State of Victoria and China's BRI

China's belt and road initiative: what is it and why is Victoria under fire for its involvement?

Your thoughts?

Economically, it makes sense and would benefit the state of Victoria.

 

Been discussed on another thread
Does Australia need USA?

 

Not specifically to Victoria though.

 

An interesting read is the book "The New Silk Road" ... it outlines what is happening in regards to the BRI for many countries and, although appears positive on the surface, the results can be rather worrying.

For example China lends a poor country monies to upgrade their international airport - the country can't pay back the monies so China says something along the lines of "no probs, just let us build a naval base in this spot and we'll forget the debt".

It's not aggressive as such - but rather conquering by stealth.

 

Same thing in Sri Lanka when I visited 3 years ago. The port is now leased to China for 99 plus 99 years I think because they failed to repay the loan. The government failed to do anything with the money to improve the port. As we went around Colombo, the guide showed us the number of significant buildings (hotels, commercial buildings etc) are owned by China. They must be printing a lot of money to lend others.

 

Funny you should bring that up because guess what.
They lease the port of Darwin , yep Darwin , for 99yrs too.
WTF is wrong with this country.?
Anyway , l don't like this road thing with Vic not one bit it's madness involving a country like China in our roads wth is wrong with them.
Do othr countries do this , like wealthier countries l mean not the poorer ones , like Uk or any of the European countries .?

 

And the port of Newcastle - lots of anger about that - which is the major coal export port of Australia

 

Yes port in Darwin.

 

Why does this country do such things , is there any logic or reason in it?
Apart from l'd suppose a big payday .

 

China does deals secretly, bribes officials to get deals done, uses strategic assets as collateral, when Sri Lanka couldnt pay a debt it SEIZED a strategic seaport, this now as debtor nations concerned. A supposedly dodgey An ex PLA officer convicted of fraud has established a flight train school in Victoria funded by a Chinese state funded company, strategic airfields have been up graded with new runways, and ILS installed that is unviable for amount of commercial traffic. Only Chinese can use the training. In lock down chinese were flying . But australian pilots werent allowed to fly . The PLA officer wont give an interveiw or answer questions.

 

Are you talking about this?

Flying school allegedly funded with embezzled Chinese loans

Don't think he's be too popular with the Chinese government after allegedly defrauding a Chinese bank of $40m. Also, the Australian government paid for the ILS (in part).

 

The are a few strategic ports popping up in the middle East gulf country under similar circumstances.

A country like China doesn't do something for nothing in return

 

Absolutely not! I think we really need to be very careful with China.

 

Greg Sheridan, who works for The Australian, is a good commentator to follow on all things China.

 

Yep this is what l've always thought too and why l just shake my head at some of this Australian stuff going on. What about the QLD university talk in that other thread . Where dose it end.
Well , l have one theory. They don't want to war their way into places anymore so they're buying their way in and they'll just keep chipping away until one day we turn around and blow me down , China is running Australia.
Sounds far fetched , how could that possibly happen well , they know Australia just can't say no to their money , easy peasy , and our leaders of all sorts aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed either obviously, soooo , probably not as far fetched as it might sound. Nother 30 yrs l really hate to think.

 

No they don't want war ... that is why their wealth has grown so rapidly, they're not spending trillions a year trying to be the world's policeman.

I'd recommend "the new silk road". Heavy reading in parts, and not anti China (nor pro)... just a real eye opener as to how they think and operate on the world stage

 

No ones want war until it happens due to policy and gradually rising conflicts.
Look at their claims at the water around South East Asia, then Hong Kong and Taiwan. Australia will need to pick side sooner or later...

 

Do we need to pick a side? I like the idea of countries like Australia, NZ, Germany, Iceland, Canada ... and all those that have shown tolerance, leadership and fairness ... to form a loose and new "world leader co-operative"

 

Funny , l was watching a Chinese movie , looks like a gorgeous country and beautiful mix of old and new , landscapes and space and villages and it's pretty damn big even with their population.
Wth would they even care about other countries ?

 

Because things like ... less than 10% of their land is arable for food production so they are seeking food security ... their water is becoming heavily polluted through chemical farming, industry and population so they are trying to buy water security ... and to oversee all that they need military security

AGRICULTURE IN CHINA: CHALLENGES, SHORTAGES, IMPORTS AND AND ORGANIC FARMING | Facts and Details

The domestic and global shocks of the growing water crisis in China | GRI.

**sorry this article is a bit old but is pretty comprehensive
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