Philanthropy Magazine Spring 2020: Taking America's
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Reprinted with the permission of Philanthropy benefactions Mini-Mouse vs. Megalodon By Karl Zinsmeister his issue of Philanthropy could pull into one of the facilities and representing large investments of labor, T magazine is an extended grab a few moments to look around and expenditure, and effort. look at little versus big, at take photos until we got kicked out. The And in the Balkans, China’s aid versus arm-twisting, at inspiration man at the wheel, a former Special Forces interventions are unfolding cheek- versus intimidation. It asks whether lots soldier, was instantly game, and steered by-jowl with major manipulations by of helpful little mice can fend off huge our SUV off the highway and down a the Russians. Russia runs extensive scary sharks. And it does all this within gravel road to one of the Chinese camps. propaganda, intelligence, and military an unusual philanthropic niche—charities I jumped out and strode quickly operations in the region. Russians have that support foreign-policy and national- down a tidy row of spartan offices marked captured control of the major energy defense goals. “Payroll,” “Engineering,” “Contracts,” companies in Serbia. In the southern Begin by examining the photograph and such. I reached a sign marking the part of that country they recently on the opposite page. I shot it a “Commissary,” and then a series of large built a large secure facility labeled couple months ago in the heart of the buildings labeled “Dorm 1, 2, 3, 4” and so in one-foot letters, “Russian-Serbian Caucasus—a strategic crossroads ringed forth. This is a major operation. Hortatory Humanitarian Center.” Experts, by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, placards in Chinese and broken English however, say that the windowless gray and other hot-button nations. As this urge that “Proper behavior lead a better building next to an airport is a lightly picture was taken, there were separatist future,” and trumpet “The Belt and Road: disguised intelligence and military boundary lines, gun trucks, propaganda Building Prosperity Together.” base. When I try to visit, a soldier tells broadcasters, foreign-funded madrassahs, Very soon, large unsmiling Chinese me I cannot enter or take pictures. ethnic extremists, and armed forces of men appeared and told us we could not In Iraq, where I also traveled on this all stripes looming over the horizon. take photos and must leave immediately. trip, the Chinese very recently clinched What you are looking at is one of the The Special Warfare and PsyOps a 20-year oil-for-infrastructure deal that hundreds of work camps organized and backgrounds of my two ex-military will send more than 100,000 barrels of paid for by China through its so-called colleagues immediately kicked in. They petroleum to China every day. Beijing gets “Belt and Road Initiative”—a vast play for explained in a mix of languages and the simultaneous right to build factories, influence across the low-income world. In pantomime that we needed to get off the railways, and other facilities in Iraq that scores of frail countries, the Chinese are highway because the human bladder has a will be overseen by Chinese managers laying down rail lines, bridges, highways, mind of its own. That all these big signs and use Chinese materials and operating and docks. They are building telecom covered with red kanji got us hoping we systems, making them a seamless networks, shipping hubs, and ports. They might find a good Chinese buffet down extension of China’s domestic operations. are creating facial-recognition networks this gravel road. That it sure did feel All of this financed by loans from the and other police infrastructure. They nice to stretch our legs and breathe the Chinese government. Meanwhile, the are snatching up manufacturing plants, mountain air. A burly Chinese officer state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft, pipelines, and refineries. In the first 11 took a picture of our license plate as we operating as a tool of the Kremlin, has months of 2019, Chinese entities signed pulled away. provided the Kurdistan government with 6,055 contracts in 61 countries for Belt $4 billion over the last couple years to and Road projects costing $128 billion. gain effective control over the large oil During a half-day drive across the wo weeks later in Serbia I and gas resources in Iraq’s north. tiny but strategic country of Georgia I T saw more Belt and Road And it’s not just countries I visited peered down into half a dozen camps like projects: A bridge across like Georgia, Serbia, and Iraq. Across the one pictured here, where Chinese the Danube in Belgrade. The new the globe, Russians are newly assertive laborers, engineers, and equipment were A2 motorway. Tunnels. Rail lines. in their foreign policy, and