Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "How China’s Flagship Belt and Road Project Stalled Out" video.

  1.  @samalenyo  And apparently Indonesia is so dissatisfied with the build that the government is taking a serious look at Japan again to finish the rest of the HSR to Surabaya
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  2. Does the infrastructure serve them, or bypass them? Remember that entire self-sufficient communities have died and slums in the cities have grown because of otherwise straightforward changes to the national transportation network.
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  3.  @sherryp3452  No, most of the host countries have a native cohort of well trained engineers, often educated abroad in America or Europe. China just doesn't want them to gain experience in these new grand builds and would rather they stay limited to local road and facilities, so that Chinese firms can also have the upper hand in negotiating the contracts for maintenance and expansions. BRI projects try to keep such a close hold on the technical knowledge that many of the imported Chinese "engineers" seem to be doing nothing more than menial labor that any local could do.
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  4. I've lived in Africa, and yes the locals say it smells a lot like colonization.
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  5. The debt of a single person or business isn't nearly as damaging as the economic domination (i.e. colonization) of an entire country
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  6. Buildings that the locals fear are more prone to collapse, seeing how little concrete and rebar actually gets installed. Meanwhile they're at risk for losing access to their territory that their (often kleptocratic) government put forth as collateral.
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  7.  @ubermenschen3636  No, America looks for actual ROI, not lebensraum for low-skilled citizens. That's a big reason the US isn't as aggressive in offering loans, and when it is the terms demand improvements in governance that make the gains more durable.
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  8. Right, pipelines move oil, roads move tanks.
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  9.  @yyds66666  Peace through power, specifically the silencing of criticism and bad news no matter how relevant it is.
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  10. The problem comes when China decides it's worth the effort to recoup their "investment"
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  11. Or have the foresight because that's what they did a century or two ago.
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  12. I've lived in both Africa and SE Asia, and the locals say that China is at least predatory as their old European colonizers. But unlike what Europeans left behind, they don't see the Chinese builds lasting as long because of how marginal the quality of construction is.
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  13. Ironically the locals are concerned about the durability of Chinese construction, which use a disturbingly marginal amount of concrete and rebar. European colonial builds still standing they likely are not.
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  14. America keeps the seas open. Containers stuck in port due to fear of piracy or extortionist tolls aren't very profitable.
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