamchunu4342 Leave you in Peace? If exploitation is Peace then you are so sadly deluded. China is another conquerer and you are all too happy they aren't European. www.thedailybeast.com/chinas-ugly-exploitation-of-africaand-africans
@@arnowisp6244 Hilarious you are linking pro American Daily Beast articles and dictating who Africa nations should or should not partner with. It's ALWAYS the western perspective that matters isn't it? Tell me what European countries/America have done to help Africans apart from throwing bread at them? Give African nations an alternative economic model instead of Chinas' and then we can have a proper discussion. ruclips.net/video/GIEOCHa9AJQ/видео.html
The IMF has been playing this game for far longer, except rather than using debt to further geostrategic interests it uses it for Western economic benefit. Step 1: Get a developing country in debt with Western investors either through corruption or by pressing leaders to lift foreign credit restrictions. Step 2: wait for the economy to crash under the weight of unsustainable debt. Step 3: the IMF swoops in to "save" the country, restructuring debt to protect foreign creditors and demanding trade liberalisation in exchange allowing foreign businesses to come in. Step 4: with large multinationals now coming in wealth can be freely extracted: Western consumers/producers get cheap products and shareholders get filthy rich
@@kamanashiskar9203 A country with it's own democratic government, president, military, currency, cultural identity etc..? You would think this is a part of another country because the USA thinks it isn't? Strange. PS. @tldrnews A video on Taiwan-China/Taiwan's excellent response to COVID would be fantastic!
But not an accurate one. China has one foreign military base. On the other hand, the US, alone, has more than 800 hundred military bases all across the world. What are their reasons for having so many military bases? And why are they surrounding China with military bases? Is this an aggressive posture? If China were to put a few bases in Latin America, would that be seen as aggressive? The Us is exempted from the standards that are applied to China. The fact that China has taken a billion people out of poverty and that China was occupied by the US and the West as late as 1949, but facts like these seem to have no meaning for most people in the west. The US and the West have been the global marauders and plunderers, but the people seem to have conveniently lost their memory.
@@qqqsfdf1232 Lol you must be having a laugh if you think china is anything as close to communist. They’ve tasted Capitalism and have enjoyed its wonders.
@@qqqsfdf1232 still baffles my mind that people consider the west a “democratic world” when in reality all your leaders were chosen by corporate overlords. They created this illusion that the peasants have a choice.
Honestly, the debate over whether this is debt-trap diplomacy or not is largely academic. The main take-away is that China is increasing it's influence across the world through these initiatives, gradually loosening the hold that the USA has had on it since the end of WW2. Ironically enough they are doing it by taking a page out of the USA's post-war playbook by leveraging it's extensive industrial capacity and growing wealth to invest in less developed/poorer countries, thus pulling those countries into their sphere of influence. A lot of historically underserved countries are standing to benefit from this, so if China's track-record on Humans Rights wasn't so appalling I'd be tempted to cheer them on.
Fact is the USA do not want competition. The USA do want to stop China's growth. So how has it worked until China got in to the game??? Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures. With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition. Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%. *The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US) Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES* Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT* thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/ The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt. These have high interest rates and short payback periods. In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia, Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well. So really China is just one "in the gang" smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/ In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem. For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN* ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html As for human rights record... a lot is propaganda and the USA still have Guantanamo, bomb civilians, commit war crimes and run a torture program...
This is why I like TLDR. I still stand by that china i a shady country but now this have help me see from the other side of this story without head bashing it in. Good work!
china and the CCP. who kills its own citizens and harvests thier organs. china and the CCP who are occupying multiple countries. china and the CCP who has millions of muslims in slave camps.
@@xelthiavice4276 There is not really much evidence that organ harvesting is happening on a governmental level. Though it of curse does happen. China has many disputed regions. China is occupying multiple countries the same way multiple countries occupy China. Yeah the "millions" number is speculative at best. AT BEST, one could say that over several years there were millions of Uyghurs in their camps, but not at the same time. Because frankly one would be able to see this city of prison camps.
@@wothin Whenever some online commentator spams the organ harvesting conspuracy, it is most certainly linked to media of Falun Gong which is banned in China for spreading unscientific harmful health practices, just like many other cults.
@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 Falun Gong is basically the Chinese equivalent of Scientology. Just because they hate the Government and vice versa doesn't mean they are trustworthy.
@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 Yes. China is no angel and commits human rights violations, like many other countries. Yet STRANGELY almost all sources on those very extreme Chinese violations are from about 3 to 5 sources. Strange. And all those sources have major reason to be biased.
What about countries like the US and France's loan shark diplomacy(AID)? Can you do video on whether that is real? Unlike China, they tend to give unsustainable loans instead of infrastructure.
@@KingofCabal that is just because providing Aid to a country is so blatantly corrupted that you can't hide it. At least China is giving a country infrastructure. Which is much better than throwing money at politicians(AID) of said country who can pocketed anyway.
@@ddillard143 infrastucture is great but you have to maintain it, you can have all the infrastucture in the world but if you don't have the money to pay the upkeep(as they've proven) then there's no point,. That being said, it may help spur their economy so it's kinda a double edged sword. It's something that could make or break them
@@jake3736 I'm not disputing what you say. But that has nothing with the price of rice in China. Pun intended. Western countries give Aid to African governments but they don't stick around to see if that money's get put to good use. Therefore the politicians are Empowered to take the money and disappear and that Country is then indebted to IMF or the World Bank or some other individual country. And then you have people like those in Middle America calling it a sh*thole country because they live in a bubble and don't realize the foreign policy of the US is one of the reasons why it stays like that over there. You should read confessions of an economic Hitman. Written by a former CIA agent. Or you can actually look it up here on RUclips he has a channel and he's been interview
a lot of these projects are not beneficial for the countries. the infrastructure is built by Chinese companies with Chinese workers that send the money back to China. Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and the airports in Sri Lanka are empty. Watch the video, the Hambantota port was a big waste of money and did not help Sri Lanka at all.
@@idraote So just to be clear, is your answer to OP's question, "Yes, it is better for them to just not fund their projects even if no one else is willing to loan them money." ? If that is your answer, you should(imo) say it in a more straightforward and direct manner. And then afterwards you can add "I think it would be better for them to live poor, but independent lives, as opposed to having to sell themselves and their descendants to slave traders."
This has made me think of sources who use the same points to argue that China is engaging in modern colonialism. Not sure if debt-trap diplomacy could be considered a tactical move to further neo-colonialism or if it should be viewed as entirely separate
Could be argued that promoting global influence with loans is preferable to doing it by military intervention. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of the US & allies various wars over the last few decades, but you can’t deny that military intervention has repeatedly been chosen by the US as an appropriate response, while China has chosen a less aggressive approach.
This is still overlooking the fact that the underlying country has a human rights record comparable to that of Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union. The only reason they are not spreading their influence by force most of the time is because money speaks, especially to Autocrats whose only goal is to enrich themselves. On the other hand the US and EU has a harder time doing the same thing, because politicians have to explain (1) why all that money is going abroad, and (2) why it's going to obvious dictatorships. Voters care more about ideals and principles than Geostrategic wins.
@@CrystalMaidenFeetLover86 one issue at a time usually allows for a greater degree of clarity. “Yea but what about ... “ is usually a way of avoiding having to concede a point
@@andrewpaulhart Yes but what is hapenning is that the CCP tries to portray itself to other nations as a humane helper, which is simply not the case. The party bolsters Autocrats who prefer Chinese loans over Western ones, because Chinese loans do not come tied with required democratic reforms. So on the surface no shot is being fired, but at a closer look 99% of populations of complete nations continue being oppressed, because that 1% at the top is getting Chinese money, weapons and surveillance help for selling out their country. So as I stated before it is the same power game the US and EU and other big players follow, China simply choses these pseudo-humane tactics more often because it is cheaper for an Authoritarian state to do it than for a Democratic one.
@@CrystalMaidenFeetLover86 agree that all countries have power plays. However just as some things that the US does are commendable and some thing that the US does are deplorable, I propose that the same is true of China. Just because some things China does are deplorable does not mean that People should assume that everything that China does is deplorable.
Those defending China don't really see the problem, neither does TLDR to be honest, as in most all of these types of videos. The problem is not the loan nor its non payment or taking this or that for compensation. Non transparency is the real problem. Non transparency and Africa. What else goes together? Africa and Corru......
The loan and terms are transparent to Africa and China will both decide to sign the deal. It doesn't matter if they don't tell the US. The US isn't part of it. Use some damn common sense instead of siding with whatever you see on Fox news.
