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U.S. official warns African countries against dependence on China

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)
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From United Press International

U.S. official warns African countries against dependence on China

May 22 (UPI) -- The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development took a critical approach to Chinese economic activities in Africa during the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference in Busan.


Mark Green, the USAID administrator attending the South Korean conference on Tuesday, said Chinese involvement in developing countries should be approached with caution, Yonhap news agency reported.


Green said China could offer incentives initially with easy money but the loans could eventually result in unsustainable long-term debt.

COMMENT:-

My AKME Mk 3 "DiploSpeak" Translator renders that as "Don't trust the Chinese because if you borrow money from them you will end up owing them money and that means that they might suddenly reverse their policies and make you do things that are good for them but bad for you. Rather you should borrow money from the US because if you borrow money from us you will not end up owing us money and there is absolutely no possibility that we might suddenly reverse our policies and make you do things that are good for us but bad for you. Trust us, we are from the government, we're here to help you and the cheque is in your mouth."​
 
Epic hypocrisy, the US talking to anyone about unsustainable debt.
 
Gotta keep africa in that debt slavery LMAO
Africa needs to make a new currency independent from the world economic system and back it with their resources.
 
Gotta keep africa in that debt slavery LMAO
Africa needs to make a new currency independent from the world economic system and back it with their resources.

Most African nations can barely function as a country with a rule of law, good luck on that pipe dream.
 
Most African nations can barely function as a country with a rule of law, good luck on that pipe dream.

Because they are enslaved economically to the west
They dont really own any of thier resources
foreign companies do
 
Epic hypocrisy, the US talking to anyone about unsustainable debt.

China wants to turn Africa into the 1990s China, this is actually a serious issue. Basically they want to clean up their own nation, and create slaves in Africa rather their own citizens.
 
Epic hypocrisy, the US talking to anyone about unsustainable debt.

Apparently the administrator wants Chinese money to go to America instead of Africa.
 
Apparently the administrator wants Chinese money to go to America instead of Africa.

More likely the loss of control that would result from getting loans from China vs loans from the US/World Bank/IMF.
 
China wants to turn Africa into the 1990s China, this is actually a serious issue. Basically they want to clean up their own nation, and create slaves in Africa rather their own citizens.

China’s motivations can be any number of things, the point is the US talking about long term unsustainable debt to anyone is equal to an alcoholic telling anyone else to watch out for how much they drink.

China turning to Africa for basically slave labor rates is no surprise though, all things considered that is why the US turned to China in the first place.

Anyone out there so asinine as to think we offshored labor in some roses and sunshine effort to increase quality of life in other nations? No, we wanted cheap and damn near slave like labor to manufacture all our ****. Now China wants to spread things around to deal with their own economic model doing almost the same thing.

So again, hypocrisy... something the US is very skilled at.
 
China’s motivations can be any number of things, the point is the US talking about long term unsustainable debt to anyone is equal to an alcoholic telling anyone else to watch out for how much they drink.

China turning to Africa for basically slave labor rates is no surprise though, all things considered that is why the US turned to China in the first place.

Anyone out there so asinine as to think we offshored labor in some roses and sunshine effort to increase quality of life in other nations? No, we wanted cheap and damn near slave like labor to manufacture all our ****. Now China wants to spread things around to deal with their own economic model doing almost the same thing.

So again, hypocrisy... something the US is very skilled at.

China is not so much off shoring to Africa, but looking for more markets to sell things to, including infrastructure projects which are often built by Chinese companies and labor. The Chinese interior still has generally low wage rates. It is just the coastal provinces that have seen a dramatic rise in wages
 
Africa is looking for investment to build up its infrastructure. They will take it where ever they can.
 
China is not so much off shoring to Africa, but looking for more markets to sell things to, including infrastructure projects which are often built by Chinese companies and labor. The Chinese interior still has generally low wage rates. It is just the coastal provinces that have seen a dramatic rise in wages

Not sure I entirely agree but I understand the point.

However, our disagreement does not change much in how the US is being hypocritical telling African Nations to be careful linking their economic model to China.
 
Not sure I entirely agree but I understand the point.

However, our disagreement does not change much in how the US is being hypocritical telling African Nations to be careful linking their economic model to China.

China turning to Africa for basically slave labor rates is no surprise though, all things considered that is why the US turned to China in the first place.

Anyone out there so asinine as to think we offshored labor in some roses and sunshine effort to increase quality of life in other nations? No, we wanted cheap and damn near slave like labor to manufacture all our ****. Now China wants to spread things around to deal with their own economic model doing almost the same thing.

I was generally referring to the bold section. Chinese companies are not relocating manufacturing plants to Africa for cheap labour. A significant amount of all the business China does in Africa is done using Chinese labor instead of local labor when ever possible
 
China is not so much off shoring to Africa, but looking for more markets to sell things to, including infrastructure projects which are often built by Chinese companies and labor. The Chinese interior still has generally low wage rates. It is just the coastal provinces that have seen a dramatic rise in wages
And perhaps most importantly, China is financing these African infrastructure projects, causing these countries to become debtor nations to China. That's a big deal, because it cements a longterm geopolitical relationship between the two countries!
 
Not sure I entirely agree but I understand the point.

