Replies

[It’s a Scam to control stupid countries]

It’s a money pit that will see all the loans written off as uncollectible. Xi is suffering from the problem of absolute rulers everywhere - he appoints as his underlings mediocrities without ambition (to forestall the possibility of a coup d’etat) who pose no threat to him, and they tell him his brain-dead ideas are original and brilliant, when they are neither. The reason foreign banks haven’t funded these projects comes down to economic feasibility and the difficulty of getting their principal back. Argentina is actually one of the better-run debtor countries, and it has stiffed lenders to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. China is lending to countries that are much less creditworthy than Argentina. Xi really is that stupid.

It’s not really that complicated - people who are brilliant at amassing power are not necessarily any good at actually exercising that power in constructive ways. North Korea’s Kim Il-sung established a dynasty that has ruled the country for 70+ years while driving its economy into the ground. Some people think the Communist Party has done a great job getting China’s economy off the ground. I’d disagree. The Party has had the benefit of some of the world’s highest quality human resources, both in terms of IQ and conscientiousness.

The Party’s 70-year tenure has more or less coincided with South Korea’s rise from African/Chinese levels of poverty to developed country status. Note that South Korea is almost 4x times more densely populated than China and has fewer natural resources per capita. For instance, China produces 4m barrels of oil per day (vs South Korea’s 0). That’s roughly the same as Iraq and Kuwait, both of which are considered major oil producers. China is also the world’s biggest gold producer. And yet China’s economic output per person is merely 1/3 South Korea’s.