By Govind Bhattacharjee
From the article:
The Belt and Road initiative (BRI) “project of the century” as proclaimed by the President Xi Jinping and “the path of Xi Jinping”, as decreed by the State-controlled Chinese media, was first proposed in 2013. But its complete blueprint was released only in 2015 and it was integrated into the government’s 13th Five-Year Plan. By mid-2016, 57 countries had become active participants in the BRI, and 30 had formally signed the BRI cooperation contracts. With China claiming to have established 75 overseas economic cooperation zones in 35 BRI countries, and the China Development Bank “tracking” more than 900 projects worth $ 900 billion in 60 countries, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) defined the BRI as a “systematic project” that “aims to promote the connectivity of Asian, European, and African continents and their adjacent seas” through “all-dimensional, multi-tiered and composite connectivity networks” to realise “diversified, independent, balanced and sustainable development in these countries.” The loosely defined objectives concealed the real intention which was to extend the Chinese empire to half the world through economic diplomacy and to gain political and economic control over Indian Ocean-rim countries.
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Benefits of BRI are thus going to China and Chinese firms, while costs have to be borne by the partner nations. According to a 2018 study by John Hurley, Scott Morris and Gailyn Portelance of the Washington-based Center for Global Development, of the 68 countries participating in the BRI, 27 have “junk” financial ratings and 14 are unrated; in eight countries ~ Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, and Tajikistan ~ the “future BRI-related financing will significantly add to the risk of debt distress.” Each of these countries already carries a heavy debt burden ~ Pakistan’s debt was almost 70 per cent of its GDP and Maldives and Djibouti’s 83 per cent and 87 per cent respectively in 2016. Debt Traps are indeed integral parts of the Chinese Grand Strategy. China sees debt-for-equity swaps as a tool to advance its geopolitical agenda to control ownership stakes in sensitive ports and infrastructure facilities in countries through servicing of their growing debt to China.
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