hundreds digging, blasting, and pouring concrete. Huge tire and steel plants taken over of thousands of Chinese are toiling I asked my traveling companions if we by Chinese state-owned firms. All in Belt and Road work camps. The 4 PHILANTHROPY Chinese are building thousands of miles might employ big industrial policies to to complete similar projects would be of road and rail, 42 seaports, and plan curry favor with poor citizens abroad many multiples of what the Chinese to spend $900 billion in 70 countries just makes us giggle. Our bureaucratic are spending. We can’t beat them at over the foreseeable future—drawing agencies can‘t run a reliable health that game. many strategic, resource-rich, contested service for Native Americans or So are we powerless to respond? countries into their orbit. veterans, oversee efficient train or Have we been checkmated by today’s postal operations, or keep homeless savvy, if sometimes brutal, exercises encampments from blocking in power politics by the Chinese and oes the U.S. government commuter traffic. Russian regimes? Must we just sit on our D need its own mega programs Building edifice complexes across hands and watch contested parts of the to mirror these aggressive the developing world is not something globe turn sullen toward us and indebted Chinese and Russian moves? A new our federal government could pull to our opponents? Marshall Plan for the information era? off. The Chinese send thousands In a word: No. An infrastructure blitz for huddled of workers to remote regions for masses all around the world? multi-year stints, where they sleep Or maybe we need our version of in dormitory bunk beds and live on irst of all, most of the Chinese the Chinese military mobilization that cafeteria food. Our nation lacks the F investments will have less has dredged fresh islands in the South social regimentation to accomplish ultimate value to the recipient China Sea and then armed them? Is that. At American levels of wages, nations than might appear. Belt and their system of high-tech personal worker protection, capital expense, and Road contracts stipulate that most work monitoring and dissent-suppression the environmental care, the costs for us be carried out by Chinese workers, that way of the future? Must we organize a counterpart to the disinformation and commando operations the Russians have used to seize territory in Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, and elsewhere? Mega projects sometimes create mega problems. Lord save us! Those strong-arm Human-to-human contact tactics are not American methods. Karl Zinsmeister Karl And the notion that Washington can be a good counter measure. SPRING 2020 5 benefactions machinery must be bought from Chinese A gauntlet has been thrown down firms, that capital goods will be imported Commissioner Johannes Hahn. There for Americans. Hard military actions from China tax exempt. All of the trucks is simply “pressure that things are and savvy economic measures will and machines in the adjoining photo were transferred into their ownership” if a be required to navigate it. We’ll also brought in from the People’s Republic. beneficiary can’t repay. need efforts to win hearts and minds, Same with materials. With little local Even as China expands its Belt using the soft strengths of our nation: sourcing, this kind of construction and Road initiative, some countries are the good faith of our people, and the doesn’t offer much economic boost to the beginning to object. Big construction allure of our liberty-based culture. recipient nation. efforts in Pakistan, Malaysia, Nepal, This latter work is often done best To make these transactions easy for Sierra Leone, Myanmar, and other outside of government. host countries, the Chinese offer massive places have been put on hold. Critics It’s far from inevitable that loans. But of course loans must eventually are expressing concern about “debt-trap megalodon will gobble us up. But we be paid back. Experts accuse the Chinese diplomacy,” an attempt to create “tribute can’t just sit still while it circles. We need of hiding the fact that a large fraction of states” that kowtow to Beijing, and a to defend ourselves. And the creativity the public-works projects they sponsor will “new colonialism.” and independence of America’s privately never return their investment, requiring B&R projects often bring funded civil society can be very helpful either permanent subsidies or forfeiture. environmental damage. As the treatment in this. When the Sri Lankan government of the mountain river in my photo hints, The feature article you will read recently found it couldn’t meet the little care is taken on that front, and there starting on page 19 is an embedded payments on a new port, it had to give are complaints of deteriorated land, water, travelogue that sketches some of the ways China a 99-year lease on the facility and air quality.