Not really free if they're having to maintain huge bribes and blackmail schemes to keep business open to them. Makes more sense to just muscle their way in and get direct control like they're doing in Africa
China isn't interested in a multi-decade insurgency war where they have to bribe the local authorities and pay for their own security forces plus logistics, which would cost trillions.
Instead, it is much easier to spend a billion or less every year on US politicians to do all that dirty business for them.
There's only an insurgency because we (or the deepstate really) doesn't want direct responsibility for the poppy fields or to piss off Iran too much. It's basically just a decades' long exercise meant to keep the region unstable. I imagine China wouldn't give a shit about all that
Not really free if they're having to maintain huge bribes and blackmail schemes to keep business open to them. Makes more sense to just muscle their way in and get direct control like they're doing in Africa
China isn't interested in a multi-decade insurgency war where they have to bribe the local authorities and pay for their own security forces plus logistics, which would cost trillions.
Instead, it is much easier to spend a billion or less every year on US politicians to do all that dirty business for them.
There's only an insurgency because we (or the deepstate really) doesn't want direct responsibility for the poppy fields or to piss off Iran too much. It's basically just a decades' long exercise meant to keep the region unstable. I imagine China wouldn't give a shit about all that
Once our economy is weakened enough, they will.