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this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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Trevor Noah’s latest pod discusses China. Apparently infrastructure for others is their new influence/weapon.
Trump killed our global soft power and China is stepping into that space.
China has been indebting a lot of Africa building stuff all over the place longer than Trump has been around, doesn't get talked about very much. I only knew because I watch a few full time travel vloggers.
Yeah China has been funding massive infrastructure expansion around the world for over a decade. All across Africa and Asia.
It's a whole thing
https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200057933/zimbabwe-pushes-labour-law-compliance-with-chinese-investors-as-investments-tops-us10bn
i have trouble thinking of infrastructure improvements and expansion as a bad thing. Damn that's an effective strategy.
It’s modern colonialism to some extent, the USA does/did similar, you ingratiate the people to you so you can exploit the resources OR geography OR populace somehow.
It’s not always evil. It’s rarely ever altruistic.
One way this is done is “we’ll build the bridge to get to the other side of this thing if we’re granted mineral rights for the next LONG TIME” and upfront you get the bridge but the backside is you lost the resource. For the people who were never going to reap the reward of resource … but now they have a bridge … win/win?
This is a downside to these sorts of things. Again, not always evil though.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
Convince a man to let you build a fishing pier with exclusive fishing rights in his pond in exchange for giving him a fish every week, and you've got a customer for life.
In reality, China doesn't need to be so crass as to demand exclusive rights. The mere fact that these are Chinese panels with Chinese hardware means Cuba is going to be dependent on China for as long as they aren't willing to throw out a massive chunk of their infrastructure. As long as this move comes with some change to the material situation that makes Cuba pay China back and then some, China gets richer from it.
Capitalist corporations and nations have done the same for centuries. European colonial empires kept advanced manufacturing in Europe so the colonies couldn't become independent without a massive reduction in industrial capacity. Because of this many former colonies are still economically dependent on Europe and/or the US. China is simply coming in and offering them a better deal.
African economy is underdeveloped. Billions invested to day means trillions down the road with people buying pointless shit like Americans do.
Because stable infrastructure means a stable economy and more people to buy Chinese stuff. Nothing stopping USA from doing this, as if they want Africa to succeed.
Well, the west has been indebting them without infrastructure build up, so...
So...
So!
Oh I thought you were gonna tankie like "therefore china good!"
China another state like many others but not as bad as Americans think
Number of countries attacked by China is pretty low compared to US.
I agree.
It's called the Belt and Road initiative iirc
Also when you travel in central or south America you see more and more infrastructure by the Chinese. Still a lot less than Africa, but China is taking investments into ressource rich countries seriously.
It's all fun and games until you realize they put pee pee in your coke before you drank it.
It's been reported, it's just not promoted. I also have known about it for years, but from news sources.
Any evidence/source on that?
I just posted some links in my other comments.
New? They've been doing it for a very long time now. It's way cheaper to provide infrastructure to win good will than it is to fight them. And by getting them the infrastructure they can start producing goods for you. China has been outsourcing to Africa for a very long time now. Also just pillaging their resources.
Employing locals and raising the median income. Then providing stable power infrastructure which previously did not exist. While USA slashed USAID.
Propaganda much?
Most of the countries that take this money are ending up destitute and owing China huge sums and some of the infrastructure has already started crumbling.
Not always. Sometimes they offer to build the infrastructure to help you mine your resources then snatching up almost all the profit leaving your country and its people still very poor. This is how and why China controls the world's rare earth magnets and other more exotic materials that modern tech relies on. It's modern imperialism.
They have quite a lot of space to step in as Russia also did kill their soft power.
Everything seems to benefit China.
I mean you have a fascist greedy oligarchy on one side and a wannabe fascist greedy oligarchy on the other; it's not like China is facing a lot of competition in the realm of great power statesmanship.
Weapon?
Soft power can be welded to bend other nations to your will.
Yes. Long term approach to gaining political influence. Used as a weapon, it fosters dependency. Use as a good will approach, it fosters appreciation and the beginning of a bond of trust.
The infrastructure and loan programs China has been used for years in Africa and South America as the weapon.
Just take a gander of the infrastructure failures and unpayable loans. Also, the rare earth mining in central Africa.
pretty low hanging fruit when the US has been trying to undermine Cuba since the 1920s.
I did not imply the U.S.A. was always doing the right thing. Politics is a bitch, and I would not last 10 minutes as a politician.
I will defo check it out today, cheers!
And on a similar note, here is an article from a couple of months back:
US-China head-to-head: Explained in 11 maps and charts
They're also transmitting mixed chinese/ language broadcasts into other countries via shortwave. The US gutted VOA in response.