China’s global vision? A rosy future for us, and huge debts for everyone else
Clearly, the grand plan for Hong Kong is — brick by brick, bridge by bridge, train by train, one massive construction project following another — to integrate us out of our uniquely East-West identity and into a greater Chinese mega-city that will act as a black hole for the Cantonese language and culture, already taking a beating under our present circumstances.
And let’s remember that the Greater Bay project, colossal as it sounds, is only a small part of Xi’s positively gargantuan One Belt, One Road Initiative, which aims to turn much of the developing world into a prodigious, Chinese-managed transnational construction zone.
This will advance China’s military and commercial interests while turning other involved countries into neo-colonial client states slavishly in debt to their benefactors in Beijing.
Thus – from the tiny country of Djibouti in Africa to the central Asian nations of Mongolia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, from Laos in southeastern Asia to Sri Lanka and Pakistan on the Indian subcontinent — unbridled Chinese lending has financed hugely expensive infrastructure projects including highways, railways, ports and airports, mostly built by Chinese companies, often using Chinese labour.
The worst case of loan bondage appears to be Djibouti, a poor, largely barren country strategically located along the Gulf of Aden near some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and therefore of keen interest to China and the United States, both of which have military bases there.
If Chinese-sponsored infrastructure projects currently in the pipeline go ahead as planned, Djibouti’s debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio—which measures what a country owes against what it produces—will stand at more than 90 percent, almost all which is claimed by Beijing.
So, as you can see, Hong Kong is not the only place in the world losing its heart, soul and wallet to China. We are in good company.
Clearly, the grand plan for Hong Kong is — brick by brick, bridge by bridge, train by train, one massive construction project following another — to integrate us out of our uniquely East-West identity and into a greater Chinese mega-city that will act as a black hole for the Cantonese language and culture, already taking a beating under our present circumstances.
And let’s remember that the Greater Bay project, colossal as it sounds, is only a small part of Xi’s positively gargantuan One Belt, One Road Initiative, which aims to turn much of the developing world into a prodigious, Chinese-managed transnational construction zone.
This will advance China’s military and commercial interests while turning other involved countries into neo-colonial client states slavishly in debt to their benefactors in Beijing.
Thus – from the tiny country of Djibouti in Africa to the central Asian nations of Mongolia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, from Laos in southeastern Asia to Sri Lanka and Pakistan on the Indian subcontinent — unbridled Chinese lending has financed hugely expensive infrastructure projects including highways, railways, ports and airports, mostly built by Chinese companies, often using Chinese labour.
The worst case of loan bondage appears to be Djibouti, a poor, largely barren country strategically located along the Gulf of Aden near some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and therefore of keen interest to China and the United States, both of which have military bases there.
If Chinese-sponsored infrastructure projects currently in the pipeline go ahead as planned, Djibouti’s debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio—which measures what a country owes against what it produces—will stand at more than 90 percent, almost all which is claimed by Beijing.
So, as you can see, Hong Kong is not the only place in the world losing its heart, soul and wallet to China. We are in good company.
