I could care about anything else in this post. The thing I want to know is, where the hell did you get the "China gives 200 billion in foreign aid" from??? Do you have a source? Cause every source I looked up was a little lower. Like, 198 billion dollars lower.
They are not making "investments" in the classic sense. they are providing the infrastructure necessary to exploit the resources available. The road systems they are building in sub-saharan Africa are a classic example. Using chinese engineering and construction expertise while training a local workforce in a variety of skills. The British were all about exploitation at minimal investment. Japan tried the classic investment route. China is one nation whose culture promotes long term multi-generational planning and currently has a government that can implement such. Mao and the gang did a lousy job, but the current crop seem to be doing a much better at slowly releasing the capitalist/entreprenurial spirit of a massive workforce. But in the end, its all about poltics, and sooner or later the Chinese will have to confront their internal problems from reliquishing government control of the economy to building consensus amongst a hugely diverse population (both ethnically and politically), to addressing the enormous levels of poverty. It ain't gonna be a cake walk for China to rise to threatening dominance in the world, and I don't think it will be anytime soon. (isn't if funny that nobody thinks India could do the same?)
Yeah I agree with that. However the British did massive infrastructure projects in India and Africa employing a local workforce in the building and running of the infrastructure. So China is like what the British did. China doesn't have the ports or internal stability to dominate the world and project power. Only 2 countries have ever dominated the world the British Isles and USA, both were impossible to invade and had stable internal populations. They also has more ports and shipyards than any other country. I think the British Isles has more ports and shipyards than the rest of Europe combined?
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303796404579099843923882238 http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR118.html
