[BeauBo]

President Trump has changed the world's perception of communist China. It is no longer viewed as a smart place to invest. Chinese infrastructure projects are no longer seen as smart shopping for low prices, but as the rip-offs that they are (and as evidence of the corruption of the politicians involved).

2019 will be a sharp adjustment for the communist Chinese economy.

[Zhang Fei]

[The cooling of enthusiasm for China’s investments mirrors the unease of incoming governments in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Maldives, where new administrations have come to power wary of Chinese deals struck by their predecessors.]

---

Of course they’re wary. Their predecessors got the bribes, but the new governments got the bills. A lot of these projects were essentially huge bribes dressed up as viable projects. The Chinese will discover, as others have before them, that loan documents to these countries are not worth the paper they’re printed on. These debtors will default or outright renege.

[Calvin Locke]

I saw a show on China's re-establishing the "Silk Road".

Two reasons were brought up.

1. Trump, Japan, and Taiwan cause "uncertainties" for China's shipping exports,

and

2. Shipping to Europe takes on the order of two months. A land route would cut that down.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Pakistan doesn’t have too many alternatives for saviors outside of China - the US is finally getting tired of bankrolling this failed state, and Pakistan’s only fallback is China. They’ll play the game by China’s rules, or they will disintegrate.