Comments by "David Ford" (@davidford3115) on "Is CHINA using DEBT to CONTROL Africa? - VisualPolitik EN" video.

You are still thinking of it from a Western market base philosophy. Yes, China wants a market, but you are foolish if you think they care about the workforce in Africa. There is a reason why many countries have ended their contracts with China and have banned the importation of any goods. When the Chinese flood local African economies with goods, it bankrupts local businesses INCREASING unemployment. The infrastructure projects actually do very little to jumpstart and economy, merely facilitate an already existing one. And most of the ones China builds is so it is easier to extract resources from those countries and transport them to ports to be shipped to China.
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@mutegikimathi6258 If the West "milking the continent dry" as you put it is bad, then your excusing China doing the exact same thing is hypocrisy. The issue isn't bad ideas or differing opinions, it is the contraction and inconsistency that is at issue. You may THINK that China wants the population to grow its own wealth, but that is the exact same argument used by EUROPEAN colonialist during the mad scramble for Africa. If that was a lie then, it is a lie now, regardless if it was someone from Europe or East Asia that said it. And no, I an NOT kidding. Infrastructure by itself doesn't create anything. It will not spontaneously create a thriving economy if there was not anything there to begin with. The claim that "if you build it, they will come" is a myth perpetuated by those who love centralized planning, but lack any understanding about the invisible hand of the market or how economics actually work beyond a chalk board theory.
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No, they just simply strip mine and rip the country off while leaving half-completed projects, flood the local economies with cheap goods and force local businesses belly-up with market domination. Yeah, China's tactics are much less overt than military conquest, but certainly not any better.
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GDP does not accurately reflect the health of a country. When local businesses are being bankrupted by China flooding local markets with cheap goods while the Chinese strip-mine the country is not healthy for an economy. What good is infrastructure if there are no jobs to feed your family? Infrastructure does NOT put food on the table.
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@mutegikimathi6258 Proof by Verbosity huh? That is not an argument, it is a logical fallacy. So is appeal to emotion, which is the entirety of your post. It is not based on fact, logic, nor reason but to pull at the very heartstrings of the gullible. Brevity is the great charm of eloquence and is a virtue in ANY debate. You are using the cultural Marxist argument of the "oppressed" which as the core of anti-colonialism is nothing more than poorly disguised racism and bigotry cut from the same mold as anti-Zionism which is nothing more than "fashionable" anti-Semitism. And your choice of words "heart of a witch" goes to show you are NOT arguing in good faith. it shows your position is not based on anything other than emotional reflex. Saying "I'll keep it to myself" after having already typed and posted it shows insincerity in your claims.
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@allthingsafrica1111 You clearly didn't watch the video in its entirety. 30% of Chinese construction projects make zero economic sense and as such are a complete waste or resources. This is even more true for their projects in Africa as that continent is NOT China.
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There is more to it than that. China obligates these countries to remove ALL trade restrictions and tariffs on goods imported from China. The result is a food into the local markets bankrupting local businesses. While the aristocracy of those Africa countries may be making bank on Chinese loans, it is the regular population who pays the interest on those loans via taxation. Just because Chinese loans are "cheaper" than loans from Europe doesn't make them better. it is the strings attached that make them a Faustian bargain.
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@mutegikimathi6258 And again you assume that all white people are responsible for the woes in the world. I got news for you, many of Africa's problems since the end of WW2 are the faults of your own people, not mine. Further, the US is NOT and never has been responsible for the bloodshed in Africa. We are NOT to blame for the wrongs of Europe. My father's father fought in WW2 against Japanese Imperialism. My mother's father fought in Korea against Communist aggression. Before that my grandsires only fought in wars on US soil. So no, your indictments of "my grandpas murderous rampages" is nothing more than racist bigotry on your part. it may play well to YOUR country's domestic consumption to distract them from the failings of YOUR governments, but that is YOUR problem, not mine.
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Yup, you hit on the big issue, namely dominance via trade. Forcing locals to drop ALL trade restrictions and tariffs so that they can flood the market and bankrupt local business does far more harm to a nation than those in power dare admit.
