China's finger-trap plan and what we should do: Countries should beware the CCP's "Belt and Road" Initiative

A centuries-old puzzle, sometimes used as a practical joke, is the Chinese finger trap. It’s a simple woven bamboo tube into which an unsuspecting victim puts both index fingers but then cannot release themselves from the tight bondage of the tube, no matter how hard he pulls.

This brings to mind the "one belt, one road" project advanced by China all over the world, especially in Africa, South America, and the poorer parts of Asia.

A poor country, grateful for Chinese aid, readily accepts the offer of a road or bridge. After completion, China asks for payment as per the vague agreed upon terms that were presented more in terms of goodwill and helpfulness than tit for tat.

Now the debtor country may have a new road or bridge, but new money did not come with it.

China demands payment of some sort, and the poor country, still bankrupt, often pays with a naval base or a port, perhaps an airport, or key factory, or mine — whatever is advantageous to the Chinese. Threatened and intimidated, the poor country reluctantly agrees and loses an important asset. The Chinese dragon sinks its fangs and talons into the hapless country in prelude of swallowing it whole, gaining yet another foothold in a different hemisphere or region, sometimes ours. Perhaps "stranglehold" is a more accurate term. Surprisingly, the conundrum is that many such countries haven’t learned that there is no such thing as a free lunch. China has no compunction about lying to achieve their objectives.

Not long ago, Kenya lost an important commercial port to this scheme. A few years ago, Ecuador lost control of nearly all its oil. Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Montenegro — they all fell into the trap. Luckily, a few countries are wising up

The Chinese Communist Party also knows that everyone has his price. The party leverages the largest potential market in the world to its advantage and it uses the greed of individuals in power and the desire of corporations for MONEY to her advantage.

Lenin wrote, “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.”

So, a different form of this Chinese finger-trap trick is used on greedy politicians, individuals, corporations, and even supposedly benevolent organizations such as the National Basketball Association and World Health Organization.

Nike and Apple look the other way as their products are being manufactured by slave labor while genocide is taking place. The NBA sees a vast new audience. Quickly they find there is no simple way out of this financial quagmire even if they wanted out.

And there certainly is no shortage of American politicians and many diverse corporations on the take.

China had surmised in recent years that a nuclear war, or even a conventional one, with the U.S. would be impossible to win (although with its aggressive military buildup, there seems to have been some rethinking), so in this logic, the way to conquer the U.S. was to basically purchase it.

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