Well folks, I know a lot of you would like me to do something on the inauguration.
The problem is, I try to give you only the facts and, in some cases, a historical perspective as to what is happening.
Unfortunately, facts right now are hard to come by.
Even the European news is in a “wait and see” mode.
So that is what I am doing. I am going to wait until events play out and then research the facts.
That having been said, I have decided to tackle a topic that I can back with research and facts.
If you will remember, I warned everyone months ago that the rest of the world is watching the internal strife that is taking place in the US right now.
This leaves us wide open to our enemies worldwide.
Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China are enjoying sitting on the sidelines watching us destroy ourselves and are just waiting for the right time to take full advantage of our stupidity.
So today, let’s start with China.
I found a really good article by Chris Pleasance for the Daily Mail
published in September 2020.
In it he states,
China has poured billions of dollars of investment into the Caribbean while signing tax and trade deals to wrest the region out of the West’s sphere of influence and bring it under the sway of Beijing.
The Chinese government has invested at least $7 billion in six Caribbean nations since 2005, records show – building roads, ports and the five-star Baha Mar casino and resort in the Bahamas – though the true figure is thought to run well into the tens of billions.
While some of the money arrives as part of trade and investment deals, much of it is offered as ‘soft loans’ for infrastructure projects that are harder to track and typically come with requirements to use Chinese contractors for the work. The loans also provide long-term leverage for Beijing over the cash-strapped island nations.
The Daily Mail investigated China’s growing influence in the region after Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the UK’s foreign affairs committee, accused Beijing of ‘playing a large role’ in Barbados’s recent calls to drop the Queen as the Head of State.
In addition to the loans and investments, eight countries in the Caribbean have signed on to Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, including Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, with agreements in place to deepen trade ties along with building bridges and airports, and improving energy and telecommunications networks.
Mr Tugendhat told the London Sunday Times: ‘China has been using infrastructure investment and debt diplomacy as a means of control for a while and it’s coming closer to home for us.
‘British partners have long faced challenges from rivals seeking to undermine our alliance.
‘Today we’re seeing it in the Caribbean. Some islands seem to be close to swapping a symbolic Queen in Windsor for a real and demanding emperor in Beijing.’
In the past, China has been particularly generous with nations that have agreed to cut relations with Taiwan – a country in the East China Sea which Beijing claims as a province – and establish ties with Bejing instead.
In 2005, China rewarded the island of Grenada, which has an annual trade of just $1.8billion, with a brand new $55million cricket stadium after it cut relations with Taiwan.
Similarly, in 2018, the Dominican Republic received Chinese investments and loans thought to have topped $3 billion after it also cut ties with Taipei.
Beijing has largely stepped away from vote-buying projects in recent years, however, and now largely focuses on economic deals aimed at providing work for its citizens, acquiring resources such as rare earth materials and food, and providing long-term trading and economic benefits.
In 2018, leaders from the region and South America – as part of a trading bloc known as CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States} – signed up to a 2019-2021 roadmap with China that aimed to deepen political and economic ties, including in trade, agriculture, infrastructure and science and technology, among other areas.
More recently, a Chinese firm took full control of Jamaica Kingston Freeport in April this year, the island’s largest container port and one of the largest in the Caribbean.
China has also invested heavily in Cuba, helping to modernize the country’s second-largest port – Santiago de Cuba – with a new shipping terminal opened in 2019.
Chris Bennett, managing director of The Caribbean Council, a London-based trade organization, told Mail Online: ‘Over the last 15 years, China has steadily acquired control of strategic assets necessary for its trading interests across the wider region.
‘It controls two of the largest container ports in the region, has acquired large amounts of land in Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname, multiple oil and gas blocs and large-scale mineral deposits of bauxite and gold.
‘By tying concessional finance to the use of Chinese contractors and Chinese imported labor, China has forced out many Western contractors who cannot compete with the cheap Chinese credit being offered.’