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@jaybee4577 And you are a Chi-Com shill. See how that works? It doesn't, it comes across and petty and banal. Try refuting my points with reason, logic and facts rather than disparagements. Also I am pro-TAIWANESE China. They have just as much claim to the name of China as the mainland Red Government.
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@onlyfacts4999 If that was truly the case, then why are so many governments who have taken Chinese investments getting overthrown? Kenya canceled its contracts with China under pressure from the populace who were getting screwed by Chinese goods flooding their markets and bankrupting local businesses. I have to ask, are you part of the aristocracy in Nigeria who personally benefits from China?
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@paullnetinstitute4799 I don't disagree that corrupt African leaders misappropriate loans and that Western bankers don't hold them accountable for the fraud. But the idea that Chinese loans are any better because they send "specialists" is not seeing the forest for the trees. Those "specialists" are not advising what is in the best interests of the African countries, they are advising them to take actions that are in the best interest of China, even if it is detrimental to the nation. Trading one evil for a different evil isn't picking a lesser evil, it is just affirmatively making a bad choice when the best option is to not play at all.
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Yes and no. You are correct about constant regime change and that IS biting China in the rear. The kicker is when they choose to back strongmen such as the ones who toppled Robert Mugabe instead of buying off corrupt local elected officials. Both sides are exploiting each other, but it remains to be see who comes out on the better end.
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Debt to control other nations was planned out by Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. The Chinese have always played the long game. And they have the population to conscript into an invasion force to collect on their debt. I do agree with you that geopolitically it remains to be seen how it will play out. And how China responds if the whole of the continent stops fighting each other and unites against the Red Panda.
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@butterfly7562 Sure, as if race has anything to do with it. But sure, try to deny that the CCCP has not been engaging in a cold war. Your own military leaders have been boasting about their "Cold War" efforts against the US for 30 years now. Some of us "white guys" like Michael Pilsbury and Richard Murdock took the words of your military's Senior Colonels and Generals seriously.
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@jakedee4117 When you win a trade war through better quality products without putting your customer over a barrel, what is the problem? The UK was notorious during the 17th and 18th centuries of doing as China is doing today. The US during the 19th and 20th centuries didn't create a mercantile empire the way the British and the Dutch did through colonialism and military adventurism. We didn't create vassals beholden to us the way the British and the Chinese have done.
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Only because you have yet to experience what happens when China comes to collect their "pound of flesh".
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Then where is the hate for Taiwan? Spare us your cries of racism, you are the boy who cried "WOLF!"
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@onlyfacts4999 The two positions are NOT mutually exclusive. But I expect such shallow false choice thinking from rabid nevertrumpers. Nuance goes right over your head because you are rule by your emotions rather than by logic and reason.
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@itumo2645 Not entirely true. Many came into power with the help of the Soviets. Most of the ones since 2000 came into power because of the Chinese. Indeed, ALL of your anti-colonial despots came to power via communist revolutions because that anti-colonialism mantra was simply a vessel for anti-West resentment.
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It is funny how you think white as the only colonizers. Japan was a colonizing power in the 1920 and 30s. China was a colonizer in antiquity. Ever heard of Zheng He's treasure Fleet? They demanded tribute from East African kingdoms before the Age of Exploration.
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@funldn193 Lots of rationalizations there. Sure Chinese products may be cheaper, but what is the point if flooding the local market demolishes local businesses? And China is very much engaging in neo-colonialism. You are making an argument for trading one slave overseer for a new one. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Ask the Vietnamese, Laotians, Burmese, Cambodians, and Thai about their historic experiences with Chinese colonialism.
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@Bolsonaro_em_Haia They don't. Unlike the West, they are more than happy to do business with strongmen.
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@sharjiljafric-3184 One is more sincere and honest. The other is a con-job. I prefer the "universal way of saying you don't like someone"(Geordi LaForge) over the smiling banker.
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@kofia9716 The attempt to oust Maduro was a domestic movement with ZERO support from either the US or any western power. I assure you, if the US had backed such as movement, it would not have failed. But that hadn't occurred to you, has it?
