July 24, 2026
While the People’s Republic of China is still spending in the region, the development impact is wearing off.
People in the region are not seeing the spend on the ground in the hard to reach communities anymore.
The issue is now examining why that is happening? The short answer is that because the Chinese investment came without structural reforms, most of the money that had not been redirected back to Chinese firms to do the various works in the respective countries have been siphoned off by the same corrupt black holes that existed before the Chinse money came in.
This is why the United States and development agencies of note have always preached the gospel of reform of the institutions along with any development aid and investment that would be pledged.
It was not because they were holier than thou, or that they wanted to tell smaller nations to follow agendas that were against their cultural norms. But because they knew it would come to situations like this and the money would be wasted and the people that were intended to be helped would not be effectively reached.
Now what will happen is up to the countries that still need developmental input and reform. We need to encourage reforms and upgrades.