The RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center issued a report last month on China’s increasing power and influence around the world.
Between 1998 and 2018 China’s official foreign lending grew from almost nothing to $1.6 trillion, eclipsing loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Spending on the influential Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is actually surpassed by Chinese foreign direct investments (FDI), according to the report.
And money comes with strings attached.
Kudos to the Biden Administration for blacklisting 30 China firms for human rights abuse, yet at the same time, Biden’s home state of Delaware has just given a $19 million taxpayer grant to Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company WuXi AppTec, which is collecting DNA data.
In good news, unfavorable views towards the Communist regime have reached historic highs among advanced economies, according to the the Pew Research Center. (The Bidens were not polled.)
