Africa, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand. Wondering why these countries have been listed? This is because they have all turned into locations on China’s Monopoly board. These countries are the metaphorical equivalent of the King’s Cross Station on China’s conquest for global dominance. China is on its way to becoming the Britain of the 21st century, as its new-age colonialistic aspirations have become cleverly camouflaged under the facade of it being a ‘developmental partner’. The actual truth, however, points in the direction of its predatorial intentions.
In short, China seeks to do the metaphorical equivalent of trying to rot the dying beast from the inside, which, in this case, refers to the crumbling economies of its so-called partner countries. It aims to achieve this by means of its newly diversified expansionism policy. China has been trying to manipulate the global narrative, with Beijing linked media corporations peddling the drug which is China, skillfully wrapped in the wrapping paper that is financial stability and development in Belt and Road Investment (BRI) countries, that China has vested interests in.
China and its 3 ‘I’s
China has been conducting outreach campaigns globally, tapping into every resource that is possible, in its path to becoming a global superpower, and in its conquest to gaining a global monopoly. It is trying to accomplish this by means of its 3 I’s:
- Influence
- Interference
- Investment
Influence
China’s crafty manipulation of the narrative is yet another cause of concern. What is a lesser-known fact to the rest of the world is that several countries’ media outlets like that of Thailand’s have signed agreements to exert the Chinese influence on their citizens. They even have direct connections with Xinhua, China’s national news agency.
In addition to this, China is conducting media outreach programmes on every continent, making sure that China’s name is firmly plastered in the hearts and minds of every citizen of every country.
Interference
China has positioned its members in top positions all over the world. So, it goes without saying that it has the say in major world decisions. The recent data leak incident was one of the biggest revelations into how much of a grip China has been having on the rest of the world’s private data. Furthermore, Confucius Institutes have sprouted up more than ever on several parts of the country. While these are public educational partnerships between colleges and universities in China and colleges and universities in other countries, the partnerships are funded and arranged in part by Hanban which is itself affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Investment
Beijing is currently holding major investments in 60 countries. This roughly accounts for 60% of the world population and 30% of the world’s GDP. Between 2013 and 2018, China invested nearly $614 billion in BRI countries. Morgan Stanley predicts that Chinese investment to touch $1.3 trillion in the next 10 years. China’s investments in Africa scream shadows of colonialism, as this was this exact same concept that the British Raj used when they laid railroads in India and invested in India’s minefields, only to reap those benefits for their own. While the British of the 20th century in India did this in the pretext of civilisation, present-day China is doing this in the name of developmental aid.
Adding on to the nightmare that doesn’t seem to end is the fact that China also silences those that have spoken against these actions in every which way possible. For instance, Malaysian former Prime Minister had warned China’s involvement may have colonialism like effects; the same person later got sold out to China and starting singing a different tune. If all else fails, China has the perfect fall-back mechanism: the debt trap. It uses the Messiah principle to clearly trap the countries until they get engulfed by Stockholm syndrome
Trouble brewing at home base
This is not to say that all is well at the home pavilion. On the contrary, China’s coffers are quickly draining, as its increasing population is becoming more and more difficult to feed with every coming day.
Recently, the news of China buying rice from India for the first time in 30 years made the headlines. While this might come as a surprise, what is not quite as surprising is the fact that rice is the staple food for two-thirds of the country’s population. For a country that is being played by trade wars, locust attacks, and the pandemic, it might seem to the untrained eye that the country is draining is coffers to feed its citizens. What seems to sell that story more is the fact that the country’s President Xi Jinping’s Operation Empty Plate, which is a public campaign to control food wastage. While this has been going on at one end of the spectrum, tabloids in the country have been vehemently denying the crisis. They have been overselling the actual harvest that has been going on in the country, while in actuality, China is buying broken rice from India at a range of several thousand tonnes at a price of $300 per tonne.
It is earning the wrath of its own people – be it in Xinhua for its xenophobic policies against the Uyghur Muslims or in Hong Kong or or in Taiwan or in mainland China by industrial workers. Trouble has been brewing for a while and thanks to the iron screen of the typical Communist regime, nothing comes out.
This means that in China’s pursuit of global domination, it has refused to look at more pressing issues back home, as the entire country runs rampant with corruption, unemployment and hunger. A day will come when it will have to answer to both its people and the rest of the world. Afterall, an expanding balloon cannot keep growing in size for long.