http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/02/why-is-china-buying-up-europes-ports/ Why Is China Buying Up Europe’s Ports? State-owned port operators are the aggressive leading edge of Beijing’s massive Belt and Road project. BY KEITH JOHNSON | FEBRUARY 2, 2018, 10:27 AM The Greek port of Piraeus on Jan. 31, 2015. (Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images) China’s trillion-dollar signature foreign-policy project, the Belt and Road Initiative, is often lampooned as just a fuzzy concept with little to show for it on the ground. But in bustling ports from Singapore to the North Sea, state-owned Chinese firms are turning the idea into a reality with a series of aggressive acquisitions that are physically redrawing the map of global trade and political influence. Trending Articles The Most Dangerous Man in Europe Is Jens Weidmann The front-runner to lead Europe’s central bank doesn't seem to believe in central banking. Powered By A pair of deep-pocketed Chinese behemoths, Cosco Shipping Ports and China Merchants Port Holdings, have gone on a buying binge of late, snapping up cargo terminals in the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic rim. Just last month, Cosco finalized the takeover of the terminal in Zeebrugge, Belgium’s second-biggest port, marking the Chinese firm’s first bridgehead in northwestern Europe. That deal followed a raft of other acquisitions in Spain, Italy, and Greece in just the last couple of years. Chinese state firms, which once kept close to their home market, now control about one-tenth of all European port capacity. The port deals are one of the clearest manifestations of Beijing’s ambitious plans to physically link China to Europe by sea, road, rail, and pipeline. The port deals are one of the clearest manifestations of Beijing’s ambitious plans to physically link China to Europe by sea, road, rail, and pipeline. The ports underpin the maritime half of the Belt and Road Initiative, snaking from the South China Sea across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal and into the soft underbelly of Europe. “For somebody like Cosco, the deals make sense financially, and they can make their lords and masters in Beijing happy because it fits the Belt and Road narrative,” said Neil Davidson, a senior analyst for ports and terminals at Drewry, the maritime consultancy. “At bottom, there is a geopolitical underpinning to a lot of this.” For China, still shaking off what it views as a century of humiliation by Western countries — which culminated with the forced opening of Chinese ports by European gunboats — snapping up the sinews of modern commerce is a satisfying way to return to what it sees as the normal state of affairs. “The fundamental goal seems to be to decrease China’s dependence on foreign elements and increase China’s influence around the world,” said Frans-Paul van der Putten, a China expert at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. That rising influence is spooking many in Europe. With Chinese investment skyrocketing, European leaders are growing increasingly leery that Chinese President Xi Jinping is turning China’s economic heft into political pull. Since Cosco dropped $1 billion into buying and upgrading the once-sleepy Greek port of Piraeus, for example, Beijing has been able to count on Greek assistance to scupper European Union condemnations of China’s behavior on issues including human rights and the South China Sea. Now that Chinese state-owned firms are marching across the Mediterranean — matched with parallel investment drives in Central and Eastern Europe — those worries aren’t going away. “The scale of the Belt and Road investments in key infrastructure means China’s political influence in these countries will increase,” said Turloch Mooney, who covers global ports for IHS Markit. “That is assured.”
They are panning ahead now the US totally and Europe to a degree have dropped the ball. There is a crisis coming.
Heavy large solid industrial material like lumber, coal, steel and consumer goods are still being transported via the sea for international trade. This is also why the Somalian piracy was so lucrative. And Greece is the gateway to Europe and it's broke and nobody is giving them any effective help, hence China steps in, helping Greece without adding to its debt and on the other hand, gains entry to the European market, and third owning a piece of Greece without invasion, three birds 1 stone. China's ambition is the revival of The Silk Road which was the lucrative commercial belt of international trading starting from southwestern China through the Xinjiang prefecture, through middle-east to eventually reach Europe and/or northern African. Greece is a pivotal stop along this road because it connects the East with the West. And Italy and Spain connects Europe to Africa. This worked out really well in the past for China during the Tang Dynasty and China wants this road to work its magic again. Amazing how USA chooses to dominate the ocean via military naval forces and China just does it via $$. LOL
Or release a pathogen than only kills people with blue and green eyes... Indeed, white America became addicted to easy money after WWII and now their reach exceeds their grasp. The Chinese are still grafters.
Well you know that blue/green eyes are genetic mutations right? They are not supposed to exist anyway. LOL https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm Grafters exist in every single country at least in China, they get beheaded if caught. Good thing for the West, that's how the West gets their stash and their wives and mistresses and their children pumping further millions $$ buying all the houses and the blings.
c Yep, I have very blue eyes so I'm paranoid. It was first suggested to me by a girl from Liquan (or her parents were) who was sent to live in Ireland as she was a kidnap risk. She was a LOT prettier than this lot. Thankfully we know that the Chinese will get lazy soon enough.. 10-20 years they will be insufferable.