3mo ago

i need it, soz

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I once stayed in an AirBnB north of Dubrovnik. Driving through Bosnia for 20 minutes and doing 4 passport controls at a time was a real pain. Also had to be careful to switch off data roaming as the towers weren’t in the EU so the data charges went through the roof.
- They now built a bridge that allows drivers to avoid the border checks by staying in Croatia
  
  Isnt that the bridge china sponsored?....
  
  85% of the funding was provided by the European Union. It was one of Croatia’s main stipulations for joining the EU.
  A Chinese state owned company did win the contract to build the bridge.
  
  Ahh ok sorry i remembered wrong then. Still kinda sus but not a huge red flag like getting the funding from them.
  
  What the hell is "sus" about that?
  
  There are three main concerns that arise from awarding construction contracts to ccp-owned companies.
  The companies tend to have incredibly poor safety and environmental safety standards, and there are lots of cases of them not following the local law.
  Quality concerns. While these companies often offer by far the cheapest deals, there is a decent quality tradeoff.
  Removing pretty much any economic benefit construction brings from the local population. (jobs, contracts, material orders).
  (and a bonus problem you’re literally sending money to a government who oppresses its own people, genocides its uyghur population, has wet dreams about invading its neighbours, and is an all-round authoritarian dictatorship).
  
  I mean all of that is true, but, speaking as someone from Croatia - we don't follow safety standards and regulations here anyway even with native workers, the quality of the bridge would definitely not be any better had Croats built it, and I doubt there even is the adequate workforce and know-how within Croatia that would be needed for such a massive and complex job. I would unironically expect the deadlines to be breached by several years had the job been given to a local company. We also aren't a rich country by European standards, so the price was probably a crucial factor.
  In case you're worrying about general Chinese influence on Croatian politics, that's not really a problem, our govt is strongly pro-EU (for better and for worse), as well as much of the population.
  
  So?
  
  You know its never good when the us or china sponsor infrastructure. They always want something back that is not money. Usually its intelligence but you never know. There are plenty of examples of african countries "getting helped" and it turns out it was so they could be spied on.

48 comments