While Ukraine explodes, China quietly takes over Zimbabwe
March 9, 2014 9:05 AM   Subscribe

While the developed world is focusing on the rapidly deteriorating developments in the Crimean, China..is taking advantage of this latest distraction to do what it does best: quietly take over the global periphery while nobody is looking.
posted by ellieBOA (5 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, this article is reading as weirdly slanted; it's an interesting subject, maybe try another post with some better sources on the China-in-Africa stuff? -- LobsterMitten



 
The Chinese are making up for lost time; Chinese explorers traveled as far as the African coast in the 1400s but the Celestial emperor and his retinue decided that the Heavenly kingdom was the only land on Earth worth their time so further exploration/exploitation stopped. Their boats at the time were the most seaworthy so had they kept going I'm certain they could have beaten Columbus to America.

I'm also kind of jealous that the Chinese do not nitpicky things like "human rights", "environmentalism" and "indigenous economic development" stymie their attempts at getting raw materials. It is as if they don't care as long as what they are paying for and their personnel are left unmolested.
posted by Renoroc at 9:16 AM on March 9, 2014


China has been aggressively moving into Africa for years. Suggesting that they're sneaking around Wile-E.-Coyote-style while everyone else is busy with Ukraine is kind of weird.
posted by eugenen at 9:20 AM on March 9, 2014 [1 favorite]


China has been making inroads into Africa a good long time now. They know eventually Africa will be next bastion of dirt-cheap globalized labor, and they prefer to be the ones managing that shift on their own terms.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:23 AM on March 9, 2014


Renoroc: "I'm also kind of jealous that the Chinese do not nitpicky things like "human rights", "environmentalism" and "indigenous economic development" stymie their attempts at getting raw materials. It is as if they don't care as long as what they are paying for and their personnel are left unmolested."

Really?

If you swap all instances of "China" and "USA" in this article, nothing about it would seem outlandish, or signify a significant departure from the current state of US foreign policy...
posted by schmod at 9:24 AM on March 9, 2014 [4 favorites]


While a Chinese military base in Zimbabwe would be real news, this doesn't appear to be real journalism. All these unnamed sources are pretty thin gruel.
posted by Steakfrites at 9:26 AM on March 9, 2014


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