BELT AND ROAD

INITIATIVE
Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk
Road
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a global
development strategy adopted by the Chine
se government involving infrastructure devel
opment and investments in 152 countries a
nd international organizations in Asia, Europ
e, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas.
It was known as the One Belt One Road
(OBOR) and the Silk Road Economic Belt a
nd the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road un
til 2016 when the Chinese government co
nsidered the emphasis on the word "one"
was prone to misinterpretation.
 WHEN 21ST
CENTURY SILK
ROAD BEGIN?
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
The initiative was unveiled by Chinese paramount
leader Xi Jinping in September and October 2013
during visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, and wa
s thereafter promoted by Premier Li Keqiang durin
g state visits to Asia and Europe. The initiative was
given intensive coverage by Chinese state media.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
The Chinese government calls the initiat
ive “a bid to enhance regional connectiv
ity and embrace a brighter future”

Said by the article from the official state-run press agency of the Peopl
e's Republic of China, Xinhua News
http://english.gov.cn/news/top_news/2015/03/28/content_281475079055789.htm
The project has a targeted comple
tion date of 2049, which coincide
s with the 100th anniversary of th
e People's Republic of China.

https://www.pr.com/press-release/780645
“BRI harkens back to the original Si
lk Road, which connected Europe t
o Asia centuries ago, enriching trad
ers from the Atlantic to the Pacifi
c.”
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
Some analysts see the project as an “uns
ettling extension of China’s rising powe
r, and as the costs of many of the propo
sed projects have skyrocketed, oppositio
n has grown in some participant countri
es”
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
PARTICIPATING
COUNTRIES
“While there is no official list of par
ticipants, the BRI involves more tha
n sixty countries. Many are close ec
onomic or military partners of the u
nited states”
Participant countries of the BRI
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
Africa:
• Africa
• Djibouti
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Nigeria
• Sudan
Asia:
• Armenia
• Central Asia
• Hong Kong
• Indonesia
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Maldives
Europe:
• Greece
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Russia
• Switzerland
• France
*undetermined*
South
America:
• Argentina
• Jamaica
South
America:
• Argentina
• Jamaica
Oceania:
• New Zealand
*undetermined*
“China’s overall ambition for the BR
I is staggering. To date, more than
sixty countries—accounting for two
-thirds of the world’s population—h
ave signed on to projects or indicat
ed an interest in doing so.”
“Analysts estimate the largest so far
to be the $68 billion China-Pakista
n Economic Corridor CPEC, a collec
tion of projects connecting China t
o Pakistan’s Gwadar Port on the Ar
abian Sea”
 What are China’s
plans for its New Silk
Road?
The plan was two-pronged: the overla
nd Silk Road Economic Belt and the Ma
ritime Silk Road. The two were collectiv
ely referred to first as the One Belt, On
e Road initiative but eventually became
the Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi’s vision included creating a vast net
work of railways, energy pipelines, hig
hways, and streamlined border crossin
gs, both westward—through the moun
tainous former Soviet republics—and s
outhward, to Pakistan, India, and the r
est of Southeast Asia.
Such a network would expand the inte
rnational use of Chinese currency, the
Renminbi “Yuan”, while new infrastruct
ure could “break the bottleneck in Asia
n connectivity,”
Xi subsequently announced plans for t
he 21st Century Maritime Silk Road at t
he 2013 summit of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in In
donesia.
To accommodate expanding maritime
trade traffic, China would invest in port
development along the Indian Ocean, f
rom Southeast Asia all the way to East
Africa.
What does China hope
to achieve?
China has both geopolitical and economic
motivations behind the initiative. Xi has pro
moted a vision of a more assertive China, w
hile the new normal of slowing growth has
put pressure on the country’s leadership to
open new markets for its consumer goods a
nd excess industrial capacity.
For Xi, the BRI serves as pushback agai
nst the much-touted U.S. “pivot to Asi
a,” as well as a way for China to develo
p new investment opportunities, cultiv
ate export markets, and boost Chinese
incomes and domestic consumption.
Nayan Chanda, former editor of the Fa
r Eastern Economic Review, calls the B
RI “an overt expression of China’s powe
r ambitions in the 21st century,” arguin
g that Beijing’s goal is to remake the gl
obal geopolitical balance of power.
BRI and the
“Debt Trap”
While several developing countries in n
eed of new roads, railways, ports, and
other infrastructure have welcomed BR
I investments, the initiative has also sto
ked opposition.
 For some countries that take on lar
ge amounts of debt to fund the ne
cessary infrastructure, BRI money is
seen as a potential poisoned chalic
e.
“BRI projects are built with low-interest
loans as opposed to aid grants”