People in developped countries did nothing to help us, look at the former colonies in Africa, especially former french colonies. They pillaged our ressources for decades and built almost nothing, and even today let us live and die in poverty. You guys might see China's investment as bad, but us who benefit from it, we see how it's helping our economies develop. Unlike western powers, they dont start wars or rebellions, they dont destabilize countries, they dont buy our ressoures at extortionate rates, and in 15 years, they've built more infrastrutures than the europeans ever did in centuries. And they never ensalved us either. So yeah, they may have some strategic goals behind all this investment, but I would gladly take this deal, over what western countries propose.
When you lend money, you expect a return on investment. There is no altruism here, even though there might be many different reasons for individual loans and many different forms of repayment.
that is always the case. But I can see that there return investment is not just cold cash on the short to middle time. But a investment for the long to extreme long term. and not direct in cash but in way more valuable resources. (think raw materials but also cheap labour)
@@kamanashiskar9203 US wouldn't do shit, they tried sending their naval fleet during 1971 indo pak war and we all saw how that ended up really close to startinga world war, US had to retreat. What actually happened was, the government in srilanka was a Pro china government. A major part of China's foreign policy is the string of pearls, which includes Hambantota among other ports.
@@kamanashiskar9203 Chinese navy alone can't do shit, China's been so aggressive it lost all its friend's except for maybe north korea. They even had to back away from galwan standoff. That's how pathetic their condition has become
No we just let them build our largest power stations. Take over our ports. Flood our country with below market value steel to destroy domestic industry and buy billions worth of their cheap crap that lines our supermarket shelves. We’re totally not in a bad situation at all
1:53 - 2:32 Would have liked a more diverse selection of countries there instead of just american politicians... Its no secret that america isn't a fan of most of chinas actions.
Fact is the USA do not want competition. The USA do want to stop China's growth. So how has it worked until China got in to the game??? Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures. With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition. Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%. *The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US) Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES* Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT* thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/ The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt. These have high interest rates and short payback periods. In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia, Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well. So really China is just one "in the gang" smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/ In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem. For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN* ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
Whichever way you cut it, you just don't call a low interest, long grace period loan a "debt trap". It's an insult as much to the recipient as the lender.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn yes their banks and they dont takr hr ports when u get default. Chinese loans are from the government and accounts for their gdp and if you dont pay it, not only they will get ur port but infest it with chinese workers
@@Youdontshushh Ah yes of course, I'm biased without even mentioning China. Meanwhile the idiot who commented without watching the video and still attacked China somehow isn't biased. Do yourself a favor and stop embarrassing yourself bub.
@@jackmeoff7456 Perhaps However, China's increasing global influence is certainly alarming. Coupled with their Salami Slicing strategy to claim terretories in the South Pacific, everyone taking their money needs to be extra careful
@@baqerjawadal-lawati8473 China's growing global influence is certainly not alarming to me, nor should it be to you. Socialist China is a force for good in this world and a welcome counter to the ever failing, highly unstable capitalist system we find ourselves in. The quicker China rises in power, the quicker the world will be able to cooperate and start to tackle the real problems facing our world.
@@jackmeoff7456 If you honestly believe that Socialist China is a force of good, then I seriously question your moral compass. Look up the crimes communist china continues to commit from their persecution of falun gong practitioners to organ harvesting to their hostage diplomacy with Canada.
@@baqerjawadal-lawati8473 everyone of those issues have been debunked and are only believed by conspiracy theorist nut jobs, you're even trying to defend a cult. Even if those things were true, they wouldn't even come close to the atrocities committed by America, Britain and other imperialist nations and the millions who have died by their actions around the world. Anyone with half a brain realizes that capitalist America is the true source of evil in the world and socialist China, along with it's partners, are a welcome counter to that evil. China didn't start the hostage taking, Canada, at the insistence of America, did.
I see it from other direction. it's not about being a loan shark. They have excess trade surplus in dollars. Instead of dangerously buying US debts, they diversify the money.
One main issue is that they give you loans for a project, BUT they MOSTLY use their own companies, and Chinese workers to build these infrastructures and not the citizens of the country. So the jobs they create are not there, the only upside is that at times they are better at giving loans than the west.
The problem would be that those countries don't have the skilled labour to quickly build up those infrastructures and those countries need those infrastructure now. So, weighing pros and cons 🤷♂️
@@warren5037 Don't know about African countries but Sri Lanka's literacy rate is very good. They are skilled but China still doesn't allow Sri Lankan workers and send their own workers to do the work.
@@kanekiken2002 Just because a country has a literacy rate does not mean a country has enough workers of a certain type to do something, let's say engineers, etc Plus even then, you have to blame the Sri Lankan government as they were doing the contract. Every country tries to do the best for itself, thus it is the Sri lankan government who is at fault
I have always been of the opinion that China's belt and road initiative had been their long-term vision for securing against the middle income trap. Just as the US peddled the myth of their prosperity through their adoption of free markets and democracy, China is pseudo-colonising these territories by promising them and building them the infrastructure to prosperity that they used. Just like the US and their Marshall plan brought the status of super powers to the nation's wrecked by the war China decided to profit on the same promise of prosperity and tactics employed but instead they are happy to take ownership of those satellite pieces of China that they create aboard. They are poised to for the foreseeable future to be able to play musical chairs with their factories as they gradually raise the global standard of living.
So in short, the USA is pissed because China is better at playing capitalism than they are. USA are also worried that the USD will not be the main international currency any more in a handful of years (which is just a different "have you by the b*lls" strategy: imposing sanctions on countries is easy when your currency is the only international currency allowed). China has had US sanctions quite often and still does... I can understand why they would want to put an end this leverage against them. Comparing with USA/EU banks: when you buy a house and need money from a bank to do that, that bank requires a mortgage on your house until you pay off... how is that any different to what China does? If China should not do this to other countries, then neither should banks be allowed to do it to citizen (although that would bring it's own huge can of problems).
Honestly I think this is quite possibly THE one area where you can't criticize China in. I could be wrong, I am not the most informed person on African issues, but from what I've heard they're doing a pretty good job there compared to the US and EU. Plus, it's not like the US and EU haven't tried to do the same thing, it just so happens China is better at it.
Fact is the USA do not want competition. The USA do want to stop China's growth. So how has it worked until China got in to the game??? Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures. With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition. Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%. *The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US) Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES* Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT* thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/ The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt. These have high interest rates and short payback periods. In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia, Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well. So really China is just one "in the gang" smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/ In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem. For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN* ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
Another interesting "case study" to look at would be Montenegro. China has built what has since been coined a "highway to nowhere" in Montenegro. With the contract granting China access to Montenegro's territory should they default on the loan. Debt-trap diplomacy is a thing with China. They aren't just giving money away and then "forgive" that debt out of the goodness of their heart.
@@aaronknittel8327 wow.....They are currently available free funding program paying lot of Austria 🇦🇹 right now........with the help link you up SSI grant agent..........IF you are really interested
China sugar daddy: "Here's some money for you to spend." Sugar baby countries: "Aw, so sweet of you, thanks!" China sugar daddy: "All your base are belong to us!" Sugar baby countries: "What?"
It's not exactly debt trap diplomacy but not very far from it in the sense they use that debt as a leverage to increase their influence and soft power. One can argue this tactic has been used many times over by all major lenders though, however not as efficiently as China who plays a very long game to establish itself as a dominant geo-economic power player with an army to back it up if need be and usurp the USA as the number 1 power. Admittedly USA lost its focus once the Soviet Union collapsed and made grave mistakes and a lot of "small" enemies that will cost a lot in the long term, much like a first time millionaire who won the lottery ticket and wasted all of that fortune in parties and drugs.
While this is a very interesting and necessary discussion, there should be one thing everyone can agree upon: Having a nation that *commits genocide* be heavily involved in the global economy is not a good thing. This is true regardless of how ‘normally’ they behave.
The Uighur genocide claim originates from an Evangelical German researcher in the name of Adrian Zenz who has never visited Xinjiang but works with the BBC and other western news media to fabricate stories of Xinjiang. twitter.com/adrianzenz/status/1146904332299907072
“countries that obviously cannot pay back” The whole point of the new infrastructure and the new trade routes is that they can help their economy take off. Once that happens it won’t be so “obvious” that they can’t pay off.
That is what I thought too, and I assume that's is what Angola and other African territories thought but china goes by a different rule including but not limited to taking over.
