Originally Posted by
Dayuhan
Doesn't make any difference at all. These resources are fungible, whatever China gets from Africa means they get less from other suppliers, which is then available for others to buy. China is doing the US a favor by investing in production in high risk environments where Americans don't want to go: they bring more material onto the market, that keeps prices down. They take the risk, we share the benefit. What's not to like? Much better for us to have China investing in new production than to have them using that pile of dollars to bid against us for the right to buy existing production.
"Tying up" anything in unstable political environments is a risky business, especially where long term investments with extended recovery horizons are involved. You make a deal with a government, you put in a few billion, or more than a few, and all of a sudden a new government wants a new deal. What do you do, send the Marines? Not likely. Western companies have learned about this the hard way; the Chinese are likely to run into it as well.
The notion of China as an unstoppable rising economic juggernaut is also misplaced... they have their share of problems and chickens have a way of coming home to roost. Look to some upheavals in the medium term future, potentially with major political implications. Remember when the simplistic among us were declaring that Japan was the rising power of the future?
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