BRI’s Socio-Economic and Geopolitical Orientations
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was envisioned in 2013. Since its commencement regional and global socio-economic parameters and global geopolitical rules of engagement have been reshaped. Despite criticism of the West it has been declared project of the 21th century having immense potential of socio-economic integration, greater regional connectivity, massive industrialization, institutionalization of green energies mix, poverty eradication, job generation, fostering of trade & commerce activities and last but not the least widespread networks of communication infrastructures among all the member countries.
Since its beginning, the Western mass media termed it extension of so-called Chinese imperialism and debt trap diplomacy full of secretive conditions. However, time has proved that it has been a vivid reflection of Chinese “economic socialism”, proponent of “shared prosperity”, simulation of development instead of so-called debt trap and very much “crystal clear”.
Unfortunately, the Western media has now termed newly inaugurated Laos’s railway project as futile and fragile instead of its immense trans-regional utility and strategic orientation. In this connection, many hydro projects in Africa have also been rated as a severe violation of human rights. But ground reality is total different and strongly rejects all false and fake propaganda of the Western countries in this regard.
On the other hand, the US and the West economic assistance and project financing to many countries have been full of “contradictions”, “controversies” and “conspiracies” which ultimately dumped their economies into deep recession and their so-called socio-economic springs turned into violent political clashes around the globe.
Even the announcement of Build Back Better World (B3W) by the Group of Seven (G7) seems to be a “reinvention of capitalism” in the world. Moreover, the European Union (EU) Global Gateway Project (GGP) is another “failed” attempt of the forces of imperialism which had ruined many countries in different continents in lieu of its economic domination, social superiority and last but not the least political sacredness. Thus B3W and GGP do not have any comparison with the Chinese BRI.
Critical analysis of the BRI’s last eight years reveal that it has served as a “win-win partnership” of mutual gains, creating new immense opportunities for regional as well as international cooperation and driving global growth. It has been labeled as “New Normal” of the post-covid-19 world by many prominent regional as well as international publications, think tanks and research papers.
In 2013, China inaugurated the BRI, an ambitious globally spanning infrastructure and connectivity scheme of arrangement. It was primarily aimed at the Global South. China used the BRI to spearhead hundreds of projects across multiple continents to accelerate economic growth, development and shared prosperity by bringing nations closer together. Economists estimate the total value of projects to be up to nearly $4 trillion.
Now eight years later, the BRI has been a great success, with many projects now completed across the globe. According to official data (November, 2021), it has now over 2631 BRI projects amounting to $3.7 trillion. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line (CELSEL), the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (CIPEC), the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor (CMREC) and last but not the least, Port Piraeus in Greece. In addition, a total of 140 countries and 32 international organizations have signed more than 200 cooperation agreements with China.
Despite Western constant propaganda it has sufficient funds to develop numerous mega projects in different sectors ranging from BRI bonds, private capital investment and public-private partnerships but also state-owned enterprise investment will be crucial for the success of it. BRI cooperation is an active collaboration with all the member countries and thus frequently described as a “win-win” socio-economic proposition with no hidden geopolitical or geostrategic impurities.
The latest publication of Refinitiv (October 2021) estimates that over $516 billion worth of BRI projects were completed in 2019, amounting to 22 percent of the proposed total. In addition to this, another 1989 projects were in the process of completion. Although Covid-19 caused a temporary pause in construction in 2020, projects continued to be completed this year and throughout 2021-2022.
Most recently, two mega BRI projects have been completed and operationalized include Chongoene Airport in Mozambique and the China-Laos Railway. It hopes that with the inauguration of more projects, concrete benefits can be brought to the recipient countries.
Furthermore, the Refinitiv statistics (October 2021) shares that the overseas economic and trade cooperation zones built by Chinese enterprises in the BRI countries have created about 300000 local jobs, with a total investment of more than $30 billion. In addition, trade between China and its BRI member countries crossed $6 trillion from 2013 to 2018, growing at an average annual growth rate of four percent which is indeed a substantial increase.
Moreover, the BRI is a partnership of mutual gains, not a one-way train or zero-sum game. It has been economically cooperative, politically collaborative and socially coordinative since 2013. It stands for working together to seek common progress and prosperity. It has yielded incredible success in transforming the economies of the member countries in the eight years since it was started. China has invited countries across the globe to partner with it in constructing infrastructure and promoting trade in both the public and private sectors. As a result, it has driven global growth, connectivity and economic opportunity.
To conclude, it is hoped that the BRI will make a significant contribution to global development in terms of socio-economic integration, regional connectivity and new job generation. It seems that its socio-economic dividends and geographic scope is correspondingly very broad and comprises most of the world’s regions.
It has no hidden agenda and the Chinese government started to employ it as a framework for international cooperation in the field of infrastructure improvement as a way to support the developmental policies of other countries.
It is obvious that a major feature of the contemporary international order is the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. Both are very influential actors in international economic, diplomatic and military affairs.
In this connection, China has a distinctive comparative advantage over the US and the EU. China does not attach power politics in the realm of pure economy. China does not blackmail the recipient countries to blindly follow its do more mantra. Last but not the least China does not screw the member countries militarily to compromise their territorial sovereignty.
On the other hand, the US and the West have been “scapegoating” even their allies on different pretexts and left them in times of crises. Moreover, their shameful past in terms of triggering ethnic massacres in most of the African countries, sectarian rifts in the Middle East, multicolored sponsored revolutions in the Central Asia, do more mantra in many countries of SouthEast Asia and last but not the least, military (mis-)adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and many other countries all speak about power obsession of the US and the West. Thus China stands for “prosperity” not “prosecution”, “cooperation” not “conspiracy” and its mega projects like BRI and the CPEC are the “beacon” of hope and qualitative life.
Now the BRI stands as an anchor of Global South solidarity which offers hope for the development of the world’s countries to accelerate their economies, broaden their horizons and break out of the unequal economic global system.
