Belt and Road’s big investments suffer setbacks
Many of China’s Belt and Road projects have been halted due to national security concerns from governments, opposition from local residents and anxiety over projects’ financial transparency.
The Belt and Road initiative was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 as a major strategy to catapult the nation into a leading position in the global economy. Through partnerships in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Africa and East Europe, it aims to build an infrastructure and economic network spanning more than 100 countries.
As of January 2020, China had signed about 200 agreements with 138 countries in these regions as well as with 30 international bodies under the initiative.
Between 2015 and this October, China secured infrastructure projects worth more than US$736.1 billion along the Belt and Road countries, according to China’s commerce ministry.
These included an expressway from Karachi to Lahore in Pakistan, a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Xinjiang, high-speed railways in Indonesia and Iran as well as power stations in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The mainland’s direct investment in non-financial projects in these countries also totaled US$88.5 billion, the ministry’s figures showed.
Since 2013, loans issued by Chinese financial institutions under the Belt and Road Initiative amounted to US$461 billion, according to Washington-based consultancy RWR Advisory Group.
But not all of these projects have borne fruit. A total of 236 projects in 66 countries had been aborted due to opposition from local residents or concerns over their national security and China’s labor policies, RWR said in a 2018 report.
The number of large-scale Belt and Road projects in Southeast Asia fell to only 12 in the second half of 2018 after some were halted in Malaysia, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, according to the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
China suffered a setback this June when Romania canceled a signed US$7 billion-deal with China General Nuclear Power Group to build two nuclear reactors over concerns that the Eastern European country could fall into a debt trap. At the time, China General had been put on a blacklist by the U.S. government over accusations that it had stolen American nuclear technology for military use.
Estonia rejected a China-funded project for a trans-Baltic Sea tunnel to Finland this year, citing a lack of transparency in the project’s finances and concerns over its impact on the country’s economy, environment and security.
Sri Lanka was dragged into financial problems after accumulating a US$8 billion debt for Belt and Road projects. In 2017, the South Asian country leased the Hambantota Port to China for 99 years for US$1.1 billion. Its neighbor Maldives recorded a US$1.4 billion debt with China and had to negotiate with Beijing for a debt restructuring.
Click
here for Chinese version
---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app:
bit.ly/2yMMfQETo download the latest version,
Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play