Who else is going to offer these less developed countries the money they need to even compete in todays world. China are providing jobs and a new way of for many less fortunate people. Even if the countries can't pay back the loan the projects still get completed
They actually don't surprisingly as the cost normally rises making it so they are half or 3/4 completed. As well as they have to employ from chinese companies first before their own civilians so it really doesn't benefit them apart from them becoming a colony.
what developing countries still don't understand is that they need first and foremost food security and political stability (without corruption). It doesn't take a lot of money to do that and most developed countries are willing to help food projects. Trying to build anything else before doing that is building on sand.
It kinda resembles the way the UK and the US invested in argentina at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century. Later to pay that back they had to get that money through other means and they just took the most valuable production of the country, meat production.
_"It kinda resembles the way the UK and the US invested in argentina"_ The World Bank and the IMF does this all the time but there is no example of China doing it. No they did not take the port in Sri Lanka...
Fact is the USA do not want competition. The USA do want to stop China's growth. So how has it worked until China got in to the game??? Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures. With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition. Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%. *The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US) Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES* Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT* thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/ The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt. These have high interest rates and short payback periods. In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia, Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well. So really China is just one "in the gang" smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/ In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem. For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN* ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
"Altruistic" isn't exactly a word I'd use to describe the communist party of China, If they're doing something it's both ultimately to their benefit and inevitably to the detriment of someone else.
There's literally no way for citizens of the country whose leaders took the loan to know clearly the terms of the deal. (especially in country like Pakistan) They fill the pockets of the political leaders to shut them up in those countries. The interest is high and often times those projects are waste of money as the project in Sri Lanka was. This alone is shady af and makes China dangerous, leave alone their other shady activities
The west already developed and west should learn more from Singapore and Japan and Korean instead. And Im Malaysian Hokkien and Hakka. We don't need to learn from China genocides and war
I still don't get it. Why is it wrong to be a loan shark? If you can't pay back your loans, then just don't borrow money. If you believe that you can pay back your loans, then borrow from a loan shark. It is not our job to judge if a country can or can't pay back their loans. We should stop belittling poorer countries regarding their ability to pay their loans.
One of the main reasons why global investment is so important to China is due to its strategic influence through increasing soft power.
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler - Where the USA is using military soft power diplomacy, China is using economic diplomacy through 'trojan horse' free trade agreements with developed 'free world' countries, economic investments (debit diplomacy) in developing countries and the Belt Road Initiative to lock in its global supply/distribution chains. China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power.
1961 East Berlin = 2021 Hong Kong
GET OUT NOW!!
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler military threats from what? Most of PH are fine with the military from the US, they keep us safe against chinese incursions at the south china sea.
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler why does us have loans with high interests. Thats why i like US rather than china, i rather have a bank dictate to me how much i pay rather than giving my port away to china because of default😑
@Hans Otto Kroeger Kaethler ah here we go again with wild card. Using the "yemen, afghanistan card" to change the topic, ill keep this straightforward cause i dont care how terrorism fuck those countries up. Debt trap diplomacy affected sri lankans economy, used its money to steal ports for other country, helping other people to build infastructure but stealing the job of the local workers, and using this diplomacy to spread anti western propaganda. Im a Filipino but we prefer western vaccines rather than china. So basically, i dont get why you fools defend china for stealing ur money
Don't think China really care if debt were repaid or not. It's more like increasing its influence in international organisations such as the UN, WTO or WHO. Also, due to colonial past in many developing nations, modern western influence maybe frowned upon
It is not only western influence, China did colonize the whole Asia-Pacific in the past so their culture is also one of the imperialists.
@@Joso997 China colonized the whole asia-pacific? I lived in Malaysia and in our history we were colonized by Portuguese, British then Japan but never by China. You must be on crack to say that.
@@Joso997 Obvious fed too many news from McCarthyism media.
@@Joso997 No, Chinese culture is very inwards and nationalist, they never really colonised anywhere except mainland China. Their whole history is very advanced and one of the richest at that time. One of the reasons that the Europeans started exploring and colonising was to find new trade routes to China. Since China was quite big and didn't need land or money, they didn't need to colonise. They focused more on internal problems. They were surrounded on all sides by deserts or jungles and didn't face much opposition. So once the Europeans came, they didn't expect them to have advanced in technology so much. The period in which the opium wars started until probably Mao, is called The Century of Humiliation in China. Only now is China engaging in the world stage, since it has toughened up to the west and acknowledged that there are other countries that can stand up to it.
@@rowdynerd6793 your history teacher sucks.
All of the islands in Asia reachable by junk have been colonized by the Chinese at one time or another: Malaysia, the Phillipines, Taiwan, etc. The far ranging colonies of the European powers made in the 1500-1800 period cannot be compared because China did not have types of sea-faring vessels necessary.
I think some points have been missed :
- Alot of infrastructure projects use Chinese labour / business rather than local ones.
- the claim that the projects they invest in don't have use to the local economy but do have use to military
- local corruption being used to get Chinas projects approved.
1.
Because those countries usually lack the expertise
2.
This is subjective
3.
One can use that argument for literally anything if the country is somehow corrupt. By that logic it would be bad to do anything for a corrupt country with anyone. Be it with the us, Europe, China or some international organization. Yet somehow only the dealings with China are bad and because of corruption
There is a huge difference in a county taking on a dept to improve the life of their citizens and a country taking on a dept to pay for their glorious leader/party mansion
@@C104-k5m Yes and how does that matter?
My point is that corrupt countries will be still corrupt whether with China or any other entity. The same applies if that corrupt country does some deals with the US or Europe, yet strangely then everybody forgets that that country is corrupt. Or rather they don't care if Western powers flex their economic muscles on them to gain benefits
@@wothin no u agree.
The UK, USA & EU probably do it but that doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't be done. If China is doing it, it is just as wrong as any other country and should be condemned.
So that's why we should ask if it's being done. Right now we are looking into China so that's why we ask if this apart of the problem and as such should be considered in the investigation.
Just because everyone could or are doing it doesn't take away from the fact it's a bad thing. My point still stands
@@wothin 1. This may be true but this doesn't mean that all countries do and every country has some form of building company so why isn't China using them. We have seen multiple cases of them using very little or no local workers so while specialist can be brought in this shouldn't be the rule, more the exception.
2. It is somewhat subjective but this doesn't mean that a country with no big large buildings needs a skyscraper, or a small fishing village needs a peed water port used for large warships. We can look to the needs and what they want to grow into and see if it lines up.
If it doesn't but looks perfect for a military base or fits with Chinas needs then possible evidence to the case of China's wrong doings.
3. See my prior post
The International monetary fund has been doing the same shit for years, putting smaller countries in debt traps. Please TLDR, cover the other global debt sharks.
Yes, well said. Most of the comment here turn a blind eye to the blatant hypocrisy by various countries along with the IMF, World Bank etc.
Just more slander from the neoconservatives propaganda playbook to hype-up anti-China sentiment.
@@Davbach01 yes can you believe people are opposed to an genocidal, imperialistic hyper ethno-nationalist dictatorship than has openly declared its intention to invade and conquer its democratic neighbor?
I swear to God, the left will defend ANYTHING if its done by non-white people and countries.
It's not loan sharing though. The IMF is not a country. They have nothing to gain by making countries indebted the way China does. The IMF is not owning resource projects on Africa or some shit. It's not getting other countries to support its measures at the UN (again because it's not a country).
The analogy is complete nonsense.
@@jasonmaguire7552 LMFAO
Winning favour of countries through investment and low cost loans, leaves countries with a feeling of being indebted to China. This is particularly beneficial for China, especially when it comes to voting in support of China when voting terms are 1 country= 1 vote.
I see no problem in this though.
@@jerryamoz5392 Literally the whole point of democracy is to vote for you're own needs and to attempt to reach the needs of the majority. If China gets votes by financially bullying other nations the system fails.
@@henrymccoy2306 I agree with what you say but I disagree with how you define and describe the problem. But...what do I know. It's not something I can decide or influence.
@@jerryamoz5392 yeah I agree with you. Most of us can do jackshit so may as well get on with life
At least China is still better with a win-win policy than the west that would ruin your country without any benefit.
This debt-trap is a BS propaganda that already debunk
Like always, it appears the situation is more complex than just picking a side which so many people seem to do these days.
especially most of the stuff that US accusing of were done by US and his allies before, just read the stuff about CIA and things their do in their homeland in ww2
I get into arguments easier when I choose to impartial. People shout at me saying stuff like "DON'T YOU SEE THAT THIS IS WRONG?"
