America bombs, China builds! China builds 1,000 schools in Iraq
Seetao 2022-06-22 15:00
- China Electric Power Construction Corporation built 679, and China Electric Power International Co., Ltd. built 321
Recently, the news of "China's construction of thousands of schools in Iraq" by the Iraqi Shafaq News Agency has attracted the attention of foreign netizens. According to a report published on the 18th, the foundation stone laying ceremony was held on the same day for the education project of China-aided construction of 1,000 schools in Iraq. Many foreign netizens expressed the emotion of "American bombing, China building", and some people said that "in the great power competition, China is competing at a level that the United States will never understand".
On "World Refugee Day", some netizens also specially sent a meme picture of "China and the United States are very different in Iraq" to the US Secretary of State Blinken, who boasted that the United States has greatly helped refugees, and ridiculed him: "China's government in Iraq 1,000 schools, the United States directly killed 16,000 civilians in Iraq. This is how China and the United States 'practice human rights' in Iraq."
According to statistics released by NGOs in April 2022, since the outbreak of the Iraq War, the number of Iraqi civilians killed by the war may exceed 209,000. If military, police and other public officials are added, the total death toll far exceeds this figure.
According to earlier reports, on December 16, 2021, China and the Iraqi government signed an agreement, announcing that China will help Iraq rebuild its education system, including the construction of 1,000 schools. Institute) and China Power International Technology Co., Ltd. (321 Institute) participated in the construction.
Hassan Mejaham, an official from the Iraqi Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at the time that the 1,000 schools to be built by Chinese companies will be built within two years. Mejaham also said Iraq would use oil products to pay for the project.
The Iraqi government's official Twitter post on this, the country's Prime Minister Mustafa Kadimi attended the signing ceremony
On June 18, 2022, this China-aided construction project in Iraq officially started. According to the Iraqi Shafazi News Agency, that morning, the groundbreaking ceremony of the "Iraq Demonstration School" project of China Power Construction was held in Baghdad Province.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadimi attended the ceremony and delivered a warm speech. He said that the "Iraq Model School" project is an important strategic project related to the livelihood of the people. The project is committed to serving the society and cultivating future leaders for Iraq.
He specifically mentioned that since the end of the "Iraq War" in 2003, the restoration of the education system has not received enough attention, and the "Model School" project, as the first project implemented under the framework of China-Iraq cooperation, can be described as "contemporary and beneficial. In Qianqiu".
According to reports, the "Iraq Demonstration School" project is the first project in the Iraqi government's plan to build 8,000 schools by 2030. It is also the most urgent political project and livelihood project in Iraq. It is the hope of the whole country to resume sailing after the war.
According to the report, the groundbreaking ceremony marked the official implementation of the project plan. With the successive start of projects in different provinces of Iraq, the construction of the school project group has been fully rolled out and is progressing smoothly.
Taking POWERCHINA as an example, the construction of 679 schools in 10 Iraqi provinces has already entered the substantive stage of construction. As of May 4, 177 of the 236 schools in the project that are ready for construction have undergone substantial excavation, and the number is increasing at a rate of dozens of schools per week.
The groundbreaking ceremony on June 18
Although this news did not make waves in the Western media, it attracted a lot of attention on overseas social media. Many foreign netizens unanimously expressed the emotion of "American bombing, China building".
When reporting on the project in December 2021, Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post" also made a large-scale comparison, saying that when China signed a cooperation agreement with Iraq, the US military stationed in Iraq had just finished its combat mission, and the US "New York Times" also broke the Pentagon. The scandal claims a classified document shows that thousands of civilians, including many children, have been killed as a direct result of U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East.
The Russian media "Russia Today" also published a report titled "China is in Iraq, not like the United States", saying that the United States spent years bombing Iraq beyond recognition and killing local people recklessly; Build 1,000 schools that will serve children affected by the war in America.
Decades of conflict and underinvestment in Iraq have damaged what was once the region's best education system, according to the UNICEF website. Nearly 3.2 million school-age children are out of school in this country of 40 million.
Someone said: "What is destroyeUnited States, China will rebuild it."
A netizen calling himself a "journalist" said, "The US-led NATO destroyed 100 schools and killed 1,000 school-age children in Iraq, while China will build 1,000 schools here."
The U.S. destruction of Iraqi schools is far greater than this statistic. In 2007, UNICEF conducted its first comprehensive survey of schools in Iraq and found that in 2003 alone, more than 200 primary schools were damaged in the US bombing of Iraq. In addition, hundreds of schools were burned and more than 3,000 schools were looted.
Benjamin Norton, a well-known independent investigative journalist in the United States, forwarded relevant reports, saying that the United States has carried out brutal bombing and military occupation of Iraq for many years. On the contrary, China is building schools there.
Another American independent journalist, Danny Haiphong, also commented that "China and the United States are very different": China has built 1,000 schools, and the United States has dropped 17,000 bombs, an average of 46 per day.
Now that China's construction aid program is in full swing, some netizens even sighed: "The United States brings death and destruction, and China brings hope and development."
Others expressed that they are fair and comfortable. "The United States bombs, and China builds. The bombing of other countries is unpopular." "In this great power competition, China is competing at a different level that the United States will never understand."
"The United States destroyed Iraq, and China invested billions in aid to Iraq. Who do you think Iraqis most want to work with in the future? All countries should seriously consider it."
Coincidentally, just when foreign netizens were talking about the matter in the past few days, US Secretary of State Blinken's speech on social media happened to "hit the muzzle of the gun".
June 20 is "World Refugee Day". Blinken tweeted on this day that millions of refugees around the world are forced to leave their homes every year, and the United States will help these refugees through various means.
As the country most keen to launch foreign wars in the world, the United States is one of the culprits that has led to countless refugees. In the case of the Iraq War, the United States created the fastest-deteriorating refugee crisis in the world. The United Nations estimates that there are 4 million refugees in Iraq and those fleeing to neighbouring countries, with 3,000 leaving Iraq every day.
Therefore, some netizens made fun of this tweet with a meme that said "China and the United States are very different in Iraq": "China built 1,000 schools in Iraq, and the United States directly killed 16,000 civilians in Iraq. . This is how the US and China 'practice human rights' in Iraq."
According to a previous report by Reuters, the "Model School" project is the first project implemented under the framework of China-Iran cooperation. In addition, China will continue to provide assistance to the Middle East. According to a statement from the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office, Iraq signed an agreement with POWERCHINA to build a 2,000-megawatt photovoltaic power station, and POWERCHINA will first build an installed capacity of 750 megawatts.
On June 16, two days before the groundbreaking ceremony of the "Demonstration School" project, the 2.5MW off-grid photovoltaic energy storage project in Iraqi District 9, which was built by China Energy China Gezhouba Power Company, was successfully completed and successfully delivered and put into operation. The project is the first ground photovoltaic power station in Iraq. The Iraqi side said that it will promote and display the project as a model project, paving the way for the subsequent vigorous development of photovoltaic project construction.
China Power Construction Corporation has built 679 institutes, and China Power International Technology Co., Ltd. has built 321 institutes.
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