China?

This is kind of a follow up to the Copenhagen post. I noticed that China has directly threatened President Obama about meeting with the Dali Lama. Similar to actions in Copenhagen, I think China is starting to flex its new economic power in the world. When I say the world, I mean it. China has hit the third world with tons of development. There are very mixed opinions about China’s investment and I’m going to share my perspective. The handprints China is everywhere in Rwanda, from the smooth roads to new towering skyscrapers overlooking Kigali. This is true not only for Rwanda but also many other developing nations. Many people living in Rwanda have strong biases one way or another. I think I have found a trend though. Many people with a mid to lower intelligence level seem to be very welcoming to China’s investment in their country, while those with very high intelligence levels seem to be very hesitant and downright disgusted with China’s involvement in their country. I found this to be the exact same case in Costa Rica. China promised Costa Rica a brand new state of the art stadium in exchange for Costa Rica’s most profitable resource, fresh water. Many people were enthusiastic about the idea of a brand new stadium while others were hoping the government would not go through with the deal, seeing the amount of fresh water China is asking for as ludicrous and a terrible deal for the country.

From what I can gather, the contracts that China is signing with the global south are quite unfair. I think the cost in natural resources developing countries are paying to China for development work is unjust. China is looking into the future with their exploding population and finding unethical ways to meet those needs. China does not require any human rights monitoring and employs mainly Chinese nationals, providing few jobs for countries that desperately need them.

On the up-side, they are investing and some people say really bad investment is better than no investment. I seen elected official say that they prefer working with China because they do not have to deal with the stringent requirement set on them by the US and European Nations. This could also have to do with the fact that China is more than eager to get things done under the table.