@@MovieMan988 There's always going to be people on the internet with an opposing opinion. Thats life.
Take a look at what the US has done in the world in the last hundred years and compare that bloody record with the US. The US has killed hundreds of millions of people on every continent and the record is there for anyone who is able to read. The thing is, the US also spends millions of dollars on media presentations of China. Even so, They will not be able to stop China's rise. The Chinese are smarter and they for the long term. And really, Western civilization is filled with blood, brutality and exploitation.
The situation seems pretty simple - the US is just crying wolf
The “debt-trap” theory is concocted by Brahma Chellaney, an Indian geopolitical strategist. The “debt-trap” theory is concocted by Indians, and popularized by Americans. They concoct this theory to demonize China, Chinese and BRI projects/loans. India, US, along with EU, fear losing their dominance and control over other countries which may result from these projects. Such fears are based on their selfish and geopolitical interests.
However, people from all over the world, especially from developing countries have acknowledged the needs and the actual benefits of these projects/loans. They know from their first-hand experience that there is no debt-trap. Academics and researchers have reviewed these projects, and have debunked the debt-trap theory.
You know things are serious when a cartoon bear becomes a shark
Panik
Panik!
Panik!
Panik!
🙄🙄😳😳
As it is a "global channel", I recommend you to indicated the country when you mentioned a position. For example "Secretary of State" or bipartisan senators". From where? There are secretary of state in many country. The channel cannot be global if you assume that the US is the default country.
idk, maybe searching "hillary clinton" on a search engine is super easy, barely an inconvenience?
@@kumbaya69421 Indeed you don't know, because your comment is not related with mine.
@@kumbaya69421 Ryan George is that you?
@@laithmeanslion 1961 East Berlin = 2021 Hong Kong
GET OUT NOW!!
Well said. That seems to be the standard for most people. If the US says something it is true. And we know that almost never tell the facts as they are. The record is there.
"The renminbi is the official currency of China and one of the world's reserve currencies. The yuan is the basic unit of the renminbi, but the word is also used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts. One yuan divides into ten jiao, and a jiao in turn divides into ten fen."
Not exactly sure how renminbi differs from yuan, or what their analogues are in America.
Chinese language uses yuan (元) for the basic unit of practically all currencies including US dollar, Renminbi, Japan yen, Korea won, or Hong Kong dollar, so using "Renminbi" is a better option for clarity in all aspects.
Ren Min Bi (like United states dollar) is the official name, yuan is a colloquial unit ( like a dollar)
Think of it like "Money" , "Dollars" and "cents"
Renmimbi is a reference to their money in general. Not a specific quantity.
Yuan is a reference to the larger denominator of their currency. Like "Dollars" is in.
Jiao is the next lower denominator. Like "cents"
Fen is another level lower. But let's be honest, I was in China for six years and never even worried jiao. So just ignore Fen.
I think the official name of the currency is Chinese Yuan with a symbol CNY.
Renminbi is just a customary saying.
@@victording6698
Like how the US Dollar is USD, while the terms "money" and "cash" are just a customary saying.
I would love if this supposedly "unbiased" channel made a video on the US being a loan shark for the last 70+ years through the world bank and the IMF
This is a "news" channel.
Nothing "new" about USA imperialism.
@@shanerooney7288 LOL
When you said “because everybody has a military base there” lolololl
China is now using the same strategies Britain used with gaining soft power in India. It may seem harmless now but it’s important to see the bigger picture.
China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power, so achieve this, they are using economic diplomacy through 'trojan horse' free trade agreements with developed 'free world' countries, economic investments (debit diplomacy) in developing countries and the Belt Road Initiative to lock in its global supply/distribution chains.
The countries are accepting the loans on their own free will and have the sovereign right to do so.
If this is such a big problem the West wants to fix, they should offer to pay off the Chinese loan at a lower interest rate.
@@shanerooney7288 or even offer those countries loan at lower interest rate
how is china using the same strategy as britain, when britain colonized India, and grew Opum there and exploted the natives?
@@taoriq3632 1961 East Berlin = 2021 Hong Kong
GET OUT NOW!!
If it was a western bank that lent billions of dollars to people in developing countries to build hospitals, roads, railways, ports etc at ultra low interest rates and then forgive those loans when they can't be repaid would be given a benevolent award! But alas no such western bank exists. The western countries with long histories of colonisation of 3rd world countries like Sri Lanka and India by military force and rule over those countries for many years should take a good hard look at itself when it points the finger at China about its motives. The same western countries with over a thousand military bases littered across the globe taken by force or other dubious means and who have it's prisons currently filled with Indigenous peoples should look at themselves before pointing the finger at China.
Problem with Chinese loans is that the interest is high and often times those projects are waste of money as the project in Sri Lanka was. (which is why they called it waste of money)
The previous govt accepted the loan for Infrastructure project that China proposed and built which turned out to be a waste and next govt ended up giving the port.
The burden should be on China for proposing and building a failed project but it's often on citizens of the country it's built in
Thats the goverment fault for accepting a useless project.
But... they video just said that in the case of Sri Lanka, the money was being used to pay off US debt, which had higher interest rate - do you have any source that contradicts this?
@@raccoonious4038 I will have to look for it but this was something that I read a couple of years ago.
Maybe I was a victim of media manipulation then but the other things I have talked about how the whole project was brainchild of China can easily be verified
@@dickoevaldo8051 true but often times politicians get a lot of money under the table or some sort of incentive to approve it
It's not a fail.
China just built a Naval Base is Sri Lanka and got Sri Lanka to pay for it.
If someone tells you that Sri Lanka is a victim of China’s debt trap, don’t let them fool you. Here are the key facts to consider when analyzing the current debt crisis in Sri Lanka, and for that matter, similar events in developing countries.
Q1 - Is China the biggest lender to Sri Lanka. Answer - no, 47% of its foreign debts are in form of Eurobonds and many of these are Western Institutional Investors such as UBS, JP Morgan, Blackrock, etc. Outside of this category, ADB is the single largest lender at 13%, followed by China and Japan, each at 10% apiece, and then World Bank at 9%. In other words, saying China is exploiting Sri Lanka through ‘debt trap’ is completely false, or misleading at best.
Q2 - Is China causing the debt crisis in Sri Lanka or is it helping to address such debt crisis. Perhaps we can use the Hambantota Port to illustrate this as it is often cited as the exemplary debt trap case or China involved in predatory lending. Sri Lanka’s bloating foreign debt problem already appeared in the 2010s. In 2017, China (through Export & Import Bank of China, China Development Bank) was called in to refinance its previous debts to Sri Lanka as well as facilitate the latter in servicing other foreign debt payments. A JV between Sri Lanka’s state-owned Port Authority and China Merchant Bank was formed in 2017 to run the said 99-year lease of Hambantota Port requiring China’s side to provide new USD900 million funds. Without which (ie the emergency funding), the country would have faced serious debt distress. In other words, this port-lease / emergency fund was not causing the country’s debt issue, but rather alleviating it.
Q3 - When these developing countries can’t keep up the debt payments, what would China normally do? As a matter of fact, China has assisted these countries by debt cancellation and debt restructuring (including reliefs such as extending maturity, interest rate reductions, refinancing, and extensions). Beneficiary countries include African countries as well as countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative (see D. Brautigam’s clip for details).
Q4 - Where did the borrowed money go? Let's again use the Sri Lanka case. The foreign debt is being spent on infrastructures - in this case, Hambantota Port. As with all infrastructure investments, such spending enhances the future productivity and living standards of its nationals. Meantime, such spending also aids domestic employment. Most importantly, the money trails can be easily tracked and traced (for instance, railways or power plants). On the contrary, funds provided by the Eurobond Market have been mostly applied to cover the country's trade deficit and to meet fiscal deficits. In some developing countries where corruptions are prevalent, some of these funds may be misappropriated, ending in the pockets of its political leaders and oligarchs.
Q5 - What is the impact of rising international interest rates on Sri Lanka’s foreign debt? Interest rates hiking means that the refinancing costs of Sri Lanka's foreign debts will be on the rise, making its dire financial situation even worse. Worse still, Sri Lanka is importing inflation as its currency devaluates (on the contrary, USD appreciates with rising interest rates). Foreign goods, as well as commodities like oil and gas, are made more expensive, resulting in acute food and energy shortages.
