Originally Posted by
NEDude
You know another interesting thing to note, and this has really been brought to light to me by conversations with many experts, including some acquaintances who work for the U.S. State Department, is that China has virtually zero allies in the world. Their only close ally is North Korea, and even that relationship has been strained quite a bit in recent years. China has some economic ties to its neighbours, but zero real military and cultural allies. Even the countries they have been a bit friendly with recently (e.g. Russia) they have long had major issues with. In fact the only neighbour China has not had major conflicts, either military or politically, within the last 50 years has been North Korea.
Not really, but sort of. China has a long history of ties to the middle east and Africa because of the silk road. China has spent a lot of money in those places the last 15 years to secure access to natural resources.
The silk road still runs both ways. Rare animal products and drugs are sold widely throughout China by Africans, completely in the open, and on the street.
But, I actually agree with most of what you said. They really don't have any allies that truly matter. Nigerian drug dealers on the streets of CAN and PVG don't exactly make good, strategic allies like the UK or Japan do for the US.