China, making sense of massive projects

Ghost towns, endless highways, super high speed trains traversing the whole of Asia and Europe, hanging bridges straddling across mountains, pipelines crisscrossing countries, you name it, China has done it. Many blur westerners are pouring scorns over what the Chinese are doing. They don’t make sense, money wasting projects at huge cost that have little or no value. China is in big and deep financial trouble due to debt from these projects. Economy will collapse or collapsing, from double digit growth to 6.6% growth. What’s new?
 
Launching the Belt and Road Initiative cost China hundreds of billions and still promising to pour more money into the projects. China is also building massive infrastructures in countries all over Asia, Africa and SE Asia, with its own money. What western fools are complaining about? These are genuine money, printed papers unlike the greenbacks. If China is about to collapse, where is China to find so much money to give away? AIIB, China contributed hundreds of billions, the biggest contributor. China got no money?
 
This article is not about how much money China has or how much more they in the reserves. It is about the thinking and policies behind the huge infrastructure projects. Do they make sense? Or are the Chinese foolish as the western pundits alleged, throwing good money away?
 
Think about it, which country is going to give China massive infrastructure projects if China cannot prove that it has the capability, the knowhow and technology, the experienced engineers and technicians to do the job? And where did all these capabilities, knowhow, technologies and experienced engineers and workforce going to get their experience and skills if they have no projects to work on to add them into their testimonials? Get the picture?
 
China has a very short history of industrialization and infrastructure building and in many things like building factories, towns, ports etc etc. They must develop these capabilities and skilled and experienced workforce quickly. And only in China can they be given the chance to do so when they did not have any experience to do them. No country will give China a chance to gain these technologies and to train its people. They are learning and testing new technologies in China, to master and perfect them for export. Now the picture is clearer. China is spending a lot of money to build and acquire experience and capabilities, and armed with these achievements and track records, they are going to the world to build the world with their own technology, knowhow and with their skilled and experienced workforce. They have all the records to show what they have done and the people to do it.
 
This is something that China has done right and everything wrong in Singapore. Singapore is buying skills, buying experience and neglecting to develop its own skills and workforce. Singapore has nothing except some money and when money runs out, there is nothing left for Singapore to offer to the world. No skills, no knowhow, no technology and no experienced workforce except foreigners that come and go. When Singapore was building its MRT with foreign expertise, China was still an agriculture country running on Second World War trains. Today, China is building the fastest train system around the world. Singapore cannot even run its train system without a day free of stoppages, unable to even produce a train cabin.
 
Compare what China is doing, to develop intrinsic and organic skills and technology using its very own people while Singapore is using, hiring and buying foreigners to replace Singaporeans. How long can Singapore go on destroying its own skill and technology base? Where is China heading and where is Singapore heading?
 
The Chinese are not stupid and that is why they are now the Number Two super power in everything in such a short span of time and going to be Number One in everything soon. Singapore is heading from the First World to Third World with a snap of the finger. Singapore is bidding for the right to build the HSR from KL, with foreign expertise again, like when it started some 40 years ago when it built the present train system. Where are the skilled engineers and technicians and the industrial base to build them? In China of course.
 
Are we teaching China? China learning from Singapore? Who is teaching who and learning from who?