For example, British construction firm Kier was forced to exit both the Caribbean and Hong Kong three years ago, at an estimated loss of £72million, in part because of competition from China.
Meanwhile in Guyana – which China has taken a prominent interest in since large oil deposits were discovered there in 2014 – is currently accepting tenders to rebuild the Demerara Harbour Bridge in its capital, Georgetown.
Originally built with British assistance in the 1970s, seven of the 11 contracts that are now bidding for the rebuilding job are Chinese.
Barbados, meanwhile, has received at least $490million, mostly as investment in the tourist sector, but is also thought to be benefiting from private deals.
The country has established beneficial tax deals with Beijing in recent years to make itself a hub for Chinese financial firms looking to invest in South America.
In 2019, a permanent branch of Invest Barbados was established in Beijing to help attract this investment.
Also last year, Barbados signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China, making it part of the country’s Belt and Road initiative – otherwise known as the new Silk Road.
The agreement promises development of Barbados’s shipping, aviation, infrastructure, and agriculture sectors.
However, not everyone has welcomed China’s increased presence in the region. Trade and investment with the likes of Belize, St Lucia, St Kitts, Haiti and St Vincent is still non-existent, largely due to their recognizing Taiwan.
Meanwhile resentment is also growing among locals who have seen large construction projects handed to Chinese laborers, under the terms of loan deals, starving them of income.
While most laborers return to China once the work is completed, some have stayed behind – establishing businesses, particularly in retail, which often out-compete locals, furthering the resentment.
Barbados has maintained strong relations with Britain even after gaining independence in 1966, but last week announced it would become a republic in 2021.
Buckingham Palace has said Barbados’ intention to remove the Queen as head of state and become a republic is a ‘matter’ for the Caribbean nation.
Downing Street said it was a ‘decision for Barbados and the Government there’ but that Britain would continue to ‘enjoy a partnership’ with the Caribbean island nation as members of the Commonwealth.
The country gained its independence from Britain in 1966, though the Queen remains its constitutional monarch.
Most Caribbean countries have kept formal links with the monarchy after achieving independence.
Barbados would join Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and Guyana if it proceeds with its plan to become a republic.
Now folks, some of you are old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis under President Kennedy when Russia built missile sites in Cuba capable of hitting the US.
If all of these Caribbean Nations are selling land tonand are heavily indebted to China, are we not setting up a similar situation?
So, what is this Belt and Road Initiative?
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived.
Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the vast collection of development and investment initiatives stretches worldwide, significantly expanding China’s economic and political influence.
Some analysts see the project as an unsettling extension of China’s rising power, and as the costs of many of the projects have skyrocketed, opposition has grown in some countries.
Meanwhile, the United States shares the concern of some in Asia that the BRI could be a Trojan horse for China-led regional development and military expansion.
Under President Donald J. Trump, Washington has raised alarm over Beijing’s actions, but so far, nothing has been done.
So, what was the original Silk Road?
The original Silk Road arose during the westward expansion of China’s Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), which forged trade networks throughout what are today the Central Asian countries of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as modern-day India and Pakistan to the south. Those routes extended more than four thousand miles to Europe.
Central Asia was thus the epicenter of one of the first waves of globalization, connecting eastern and western markets, spurring immense wealth, and intermixing cultural and religious traditions.
Valuable Chinese silk, spices, jade, and other goods moved west while China received gold and other precious metals, ivory, and glass products.
Use of the route peaked during the first millennium, under the leadership of first the Roman and then Byzantine Empires, and the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) in China.
But the Crusades, as well as advances by the Mongols in Central Asia, dampened trade, and today Central Asian countries are economically isolated from each other.
They are also heavily dependent on Russia.
What are China’s plans for its New Silk Road?
President Xi announced the initiative during official visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013. The plan was two-pronged: the overland Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The two were collectively referred to first as the One Belt, One Road initiative but eventually became the Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi’s vision included creating a vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways, and streamlined border crossings, both westward—through the mountainous former Soviet republics—and southward, to Pakistan, India, and the rest of Southeast Asia.