In conclusion, the debt trap is not caused by China, but rather by western lenders. They are making it worse for Sri Lanka as these Western Countries are raising interest rates, making it more difficult for the country to service its interest payments and refinance maturing debts.
Deborah Brautigam, a well-known scholar, has covered China ’s ‘debt trap’ myth extensively. She specifically addressed the Sri Lanka case in her clip (see the 15:20 mark onward). ruclips.net/video/q5SvFjlu9ZM/видео.html
A Chinese shark pin badge would look sick tho. New merch?
Not sure people would be too keen on buying it, knowing what it represents.
But I do agree that it looks sick!
@@WanderTheNomad Good point, didn’t think of that. Maybe another similar-looking design then
@@WanderTheNomad 1961 East Berlin = 2021 Hong Kong
MOVE OUT NOW!!
Capital and people!!
I support this
but, china isn't a loan shark though. a loan shark indebts a party with limited amount of money and high interest rate. china is loaning as much money with low interest rate. china is more like the federal reserve or old-century banks.
This is the first time I heard the Chinese currency being called renminbi instead of Yuan
renminibi and yuan can be used interchangeably
Yeah, it is a pity that this isn't more common
Same
When I studied chinese, when it came to currency, the currency is in yuan.
Let's take dollars and cents. 100.50 is 100 dollars and 50 cents. But the whole currency is called US dollar.
For chinese currency, 100.50 is 100 yuan 50 something (sorry I forgot what it is called). But the whole currency is called Renminbi.
I hope that makes sense. Even I have some trouble understanding this but apparently that's how it is.
@@warren5037 So would the analogues be like this?
USD : Renminbi
Dollar : Yuan
Cent : Fen
to be fair France, UK and USA did and still do the same things
no
@@blainegabbertgabonemhofgoa6602 no what
@@blainegabbertgabonemhofgoa6602 yes
@@blainegabbertgabonemhofgoa6602 definently they do and actually they are bad as actually china is accused of its wrong deed but not these western countries.
@@GhostXRizz can you give a recent example?
Thank you so much for doing a video on this .
Where are you from??
American Imperialism:
Everybody: This is fine.
Chinese imperialism:
Nobody: This is fine.
+
Poptarts They Allude me
Almost no one thinks that American imperialism is fine. Tf are you talking about?
as a kiwi i'll just point out you misspelled New Zealand at 10:18
Also at 3:46
I've seen a video about this before on Visual politick, but they didn't give the other side in defense of China. It was good to get another perspective on this; thanks so much for living up to your standards of neutrality 👍
VisualPolitik isn't really a reliable channel. They tend to prioritize spectacle and delivery over neutrality. I won't say they're biased for or against any country, but rather they tend to choose an 'angle' to go on for every report - and then skew the entire presentation to suit it. I'd recommend Caspian Report instead, for being more somber and reserved. VP is too into trying to make geopolitics 'sexy'.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn oh definitely, I don't expect them to be unbiased, I just like that they cover international topics that often get ignored in US news media. I'll check out Caspian Report though, thanks.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn sorry no, caspian report is biased especially against china.
@@kimeli And what makes you say that?
Visual political is pretty bias view toward a lot things. They don't talks about both side of views. This channel at least talks about both side arguments to inform us. I think this is more educational than others.
An interesting one is where china payed for the Darwin port on a 99 year lease to prop up the Northern Territory (Austrlaia) budget... this was huge issue as it violated federal law concerning states selling government property without considering security. However the Australian government then planned to set up a US backed port right next to it... causing the entire investment plan to crumble and setting the chinese backed company back hugely.
It is not surprising that Austrlaia is part of the five eyues intelligence organisation and shares intelligence with the US... one would suspect that the federal government knew exactly what was happening before it happened and posisbly planned the entire thing to warn China against debt diplomacy.
Or maybe it was a form of economic warfare planned to damage China.
Can’t believe a territory has the power to sell a port to a foreign country without the consent of the federal government. That’s like the state of New Jersey here in the US deciding to sell a port to a foreign adversary. Unheard of.
@@tjr-007tt thankfully, it doesn't. As Joel said, this is already considered a federal crime
If you lease something out you do not sell it...
@Matthews Lesko does it matter?
I think when a developing country does want improved infrastructure, there are few countries to turn to, to lend them money or to help in the investment and building of infrastructure in the country. China has shown in the last 40 years what can be achieved from improved infrastructure in its own country. Look at the high speed rail, the roads, links and developed cities that are growing. Look at how shenzhen, and how that has developed from a fishing village to a mega tech city in 30 years. They haven't wasted money and time in endless wars. If no other country shows investment interest or to help build it, China was the obvious choice.
China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power, so achieve this, they are using economic diplomacy through 'trojan horse' free trade agreements with developed 'free world' countries, economic investments (debit diplomacy) in developing countries and the Belt Road Initiative to lock in its global supply/distribution chains.
In the video they admitted the chinese built port was shoddy, poor countries dont need to pay out of the arse for tofu dreg projects
@@chrismckellar9350 "China has said, it wants to be a global economic and manufacturing super power..." do you have a link to this statement?
@@JackDrewitt "...chinese built port was shoddy..." do you have a video time reference for this statement?
Moreover, only Japan and China gives loan for infrastructure. USA doesn’t really care unless you want a loan for gender programs, equality programs, environment programs etc. A developing 3rd world country couldn’t care less to fund these bs with debt. They want key infrastructures to boost their economy as fast as possible
After Europe's extended (brutal) run on this continent, I am honestly quite happy taking my chances in a Chinese Shark Tank...
Amazing seeing westerners pissed off at China when historically western states have been the ones to colonize and exploit poor African countries, not to mention how the American loans were literally higher interest rates than China's and China helped these countries pay off the American loans by giving them lower interest loans. No wonder the US feels threatened, expect another cold war soon.
Right... it's thinking like that that'll keep your continent as the poorest in the world.
@@arnowisp6244 And the Europeans still don't get it....the Chinese leave us in peace dude. If poverty means peace and freedom, then we will take poverty all day and every day. Europe's arrival was the worst thing that happened in these parts and Africans will never forget it.
@@siyabongamchunu4342 Leave you in Peace? If exploitation is Peace then you are so sadly deluded.
China is another conquerer and you are all too happy they aren't European.
www.thedailybeast.com/chinas-ugly-exploitation-of-africaand-africans
@@arnowisp6244 Hilarious you are linking pro American Daily Beast articles and dictating who Africa nations should or should not partner with. It's ALWAYS the western perspective that matters isn't it? Tell me what European countries/America have done to help Africans apart from throwing bread at them? Give African nations an alternative economic model instead of Chinas' and then we can have a proper discussion.
ruclips.net/video/GIEOCHa9AJQ/видео.html
The IMF has been playing this game for far longer, except rather than using debt to further geostrategic interests it uses it for Western economic benefit.
Step 1: Get a developing country in debt with Western investors either through corruption or by pressing leaders to lift foreign credit restrictions.
Step 2: wait for the economy to crash under the weight of unsustainable debt.
Step 3: the IMF swoops in to "save" the country, restructuring debt to protect foreign creditors and demanding trade liberalisation in exchange allowing foreign businesses to come in.
Step 4: with large multinationals now coming in wealth can be freely extracted: Western consumers/producers get cheap products and shareholders get filthy rich
Why is Taiwan shown on the China Map at the end?
Taiwan is not China! 🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼
Where exactly? Can someone do a timestamp?
Well, if the USA stops supporting Taiwan, I would no longer recognize Taiwan as an independent country.
@@wothin 12:11
I think the editor thinks Taiwan uses RMB, but the currency in Taiwan is New Taiwan Dollars
@@kamanashiskar9203 A country with it's own democratic government, president, military, currency, cultural identity etc..? You would think this is a part of another country because the USA thinks it isn't?
Strange.
PS. @tldrnews A video on Taiwan-China/Taiwan's excellent response to COVID would be fantastic!
@@FeooTubee Well, technically I meant that if the USA retreats from Taiwan, China will invade it, thus killing it.
Hmm, an incredibly balanced and well-approached video essay on this topic, it reframes China in a new context tbh
But not an accurate one. China has one foreign military base. On the other hand, the US, alone, has more than 800 hundred military bases all across the world. What are their reasons for having so many military bases? And why are they surrounding China with military bases? Is this an aggressive posture?
If China were to put a few bases in Latin America, would that be seen as aggressive? The Us is exempted from the standards that are applied to China.