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@kofia9716 If you are reading wikipedia for your sources of information, you are being gaslighted. That website has become a blatantly political propaganda outfit such that its founder has even called it out. As for Afghanistan, you are trying to blame America for a part of the world that has been in constant turmoil since the time of Alexander the great. You are just a blatantly anti-American, anti-west hack. You clearly fall for the original position fallacy.
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@onlyfacts4999 Always the CIA's fault isn't it? You folks are just as paranoid about the West as the Arabs are about Mossad(though Mossad's reputation is well EARNED). You realize that most of those regime overthrows are being backed by RUSSIA? Yeah, Putin is the one choosing to check Chinese power in Africa, not the US or Europe. And more power to them. The Fait accompli he accomplished in Ukraine with the GRU was a result of backing similar actions in Africa against Chinese bought puppet governments. Seriously, you give the CIA too much underserved credit. They couldn't pull off toppling the Castros in Cuba. Nor could they dislodge Pol Pot in Cambodia. No, the CIA is spending most of its time spying on American citizens overseas and at home (in flagrant violation of US Law) than they are in messing with African governments. The CIA has become just as incompetent as the KGB was in the 70s and 80s. Maybe more so. If you were to blame Mossad instead of the CIA, I would be more inclined to believe you.
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@onlyfacts4999 What world are you living in? 1942? Putin considers China a close ally. About the only thing that would turn Putin against China would be if they tried to take back Outer Manchuria (Amur Valley and Sakhalin Island) and everything south of the Stanovoy Mountain Range. You have been listening too too many people pushing the Russian Collusion Hoax. Christopher Steele and his Russian "source" are both under indictment for perjury.
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@andysol.4593 Wrong. Putin's GRU was able to pull off the Fait Accompli in the Ukraine because they got their practice supporting guerrilla movements in Africa. Keep in mind that during the 1970s and 80s the KGB was a joke, but under Putin, the successor to the KGB, the GRU has become the effective force that Putin had always wanted while running the KGB during the Soviet era. And much of that is because they learned from watching others in action as well as practice doing it themselves. No, the CIA is too busy spying on American citizens overseas and at home (in flagrant defiance of US law) to be bothered to overthrow Africa governments. Since the 90s and the break up of the Soviet Union there has been no need for that kind of activity. Start thinking things through logically instead of reflexively blaming the US for Africa's woes. There is absolutely no gain for US interests overthrowing sub-Saharan African governments, certainly not when American politicians are in bed with the Chinese.
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They hate hearing it, but Joseph Conrad was correct when he called Africa "Heart of Darkness".
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@ankur.mahajan Preach it brother!
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@uydang9941 PLEASE TELL ME OF THE ARAB-MUSLIM EXPLOTATION OF WEST AFRICA THEN TALK TO ME ABOUT EUROPE's COLONIALISM. Spare us your racist anti-white moral outrage. Blacks in Africa sold their own people into slavery.
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@kofia9716 More communist lies and propaganda by the anti-colonialist movement who wants to blame all of their woes on the US. China understands to "not interfere"? Tell that to ousted Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe. Tell that to the Solomon Islands. You are lying to yourself to justify accepting the chains of a new feudal lord.
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Debt and financial obligation are the first links forged in the chains of slavery.
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No joke. When one country is in debt to the other, the debt hold often comes with soldiers to collect their "pound of flesh".
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@hloc IMF has other ways of forcing compliance, ones that don't need the sword. And if you think Chinese bases in Sri Lanka are not in fact Damocles Sword hanging over their head, then you have very little understanding of international affairs.
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@hloc There was only a "possibility" that Poland would be invaded in 1939. The funny thing about extortion is that it typically starts out with a voluntary agreement. If you think the Sri Lankans could ask the Chinese to leave that they would you are fooling yourself.
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Considering that Patreon is going to be shelling out big cash in a settlement with both Owen Benjamin and Count Dankula, nobody in their right mind would put money through that laundering system.
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@b1kReviews Not really. it enhances what is already there. If there is nothing there to begin with it will not create something out of nothing. Ever heard of "bridges to nowhere"? Many of China's infrastructure projects are just that, as useful as a bridge to nowhere.
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