Xi subsequently announced plans for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road at the 2013 summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia.
To accommodate expanding maritime trade traffic, China would invest in port development along the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia all the way to East Africa and parts of Europe.
China’s overall ambition for the BRI is staggering. To date, more than sixty countries—accounting for two-thirds of the world’s population—have signed on to projects or indicated an interest in doing so.
In total, China has already spent an estimated $200 billion on such efforts. Morgan Stanley has predicted China’s overall expenses over the life of the BRI could reach $1.2–1.3 trillion by 2027, though estimates on total investments vary.
Now, a listener contacted me about this topic and several others stated that they also heard China was buying farms in Oklahoma.
So I found another good article by Casey Wilson, Associate Editor, Money Morning • July 7, 2017
The article states,
Shuanghui Group, the largest pork producer in the world and the largest meat producer in China, dominated headlines in 2013 when it purchased U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. for almost $4.7 billion.
Back then, the focus was on the livestock.
Forbes called the purchase “a game changer for pork trade.”
“No other combination [of companies] has such a great opportunity,” Zhijun Yang, managing director of Shuanghui, said to The Washington Post that same year.
But here is what the mainstream media missed: Shuanghui didn’t just acquire the livestock. The Chinese conglomerate also snatched up more than 146,000 acres of farmland across the United States, worth a staggering $500 million, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Data.
Here is why they did it – and what it all means for American farmers.
China is in dire need of both food and farms.
While the country may look huge on a map, only 11% of Chinese land can be farmed. When you combine that with China’s huge population of over 1.3 billion people, you have got a recipe for a food disaster.
“There could be massive social unrest if they screw up the agriculture industry,” said Erlend Ek, an agriculture expert at the China Policy research firm.
Now, with few options left, China is investing in the best agricultural technology and best farmland – regardless of where it lies – to feed its citizens.
And the United States, with six times more arable land per capita, is the perfect contract farmer.
Since 2011, Chinese businesses have made dozens of transactions for U.S. farmland, according to USDA data.
Indeed, as of 2015, China owned $1.4 billion worth of U.S. farmland… and now, it’s likely to buy a lot more.
China is expected to increase its holdings of U.S. agricultural land in coming months as the China National Chemical Corporation, or ChemChina, just completed a $43 billion takeover of Swiss-owned seed producer Syngenta.
Citizens and lawmakers alike are concerned.
“The more control foreign interests have in our food system, the less control we have, obviously,” said Tim Gibbons, a director for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, based in Columbia.
“When foreign entities buy farmland, my assumption is that we’re never going to get that farmland back,” added Gibbons. “They’re going to keep it forever.”
The sudden rise in Chinese foreign investment even prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to speak out on the matter.
“As we think about the future and the growing global population, it’s important to consider who will control the food supply,” Grassley said in a statement. “Today, there may not be a food shortage in the world, only distribution problems that are more the result of politics and not logistics, but in the decades to come, it may be a different story.”
So, instead of buying food from farmers who work their own land, Chinese companies want to own and control these American farms themselves – as well as the livestock barns and slaughterhouses – just like the way the poultry industry operates.
You see, chicken and turkey “growers” are paid to raise the birds on their private property. They also receive pay for the expensive poultry houses (some costing more than $1 million), labor, and maintenance. But it’s the major poultry companies who own the chickens and turkeys – as well as the hatcheries, slaughterhouses, and feed.
“It’s at the expense of the farmer because the farmer’s not the one making money.
Many farmers are feeling stuck, cheated, and angry with the foreign contract investments.
So folks, there you have it. While we continue to argue amongst ourselves over the green new deal, antifa, BLM, social media, and impeaching a president who will be leaving tomorrow, China is slowly taking control.
I warned everyone that the rest of the world was watching us and they see all of our internal strife as an opportunity. Obviously, China has been listening.