@whowasthatmaskedman Indedd - I agree.

I am not sure how active China's expansionist "aid" scheme still is.

I think it has slowed a bit; but its Belt & Road scheme (it's changed name) was only ever to aid only China.

It has included buying the Greek port of Piraeus, building new railways across its annexed Tibet, and Mongolia, to meet the Trans-Siberian Railway well to the West of Vladivostok, and installing many businesses near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. It bought the British steel-industry, and I strongly suspect its recent attempt to close the country's only remaining iron-making, hence new steel-making, plant was far more Chinese-strategic than locally economic.

Chian is also competing with the Russian Federation and the USA in sniffing around the Arctic between the Bering Strait and Iceland.

It is also doing something odd on an arid plain in the very far Western corner of Tibet. Google Earth satellite images reveal heavy developments of very remote towns reached by a modern road, directly below the mountain ridge that carries a narrow border with Pakistan, Afghanistan and a couple of other "istans". There is no obvious reason for towns here, no obvious mines, etc; the settlements seem partly self-reliant by their own farms, yet their only water supply is reservoirs of precious snow-melt of insecure future..... (The natural water-courses fade away in mid-plain.) My only suggestion is that of establishing future road links, likely to need long tunnels, with its neighbours; but the photographs so far at least show no signs of that.

@ArishMell Never underestimate the power of misinformation. Whatever is happening in those towns or with the infrastructure,keeping it secret means others need to expend resources guarding against the unknown. But of course with the Chinese, the planning could be 50 years out.. As for the One Belt, one road scheme. Of course it is always to the advantage of the Chinese. Whether its a railway in Africa leading from some valuable mineral mine to the coast. Or a military capable airport or or pacific seaport port built and maintained by chinese technicians for some Island nation. These are all built with "loan" funds with Chinese money, build by Chinese workers with mostly Chinese materials. The kicker being that is the local government defaults on the loan (which it probably will) ownership reverts to the Chinese, who can take it over legally and use it for its own purposes😷

@whowasthatmaskedman I agree entirely. Sometimes the best way to keep it secret is not to try too hard - as long as the real secrets are safe inside bland buildings etc.

@whowasthatmaskedman the funny part is, everyone else but Trump can see him being played.... Why maga supporters are cheering on for a cost of living increase has me beat

@Convivial That Trump is not the sharpest tool in the set is no secret..That he has no real ethics or morality to speak of has been shown time and time again. I understand that some Americans are still into this "My Country, right or wrong." thing, and transfer it to their President. But this has to be more embarrassing now than being a member of the Hitler youth was for some germans around 1950..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman I think it'll be a reverse Woodstock...a few hundred thousand turned up but talking to people who " were there", the audience was in the millions lol

@Northwest No - but an export tax on NVIDIA and AMD products, paid by those companies on what they sell to China.

So in effect that is money coming to the USA from abroad, unlike import tariffs that merely move American money around within America.

@specman 🤣

@Reason10