Egyptian military and China's PLA: A match made in Heaven?

Submitted by Martin Katchen (United States), Jul 12, 2012 at 21:20

I should think that under the circumstances, the Egyptian military junta will find China a more useful ally than the United States. China can supply Egypt all the arms the Egyptian military needs without any carping about human rights, and the huge volume of investment in manufacturing that Egypt needs to get it's people working.

For China, Egypt seems like the perfect offshore factory for Europe. Egypt is literally less than 48 hours by container ship from Salonika or Taranto or Messina (even closer to Antalya, Turkey) and has over 80 million people who will work as or more cheaply than Chinese or Vietnamese, plus potential access to raw materials from Africa and Saudi Arabia once infrastructure is built. The junta may have a few years to start delivering jobs before another social explosion. Or it may not, if the Muslim Brotherhood is well organized enough to affect the Army's rank and file. The next few months will probably tell.

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