(05-25-2022, 02:01 PM)homebiscuit Wrote: China is playing the long game. By purchasing crucial mineral mines and indebting these countries to them under the auspices of their Belt and Road campaign, they are hedging for the difficult times ahead when their workforce begins to quickly dwindle as a result of the one child policy.

None of that is necessarily a bad thing.  Africa is the only place reproducing above replacement right now.  
China would benefit from a benevolent strategy of outsourcing higher and higher levels of industrialization out to Africa, as they have already done in places like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc. 
Or China may want Africa to remain nothing more than a source of raw materials.  
Unfortunately their leadership is totally unaccountable to market forces or popular demands, so who knows which path they will take.

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