I agree, I think we are witnessing the global influence leader transition from the US to China. All they had to do was provide investments in lower income countries and stability at the national leadership level. The US did the rest by exploiting those same lower income countries for centuries and not providing a stable foreign policy.
You make it sound as if China did something good to other countries with their “help”. They showed their cards already too, offering money with no moral obligations attached (which pleased some regimes) but raging interest rates and untold actions (the new jobs weren’t for the locals, but chinese citizens send abroad). When the loan couldn’t be paid back China offered “deals” effectively annexing the shiny new harbour or whatever infrastructure there was. Many countries got fucked over that way by them as well, especially African ones. Some of them silently came back to European nations for their aid plans with those pesky human right requirements (and, of course, partial economical colonization). Meanwhile China got huge internal struggles, both financially and socially (they just suppress coverage about it).
Don’t underestimate India either. While they seem to not meddle as much in other countries, they too grow very strong very quickly, and they’re not very fond of either China or the US. And then there’s Europe with high amounts of soft power as well.
tl;dr
Right now it’s hard to say how the future will look like. Our western media is just all about “China China China” right now.
I agree, I think we are witnessing the global influence leader transition from the US to China. All they had to do was provide investments in lower income countries and stability at the national leadership level. The US did the rest by exploiting those same lower income countries for centuries and not providing a stable foreign policy.
You make it sound as if China did something good to other countries with their “help”. They showed their cards already too, offering money with no moral obligations attached (which pleased some regimes) but raging interest rates and untold actions (the new jobs weren’t for the locals, but chinese citizens send abroad). When the loan couldn’t be paid back China offered “deals” effectively annexing the shiny new harbour or whatever infrastructure there was. Many countries got fucked over that way by them as well, especially African ones. Some of them silently came back to European nations for their aid plans with those pesky human right requirements (and, of course, partial economical colonization). Meanwhile China got huge internal struggles, both financially and socially (they just suppress coverage about it).
Don’t underestimate India either. While they seem to not meddle as much in other countries, they too grow very strong very quickly, and they’re not very fond of either China or the US. And then there’s Europe with high amounts of soft power as well.
tl;dr Right now it’s hard to say how the future will look like. Our western media is just all about “China China China” right now.