[c_o_n_v_e_x]

"China is the only country in the world that produces everything it needs for daily operations, without a single exception, in one way or another."

...produces finished goods. China cannot do this without massive imports of raw materials copper, iron ore, coal, etc. China has effectively colonized Africa for access to said raw materials.

Belt and Road is a way to set up overland routes to avoid any naval blockades.

[sudosysgen]

China hasn't colonized Africa.

China produces very significant amounts of copper ore, iron ore, coal, and has the facilities to expand production on short notice .

It would hurt production in the short term, yes, but there wouldn't be anything that China would completely miss.

[throwaway210222]

> China has effectively colonized Africa

Where do you you get this crap from?

I live in Africa and I have never been told what to do by a Chinese official or business - or even a local official actin on the instructions of a mandarin.

Unless you have watered 'colonisation' down to 'Chinese interests own some stuff in parts of Africa'.

Which - to indulge my woke hat - pretty offensive to people who lived under actual colonisation.

[simonh]

That's fair, don't understand the downvotes. The thing is colonisation now extends to things like believing western science and liking western music. It's become watered down to just mean any form of developed world influence.

[throwaway210222]

Just a small correction: there is no such thing as Western science.

There is just science.

[Unless people truly believe the Chinese space programme uses its own, different physics, or that the concrete in the new Ethiopian dam on the Nile river has its own chemistry.]