*CFR’s Alyssa Ayres and Elizabeth C. Economy and Johns Hopkins’s Daniel Markey
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
“Some BRI investments have required the us
e of Chinese firms and their bidding process
es have lacked transparency. As a result, co
ntractors have inflated costs, leading to can
celed projects and political pushback.”
Examples of such criticisms abound. In Sri L
anka, President Maithripala Sirisena sought
to renegotiate Colombo’s repayment sched
ule, but China asked for a long lease on a m
ajor port in return for debt forgiveness.

Sri Lanka: A country trapped in debt By Yogita Limaye

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40044113
 “Sri Lanka owed $13 billion on its debt
in 2018, with expected total governme
nt revenues of just $14 billion”

'Unaffordable‘
Hambantota was built by a Chinese company and funded
by Chinese loans.
Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, elec
ted prime minister in 2018, campaigne
d against overpriced BRI initiatives, whi
ch he claimed were partially re-directed
to funds controlled by his predecessor.
“Once in office, he canceled
$22 billion worth of BRI proje
cts.”

Beware of China 'debt trap': Mahathir Mohamad

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/beware-of-china-debt-trap-mahathir
The new Maldivian government ha
s also begun to “unwind some of t
he BRI projects introduced under f
ormer President Abdulla Yameen A
bdul Gayoom”
The Maldives counts the cost of its debts to China – Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/c8da1c8a-2a19-11e9-88a4-c32129756dd8
while the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC) is at risk as Islamabad faces a balanc
e-of-payments crisis. In 2018, as debts to C
hina began to weigh on its economy, Pakist
an sought billions of dollars in loans from S
audi Arabia, the International Monetary Fun
d, and China.
Fearing debt trap, Pakistan rethinks Chinese 'Silk Road' projects – Reuters
https://
uk.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-silkroad-railway-insight/fearing-debt-trap-pakistan-rethinks-chines
e-silk-road-projects-idUKKCN1MA028
According to a report by the Center for Glo
bal Development, “eight BRI countries are v
ulnerable to debt crises.” Five of the eight b
order China, and two more—Djibouti and th
e Maldives—are choke points on the Mariti
me Silk Road.
Eight countries in danger of falling into China’s “debt trap” - Quartz
https
://qz.com/1223768/china-debt-trap-these-eight-countries-are-in-danger-of-debt-overloads-from-chi
nas-belt-and-road-plans
/
China had a lot of plans for its dominance i
n the world superpower, but do you think t
hey’re optimistic? Or did they use some dirty
tactics for their own gain? Or they want to
propagate that communism “slash” capitalis
m works? Did the debt trap diplomacy too
much?
Nehmmuel Ferrer.
 Video about “5
countries that fallen
into china’s debt
trap.
Thanks for
listening :)
Sources
• https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative
• https://www.verdict.co.uk/what-is-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/
• https://qz.com/1223768/china-debt-trap-these-eight-countries-are-in-dan
ger-of-debt-overloads-from-chinas-belt-and-road-plans
/
• https://www.cfr.org/article/belt-and-road-tracker
• https://
uk.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-silkroad-railway-insight/fearing-debt-tr
ap-pakistan-rethinks-chinese-silk-road-projects-idUKKCN1MA028
• https://www.ft.com/content/c8da1c8a-2a19-11e9-88a4-c32129756dd8
• https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/beware-of-china-debt-trap-mahathir