China, India, Nepal Meet Money and Power

It really is sad to see how obsessive and incompetent the Indian mainstream media are.

And mean and petty, too, along with single-minded, and disturbingly dishonest?

They really do sicken me at times. Their whole attitude and handling of news… it enrages me so profoundly.

And this is one of those times, mostly because it concerns a topic on which, if Indian, then, screw the facts and down with good sense! Jump to conclusions, yet again, and do spread hate and BS and do harm to others and be arrogant enough to think that India is offering better and a true option, then dare say something as insulting and asinine as: “It’s about time; the Chinese need to be called out and the world needs to see how they debt-trap countries and destroy economies.”

Holy-effen-Christ are you people ever dense and idiotic when you wanna be!

Or just devoid of certain morals and values but who cares? For all’s fair in hate n' war? Or is that ‘love of war’?

How about you try doing your friggin’ job for a change?! Like actual reporters, not members of an anti-neighbour pro-hate gang that automatically parrots manufactured puff and stamps a conclusion that isn’t offered by facts, but, since it’s the lie that's always been told and repeated… and—this is so exciting—it may be the truth this time! This time! It feels so right so it’s gotta be! The proof is there: Chinese debt trap!

Sigh.

Indian news media. They start off with hate and propaganda, then find the news story, as they clearly tend to work backwards, selecting details to fit their hatred, piecing together those that will provide the story they wanted to tell from the start rather than doing their job and setting their hate and biases aside long enough to act like a professional while “on duty”.

We know you hate the Chinese! We know you love spreading Chinese hatred and will make up lies to have an excuse to do so. And we know you feel the same about Pakistanis.

China and PAK. They turn Indians into all kinds of pathetic that flips their ‘crazy, devious, and dreadful’ switch to “on”.

There isn’t one good thing that can be said about any of that considering all the idiocy it fuels which, in turn, justifies even greater idiocy that sees success and greatness in forcing outdated paradigms on the globe. Otherwise, how will anyone know how great they are, ‘cause that’s what counts! Can’t keep boasting about one’s economy if the metrics and scales change and hob-knobbing with #1 suddenly loses all its grandeur and prestige. Because the government that screwed the world and killed the most is just an annoying acquaintance if it can’t keep on doing those? And what, then, is the use of being close to Washington if the Indians can’t flaunt their bestest-ever 2+2 BFFs to Beijing, showing off the bouquet of missiles they brought and see Xi turn blue with envy—Biden and Kamala are the best! So much fun—and who else is there that cares about India enough to exploit it and take advantage of the country in order to help it take down the sleazy neighbour?

There’s no stronger love than a hate that’s shared. And all the damage it does, which, when examined properly, makes the mainstream media people and the hate-bandwagon band bigger terrorists than many they readily label as such.

I'm just ranting. Needed to. At the heart is this story, below, that appeared in the NYT on 12-Nov-2023; it follows this one from 16-Oct-2023: "China Got a Big Contract. Nepal Got Debt and a Pricey Airport."

I don't feel like hashing through all the details so I'll just provide the bullet points and additional references should you need more to be satisfied.

Nepal has wanted an airport in Pokhara since the 1970s as the government was certain that this would boost its economy tremendously.

Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia, had sought to build an international airport in Pokhara since the 1970s in the hopes of turning the city into a tourist destination. The airport held a deep significance for Nepali officials, who hailed it as a “national pride” project because it was seen as a gateway to one of its most famous landmarks — the Himalayas.

They approached China and a deal was made. The Nepalese government had signed a USD $215.96 million soft loan agreement with China in March 2016 for the construction of the new airport in the lake city.

On 1-Jan-2023, Prime Minister 'Prachanda' unveiled a plaque marking the official inauguration of the Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA).

All were happy, officials gave a speech. And, on record, the Chinese official mentions a few times " flagship project of Nepal-China Belt and Road Initiative" and slight variations of; it's clear that the Chinese were considering this a part of their BRI project.

The two countries had also agreed on additional developments, with at least five of nine of the original projects still being in the plans and works; a Chinese team was already there for the feasibility study & survey of a China-Nepal Cross-Border Railway. 

Meanwhile, Gandaki Province Chief Minister Krishna Chandra Pokharel "urged the Chinese government to transform the loan it provided for the Pokhara airport construction project into grants."

"I urge the government of China through the Chinese Embassy here to convert 75 per cent of the total loan into grants," he said.

On 12-Jul-2023, Nepal Foreign Minister NP Saud decided to reject the claims of the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal that an airport had been built under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Nepal.

"FM Saud rejected the claims while addressing the International Relations and Tourism Committee stating the BRI project hasn't been put into action in Nepal." He feels trapped... were they being fooled and exploited? Oh, my! 

In other words, Saud is playing the Chinese for fools, having suddenly decided that what was said several times months ago wasn't really so... and by the way, let's talk about turning this into grants, not a loan, shall we?

Beijing didn't agree; it sees no reason to simply give that money away, which Nepal wanted, agreed to, and signed the contract. And gimme a goddamn break about China forcing a useless airport on Nepal just to suck it in its trap. Is every bank that provided a loan to a business that failed an evil Chinese-wannabe-debt-trapper?!

