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Comment by raheemm | Hacker News Reader

The Chinese government deployed a similar tactic in Sri Lanka, building a sea part that is unnecessary, with easy loans, which Sri Lanka defaulted on, leading to China taking ownership. It then deployed a submarine to the port, alarming both Sri Lanka and India.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lank...

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> leading to China taking ownership. It then deployed a submarine to the port, alarming both Sri Lanka and India.

"Bigger pile of money" diplomacy meets "bigger gun" diplomacy. It shoudn't be surprising. We did the same thing under the Monroe Doctrine. But it's been long enough that many in the West have forgotten about it.

With China, US taxpayer money is on line too. Take a closer look at Pakistan’s case. China promised $42B investments, Pakistan’s CAD widened. Pakistan seeks $15B bailout from IMF, which US has opposed as it will just go to Chinese. So a very tumultuous future ahead, this colonialism adventure of China will bring.

Severe pain for India, as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar have Chinese presence now, just a matter of time when the boots land. String of pearls, as it is called.

The same thing is happening in Cambodia, or Laos, Or Myamnar:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/31/no-cambodia-l...

https://laotiantimes.com/2017/05/16/chinas-investments-costi...

Part of the reasons why countries are wary is because the Chinese just doesn't play nice with the local: all the contractors are Chinese companies, the business is run by Chinese, the tourists use RMB and doesn't respect local culture etc... Maybe it will take them 10~20 years to learn the lesson.

This example is not just discussed in the article but was cited by Malaysian officials as an example of what they are worried about.

Even in tiny Pacific nations such as Samoa, where the incompetent and corrupt government officials welcome such easy loans which the country can never pay back. Samoa is now on the hook for $US1b, for loans that cannot be traced to anything anywhere. The government has refused to publish accounts for almost a decade now so no one knows where the money has gone.

So Samoa will use their vote to support any Chinese motion no matter what.

Well if you have the source of power (money) you know you can do good and bad stuff. Malaysia did the right thing as being patriot and all. China like to do a "friendly war". They become good at first but you know there's a price of being good, and when you resist, you'll get bullied. "Communism" at it's finest. Look at what it did to Philippines. They know Philippines has no match on its firepower they created a military base within its territorial sea but in a brighter side, they give support aid to Philippines, attack and release.

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