ABSTRACT
A darker viewpoint suggests that China’s overseas development assistance projects are largely focused, if subtly so, on gaining access to resources. Critics suggest that China is engaging in a modern version of colonialism, offering foreign aid to build infrastructure like roads and deep-water ports to allow for easier extraction of resources. The China Development Bank has been active throughout Latin America and Africa, providing generous credit in exchange for guaranteed access to resources, often in regions where corruption and/or political unrest make them the only game in town. Mining is one of the world’s most conflicted extractive industries and China has been associated with social unrest and environmental degradation in Africa and Latin America. China’s newfound economic clout, its enthusiasm for international investment encouraged and enabled by government policy and generous financing, and population outflow are transforming landscapes across the globe.
