The USA and Europe are losing their global influence. The Chinese are overtaking them in many continents. In many Third World countries, China has already become the biggest development aid donor and investor.

Australia, New Zealand and Oceania

The USA has repeatedly made it clear to China that the Pacific Ocean is seen as the Americans' "Mare Nostrum". The US military presence in Japan and the military alliances with Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and the Philippines underline this imperial claim.

But this US claim can hardly be underlined with any more emphasis by economic dependencies. Since World War II, the USA has also dominated the Pacific economically. Military and economic hegemony went hand in hand. For about twenty years, however, the Pacific states have become increasingly dependent on China. Politically and militarily, states like Australia and New Zealand are still on the side of the USA and Great Britain. But economically they are dependent on China.

With its 1.4 billion people, China represents the largest market and is also Asia's most important manufacturing base. Australia and New Zealand, with their small populations, cannot escape this pull. Australian companies are dependent on China as a sales market. Australian consumers have long been increasingly consuming products "made in China". Chinese investors are establishing themselves in Australia and gaining influence. Money makes bribes. Meanwhile, even the US intelligence agency CIA is concerned about the growing influence of the Chinese on Australian and New Zealand government, society, economy and media.

The dependence between China and Australia is mutual. Australia is a huge supplier of raw materials, which China needs for its growing industry. Conversely, Australia's economy has long depended on the export revenues that come from selling raw materials to China.

Even the Philippines, which has been permanently dominated by the USA since the American colonial era about a hundred years ago, is moving ever closer to China under its president Rodrigo Duterte. This is because the Middle Kingdom is an important investor in the Philippines. This rapprochement gives Duterte a bargaining chip against the Americans. For now he can play off the interests of the Chinese and the Americans against each other.

South America

For a long time, South America was the backyard of the USA. Most Latin American countries were financially and economically dependent on the USA. This is now changing. The USA is being replaced by China.

In the meantime, China is the largest investor and lender in South America, as reported for example by the "Süddeutsche". China is the largest trading partner of important South American states such as Brazil, Chile and Peru. In the ports and coastal cities of Chile, Peru and Ecuador, an increasing number of Chinese are bustling about, ensuring an intensification of trans-Pacific trade in favour of China. Chinese banks give more loans in Latin America than the IMF and the World Bank put together. The Chinese are building roads, ports, refineries, dams and much more there. The Chinese are also buying a lot of agricultural land to produce for domestic markets.

Many South American governments were initially quite reckless in accepting China's influence. For this was the only way they believed they could push back the influence of the USA and Europe. But in this way, Latin America is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. The Chinese are now exerting pressure to influence Latin American politics. Some states, such as Panama, have broken off diplomatic relations with Taiwan. One can imagine why.

Africa

The Chinese are also building roads, dams and even entire cities in many African states. The Chinese are doing what most African countries are unable to do, in record time. Because most African countries have too little capital to pay the Chinese, the Chinese are granted mining concessions, mining rights, oil production rights and trading rights.

The Chinese want to invest around 60 billion US dollars on the African continent in 2019 to 2020 alone. One can be sure: The Chinese are not doing this out of altruism.

Meanwhile, there is growing concern in Africa about too much dependence on China. People do not want a second colonial era. But with the increase of Chinese investments in Africa, the debt of many African states is also growing. In the future, China can exploit this dependence in the form of political influence.

Indian Ocean

In the late Middle Ages, the Arabs dominated maritime trade across the Indian Ocean. Ships sailed from Baghdad and Basra across the Euphrates into the Persian Gulf, from there to Oman and Aden, from there again to Zanzibar, Madagascar, the Indian Malabar Coast (also called the Pepper Coast) and on to Singapore.

Later came the Portuguese and the Dutch. In the 19th century, the British were clearly the hegemon of the Indian Ocean. From Cape Colony to British East Africa to Aden and on to British India, Burma, Malaysia and Singapore, and from there to Australia: the entire Indian Ocean was in British hands.

After the Second World War and the collapse of the British Empire, it was initially believed that India would become the dominant power of the eponymous ocean. But the Chinese have long since put a spanner in the Indians' works. In the course of their New Silk Road project, the Chinese are pursuing a firm plan to secure the sea routes between China and Europe. Not only the islands in the South China Sea, the Chinese influence on Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma and Singapore, but also the Chinese investments in Sri Lanka and the Maldives underline this claim.

Sri Lanka and the Maldives have long been financially dependent on China. In Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), the Chinese have built a huge port. Because Sri Lanka cannot repay the loans for the port, the island state had to cede the rights for the port to China for 99 years. This is reminiscent of what the British once did with Hong Kong. The Maldives are also completely dependent on China. The huge bridge alone that connects the airport island with the capital island of Male has left the small island kingdom heavily in debt to the Chinese. Dwarf states like the Maldives are completely incapable of organising, financing and implementing such extensive infrastructure projects on their own. China can do it in a jiffy. And small states are just as quickly caught in the Chinese debt trap.

The Chinese also have military intentions when they claim the Indian Ocean for themselves. The Chinese underline this with their naval base in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. From here, the Chinese control the entrance to the Red Sea. The growing Chinese influence in Egypt because of the Suez Canal and the purchase and expansion of the Greek port of Piraeus are further steps to secure the trade routes. This means that the shipping route from the Middle Kingdom to Europe will soon be firmly in Chinese hands.