this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
55 points (80.9% liked)

World News

32347 readers
656 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] considine@lemmy.ml 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I've followed the developing belt and road initiative and it works like this: China invests in various countries' infrastructure to expand trade capacity. So far the only criticism the western media has leveled at it is that it is supposedly a debt trap. And the big evidence for that is Sri Lanka's port. However, the majority of Sri Lankan debt is held by Western banks. The Chinese loan was not at a higher interest rate. Yet somehow, China is to blame? In what way do you consider the BRI to be a hegemonic project?

[–] naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

Because China bad duh, go away tankie

[–] metaballism -4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's a very naive take. Even if BRI was only meant for trade - so much influence on trade necessarily means that China will have greater political power over included countries. The debt trap thing is also true - the westerners noticed it because they employed the same tactics to gain influence over other countries. These are pretty hegemonic things to do.