The fact that China has taken a billion people out of poverty and that China was occupied by the US and the West as late as 1949, but facts like these seem to have no meaning for most people in the west.
The US and the West have been the global marauders and plunderers, but the people seem to have conveniently lost their memory.
That is why I became patreon for this channel. A very well-balanced neutral discussion on global matters is so lacking these days.
Hmmmm Talking about China's debt traps and not mentioning pakistan seems kinda weird
Hambantota is a big part of China's string of pearls strategy
@YK yes, but given the choice, would you rather live in a democratic world or a communist dictatorship?
@@qqqsfdf1232 Lol you must be having a laugh if you think china is anything as close to communist. They’ve tasted Capitalism and have enjoyed its wonders.
@@qqqsfdf1232 still baffles my mind that people consider the west a “democratic world” when in reality all your leaders were chosen by corporate overlords. They created this illusion that the peasants have a choice.
@@qqqsfdf1232 US isnt even in top 10 democracies lol
The Gwadar port wouldn't solely be available to china alone rather it is for all of central Asia.
Honestly, the debate over whether this is debt-trap diplomacy or not is largely academic. The main take-away is that China is increasing it's influence across the world through these initiatives, gradually loosening the hold that the USA has had on it since the end of WW2. Ironically enough they are doing it by taking a page out of the USA's post-war playbook by leveraging it's extensive industrial capacity and growing wealth to invest in less developed/poorer countries, thus pulling those countries into their sphere of influence.
A lot of historically underserved countries are standing to benefit from this, so if China's track-record on Humans Rights wasn't so appalling I'd be tempted to cheer them on.
Fact is the USA do not want competition.
The USA do want to stop China's growth.
So how has it worked until China got in to the game???
Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures.
With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition.
Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%.
*The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US)
Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES*
Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT*
thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/
The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt.
These have high interest rates and short payback periods.
In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia,
Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India
On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well.
So really China is just one "in the gang"
smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are
chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/
In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem.
For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN*
ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
As for human rights record... a lot is propaganda and the USA still have Guantanamo, bomb civilians, commit war crimes and run a torture program...
This is why I like TLDR. I still stand by that china i a shady country but now this have help me see from the other side of this story without head bashing it in. Good work!
china and the CCP. who kills its own citizens and harvests thier organs. china and the CCP who are occupying multiple countries. china and the CCP who has millions of muslims in slave camps.
@@xelthiavice4276 There is not really much evidence that organ harvesting is happening on a governmental level. Though it of curse does happen.
China has many disputed regions. China is occupying multiple countries the same way multiple countries occupy China.
Yeah the "millions" number is speculative at best. AT BEST, one could say that over several years there were millions of Uyghurs in their camps, but not at the same time. Because frankly one would be able to see this city of prison camps.
@@wothin Whenever some online commentator spams the organ harvesting conspuracy, it is most certainly linked to media of Falun Gong which is banned in China for spreading unscientific harmful health practices, just like many other cults.
@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 Falun Gong is basically the Chinese equivalent of Scientology. Just because they hate the Government and vice versa doesn't mean they are trustworthy.
@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 Yes. China is no angel and commits human rights violations, like many other countries. Yet STRANGELY almost all sources on those very extreme Chinese violations are from about 3 to 5 sources. Strange. And all those sources have major reason to be biased.
What about countries like the US and France's loan shark diplomacy(AID)? Can you do video on whether that is real? Unlike China, they tend to give unsustainable loans instead of infrastructure.
Because its easier to hide corruption under the guise of infrastructure.
@@KingofCabal that is just because providing Aid to a country is so blatantly corrupted that you can't hide it.
At least China is giving a country infrastructure. Which is much better than throwing money at politicians(AID) of said country who can pocketed anyway.
@@KingofCabal Care to explain?
I don't understand your statement at all.
@@ddillard143 infrastucture is great but you have to maintain it, you can have all the infrastucture in the world but if you don't have the money to pay the upkeep(as they've proven) then there's no point,. That being said, it may help spur their economy so it's kinda a double edged sword. It's something that could make or break them
@@jake3736 I'm not disputing what you say. But that has nothing with the price of rice in China. Pun intended.
Western countries give Aid to African governments but they don't stick around to see if that money's get put to good use. Therefore the politicians are Empowered to take the money and disappear and that Country is then indebted to IMF or the World Bank or some other individual country.
And then you have people like those in Middle America calling it a sh*thole country because they live in a bubble and don't realize the foreign policy of the US is one of the reasons why it stays like that over there.
You should read confessions of an economic Hitman. Written by a former CIA agent. Or you can actually look it up here on RUclips he has a channel and he's been interview
if no one else is willing to loan them money is it better for them to just not fund their projects?
Is it better to lead a poor but indipendent life or sell yourself and all your descendants to slave traders?
@@idraote you didn't watch the video, did you?
@@eLeft6 curiously enough, I did. But I guess it's wasted breath on someone with your pseudo.
a lot of these projects are not beneficial for the countries. the infrastructure is built by Chinese companies with Chinese workers that send the money back to China. Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and the airports in Sri Lanka are empty. Watch the video, the Hambantota port was a big waste of money and did not help Sri Lanka at all.
@@idraote So just to be clear, is your answer to OP's question,
"Yes, it is better for them to just not fund their projects even if no one else is willing to loan them money." ?
If that is your answer, you should(imo) say it in a more straightforward and direct manner.
And then afterwards you can add
"I think it would be better for them to live poor, but independent lives, as opposed to having to sell themselves and their descendants to slave traders."
This has made me think of sources who use the same points to argue that China is engaging in modern colonialism. Not sure if debt-trap diplomacy could be considered a tactical move to further neo-colonialism or if it should be viewed as entirely separate
no, do you even know what colonialism means?
@@sinoroman implying I don't know what I'm saying doesn't give your argument of 'no' any credence. It's all a speculation anyway
@@sinoroman there is no one way of achieving colonialism
Could be argued that promoting global influence with loans is preferable to doing it by military intervention. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of the US & allies various wars over the last few decades, but you can’t deny that military intervention has repeatedly been chosen by the US as an appropriate response, while China has chosen a less aggressive approach.
This is still overlooking the fact that the underlying country has a human rights record comparable to that of Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union. The only reason they are not spreading their influence by force most of the time is because money speaks, especially to Autocrats whose only goal is to enrich themselves. On the other hand the US and EU has a harder time doing the same thing, because politicians have to explain (1) why all that money is going abroad, and (2) why it's going to obvious dictatorships. Voters care more about ideals and principles than Geostrategic wins.
@@CrystalMaidenFeetLover86 one issue at a time usually allows for a greater degree of clarity. “Yea but what about ... “ is usually a way of avoiding having to concede a point
@@andrewpaulhart Yes but what is hapenning is that the CCP tries to portray itself to other nations as a humane helper, which is simply not the case. The party bolsters Autocrats who prefer Chinese loans over Western ones, because Chinese loans do not come tied with required democratic reforms. So on the surface no shot is being fired, but at a closer look 99% of populations of complete nations continue being oppressed, because that 1% at the top is getting Chinese money, weapons and surveillance help for selling out their country.
So as I stated before it is the same power game the US and EU and other big players follow, China simply choses these pseudo-humane tactics more often because it is cheaper for an Authoritarian state to do it than for a Democratic one.
@@CrystalMaidenFeetLover86 agree that all countries have power plays. However just as some things that the US does are commendable and some thing that the US does are deplorable, I propose that the same is true of China. Just because some things China does are deplorable does not mean that People should assume that everything that China does is deplorable.
Actually, bombing is for freedom, but loans is slavery, so loans is actually better.
I, FOR ONE, CAN'T WAIT FOR SHARK WEEK ON THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Where are you from??
Those defending China don't really see the problem, neither does TLDR to be honest, as in most all of these types of videos. The problem is not the loan nor its non payment or taking this or that for compensation. Non transparency is the real problem. Non transparency and Africa. What else goes together? Africa and Corru......
The loan and terms are transparent to Africa and China will both decide to sign the deal. It doesn't matter if they don't tell the US. The US isn't part of it. Use some damn common sense instead of siding with whatever you see on Fox news.
People in developped countries did nothing to help us, look at the former colonies in Africa, especially former french colonies. They pillaged our ressources for decades and built almost nothing, and even today let us live and die in poverty. You guys might see China's investment as bad, but us who benefit from it, we see how it's helping our economies develop. Unlike western powers, they dont start wars or rebellions, they dont destabilize countries, they dont buy our ressoures at extortionate rates, and in 15 years, they've built more infrastrutures than the europeans ever did in centuries. And they never ensalved us either. So yeah, they may have some strategic goals behind all this investment, but I would gladly take this deal, over what western countries propose.
