They still do it, even more so than once upon a time.
Iraq, Pakistan, overthrowing regimes vis CIA while partnering with Drug cartels, forcing out Iran’s regime, forcing other countries to cut off Iran after forcing out Iran’s regime, using Israel to project military power in the Middle East, cutting off aid if countries legalize certain drugs.
These are all soft power projections that have similar effects to the “modern colonizing” of China. There’s no hard evidence that the lending and infrastructure projects are bad. But somehow it seems that unless China donates a free pair of shoes for every pair of shoe sold to destroy the local shoe economy, it must be bad? Donations are bad, but true business deals are what’s required, and they may not appear purely altruistic because they aren’t.
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They still do it, even more so than once upon a time.
Iraq, Pakistan, overthrowing regimes vis CIA while partnering with Drug cartels, forcing out Iran’s regime, forcing other countries to cut off Iran after forcing out Iran’s regime, using Israel to project military power in the Middle East, cutting off aid if countries legalize certain drugs.
These are all soft power projections that have similar effects to the “modern colonizing” of China. There’s no hard evidence that the lending and infrastructure projects are bad. But somehow it seems that unless China donates a free pair of shoes for every pair of shoe sold to destroy the local shoe economy, it must be bad? Donations are bad, but true business deals are what’s required, and they may not appear purely altruistic because they aren’t.