Brian, I know the NYT article was long but you should read it all. It lays out a pretty good case of how and why China did it, and helping a poor country wasn’t part of it. It knew the port would fail and knew they wouldn’t pay back the loan. Sri Lanka also didn’t need a port there, it’s a bad location and the main port still had room to grow. Some of the port loans were diverted to keep the president in office that they had in their pocket. Now China has a strategically located naval base, which was the plan all along. I hope it works out for Ethiopia, but more than likely China’s actual motive might be something different. If it’s not then we won’t need the red cross, China is the new charity here to save everyone. Yay!!
