Corridor Calculus

Corridor Calculus : China Pakistan Economic Corridor & China's Comprador Investment Model in Pakistan
former governor of Nigeria's Central Bank who wrote: “In much of Africa,
they [Chinese] have set up huge mining operations. They have also built
infrastructure. But, with exceptions, they have done so using equipment
and labour imported from home, without transferring skills to local
communities. So China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured
ones. This was also the essence of colonialism.” According to the study, the
Chinese investments are generally in countries with weak governance
where incentives for profit are higher. Overall, the Chinese investment stock
in Africa is just around 3% and their investments are driven by profit-motive
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and not any altruistic reasons of developing Africa.
The exploitative and extractive model of Chinese investments in Africa is
also manifest in Latin America. China has stepped into the breach in the
relationship of many of these countries with the US, first as a saviour with
budgetary support and massive infrastructure investments, and once
established, followed, nay outdone, the Americans in foisting its own rules
and its own political strings on these countries. In Ecuador, for instance, 90%
of the oil exports are guaranteed to be delivered to China, and mostly go into
repaying Chinese loans which come at steep interest payments and
conditionalities that involve using Chinese companies, equipment and
personnel. In the oil sector in Ecuador, the Chinese also charge between
$25–50 on each barrel of oil they extract. With oil prices plunging, servicing
the loans has become difficult and the Chinese are extending loan terms in
exchange for extending the years for which the natural resources are
pledged to China. The labour policies and the segregation of Chinese and
local workers in Ecuador is of the same type as in Africa, and this brings with
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it its own tensions. Chinese mega-projects in Latin America, especially in
the railway sector, are all aimed at building a reliable logistics system that
serve the Chinese economy by supplying raw materials and providing access
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Wenjie Chen, David Dollar and Heiwai Tang, 'Why is China investing in Africa: Evidence from the firm level', Brookings
Institution, August 2015, accessed at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/08/why-china-isinvesting-in-africa/why-is-china-investing-in-africa.pdf
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Clifford Kraus and Keith Bradsher, ' China's global ambitions, cash and strings attached', New York Times 24/07/2015,
accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/business/international/chinas-global-ambitions-with-loans-and-stringsattached.html?_r=0
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