"phil hunt" wrote in message
rg...
On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 17:22:51 -0400, Eric Pinnell seemywebsite wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 20:52:46 +0100, (phil hunt)
wrote:

I doubt it. China gains nothing from lending money to him, since it
would be money down the drain. And how would China benefit from
"influence"? What's Zimbabwe got that China wants?

Who can say? Maybe the Chinese want to have an airbase or military
facility.

Why would they want one in Zimbabwe? maybe in 20 years time, but
China isn't in a position to have worldwide power projection yet.

You folks are IMO overlooking the obvious; the much more likely reason
behind China providing FC-1's to Zimbabwe would be simply to pump up the
export potetial for the aircraft by being able to point to a customer other
than Pakistan. They essentially gift them to Mugabe in hopes that it helps
them develop a larger paying customer export basis elsewhere around the
world in the near future. Desperate times/desperate measures--its not like
oodles of potential customers are scratching and clawing to get on the early
delivery list for "advanced" (ahem!) PRC manufactired combat aircraft, now
is it?

Brooks


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