[lmg643]

>> "willing to put $300 million of his own money of $50 billion required into building infrastructure"

I would expect his funding expectations are based on what he could borrow in China to finance this. Based on the number of "ghost cities" that have been constructed - not just buildings, but entire cities with no occupants or revenues - it's not out of the question.

I think this gives us a sense of how bad banking problems are in China.

[sml0820]

China's ghost cities are unrelated to this. When China invests in ghosts cities their GDP goes up based upon infrastructure spending. In other words, one of the reasons why China invests so much in infrastructure, some of which is never used, is because it pushes their GDP numbers higher.

That being said, the Canal Project would affect Nicaragua's GDP and would have no bearing on China's. Nicaragua's GDP is roughly $10 billion, so it would have a very large impact.

There is no financial benefit for the Chinese government to back up such a project, and the political benefits seem dubious.

This project will not happen, and its unfair to the people of Nicaragua to give them false hope of better economic prosperity from the project.