When you lend money, you expect a return on investment. There is no altruism here, even though there might be many different reasons for individual loans and many different forms of repayment.
that is always the case. But I can see that there return investment is not just cold cash on the short to middle time. But a investment for the long to extreme long term. and not direct in cash but in way more valuable resources. (think raw materials but also cheap labour)
I bet China is the closest thing to Bill Sykes from Oliver and Company.
Excellently balanced. China is just exercising its responsibility as an international power.
And the USA is claiming foul when it wouldn't help any of these developing countries
Yeah just to take over them. It’ll happy. I hate colonizers
excellent segment
Which state and city are you from??.
Who in the Indian Government let Sri Lanka, a country right next to them, give a big port to their biggest enemy
If India invaded Sri Lanka, the USA would've forced India to retreat. And also, all of India's neighbours are Chinese cronies.
@@kamanashiskar9203 US wouldn't do shit, they tried sending their naval fleet during 1971 indo pak war and we all saw how that ended up really close to startinga world war, US had to retreat.
What actually happened was, the government in srilanka was a Pro china government. A major part of China's foreign policy is the string of pearls, which includes Hambantota among other ports.
@@vccv9785 Well, if that didn't there is always the Chinese navy.
@@kamanashiskar9203 Chinese navy alone can't do shit, China's been so aggressive it lost all its friend's except for maybe north korea. They even had to back away from galwan standoff. That's how pathetic their condition has become
@@vccv9785 Also, India had its own internal problems.
Down with the CCP
They have learnt a lot from America.
ThinkBefore YouType true.
Wonderful video explanation - thanks TLDR
Is the US saying that they don't do this?
Americans will split hairs. The US doesn’t entrap countries with infrastructure debt, they do it with arms sales.
@@CarFreeSegnitz 1961 East Berlin = 2021 Hong Kong
MOVE OUT NOW!!
Capital and people!!
I am glad that the UK isn't falling for China's debt-trap diplomacy.
No we just let them build our largest power stations. Take over our ports. Flood our country with below market value steel to destroy domestic industry and buy billions worth of their cheap crap that lines our supermarket shelves. We’re totally not in a bad situation at all
@@sirsurnamethefirstofhisnam7986 Everybody buys things from China it's okay. But we shouldn't start borrowing from them.
1:53 - 2:32 Would have liked a more diverse selection of countries there instead of just american politicians... Its no secret that america isn't a fan of most of chinas actions.
Fact is the USA do not want competition.
The USA do want to stop China's growth.
So how has it worked until China got in to the game???
Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures.
With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition.
Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%.
*The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US)
Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES*
Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT*
thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/
The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt.
These have high interest rates and short payback periods.
In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia,
Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India
On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well.
So really China is just one "in the gang"
smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are
chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/
In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem.
For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN*
ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
Whichever way you cut it, you just don't call a low interest, long grace period loan a "debt trap". It's an insult as much to the recipient as the lender.
I think using debt as a diplomatic toll is a good thing. It’s a less violent form of territorial gain.
Jack is at his top of his clickbait art lately
I would think twice if I’m a leader of a country and requesting loans from China
If there were better options they would go for it.
Western lenders either don't make an offer or the offer has too many strings attached.
You should ask for military invasion from US instead!
When someone release you of a loan, then they look very much like "the good guys" don't they? That can be a goal in it self.
In that case, the World Bank and IMF must be really popular and well-liked. Oh wait...
@@ArawnOfAnnwn yes their banks and they dont takr hr ports when u get default. Chinese loans are from the government and accounts for their gdp and if you dont pay it, not only they will get ur port but infest it with chinese workers
@@Youdontshushh I see you didn't even watch the video. Good to know...
@@ArawnOfAnnwn hmm i seee you only watch this video and you took china's side positvely, good to know ur biased
@@Youdontshushh Ah yes of course, I'm biased without even mentioning China. Meanwhile the idiot who commented without watching the video and still attacked China somehow isn't biased. Do yourself a favor and stop embarrassing yourself bub.
Didn't the USA do something similar post WW2
Shhhhhhh.... US media doesn't like this
Whatever china does it's being criticised.
We NEED more neutral news sources like this.
Soft power is not appropriate for Valentines, hard power is ideal.
Short Answer: YES
Billions of dollars of debt forgiveness to various African nations would say otherwise.
@@jackmeoff7456 Perhaps
However, China's increasing global influence is certainly alarming. Coupled with their Salami Slicing strategy to claim terretories in the South Pacific, everyone taking their money needs to be extra careful
@@baqerjawadal-lawati8473 China's growing global influence is certainly not alarming to me, nor should it be to you. Socialist China is a force for good in this world and a welcome counter to the ever failing, highly unstable capitalist system we find ourselves in. The quicker China rises in power, the quicker the world will be able to cooperate and start to tackle the real problems facing our world.
@@jackmeoff7456 If you honestly believe that Socialist China is a force of good, then I seriously question your moral compass. Look up the crimes communist china continues to commit from their persecution of falun gong practitioners to organ harvesting to their hostage diplomacy with Canada.
@@baqerjawadal-lawati8473 everyone of those issues have been debunked and are only believed by conspiracy theorist nut jobs, you're even trying to defend a cult. Even if those things were true, they wouldn't even come close to the atrocities committed by America, Britain and other imperialist nations and the millions who have died by their actions around the world. Anyone with half a brain realizes that capitalist America is the true source of evil in the world and socialist China, along with it's partners, are a welcome counter to that evil. China didn't start the hostage taking, Canada, at the insistence of America, did.
I see it from other direction. it's not about being a loan shark. They have excess trade surplus in dollars. Instead of dangerously buying US debts, they diversify the money.
I thought they were just taking a page out of the British East India Company's playbook as their Foreign Policy?
But isn't that the problem? The world agrees that was awful
@@sammy2pammy 1961 East Berlin = 2021 Hong Kong
GET OUT NOW!!
No. British used guns and killed millions. When China starts killing and holding the government hostage, then we'll talk
One main issue is that they give you loans for a project, BUT they MOSTLY use their own companies, and Chinese workers to build these infrastructures and not the citizens of the country. So the jobs they create are not there, the only upside is that at times they are better at giving loans than the west.
The problem would be that those countries don't have the skilled labour to quickly build up those infrastructures and those countries need those infrastructure now.
So, weighing pros and cons 🤷♂️
@@warren5037 Don't know about African countries but Sri Lanka's literacy rate is very good.
They are skilled but China still doesn't allow Sri Lankan workers and send their own workers to do the work.
@@kanekiken2002 Just because a country has a literacy rate does not mean a country has enough workers of a certain type to do something, let's say engineers, etc
Plus even then, you have to blame the Sri Lankan government as they were doing the contract. Every country tries to do the best for itself, thus it is the Sri lankan government who is at fault
I have always been of the opinion that China's belt and road initiative had been their long-term vision for securing against the middle income trap.
Just as the US peddled the myth of their prosperity through their adoption of free markets and democracy, China is pseudo-colonising these territories by promising them and building them the infrastructure to prosperity that they used.
Just like the US and their Marshall plan brought the status of super powers to the nation's wrecked by the war China decided to profit on the same promise of prosperity and tactics employed but instead they are happy to take ownership of those satellite pieces of China that they create aboard.
They are poised to for the foreseeable future to be able to play musical chairs with their factories as they gradually raise the global standard of living.
So in short, the USA is pissed because China is better at playing capitalism than they are. USA are also worried that the USD will not be the main international currency any more in a handful of years (which is just a different "have you by the b*lls" strategy: imposing sanctions on countries is easy when your currency is the only international currency allowed).
China has had US sanctions quite often and still does... I can understand why they would want to put an end this leverage against them.
Comparing with USA/EU banks: when you buy a house and need money from a bank to do that, that bank requires a mortgage on your house until you pay off... how is that any different to what China does? If China should not do this to other countries, then neither should banks be allowed to do it to citizen (although that would bring it's own huge can of problems).
Honestly I think this is quite possibly THE one area where you can't criticize China in. I could be wrong, I am not the most informed person on African issues, but from what I've heard they're doing a pretty good job there compared to the US and EU.
Plus, it's not like the US and EU haven't tried to do the same thing, it just so happens China is better at it.
Instead of buying gamestop actions, they should rebuy their own debt.
