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21 century m'zuŋ u ‘neo-colonialism’

Control through Dependency
China
At this time, China doesn't need to openly pursue neo-colonialism in the same way that
France and USA do. China makes much more progress by portraying itself as an opposite
to USA Imperialism, Increasing levels of trade has still been relatively easy for China. 2

years ago it was recorded that China, for the first year ever, had done more business in S

America than the USA. Which is more striking given that S America is in the USA
'backyard'.It is also making steady progress through what observers see as ‘debt trap’

and ‘debt diplomacy. Sri Lanka was just one example of this.

China is destined to feature in a big way. Few people recall that China had a
significant influence over the Indian Ocean, including the coast of East Africa, long before

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m'zuŋ u colonisation of Africa.
As a child living in Hong Kong, we were taught how China would take a '100 year view'
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in terms of matters like foreign policy. Usually, m'zuŋ u journalists and other
commentators are 20-30 years out of sync when interpreting China's actions.
The last several decades have seen China pursuing a long-term strategy. In essence

its a game of chess where China is determined to get its pieces in position before any real

‘conflict’.
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If at the beginning of this century you had visited the small (20,000 population) of the nation

Cook Islands, you would have seen outside the main settlement’s municipal building a sign
declaring how it had been built using funds from China.

At the same time, thousands and thousands of miles across different seas, located in

the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, you would have also found a new national
parliament being built for the Seychelles on reclaimed land. Funded by China!

For decades, as the USA has been forced to retrench behind fortress-like embassies,
China has built up diplomatic asset after diplomatic asset.

Faced with a prospective middle-power rival in the form of the theocratic nation of

Indonesia, China built up fortress islands in the seas that separate them. These new
fortresses are easily destroyed in conflict. Their presence is both symbolic and strategic.

The fact that China has undertaken its unpalatable actions against the Uighur people

is not unconnected. China, which in its modern form has domestically always shown a
hostile approach to any religion, is not unaware of the religious connection between the