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China's President has pledged $124 billion for a new "Silk Road" connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe:
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged major multilateral institutions to join his new Belt and Road Initiative, stressing the importance of rejecting protectionism in seeking global economic growth.
Addressing other world leaders at a summit on the initiative in Beijing, Xi said it was necessary to coordinate policies with the development goals of institutions including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN, African Union and the European Union.
Xi pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his new Silk Road which aims to bolster China's global leadership ambitions by expanding links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond, as U.S. President Donald Trump promotes "America First".
No one is totally sure. At the most basic level, One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is a collection of interlinking trade deals and infrastructure projects throughout Eurasia and the Pacific, but the definition of what exactly qualifies as an OBOR project or which countries are even involved in the initiative is incredibly fuzzy. "It means everything and it means nothing at the same time," said Christopher Balding, a professor of economics at Peking University. [...] According to Chinese state media, some $1 trillion has already been invested in OBOR, with another several trillion due to be invested over the next decade.
Fuzzier story at CNN. More at Wikipedia.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 16 2017, @04:52PM (3 children)
Which is to say, using economic growth to build up to global hegemony.
I want you all to remember something: China is 4,000+ years old. Not in its modern form of course, but even when it was basically a collection of warring states on the east coast of Asia, there was already a long-seated culture (or several) that had taken root. China isn't so much a country as it is a sort of multi-millennial concept of civilization, and I have no doubt many of its leaders see themselves as heads of a temporarily-embarrassed natural elite. We would do well to "get inside their heads" as it were, something I've been trying to do by learning at least a little Mandarin.
And you know what else? They'll do it, too. The US has long since lost what little moral standing it had--and given what we've done to other countries since the mid 19th century and to our own indigenous people since the mid 17th, that's not a hell of a lot. Now we've become a corrupt cesspool of cronyism, and are suffering the national-institutions versions of diabetic dementia and arteriosclerosis. China is worse than we are in many ways, and I don't see it improving much when--not if, when--they become the global dominant superpower, but it will happen.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @09:28PM (2 children)
Last I checked the USA wasn't murdering political prisoners to harvest their organs for party members.
Killing other countries innocents as collateral damage in a war is far better than intentionally murdering the innocents one literally exists to protect.
By all means USA, continue your self-hatred party, but don't attempt to place such scum as China beneath you. That isn't just virtue signalling self-degrading, it's insulting to the billions who suffer under properly oppressive regimes.
(Score: 3, Touché) by FunkyLich on Tuesday May 16 2017, @10:46PM
I wonder when was the last time you checked a history book? I mean books which don't have the wars like in Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Laos, Lebanon, Cambodia, Panama, Haiti, Iraq, censored out?
Why won't you spend the time reading a bit about the world instead of admiring your new star spangled undies in front of the mirror?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday May 17 2017, @01:13AM
China also never claimed to be a bastion of freedom. Their leadership is a bunch of right bastards, and they've never pretended to be anything but a bunch of right bastards.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...