So this is Economic Hitmen 2.0. China watched and learned from what the US did in South America.
Ecuador: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/world/americas/ecuador-ch...
Montenegro : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-silkroad-europe-mon...
Pakistan: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-silkroad-railway...
and now Kenya
(And by funny I mean horrific and depressing, of course.)
China has massive amounts of US dollars (and lower, but still decent, amounts of Euros) which are useless at home but can move literal mountains in Africa.
Basically China can act like a VC fund in Africa: spend shitloads of money and pray that 1 of 100 projects is gonna be a unicorn... the game is to not do it like Europe dumping their used clothing and overproduced food over Africa, but to provide infrastructure so that the billions of people in Africa actually have the means to buy... yep, Chinese products.
The infrastructure is a loss leader, but ya gotta get the product into the continent somehow. Europe and the US won't be able to profit from the infra, we don't export anything of value except cars and software since all our manufacturing and industry was shuttered and off-shored to... China.
Oh, maybe it's because the leading western country only has 200+ years of history and has no idea how bit China was...
Could you clarify which people you are thinking of and your specific meaning of what they would miss?
I'm thinking about those historical track record. I'm thinking of those millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians whose lives were ended. I wonder about the millions more whose futures were ruined. I'm thinking about those millions of Iranians trapped by blowback to the Mossadegh coup. Nicaraguans? Guatemala. Honduras. Pakistanis? Afghans? Somalis? Iraqis? Yemenis? Those are just the ones we see in the news. Who knows about all the ones we don't see.
While US's action in Iran had a strong effect, I'd say the blame doesn't last forever (return of sanctions notwithstanding)
China was involved in that as well. They supported North Vietnam and backed the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. They even invaded Vietnam after the war.
>Could you clarify which people you are thinking of
It’s interesting that you mention Vietnam and Cambodia because 90% of Vietnamese and 85% of Cambodians surveyed believe the US has a positive impact on the region. The numbers are above 70% for most Asian countries outside of China [1].
Horrible things have happened under US dominance--the US has been directly responsible for some of them, but let’s not pretend that China in a similar position wouldn’t be much worse. Just look at how China treats its people internally--mass reeducation camps for political prisoners, censorship on a scale undreamed of outside of the minds of dystopian scifi writers, authoritarian leadership appointed for life. Imagine how they would behave if they become the dominant superpower. Their neighboring countries think that it would be worse. Most of Asia is terrified of Chinese military ascendancy.
Obviously most countries would prefer if the US didn't have so much power--provided someone like China doesn't come along to take their place. If the choice though is between China and the US, I think it's pretty clear which would be worse.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/01/18/h...
Assuming China becomes the single dominant power and they behave how I believe history has indicated they will, my answer is: most of the world outside of China.