All China’s moves between Hong Kong, Australia and Montenegro
China restricts freedom of expression in Hong Kong, wages economic war on Australia and traps Montenegro in debt. Giuseppe Gagliano's analysis
Among the tools that China is putting in place to consolidate its power at the regional level but also at the global level also in an anti-American function are the suppression of freedom of expression, economic warfare and the debt trap.
WHAT HAPPENS IN HONG KONG
Let's start with freedom of expression, which certainly constitutes a grave danger for a one-party and authoritarian system of power like the Chinese one. It is difficult to deny that the days of freedom of information and criticism in Hong Kong are numbered or coming to an end. In fact, the Hong Kong magazine Apple Daily ended its existence on June 23 as, officially, according to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Security Bureau (Hksar), it found serious violations of national security law. .
Therefore, the exceptionality that Hong Kong enjoyed also in relation to freedom of expression is coming to an end. On the other hand, this drastic measure is the direct consequence of the arrests and the incursion that the police had made in the editing of the periodical. In fact, let's not forget that the founder, Jimmy Lai, is in prison.
THE ECONOMIC WAR ON AUSTRALIA
From the point of view of economic warfare, a new paragraph adds to Sino-Australian relations. In fact, these have undergone further deterioration as China has denounced Australia to the WTO due to the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping measures adopted by the Australian government on certain products imported from China such as wind towers, stainless steel sinks etc.
Of course, the purpose of the complaint made by China and in particular by the Ministry of Foreign Trade is to safeguard their companies. This action, taken by China on a legal level, is nothing more than a variant of the economic war that has been characterizing the relationship with Australia for years.
Furthermore, this legal reaction on the Chinese side must also be read as a response to the recall made by the WTO for imposing anti-dumping duties on Australian wine as well as on barley.
THE DEBT TRAP WITH MONTENEGRO
Finally, from the point of view of the debt trap, a sophisticated instrument of economic warfare applied by China above all – but not only – in Africa with the aim of dominating the economy of the country receiving the debt without even firing a shot.
The one contracted by Montenegro with China should be repaid for the sum of 809 million dollars through a refinancing provided by a financial institution of a European state yet to be revealed at least according to what was declared by the Ministry of Finance of Montenegro Milojko Spajic, on 24 June , during a session of the parliamentary finance and budget committee.
From confidential information obtained by Reuters, it seems that there are three European institutions that should repair the debt of Montenegro, namely the Credit Institute for Reconstruction of Germany KfW, the French Development Agency AFD and the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti CDP Italiana.
The specific debt contracted by Montenegro with Beijing, namely with the Export-Import Bank of China, which will have to be repaid starting from July 2021 aimed at building a highway that will connect Montenegro and Serbia that will go from the Adriatic Sea to the border Serbian. Of course, this infrastructure project is not only part of the new silk road project to which Montenegro two joined in 2017 but should be completed by a Chinese state company, namely the China Road and Bridge Group. But like other Chinese projects, this one is also characterized by scandals relating to the corruption of subcontractors and environmental damage (in particular relating to the Tara River ). According to very reliable estimates, Montenegro's total debt amounts to approximately $ 3.60 billion.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/cina-hong-kong-australia-montenegro/ on Fri, 25 Jun 2021 07:14:39 +0000.