Dominica and China have signed a new 300 million dollars cooperation agreement that includes the construction of a hotel, construction of an international airport and building a new hospital. The sum involved is equivalent to a third of the small Caribbean island GDP, which could mean Beijing virtually is 'purchasing' the small territory. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesI'm not sure if buying is necessarily the right term, given the location of Dominica, I'd imagine that the location would make it hard to actually collect, especially if there's a sudden change in government after all of the shiny new buildings have been finished.
Dec 11th, 2013 - 10:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0Rented (while they are being built) perhaps...
Beautiful island, lovely people, interesting history. Wonder where they will put the airport.
Dec 11th, 2013 - 10:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0so china is slowly expanding its portfolio,
Dec 11th, 2013 - 11:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0where next we wonder..
China has obviously not had it's fingers burnt yet with expropriation, not sure most countries would dare. They have done the same in many countries in Africa, it's all about resources, a billion people need a lot of just about everything.
Dec 11th, 2013 - 01:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0China is also about projecting itself near to the States with this move.
Dec 11th, 2013 - 07:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The manner in which China is going about taking over tertiary industries, while muscling out competition, in other sovereign states should be very worrying for everyone.
Dec 11th, 2013 - 07:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It is happening (although at different rates) on a global scale: while visiting one resort in Spain I noted that around half the shops and restaurants were run by Chinese expats. This 'soft imperialism' will not end well
As we've seen with the attitude of Spain, trying to bring nations with an underlying dodgy moral attitude in from the cold via the benefits of trade simply doesn't work, unless it is continually reciprocated with some sort of moral reform step-by-step.
We see it now in Europe, where Spain is more integrated than the UK and now using this to attack Gibraltar... We also see it in the far east, where China is now a global powerhouse and the UK's protests regarding Tibet have become noticeably muted.
China's attempt to corrupt the UN by hoovering up the voting power of sovereign states indebted to them will not end well for anybody except China.
Screenname
Dec 11th, 2013 - 08:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0China is the next Japan. Over the next 20 years it problems are going to be so huge that it will have trouble holding together its own country without trying to take over others.
Japan's real estate and asset buying binge in the 1980s had everyone saying the same thing..... and yet how much does anyone remember now just over 20 years later?
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE !
Dec 12th, 2013 - 12:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Every contract has a strategic intent.
Dec 12th, 2013 - 07:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Dominica - a deepwater port, a set of MRBMs ... and we have the Bay of Pigs and Cuba all over again.
Dec 12th, 2013 - 08:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Still, Dominica is nearer to Venezuela than the USA,
so perhaps China will simply collect the 'rosary beads' called the Caribbean, eventually making landfall in Venezuela.
China already owns a large chunk of Venezuelan sovereignty.
Dec 12th, 2013 - 09:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0More that the Venezuelan government would care to admit.
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