Get your heads out of your asses and think like a news person and reporter, not a petty neighbour, perhaps? 

The airport has failed to attract any regular international flights, raising concerns about whether it will generate enough revenue to repay loans to its Chinese lenders. Nepali officials have asked Beijing to change the loans into a grant to ease the financial burden, but China has not agreed to do so.

In comes the "anti-corruption" squad and the "quality standards" people... and it seems pretty damn clear that it's a shake down. A major US periodical being suddenly interested in an airport, spotting "quality issues" and deciding to spark an anti-corruption investigation in the Nepalese, which the US has been working hard to get a footing in, its USAID NGO causing all sorts of tensions and brewing trouble. Which reminds me: the US has already been stirring crap in Bangladesh for their elections; told ya.

They have nothing yet; investigating. No accusations. But the Indians sure did bite the hook. Just them it seems, in fact.

Bhola Dahal, a spokesman for the anti-corruption agency, confirmed that an investigation into the airport was underway but declined to elaborate, noting that it was still in the preliminary stages. He said the agency had started the investigation in response to a complaint about irregularities with the project. 

These two paragraphs below, several ones apart, are from the 12-Nov NYT piece; they're a dead giveaway that this is all part of a ploy to discredit China and the BRI, which is typical of the US:

The investigation is the latest black eye for China’s overseas infrastructure projects, which face criticism for costly and poor-quality construction that leaves borrower countries awash in debt. Beijing has declared the Pokhara airport the “flagship project” of its Belt and Road Initiative with Nepal.

There is a growing mistrust among countries struggling to repay debts to China. Sri Lanka was forced to hand over a deepwater port to China when it could not repay its loans. Around 30 percent of Pakistan’s foreign debt is owed to China, a figure that has climbed with the building of a $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In Malaysia, an $11 billion rail link was halted until a Chinese contractor agreed to slash the project’s costs.

Kinda sick and tired of repeating aspects of the BRI to refute stupid lies pushed to help the Western neocolonial economy munchers that have done exponentially more harm to the Global South and the entire globe yet get a pass while the hate-filled Indian propagandists skip over honest research and hard facts to spend more time hunting down the lies manufactured by Western think tanks for Western bankers in order to attack the Chinese and the "global project" framework they offered for all rich nations to partake in, to help the rest so all can grow, because that's the effort worth destroying?!

China seized the assets of poor nations in Africa; China is a predatory monster; China is secretly spreading its military infrastructure; China is imperialist, eating up countries with debt traps... And Sri Lanka... wow! Hard to respect the Indian government on their play there or the amount of West-Ass-licking BSing they showed themselves willing to do, for there's no bad in doing harm to creep a few points closer to the millions more needed to catch up with China!

Something mentally wrong with that kind of behaviour, is my guess, all the more so given the gloves-on treatment Modi and his Mob expect and demand.

The Rajapaksa fiasco became so because of poor choices and corruption, but it's actually all the Western bonds and IMF loans that killed the country long ago, the interest on the debt it was forced to service for the WEST grew faster and bigger than their entire economy. Part of a well-documented plan to subjugate the Global South and keep the West rich, and these are the institutions that Indians seem to care for as they crap on the Chinese but fail to realize that India follows the same shitty Western model, making any of its development projects and loans way worse than China's and far more likely to end in a debt trap.

So, are Indians that pathetic yet so depraved but filled with unrealised Chinese hatred that, somehow, turns nastiness and lies into good, moral competitive practises that India can feel good and proud about? Life; it's not about the journey and hard work, it's about crushing the XI, the CPC, and the Chinese, too?

Regarding Sri Lanka (need more; I got):

Instead, a 70 percent stake of the port was leased to China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (CM Port) for 99 years for $1.12 billion. This $1.12 billion, however, was not used to pay off the debt obtained to construct the port. This significant dollar inflow was used to strengthen the country’s foreign reserves and make some short-term foreign debt repayments. To be precise, it is fair to say that the money earned from the Hambantota port deal was largely used to cover balance of payment (BOP) issues resulting largely from the soaring debt servicing cost while Sri Lanka’s export and FDI inflow growth remain sluggish.

In August 2017, Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers took a decision to sign a concession agreement with CM Port to operate the Hambantota Port as a Private Public Partnership (PPP) project under which a 70 percent stake of the port is leased to CM Port. The remaining 30 percent of the stake is owned by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the commercial operations of the port are handled by the CM Port and the SLPA jointly while the government of Sri Lanka still owns the port. At the time of entering into the lease agreement, Hambantota Port was valued at $1.4 billion and CM Port invested $1.12 billion as per the terms of the agreement.

A common and popular myth is that Sri Lanka was unable to pay off the loan obtained to construct the port, thus it was handed over to China. However, by the time the Sri Lankan government entered into the agreement with CM Port to lease Hambantota port, the debt servicing cost pertaining to the loans obtained from China Exim bank to construct the port did not amount to much. Those loan installments (including interest) amounted to less than 5 percent of Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt repayments. Furthermore, loan repayments pertaining to the second phase of the Hambantota port project were yet to start at the time. A more serious concern pertaining to foreign debt servicing cost was the maturity of sovereign bonds, which amounted to more than 40 percent of the total debt servicing payments in 2019. (Source)

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