China invests billions in one-China agreements in Africa. Why?

Question

I have been living in mainland China for almost 4 years now. Each night on the TV news are stories about the Chinese government sending the premier or president with a large delegation to a different African country each week to offer them tons of money in exchange for agreement with the "one China" policy (no independence for Taiwan or Tibet). They have secured agreements with more than 20 countries so far and many more visits are on the itinerary for the near future. At the same time, China is building their military at an alarming rate (4o percent per year) amid protests from western countries. Can we expect an invasion of Taiwan soon?

Answer 1

You have been living in China for 4 years and you came to those conclusions? I've been here for a year and come to entirely different ones.

Invasion of Tibet:
China had claimed it for decades as it was historically part of China. Emperors have wanted it and it was after the world was looking the other way is when Chairman Mao invaded and took over. None of which was right, it would be like Mexico laying claim on California and invaded. But it happened and the Tibetans people suffered. Fast forward to now, China last year finished passenger rail service to Tibet and is encouraging the world to visit. What are they trying to hide now?

The pending invasion of Taiwan:
That threat has been going on for over 50 years and is never going to happen. China has laid claim to Taiwan as it was one of China’s provinces prior to Mao taking over. Sure, China and Taiwan dust off their sabers once a year or so, rattle them at each other, then put them away and go back to normal trade, cultural and scientific exchanges and tourism. I suspect all the saber rattling is done to appease the haters. In time, when China’s economy becomes stronger, Taiwan and China will be united for economic reasons and like Hong Kong, it will be under the same concept, one country, two governments. Exactly what China has stated for over a decade.

China’s expanding military:
China claims they are modernizing the military, the west claims it is for imperialism and is destabilizing to the east and world. China does not have a history of imperialism, nor do they have any military presence anywhere else in the world. They also have little experience in modern warfare. They have reduced their number of soldiers in recent years.

As far as world wide arms sales, they lag far behind the USA as we sell 36% of the world arms while China only 3% according to a congressional report in 2005. Much of what China has in military hardware is outdated.

Since their countries economy has improved remarkably they are able to afford much needed modernization. One of the threats the west keeps laying out is the pending invasion of Taiwan and as I pointed out earlier, that’s never going to happen. China is smart enough to understand that an invasion would be counter productive to their future, even if it didn’t result in retaliation from the west. The political and economic fallout would be catastrophic.

If there is one thing that I have learned about China, they long ago realized they can’t go head to head in a fight against the west, and to do so would be destructive to their future. China understands the only way to “win” is to do it economically. That there are far bigger fish to fry then global military adventures where the outcome is anyone’s guess.

At the very least, Vietnam should have taught us that lesson and Iraq most certainly. China also understands its future far better then the USA. They plan while we seem to muddle along. Their plans are in the form of five year plans that are reviewed yearly and changed if need be. I’ve often posed this question on the web, “what is the USA’s plan?” The answers I get, we have freedom and innovation, none of which answers the question. Americans have no idea what our plans are for the future, but ask any Chinese and they have, at the very least, a rough idea what China wants to do. If they want to find out more they can go on the web or any number of government publications that outline their five year plans and see for themselves.

Then I point out that the few plans that we know of, no one knows what they are, especially our energy plan since that was held in secret by Vice President Cheney. I’m very concerned with our lack of transparency and lack of foresight. We just seem to muddle along which worked very well for decades, now as the world and especially China slowly catches up to the USA, it’s in our best interests to look into our own crystal ball and make real obtainable transparent plans to secure our children’s future.

Unfortunately for the USA and much of the west, the plans will force us to come to realities that we don’t want to think of, such as our wasteful habits, over consumption in an increasingly competitive world, and our lack of being able to support a manufacturing base because of our high wages and benefits.

If we think of the world as staying static then we’ll miss the opportunities to secure our future. However if we really understand that most countries want to get to the “American Dream,” and are doing it, then we’ll stop arguing about insignificant things like flag burning, prayer in school and trying to shove anti abortion into our laws and other moral issues that we spend an inordinately amount of time wasting our legislative time on while ignoring our future.

I have heard it on more then one occasion that America is fretting away its future through its divisive and contemptuous politics. As one man from India, that’s a manager at a textile factory here in the city in China I live in put it, he loves Americans, but they aren’t worldly. I’d say that statement is pretty accurate. For the most part, when it comes to how the world works, the average American lives in an ideological vacuum that ultimately resulted in bringing a government system into an area of the Middle East that has never seen that before. The result, is of course, failure.

Answer 2

John D is correct in what he says above re Chinese Govt over-reliance on export-driven economy, consumer markets etc. As long as the economic status quo is (roughly) maintained, then the military invasion of Taiwan - simply to change it's de facto independent status - is a non-starter. Particularly since Taiwan is still officially "Republic of China" and China's population considers the island part of China anyway, albeit a part with an odd status.

The African diplomacy provides China with easy-pickings in it's efforts to maintain One-China diplomatic pressure and, more importantly, an easy way of securing natural resources in exchange for future promises, building of infrastructure (usually with exported Chinese labour) and all sorts of economic "gifts" that are usually not as great as they sound. China also secures new markets for it's cheap and plentiful manufactured goods.

Answer 3

No China's economy is totally dependent on the US consumer and we are obligated to defend Taiwan so China wouldn't dare risk the chance of going to war with us they would lose financially and all though they are building their military it is years and years away from ours in terms of technology and weapons of mass destruction.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

they need their resources.

Answer 6

noooooooooo...they just see what the Occidentals see.................the SHIITE