Sharing economy, not money diplomacy

Lately, China has been blamed for extending its economic outreach, with some critical voices calling China's foreign investment "money diplomacy". With such a biased view, China's external economic programs are viewed as being "mercantilism" or even "neocolonialism". Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative has also come in for criticism, with claims that it burdens the recipient countries with debt.

Looking into these accusations, it is easy to see that they are far from the reality. First, China works with other countries as equals, rather than through unfair "neocolonialist" practices. Second, China's trade and business pattern with foreign countries is not merely give-and-take type, but actually helps establish local economic and social networks that strengthen the cohesiveness of the recipient economies. Third, China's investment level is normally commensurate with the capacity of recipient countries, and, as time passes, adjustable with their changing convenience, and comfortably so, in order not to bring them any benign "burden".

Let us look at these further. In reality, China's external economic program is not based on gunboat diplomacy. Rather, China employs "smile diplomacy" to conduct its international economic collaboration. On the one hand, China doesn't force other economies to accept its investment - they do have the right to say no. On the other, China doesn't grab other's resources via any hegemonism. For the record, there has been no instance of China using colonialism or neocolonialism to attain its purpose.