Stuff like this is the reason when the west cries about China silk road initiative most of the countries don't care as Western countries have been exploiting their resources for years what difference does it make if China does it.
Correction, it is not the west as a single entity. Big western nations have tried exploiting other smaller western nations.
In my native Norway I know several cases of this. When it became possible to utilize hydro-electric power, British businessmen would travel around the country and get farmers owning waterfalls drunk. Then they would get them to sign contracts handing over the waterfall to them.
Same deal when Norway found oil. American oil companies tried hard to screw us over. They put in a lot of pressure and played dirty games. Fortunately our leader at the time Einar Gerhardsen was high skeptical of big capital and a self proclaimed democratic socialist.
They bid their time instead of getting sucked into a one sided deal. In fact the system we managed to put in place to fight big multinationals trying to exploit our resources impressed the Chinese. So I believe Deng Xiaoping sent a delegation to Norway. China had in the past suffered from companies from great western powers owning everything in China. The Chinese wanted to learn from us how we had manage to let in foreign capital and expertise while keeping national control.
So some of the systems in China with joint ventures etc was inspired by systems setup in Norwegian oil industry to protect Norwegian interests. Any small nation western or otherwise is vulnerable to exploitation by large rich nations.
Today China itself is frequently twisting our arm.
