China’s Belt & Road Bootstraps Bust

“Made in China” may not always be an oxymoron for “cheap” but tell that to Ecuadorians & other PRC customers whose mega-projects funded by the communists are said to be “falling apart” ...

The WSJ’s coverage succinctly put China’s engineering dilemma, if not unfolding financial shell-game, this way: “Many of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects are plagued with construction flaws, including a giant hydropower plant in Ecuador, adding more costs to a program criticized for leading countries deeper into debt.” Cited by way of example is the $2.7 billion Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant bankrolled by Beijing: “Today, thousands of cracks have emerged … raising concerns that Ecuador’s biggest source of power could break down [ while] the Coca River’s mountainous slopes are eroding, threatening to damage the dam.” Said Fabricio Yepez, an engineer at the University of San Francisco who’s been tracking the project: “We could lose everything … And we don’t know if it could be tomorrow or in six months.”

Not good, of course. But, good news is that in checking this morning’s MSM there’s no report of a catastrophic dam burst. But, alas, that’s only the tip of the proverbial iceberg as “during the past decade, China handed out a trillion dollars in international loans as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, intended to develop economic trade and expand China’s influence across Asia, Africa and Latin America”, thereby making the PRC “the largest government lender to developing world by far.” And these guys are going to invade Taiwan?

Davd Soul