I understand China typically rolls over the debt as a way to resolve repayment issues; if this is indeed the case, it would set Chinese lending apart from Western sources of debt. Also, China does not seize assets outright. At worst (best?), China takes over operation of the asset, manages it profitably, and once the debt is repaid, the asset is returned to the host country. Again, this is worth studying by the IMF, World Bank and perhaps emulate.
"Andre Gunder Frank asks us to ReOrient our views away from Eurocentrism—to see the rise of the West as a mere blip in what was, and is again becoming, an Asia-centered world. In a bold challenge to received historiography and social theory he turns on its head the world according to Marx, Weber, and other theorists, including Polanyi, Rostow, Braudel, and Wallerstein. Frank explains the Rise of the West in world economic and demographic terms that relate it in a single historical sweep to the decline of the East around 1800. European states, he says, used the silver extracted from the American colonies to buy entry into an expanding Asian market that already flourished in the global economy. Resorting to import substitution and export promotion in the world market, they became Newly Industrializing Economies and tipped the global economic balance to the West. That is precisely what East Asia is doing today, Frank points out, to recover its traditional dominance. As a result, the "center" of the world economy is once again moving to the "Middle Kingdom" of China. Anyone interested in Asia, in world systems and world economic and social history, in international relations, and in comparative area studies, will have to take into account Frank's exciting reassessment of our global economic past and future."
You don't mention capitalism and the sheer drive for profit by the West. According to Professor Sven Bekert in his book, The Empire of cotton, Britain managed to grow the productivity of its cotton sector by an astonishing 370 times. I could find the page number if anyone was interested.
I would like to also see information on the type of investements China makes, and if those investment then have a multiplier effects down the road, in the recipient countries, compared to other sources of funding. China seems to be building and bringing technology and know how. Are the US or EU investments of the similar caliber? I don't want to see any more quantitative analyses on this matter but also some qualitative ones as well.
There are studies to be done or books to be written re what should be obvious: the crippling effect of relying on or designing policies that incorporate private entities’ needs to profit. That is, the problem of private/public partnerships. China has a flexibility that we don’t.
I’d add that the need to provide profits distorts policies as well as focus, at least when the US isn’t led by sociopaths and worse.
Adam said nothing about military advantage for China from the BRI. For example I wonder if China might lease the Simonstown port from South Africa and have a military alliance with South Africa? Not impossible I don't think.
“Bloomberg had a great article on the deflation in China. That prices are down 14% to 27% since last year, and deflation has been running a lot longer. The home prices in China just had the biggest drop ever recorded.”
I understand China typically rolls over the debt as a way to resolve repayment issues; if this is indeed the case, it would set Chinese lending apart from Western sources of debt. Also, China does not seize assets outright. At worst (best?), China takes over operation of the asset, manages it profitably, and once the debt is repaid, the asset is returned to the host country. Again, this is worth studying by the IMF, World Bank and perhaps emulate.
ReORIENT
Global Economy in the Asian Age
by Andre Gunder Frank (Author)
1998
Gunder Frank was ahead of the times.
"Andre Gunder Frank asks us to ReOrient our views away from Eurocentrism—to see the rise of the West as a mere blip in what was, and is again becoming, an Asia-centered world. In a bold challenge to received historiography and social theory he turns on its head the world according to Marx, Weber, and other theorists, including Polanyi, Rostow, Braudel, and Wallerstein. Frank explains the Rise of the West in world economic and demographic terms that relate it in a single historical sweep to the decline of the East around 1800. European states, he says, used the silver extracted from the American colonies to buy entry into an expanding Asian market that already flourished in the global economy. Resorting to import substitution and export promotion in the world market, they became Newly Industrializing Economies and tipped the global economic balance to the West. That is precisely what East Asia is doing today, Frank points out, to recover its traditional dominance. As a result, the "center" of the world economy is once again moving to the "Middle Kingdom" of China. Anyone interested in Asia, in world systems and world economic and social history, in international relations, and in comparative area studies, will have to take into account Frank's exciting reassessment of our global economic past and future."
You don't mention capitalism and the sheer drive for profit by the West. According to Professor Sven Bekert in his book, The Empire of cotton, Britain managed to grow the productivity of its cotton sector by an astonishing 370 times. I could find the page number if anyone was interested.
Ian
May support my military question above. Ian
I would like to also see information on the type of investements China makes, and if those investment then have a multiplier effects down the road, in the recipient countries, compared to other sources of funding. China seems to be building and bringing technology and know how. Are the US or EU investments of the similar caliber? I don't want to see any more quantitative analyses on this matter but also some qualitative ones as well.
agree. Ian
There are studies to be done or books to be written re what should be obvious: the crippling effect of relying on or designing policies that incorporate private entities’ needs to profit. That is, the problem of private/public partnerships. China has a flexibility that we don’t.
I’d add that the need to provide profits distorts policies as well as focus, at least when the US isn’t led by sociopaths and worse.
I preferred to call it B&Road 3.0 https://www.policycenter.ma/publications/whither-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative
is there a 417 i don't know about or what? 415 and then 461 and then 462?
ICYMI: https://spectrejournal.com/a-tale-of-two-ports/
Adam said nothing about military advantage for China from the BRI. For example I wonder if China might lease the Simonstown port from South Africa and have a military alliance with South Africa? Not impossible I don't think.
And South America?
Ian
Have the different iterations of BRI been more about vendor financing or development assistance? How to balance these goals?
“Bloomberg had a great article on the deflation in China. That prices are down 14% to 27% since last year, and deflation has been running a lot longer. The home prices in China just had the biggest drop ever recorded.”
That's all stuff we in the Western countries can only dream of!