Photo/Illutration Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese scientific research ship, arrives at the port in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, on Aug. 16, 2022. (AP Photo)

Ten years have elapsed since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed what is today called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)--an economic zone development program, inspired by the ancient Silk Road, to connect China to Central Asia and Europe by land and sea.

That was in 2013. At the time, Xi reportedly had another objective in mind: bolstering China’s presence in regions where the United States did not wield much influence.

Over the years, the BRI expanded to include Africa and other regions, and became synonymous with China’s global strategy.

Beijing says the BRI initiative has been an unqualified success. Specifically, it cited the operation of international freight trains from Chinese cities to Germany and other destinations which it says has increased the total trade amount of the regions along the route by an average of 8.6 percent per year.

China’s cumulative investment in the initiative is said to have topped $270 billion (40 trillion yen).

But the aggressive investment has also generated massive bad loans.

One typical case was the Hambantota International Port project in Sri Lanka. When the latter became unable to repay its debts in 2017, a Chinese corporation was awarded a 99-year lease to operate the port.

The incident gained notoriety as an example of “debt-trap diplomacy,” a neologism that means the Chinese government lends and then leverages the debt burden of smaller countries for geopolitical ends.

But it was actually China that fell into the “trap” when it was unable to collect its debt. Beijing had only itself to blame for its ill-advised pandering to the Sri Lankan government that wasted funds on a non-viable project.

After the fiasco, the Xi administration started curbing excessive lending, stressing the “sustainability” and “high quality” of development projects.

The Chinese public, too, has started questioning the BRI. An opinion poll on international relations, conducted last autumn by Tsinghua University in Beijing, found that a majority of respondents thought China was spending “far too much” or “somewhat too much” on foreign aid.

The days of diplomacy backed by financial clout have reached a turning point.

In dealing with developing nations’ debts, China is urged to collaborate with the nations concerned as well as pertinent international organizations.

China in the past tended to stick to bilateral negotiations. For example, in the case of Zambia’s debt problem, France and China co-chaired the talks and reached a basic agreement on debt restructuring in June. We hope China will continue to work together with other nations.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is casting a shadow on the BRI. The volume of goods on freight trains bound for Europe has plummeted, with the result that Russia and Belarus are now said to be the only destinations for most of the goods.

Mistrust of China has spread in Europe. Italy, the only participant in the BRI among group of seven nations, is weighing whether to leave the initiative because the latter provides only negligible economic benefits.

A third international forum on the BRI will be held in Beijing in October, and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be visiting China for the occasion.

Beijing must not use the forum to just emphasize its stronger ties with Moscow. It must remember to let the forum be the stage for forging broader international relations.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 25

Related News