This piece of news is specially important:
Beijing is trying to position itself as a space benefactor to the developing world – the same countries, in some cases, whose natural resources China covets here on earth. The latest and most prominent example came last week when China launched a communications satellite for Nigeria, a major oil producer, in a project that serves as a tidy case study of how space has become another arena where China is trying to exert its soft power.
Not only did China design, build and launch the satellite for Nigeria, but it also provided a huge loan to help pay the bill. China has also signed a satellite contract with another big oil supplier, Venezuela. It is developing an earth observation satellite system with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand. And it has organized a satellite association in Asia. “China is starting to market and sell this technology to developing countries that need it,” said Shen Dingli, a professor in international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai. Of the Nigeria deal, Mr. Shen added: It gives substance to Sino-African relations. Not only does China buy raw materials, but also we sell some things.”
For China, the strategy is a blend of self-interest, broader diplomacy and, from a business standpoint, an effective way to break into the satellite market. Satellites have become status symbols and technological necessities for many countries that want an ownership stake in the digital world dominated by the West, analysts say.
Surce: Snubbed by U.S., China Finds New Space Partners – New York Times
And I say it’s important, because these countries have an interesting record both in Human Rights’ violations and in percentage of poor people. I mean, why on earth are wasting resources in putting a satellite out in space if they have people who can even eat? Some people would say “ehh, that’s demagogic” -I think it’s written like that…-. But really, there are no hospitals, schools, etc to build there??
And now, China, who is itself one of the countries in the world which most violates Human rights (more here) goes through the world protecting these regimes. Consequence? These regimes have no intention to modify their structures and situations:
the Chinese posture of “noninterference” can be a cover for something more ominous. The fact is that, in the developing world, China has served as a positive impediment to Western efforts to bring about vital reforms. In 2005, for example, IMF officials were on the verge of concluding a deal with the Angolan government in which new loans would be tied to intensive monitoring to ensure that aid actually reached the poor. At the last minute, Angolan officials broke off the talks; China had stepped in, offering loans and credits worth as much as $5 billion—with no conditions.
[…] Worldwide, China’s support for dictators hurts the populations of the affected nations while endangering regional and international security. In supporting self-aggrandizing demagogues like Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez, China fosters instability in the world’s fragile, impoverished continents. By reducing pressure on rogue actors like Sudan and Iran, Beijing undermines any real prospect of political and social reform, all but guaranteeing that they will continue to be engines of extremism and global terror.
That is: China appears, no regime change into democracy….
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