Security guards walk past a billboard for the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on May 13, 2017. Photo: AFP/Wang Zhao
China’s Belt and Road paves over rules and rights
Whatever its uncertain economic benefits, China’s BRI is a harbinger and host of a new repressive and illiberal order
By Benjamin Zawacki, Bangkok
The parallels between China’s current $1.1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the United States’ post-World War II foreign assistance are inexact but striking.
Like the US in WWII, China was damaged by the 2008 global financial crisis but far less so than most other major economies, allowing it to initiate the BRI in 2013 while the rest of the world was still recovering. China was and remains completely unhindered by costly military adventures in the Middle East as well, of which it has wisely chosen to steer clear.
Recalling the US in 1945-1948, when it commenced the reconstruction of Japan and implemented the Marshall Plan, China’s excess industrial capacity in 2013 necessitated foreign markets for investment and trade. This has since required the development and construction of new modes, facilities, and routes of transportation and communication—“connectivity†in BRI parlance. China needs the beneficiaries of its largesse as much as they need it.
Read more at: https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/chinas-belt-and-road-paves-over-rules-and-rights/
BRI, Belt and Road Initiative involves 132 nations, 29 international organizations, our Marshall Plan post WWII, involved 18 nations per the article. See, they've got designs alright.
