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this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2026
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China is already an empire that enriches itself at the expense of the rest of the world via its non market practices. Inequal market access / lack of reciprocity have led to deficits that hinder development in many emerging markets. The belt and road initiative and China's debt to sovereignty swap strategy allows them to build and own key infrastructure / ports around the world similar to US maintaining a global / hegemonic presence with its military bases.
I don't think China wants to rule the world the way the US does. Its traditionally a very inward looking civilization. But I doubt it has qualms over potentially harming others to enrich itself, which is the case for any empire.
I don't know, man, building infrastructure to benefit the country you're building it in sure sounds better than overthrowing socialists governments by arming child-raping rebels then giving them money through the IMF to enrich themselves to justify austerity measures that permanently keep the country from developing.
Yes the Western playbook is well known. I wouldn't be too quick to trust the Chinese approach though. China has already reclaimed sovereignty over ports via debt trap diplomacy in regions like Sri Lanka.
This certainly is not as bad as American actions on the global stage but China is fairly new to being a global power (in the modern era at least, not historically) so the long term strategy remains to be seen.
Yes, I just find it's good to have a complete picture. Talking to a lot of people about the problems with China is a lot like talking to people in 2001 about the problems with Saddam Hussein... that is to say, it's just a pretext for war or other skulduggery.
Depends who owns the infrastructure after it is built, and how payment is structured.