For every dollar the global South receives in aid, fourteen dollars are extracted in unequal exchange alone. The Berlin Conference is one historical event. The historical process is still ongoing and the US has taken the lead role in that process. That process being the continuous dominance of the world by European powers. The English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese were all competing for the lead role in the process, Spain and England became the top two contenders, they met in the Americas with the French, and then the English settlers won the battle for control of the most land, resources, and people. Those settlers established the USA and took the lead role in the process.
To claim that because the US was weaker at the exact time of the Berlin Conference is to distract from the historical process that the US benefits from and uses to extract trillions of dollars of wealth from the people they oppress as part of the continued oppression started by the Europeans during the Age of Discovery.
China certainly isn’t working on their belt and road initiative because they think it’s a nice thing for the world.
China’s theory of action is significantly different from the West’s. In the West, their theory of action is that dominance of the super majority of the world is in their self-interest, complete with extraction of hyperprofits from workers, mass murder, hard power projection, forced underdevelopment of the global South, and dumping all waste and externalities on the world’s majority. China’s theory of action is that a multi-polar world with far more even development and a focus on diplomacy, peace, autonomy of sovereign nations, and economic collaboration is in their self-interest. The BRI is absolutely in China’s self-interest, but it is not a Western imperialist project. Only the West thinks it is because the West projects all of its evils onto its opponents. The analysis has been done multiple times - China is not engaged in any debt trapping the way the West is.
I still think African states turning to Russia/Wagner and China’s sphere are in for a rude awakening.
I think you imagine that Russia/China are going to “do a Westy” on them. Think about what that says about the West. And when it doesn’t materialize, you can finally have that change of perspective you need.
Realize that the US (and many other European states), as well as Taiwan, opposed the end of apartheid in South Africa while Cuba and China supported the end of apartheid. South Africa didn’t even officially recognize China until Hong Kong was returned from the British, because the economic and political ties the British imposed on South Africa and the rest of its territory were so critical to the functioning of SA that losing ties to Hong Kong was unthinkable, so they recognized China in order to keep trading with the British financial infrastructure that the colonial power had installed on the island.
Nothing could be worse for Africa than what it suffered under the process of Western imperialism, including the historical period of US control of that process. 600 years of non-stop super exploitation, mass murder, subjugation, apartheid, indoctrination, forced underdevelopment, enslavement, environmental devastation, brutal collective punishment, systematized physical, psychological, and sexual torture… Whatever rude awakening you think they’ll get, it’ll be a dream compared to what the West did to it.
Seems to me they’re doing it plenty and obfuscating as much as they can. State capitalism is still capitalism and they sure seem to have bought into the predatory loan part. But hey, like I said, they’re just working in their own self interest.
If China could be the unipolar power of the world they would go for it. They talk about a multipolar future because it sounds nice while they strong arm all their neighbors over their imaginary nine dotted line. I don’t expect China and Russia to ‘do a westy’, they’re already doing their own brand of selfish foreign policy.
I find it’s fascinating how you can harp on the west for their myriad of sins while ignoring Chinese state capitalism which extracts wealth in the same manner you criticize and Russian oligarchical kleptocracy just because the west sucks too. Both nations have imperial holdings, ask the Chechens or the Tibetans. At least I’m able to criticize my country’s bullshit without being locked up.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/5/6/rich-countries-drained-152tn-from-the-global-south-since-1960
For every dollar the global South receives in aid, fourteen dollars are extracted in unequal exchange alone. The Berlin Conference is one historical event. The historical process is still ongoing and the US has taken the lead role in that process. That process being the continuous dominance of the world by European powers. The English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese were all competing for the lead role in the process, Spain and England became the top two contenders, they met in the Americas with the French, and then the English settlers won the battle for control of the most land, resources, and people. Those settlers established the USA and took the lead role in the process.
To claim that because the US was weaker at the exact time of the Berlin Conference is to distract from the historical process that the US benefits from and uses to extract trillions of dollars of wealth from the people they oppress as part of the continued oppression started by the Europeans during the Age of Discovery.
China’s theory of action is significantly different from the West’s. In the West, their theory of action is that dominance of the super majority of the world is in their self-interest, complete with extraction of hyperprofits from workers, mass murder, hard power projection, forced underdevelopment of the global South, and dumping all waste and externalities on the world’s majority. China’s theory of action is that a multi-polar world with far more even development and a focus on diplomacy, peace, autonomy of sovereign nations, and economic collaboration is in their self-interest. The BRI is absolutely in China’s self-interest, but it is not a Western imperialist project. Only the West thinks it is because the West projects all of its evils onto its opponents. The analysis has been done multiple times - China is not engaged in any debt trapping the way the West is.
I think you imagine that Russia/China are going to “do a Westy” on them. Think about what that says about the West. And when it doesn’t materialize, you can finally have that change of perspective you need.
Realize that the US (and many other European states), as well as Taiwan, opposed the end of apartheid in South Africa while Cuba and China supported the end of apartheid. South Africa didn’t even officially recognize China until Hong Kong was returned from the British, because the economic and political ties the British imposed on South Africa and the rest of its territory were so critical to the functioning of SA that losing ties to Hong Kong was unthinkable, so they recognized China in order to keep trading with the British financial infrastructure that the colonial power had installed on the island.
Nothing could be worse for Africa than what it suffered under the process of Western imperialism, including the historical period of US control of that process. 600 years of non-stop super exploitation, mass murder, subjugation, apartheid, indoctrination, forced underdevelopment, enslavement, environmental devastation, brutal collective punishment, systematized physical, psychological, and sexual torture… Whatever rude awakening you think they’ll get, it’ll be a dream compared to what the West did to it.
China doesn’t engage in debt traps?
https://apnews.com/article/china-debt-banking-loans-financial-developing-countries-collapse-8df6f9fac3e1e758d0e6d8d5dfbd3ed6
Seems to me they’re doing it plenty and obfuscating as much as they can. State capitalism is still capitalism and they sure seem to have bought into the predatory loan part. But hey, like I said, they’re just working in their own self interest.
If China could be the unipolar power of the world they would go for it. They talk about a multipolar future because it sounds nice while they strong arm all their neighbors over their imaginary nine dotted line. I don’t expect China and Russia to ‘do a westy’, they’re already doing their own brand of selfish foreign policy.
I find it’s fascinating how you can harp on the west for their myriad of sins while ignoring Chinese state capitalism which extracts wealth in the same manner you criticize and Russian oligarchical kleptocracy just because the west sucks too. Both nations have imperial holdings, ask the Chechens or the Tibetans. At least I’m able to criticize my country’s bullshit without being locked up.