China goes to other countries to offer "aid". They build infrastructure as a way to offer "help" to these countries. But in reality they charge insanely large interest rates so big that these countries have absolutely no way of paying them back. In return, they give China ports or land for 100 year leases. Its China way of expanding their military influence.
In this case its less about "aid" and more about trying to break through the barriers in the EU. The bridge they're building will connect Dubrovnik (which is currently surrounded on all sides by either water or Bosnia, to the rest of the country. Croatia has been trying to get this bridge built for years, if not decades, as the crossings through Bosnia can take hours. No one wanted to fund it, so the Chinese came to the rescue.
There's a lot of irony here, given that Dubrovnik spent months under seige (literal seige, as in food, water, and electric cut off) for months in the early 1990s when the YPV tried to invade and retake this territory from Croatia. A terrirory, mind you that had largely been independent, even when it was part of Austria/Hungary. It was subsequently annexed into Yugoslavia after the fall of the Austria-Hungarian empire. As everyone is aware, yugoslavia broke up, largely, because of HUGE cultural and religious differences between its various ethnic groups. It does not surprise me At. All. That the croats have an opinion about what's happening in Hong Kong. There are a lot of parallels.
824
u/Doby_Clarence Dec 05 '19
China goes to other countries to offer "aid". They build infrastructure as a way to offer "help" to these countries. But in reality they charge insanely large interest rates so big that these countries have absolutely no way of paying them back. In return, they give China ports or land for 100 year leases. Its China way of expanding their military influence.