However, our disagreement does not change much in how the US is being hypocritical telling African Nations to be careful linking their economic model to China.
His point is that China's building-up these developing country's infrastructures through debt financing, is forming geopolitical relationships based upon these countries dependency upon China. This used to be the domain of the U.S. and the West.
 
And perhaps most importantly, China is financing these African infrastructure projects, causing these countries to become debtor nations to China. That's a big deal, because it cements a longterm geopolitical relationship between the two countries!

China is financing Africa's infrastructure and rise. Mexico and the EU just signed a free trade agreement. The world continues to globalize.

But the US is withdrawing and isolating from the world, and just wants to stay at home and play with itself. That's the plan to make it great again.
 
China is financing Africa's infrastructure and rise. Mexico and the EU just signed a free trade agreement. The world continues to globalize.

But the US is withdrawing and isolating from the world, and just wants to stay at home and play with itself. That's the plan to make it great again.
I've been singing this song, since Trump arose to take office!

Another troubling example is when Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, and within hours China issued a statement that they will be taking the former U.S. leadership role. This means China will be using her influence to determine the standards and structure of world agreements. All this climate standards stuff eventually leaks down to trade and technology. Who's best interest do we believe China will be serving in their leadership role? Obviously, not ours. They're likely going to be competing against our interests, as we are competitive super economies.

But even worse, is China & Russia, along with several other countries, attempting to establish a new world reserve currency! That, is a really scary prospect. And it may happen, as China eclipses us in GDP & trade.

The world is a very dynamic fluid place. If you don't lead, someone else will. And they likely will not e leading in a manner commensurate with your interests.
 
China is financing Africa's infrastructure and rise. Mexico and the EU just signed a free trade agreement. The world continues to globalize.

But the US is withdrawing and isolating from the world, and just wants to stay at home and play with itself. That's the plan to make it great again.

I dont think America is trying to isolate itself from the world, rather the country has taken a more aggressive, arrogant stance when it comes to world diplomacy, all due to the POTUS.
 
I dont think America is trying to isolate itself from the world, rather the country has taken a more aggressive, arrogant stance when it comes to world diplomacy, all due to the POTUS.

Well, no one likes to play with a loud, rude, foul-mouthed, aggressive bully who likes to get his way through intimidation, insults, and arrogance. Whether it's a deliberate policy or unintentional, the end result is going to be isolation of the US from the world community.
 
China’s motivations can be any number of things, the point is the US talking about long term unsustainable debt to anyone is equal to an alcoholic telling anyone else to watch out for how much they drink.

China turning to Africa for basically slave labor rates is no surprise though, all things considered that is why the US turned to China in the first place.

Anyone out there so asinine as to think we offshored labor in some roses and sunshine effort to increase quality of life in other nations? No, we wanted cheap and damn near slave like labor to manufacture all our ****. Now China wants to spread things around to deal with their own economic model doing almost the same thing.

So again, hypocrisy... something the US is very skilled at.

"Slave labour rates" is an interesting turn of phrase.

If someone can live the local equivalent of an American middle class life on a household income of $10,000 per year (roughly US$4.81 per hour [40hr + 52 weeks] if only one income earner) doing something that would require an American income of around US$24.04) is the person earning US$4.81 earning "slave labour rates"?

If the average hourly wage in a country is US$3.00 and an "offshore" company pays US$4.00 for the same work that it would pay more than that at home, is the "offshore" company paying :slave labour rates" in that country?
 
And perhaps most importantly, China is financing these African infrastructure projects, causing these countries to become debtor nations to China. That's a big deal, because it cements a longterm geopolitical relationship between the two countries!

Which, of course, is completely different than the US financing these African infrastructure projects, causing these countries to become debtor nations to the US, that's a big deal, because it cements a long-term geopolitical relationship between the two countries! - right?
 
China is financing Africa's infrastructure and rise. Mexico and the EU just signed a free trade agreement. The world continues to globalize.

The combined (nominal) GDP of the EU and Canada is US$18,961,277,000,0000. The (nominal) GDP of the US is US$19,390,600,000,000. The EU+Canada number is around 97.79% of the US number.
 
I dont think America is trying to isolate itself from the world, rather the country has taken a more aggressive, arrogant stance when it comes to world diplomacy, all due to the POTUS.

Think of it this way "If you don't do what I tell you to do, then I'm going to take my bat and ball home with me and you won't be able to play soccer.".
 
And perhaps most importantly, China is financing these African infrastructure projects, causing these countries to become debtor nations to China. That's a big deal, because it cements a longterm geopolitical relationship between the two countries!

Meanwhile the US's relationship with African nations mostly consists of using their countries as bases for our war on terror. Has Trump even acknowledged ebola having broken out in Africa again yet?
 
China wants to turn Africa into the 1990s China, this is actually a serious issue. Basically they want to clean up their own nation, and create slaves in Africa rather their own citizens.

At least the Chinese don't call their countries S---holes. But you are right about one thing, the Chinese are replicating our postwar success with their own people. They have the fastest growing middle class in the world now. Meanwhile our middle class is languishing under the weight of maldistribution of wealth. We have lost our way and the Chinese have found it. It is sad when an autocratic regime treats its people better than we do.
 
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