Still burning money, but at least it's for a REAL cause and not simple envy
gasp!
so china is doing something US has been doing past century?
the sheer nerve of them!
Fact is the USA do not want competition.
The USA do want to stop China's growth.
So how has it worked until China got in to the game???
Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures.
With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition.
Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%.
*The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US)
Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES*
Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT*
thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/
The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt.
These have high interest rates and short payback periods.
In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia,
Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India
On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well.
So really China is just one "in the gang"
smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are
chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/
In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem.
For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN*
ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
The world's largest loan book is in the USA. stop insulting our collective intelligence.
Another interesting "case study" to look at would be Montenegro.
China has built what has since been coined a "highway to nowhere" in Montenegro. With the contract granting China access to Montenegro's territory should they default on the loan.
Debt-trap diplomacy is a thing with China. They aren't just giving money away and then "forgive" that debt out of the goodness of their heart.
Yeah, they do do that. It’s quite clever though if you think about it
honestly amazing work TLDR!!
your neutral perspective is really precious!
Where are you from??
@@chawanneburn5996 Austria why?
@@aaronknittel8327 wow.....They are currently available free funding program paying lot of Austria 🇦🇹 right now........with the help link you up SSI grant agent..........IF you are really interested
this seems like a really good thing to me
China sugar daddy: "Here's some money for you to spend."
Sugar baby countries: "Aw, so sweet of you, thanks!"
China sugar daddy: "All your base are belong to us!"
Sugar baby countries: "What?"
Same thing happen in philippines except we didnt get paid
It's not exactly debt trap diplomacy but not very far from it in the sense they use that debt as a leverage to increase their influence and soft power. One can argue this tactic has been used many times over by all major lenders though, however not as efficiently as China who plays a very long game to establish itself as a dominant geo-economic power player with an army to back it up if need be and usurp the USA as the number 1 power. Admittedly USA lost its focus once the Soviet Union collapsed and made grave mistakes and a lot of "small" enemies that will cost a lot in the long term, much like a first time millionaire who won the lottery ticket and wasted all of that fortune in parties and drugs.
While this is a very interesting and necessary discussion, there should be one thing everyone can agree upon:
Having a nation that *commits genocide* be heavily involved in the global economy is not a good thing. This is true regardless of how ‘normally’ they behave.
The Uighur genocide claim originates from an Evangelical German researcher in the name of Adrian Zenz who has never visited Xinjiang but works with the BBC and other western news media to fabricate stories of Xinjiang.
twitter.com/adrianzenz/status/1146904332299907072
“countries that obviously cannot pay back” The whole point of the new infrastructure and the new trade routes is that they can help their economy take off. Once that happens it won’t be so “obvious” that they can’t pay off.
That is what I thought too, and I assume that's is what Angola and other African territories thought but china goes by a different rule including but not limited to taking over.
Who else is going to offer these less developed countries the money they need to even compete in todays world. China are providing jobs and a new way of for many less fortunate people. Even if the countries can't pay back the loan the projects still get completed
They actually don't surprisingly as the cost normally rises making it so they are half or 3/4 completed. As well as they have to employ from chinese companies first before their own civilians so it really doesn't benefit them apart from them becoming a colony.
what developing countries still don't understand is that they need first and foremost food security and political stability (without corruption).
It doesn't take a lot of money to do that and most developed countries are willing to help food projects.
Trying to build anything else before doing that is building on sand.
Nah China is just ensuring future markets by helping those countries develop so they consume their products in the future...
@@Giraldtec this is very true and, though selfish, not a bad thing (I do not think you are saying it is)
Sure but the US-backed IMF did it first
There is no question about this.
[Yes, obviously]
Really good Job on the vid👍
Where do you come from??
Duh.
So does the IMF, the US... any loans a nation takes is going to have strings attached, that's just the nature of capitalism.
I enjoy your videos, very informative. But, please, put the Patreon advert at the end, not the beginning of each video.
It kinda resembles the way the UK and the US invested in argentina at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century. Later to pay that back they had to get that money through other means and they just took the most valuable production of the country, meat production.
_"It kinda resembles the way the UK and the US invested in argentina"_ The World Bank and the IMF does this all the time but there is no example of China doing it.
No they did not take the port in Sri Lanka...
Fact is the USA do not want competition.
The USA do want to stop China's growth.
So how has it worked until China got in to the game???
Well The USA/World Bank/The IMF lent (and still do) lend countries money AND THEN FORCE THEM to privatize, sell of their assets to foreign corporations and introduce austerity measures.
With China lending/investing in foreign countries these countries have options apart from the western influence (USA/IMF World Bank) and of course they do noy like the competition.
Still the Majority of the debt (in the case of Africa 80%) is to the west and in Latin America probably 99%.
*The Sri Lanka example IS A LIE* Just Western propaganda... as usual. (Probably from an Indian news source, or US)
Out of Sri Lanka's foreign debt 95% *IS TO WESTERN COUNTRIES*
Sri Lanka DID NOT DEFAULT on repayments to China, no terms on the loans have been restructured *AND SRI LANKA STILL OWNS THE PORT*
thediplomat.com/2020/01/the-hambantota-port-deal-myths-and-realities/
The majority of Sri Lanka's debt is International Sovereign Bonds, money borrowed on the capital markets, around 60% of total debt.
These have high interest rates and short payback periods.
In the case of Djibouti I know less but around 50% of their debt is to China (meaning half of the debt is to the west) AND the infrastructure projects are worth doing since they are connected to other projects in Ethiopia,
Would also like to add that apart from China having a base in Djibouti also The USA, Italy, France, Japan have military bases in Djibouti they also host troops from Germany, Spain, The UK and India
On top of that Saudi Arabia and India have agreements of building military bases there as well.
So really China is just one "in the gang"
smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/open-source-backgrounder-djibouti-foreign-military-bases-horn-africa-who-there-what-are
chinaafricaproject.com/analysis/djiboutis-chinese-debt/
In total in regards to African debt around 20% is to China and 80% to the west, must say I do have problems to draw the conclusion that the 20% is the problem.
For anybody interested in this subject a very good video about this from an African perspective *WELL WORTH A LISTEN*
ruclips.net/video/P5uzxV8ub9k/видео.html
Glad to see a more balanced analysis, great job!
Do you live in a low income community?
"Altruistic" isn't exactly a word I'd use to describe the communist party of China, If they're doing something it's both ultimately to their benefit and inevitably to the detriment of someone else.
Parasitism at its finest, where one benefits while the other isharmed
Then you obviously have no concept or understanding of socialism.
@@Youdontshushh that would be America.
@@jackmeoff7456 nope. China has exploited its resources around the world without giving opportunites for other countries to show case their products.
@@Youdontshushh you're talking about America, don't confuse the two.
Better debt diplomacy over gunboat diplomacy.
There's literally no way for citizens of the country whose leaders took the loan to know clearly the terms of the deal. (especially in country like Pakistan)
They fill the pockets of the political leaders to shut them up in those countries. The interest is high and often times those projects are waste of money as the project in Sri Lanka was.
This alone is shady af and makes China dangerous, leave alone their other shady activities
Guzzle deep the US propaganda
@@aj2228 Western did the same as China so they know lel. Don't trust any worldpower, remember that
Oh so when France does it to Haiti its fine but when poc countries do it its loansharking
And the biggest bully in Asia!
What if some country just won't give the money back?
Yes.. what would be the result i have always wondered.
@@steephanroy8461 nobody would do business with them, and sanctions.
0:29 China to Western Superpowers: Hold on! This whole operation was your idea!
Where are you from?
The G7 is copying the China BRI with 40 trillion.Is it a debt trap?lol
i love China.
I'm Singaporean. the west should learn more from CPC and chinese people
The west already developed and west should learn more from Singapore and Japan and Korean instead. And Im Malaysian Hokkien and Hakka.
We don't need to learn from China genocides and war
I still don't get it. Why is it wrong to be a loan shark? If you can't pay back your loans, then just don't borrow money. If you believe that you can pay back your loans, then borrow from a loan shark. It is not our job to judge if a country can or can't pay back their loans. We should stop belittling poorer countries regarding their ability to pay their loans.
Arguments against are for the most part excuses it seems.
Yes. They are very weak.
Better infrastructure means you can more efficiently strip the natural resources of that country.
If they do and they probably are, they learned from the masters (USA).
When China starts bombing Africa like uS did to Iraq, then let's talk. Until then, China is not as bad as US. Got it?
Very good articel keep up