Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Global South strategic cooperation

4Runner

4Runner

Junior Member
Registered Member
tphuang said:
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So in G20, the G7 countries + EU came out with this new program to counter BRI called Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). It seems like Western countries are just obsessed about copying China's moves without even understanding why they are made. There are clearly objectives to the BRI which is to re-orient commerce, trading and global supply chain through China. That's why the heavy emphasis on physical infrastructure that is now being replicated in digital infrastructure.

Anytime that I read an initiative that is full of woke ideology, I just don't understand the point. The rest of the world wants food to eat and low energy cost and improvement in livelihood. They are not looking for promises based on vague stuff like
"strong regulatory, social, environmental, transparency and accountability standards."

A lot of the projects under BRI don't make sense stand alone. They only sort of work due to China's low cost of building things. And more importantly, it's done to provide more local market for Chinese products and for accessing natural resources. Building other countries' infrastructure doesn't make sense without your own industrial policy.
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As hardware vs software in various vertical domains, if BU puts PGII into a "software-oriented" infrastructure plan, then it has some built-in fundamental flaws in the context of BRI vis-a-vis developing countries.

(1) A common misconception in the west, particularly in the high-tech industries, is that every company wants to claim that it is a software company, because Wall Street values software companies much high in multiples than hardware companies. As a 30-year high-tech veteran traversing from the hardware side to the software side, I see this as lack of hardware capability. Software runs on hardware. Without Intel ISA and high-speed NICs in 10G/40G/100G, there would not have been cloud services. Without roads, ports, airports, railway, hospitals, there would not be meaningful modern services (a.k.a. "software") per se.

(2) China has demonstrated in the part 30 years that public hardware infrastructure is a prerequisite to advance the underlining economy and lift real-income levels for the public mass.

(3) It takes more human capital to master and maintain "software infrastructure", which cost is usually backend loaded in that, the initial cost is relatively small vs on-going maintenance and upgrade. Majority of developing companies are lack of local human capital and education institutions to sustain. As a result, it will be those initiating countries that will eventually suck input capital out of those "software" projects, and leave receiving countries very little to hold in the long run.

(4) "Software" projects are hard to see and touch and audit. Historically, many projects of this kind end up flowing into the pockets of "consultants" and "leaders". But hardware projects are the opposite. Nobody can cut and slice and put into anyone's pocket.

(5) Public hardware infrastructure literally serves public mass by default. Cost and regulation to use them is widely published and accessible to the mass. This cannot be said to all kinds of "software" infrastructure projects.

(6) The most urgently needed software public infrastructure to most developing countries is telecommunications in general and mobile phones in particular. Guess who is the leading country in this vertical domain?
 
hullopilllw

hullopilllw

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Found this gem of an article from a hedge fund's insight page. Dated Feb 2022. Give it a go.

-America already accepted the world going into a multipolar direction aka end of hegemony.
-Will push for major and long lasting conflicts at near region of those deemed as competitors e.g China and Russia.
-Burden will be pushed onto allies, at the same time hoping for the conflict to decouple Russia and China from the world.

Is the World Ready for a Machiavellian America?​

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Maikeru

Maikeru

Major
Registered Member
hullopilllw said:
Found this gem of an article from a hedge fund's insight page. Dated Feb 2022. Give it a go.

-America already accepted the world going into a multipolar direction aka end of hegemony.
-Will push for major and long lasting conflicts at near region of those deemed as competitors e.g China and Russia.
-Burden will be pushed onto allies, at the same time hoping for the conflict to decouple Russia and China from the world.

Is the World Ready for a Machiavellian America?​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
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That article was very interesting and somewhat of an eye opener!
 
A

ACuriousPLAFan

Brigadier
Registered Member
hullopilllw said:
Found this gem of an article from a hedge fund's insight page. Dated Feb 2022. Give it a go.

-America already accepted the world going into a multipolar direction aka end of hegemony.
-Will push for major and long lasting conflicts at near region of those deemed as competitors e.g China and Russia.
-Burden will be pushed onto allies, at the same time hoping for the conflict to decouple Russia and China from the world.

Is the World Ready for a Machiavellian America?​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
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Classic "since I can no longer reign supreme, so I must take down everyone else with me! Nobody else can ever be better than me!" mentality.
 
A

ACuriousPLAFan

Brigadier
Registered Member
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1594557115187740673

Unroll Thread:
Xi supports the African Union to join the G20

During the 17th Group of 20 (G20) Summit that took place in the resort island of Bali in Indonesia, Chinese president Xi Jinping supported the African Union to be admitted into the G20 group. The G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising of 19 countries and the European Union.

It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development. Although Africa is a continent with over 1.4 billion people, it is excluded in this significant forum

It should also be recalled that President Xi Jinping asked the Group of G20 members to help developing countries and disadvantaged groups to adapt to digital transformation in an effort to narrow the digital divide between the developed and developing countries.

China will continue to work with the Group of 20 members to foster a balanced, coordinated and inclusive global digital economic paradigm that brings benefits to all. This is a clear demonstration of China’s policy of promoting global development and leading global governance.
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The continent of Africa as a whole has 1.42 billion people. If formed into a country, Africa would be the 2nd most populous country after China.

The continent of Africa has a median age of 19.7 years old, which is the youngest worldwide.

Which means, the African continent (and the African Union as a whole) is packed full of manpower, energy and potential to become a powerful bloc on the world stage in the future.

Therefore, China should do her best in promoting and introducing the African Union into the G-20 - This would effectively provide Africa with an even greater power of voice on the world stage than ever before, for the very first time since the era of Western colonialism began centuries ago.

Moreover, China should also promote ASEAN into the G-20 for similar reasons. This is especially true that ASEAN is now the largest trading partner and bloc for China.
 
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