via Yahoo News...
Consider...China is building an alternative to the Panama Canal in Nicaragua. Now this.
How the US got tagged with conducting the "America, World Police" scheme or hopping on every social bandwagon is beyond me.
China is doing what we once did.
The sooner America's military gets out of the diplomacy game, the sooner the State Department can get their act together and start challenging these frankly brilliant moves by the Red Dragon. Hope is not high however.
Sidenote: For the internationalist that say we have a responsibility to the helpless or to protect our interests I say this. The world is in chaos and always will be. Accept reality and then you can determine real cost benefits to certain actions!
Nairobi (AFP) - China on Sunday signed a deal to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.We play checkers while China plays chess.
Under the terms of the agreement, Exim Bank of China will provide 90 percent of the cost to replace the crumbling British colonial-era line with a 609.3 kilometre (379 mile) standard-gauge link and Kenya the remaining 10 percent.
Construction is due to start in October and take three-and-a-half years to complete, with China Communications Construction Co. as the main contractor.
Once the Mombasa-Nairobi line is completed, construction would begin to link east Africa's largest economy with Kampala, Kigali, Bujumbura and Juba.
The deal was signed at State House in Nairobi and witnessed by presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Salva Kiir of South Sudan.
Consider...China is building an alternative to the Panama Canal in Nicaragua. Now this.
How the US got tagged with conducting the "America, World Police" scheme or hopping on every social bandwagon is beyond me.
China is doing what we once did.
The sooner America's military gets out of the diplomacy game, the sooner the State Department can get their act together and start challenging these frankly brilliant moves by the Red Dragon. Hope is not high however.
Sidenote: For the internationalist that say we have a responsibility to the helpless or to protect our interests I say this. The world is in chaos and always will be. Accept reality and then you can determine real cost benefits to certain actions!
Errr... this isn't news.
ReplyDeleteChinese support of African railways has been going on for decades (1970s onwards), usually in exchange for oil. There have been several TV documentaries with travel writers riding the 'bamboo railways' and explaining the rather odd history of China building rail networks in Africa.
And it's not just railways either. Over the years they've built roads, industrial plants, hospitals and other social, agricultural and industrial infrastructure projects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAZARA_Railway
http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2013/china-heart-africa
http://www.amazon.com/Africas-Freedom-Railway-Development-Livelihoods/dp/0253223229
errrrr you want a cookie? i hate idiots that have to prove their intelligence but only prove how fucking stupid they are because they miss the OBVIOUS, bigger point that i'm trying to make.
ReplyDeletewhat do you hear about the US in Africa? you hear about our base, you hear about our military but you don't hear about us teaming with some of these countries on big construction projects.
eat shit dude. you don't get it and by your comment you don't want to.
Sorry for being an idiot, and I'd love a cookie thanks! But first I have to stop eating shit. Can't fit everything in there at once.
ReplyDeleteI guess the headline you wrote for this article: 'China begins its colonization of Africa', seemed to suggest that you thought they'd just begun this, when in fact they've been doing this for four decades.
"The sooner America's military gets out of the diplomacy game, the sooner the State Department can get their act together and start challenging these frankly brilliant moves by the Red Dragon."
ReplyDeleteRoger that, and State knows it.
John Kerry, Jan 24, 2013
"Now, with respect to China and Africa, China is all over Africa, I mean all over Africa. And they're buying up long-term contracts on minerals, on -- I mean, you name it. And there are some places where we're not in the game, folks. I mean, I hate to say it. And we got to get at it. But it takes a little bit of resourcing. Believe me, somebody's paying for those folks to be over there, and somebody's investing in their investment of time."
And others know it - news report
Nov 1, 2011 -- Senators: US losing sway in Africa as China rises (AP)
WASHINGTON – Senators voiced concern Tuesday that the United States has lost influence with African governments as China has emerged as the continent's main trading partner and a major source of investment for infrastructure development.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations African affairs subcommittee, said the U.S. goal of promoting open societies in Africa was being challenged by China offering no-strings-attached investment for repressive regimes.
Coons said about 70 percent of Chinese assistance to Africa comes in the form of roads, stadiums and government buildings, often built with Chinese material and labor, while 70 percent of U.S. government spending there goes toward crucial but less visible support for people, particularly to fight AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases.
"We may be winning the war on disease, while losing the battle for hearts and minds in Africa," Coons told a subcommittee hearing on China's role in Africa and its implications for U.S. policy.
Coons' comments echo a common theme among U.S. policymakers, that China's rise as an economic and political power challenges America's global predominance.
No Sound of Alarm here Gentlemen, The US has been Colonizing Africa for a very cery long time. Liberia is an example. An often un-used example for obvious reasons. You dont have to look further than Egypt to look at US interests in Africa. South Sudan wouldnt have become Independant if it werent for all that US pressure in the UN. AMISOM exists because of US help. If only US had stuck around for a longer period of time in Somalia in the 1990's, but they were there. Most countries mentiond in the Railway track link-up are all contributing heavily towards US funded AMSIOM. South Africa is another reliable country which is chips are down will lean West wards. Morroco still counts. Algeria (regardles of recent trouble) is pro-west. You can easily partner up with the French in Mali if you want to go Rambo run and gun. But yes, increased chinese investment in Africa and propping up regimes is news to be taken seriously cause previously only the western world and USSR had the ability. Now you have a competitor.
ReplyDeleteYou miss the point, which is that China is competing on different, more successful terms than the US has done. Witness your examples of South Sudan and Somalia -- complete failures.
Delete