"Construction has brought dramatic changes to countries along the route."
"Construction has brought dramatic changes to countries along the route."It’s been almost six years since China, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, put forward its Belt and Road Initiative. Ever since that day, the BRI has been under attack with some critics even labelling it as a front for China’s debt trap.
As the present administration has been the most China-friendly the country ever had, the political opposition, just to discredit the President and further its political agenda, has launched the most vigorous anti-China campaign, even accusing the President of being a Chinese puppet. And surprisingly, even China’s erstwhile ally, the local left wing movement, had taken a strong anti-China stance, siding with the traditional political opposition.
But then, if the BRI is really the vilest thing that ever happened to mankind, why, after six years, has it continued to attract support from foreign governments which by tradition and affiliation, were expected to be hostile to China?
Next week, China will host the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation under the theme of “Belt and Road Cooperation, Shaping a Brighter Shared Future.” And to date, over 5,000 participants from more than 150 countries have committed to attend. And they have the facts to back up their excitement in attending the forum.
Over the past six years, Chinese officials say that trade volume between China and countries participating in the BRI has exceeded $6 trillion, investments have grown to over $80 billion and around 300,000 jobs have been created in the countries involved in the initiative. The BRI has brought a huge number of practical cooperation projects and created whole new markets and employment opportunities.
A framework consisting of six corridors and six channels serving multiple countries and ports is taking shape, as the railway linking China with Laos and Thailand, the rail line connecting Hungary to Serbia, the high-speed railway between Jakarta and Bandung, the Gwadar port, and a series of other demonstrative projects have made concrete progress.
Over the past six years, the Belt and Road construction has brought dramatic changes to countries along the route. Now, villagers who have lived in the mountains of Laos for generations can make a living from other occupations besides farming and hunting. The children there, with the electricity generated by BRI projects, have now said goodbye to the old days when they had to read under kerosene lamps.
A new railway line for freight trains between Luxembourg and China’s Chengdu was recently launched, with the first train carrying 41 containers loaded with European mechanical and electrical products, food and medical apparatus to the expanding Chinese market.
And just recently, Switzerland announced it may sign a referendum of understanding with China for cooperation under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative, the second Western European country to do so.
Additonal information on the BRI reveals that the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved $7.5 billion in loans to support infrastructure projects in 13 countries of six regions, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and Africa, driving almost $40 billion of capital into infrastructure projects over the past three years since its opening on Jan. 16, 2016.
To date, the new-type multilateral development bank, with a mission to promote infrastructure connectivity, has expanded its membership from 57 founders to 93 approved members.
So, given the support it has gained from all over the globe, why still the debt trap accusations? Are those governments too stupid not to know the implications of their participating with China’s BRI? As China insists, the Belt and Road Initiative is not a geopolitical tool or a debt trap for participating countries, but a platform for cooperation.
But still, criticisms abound locally, especially on the connditions allegedly imposed by China for the Philippione government to hire Chinese contractors and workers for its funded projects.
However, that is not unique to China. A few years back, a congressional investigation was conducted as to why the same set of contractors have been collaring IMF-WB funded infrastructure projects in the country. And that particular probe revealed that part of conditions of the IMF-WB sets, was for their accredited contractors to be hired for the projects funded by their loans. Also, it was dictated upon on our government to hire highly-paid consultants whom the IMF-WB designates.
My colleagues and I, then Congress reporters, made sure those findings on IMF-WB impositions made it to the headlines of our respective media outlets. So why did these critics not make a fuss then? Was it because they were in power then?
So, who should we believe when it comes to the BRI?
With six trillion dollars of planned investments in 65 countries representing 70 percent of the world’s population, 55 percent of its GDP, and 75 percent of its energy reserves, spanning the entire Eurasian landmass from Eastern China to Western Europe, covering the continent of Africa and the countries of East and Southeast Asia, China’s BRI is by far the largest scale global development project in the many thousands of years of human history.
The answer is quite obvious.