Peace, not War: Belt and Road Offers World New Paradigm
16:57 20.10.2023 (Updated: 12:26 23.10.2023)
© AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
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China has its own worldview which is based on different aspirations from those embraced by the US. A Sputnik India columnist describes the path China is following.
While the 'United States of Chaos' is sending warships to the Middle East and condoning mass murder of civilians in Gaza, there is a hopeful event of peace, cooperation and development happening in Beijing, where 140 countries have gathered for the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, the largest infrastructure project in human history.
The difference couldn’t be starker – on the same day, Xi Jinping announced $100 billion for building infrastructure around the world, while Biden’s regime released a plan for $100 billion for aggravating the wars in Ukraine and Israel.
The world has two diametrically opposed paradigms to choose from: savagery of the military industrial complex of the USA or civilization of the construction industrial complex of China, Russia, and the Global South. More appallingly, the US is spending millions of dollars every year on disinformation to attack the visionary and transformative BRI. It’s time to understand the truth and what is at stake for billions of people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow. File photo
© Sputnik / Pavel Byrkin
/ What is the Belt and Road, the Revolutionary Paradigm?
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), at the core, refers to a network of trade routes – on land and by sea – that link China to the rest of the world. BRI is based on the Ancient Silk Road that did the same for 1500 years – from 130 BC to 1450 AD when the Ottoman Empire put an end to it. (Note that the BRI has expanded since then to become a comprehensive infrastructure and development plan. More on that later).
Ten years ago, around this time, China’s new President Xi Jinping gave two seminal speeches, which were ignored by the Western media. In his first speech in Kazakhstan, Xi announced the “Belt” part – railways, roadways and pipelines that would link China to Central Asia and beyond. A month later, Xi gave a speech in Indonesia where he announced the “Road” part – the maritime silk road that would link seaports like a string of pearls.
Fast forward to now, 150 countries and 30 international organizations are members of the BRI. The notably missing countries are the US, those from Western Europe, and India. Italy signed the memorandum a few years ago, but withdrew the membership due to immense political pressure from the US.
Although China gets credit for this ambitious vision, the concept of Eurasian Land Bridge has existed for a long time. Eurasia (Europe + Asia) is really the “world island,” as the British geopolitical analyst Halford Mackinder called it in the late 19th century. Now, consisting of 70% of the world’s population and accounting for 65% of global GDP, Eurasia has the potential to be the global powerhouse. Also, this is exactly why the US plays divide and rule to disrupt the rise of Eurasia – by turning Europe against Russia, blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, driving a wedge between Europe and China, using Japan and India against China and so on.
While the US was busy waging wars, China quietly built railways, highways and seaports around the world. Over the last decade, China invested a stunning $1 trillion on infrastructure projects primarily in Asia and Africa, but also in Latin America and even some in Europe. These projects are now worth more than $4 trillion.
Look at what China has built in Africa: 100 sea ports, 1000 bridges, 10,000 km of railways, 100,000 km of highways, and 200,000 km of fiber-optic network for broadband internet. (These are rounded numbers). No wonder that every one of the 54 African countries has joined the BRI.
The US brags about the Marshall Plan, which was used to rebuild Japan and Germany, the two new American colonies after WW2. The BRI is not only orders of magnitude larger than the American project, but China works with all the countries as partners, not as an imperial master.
More Than Trade Routes (“BRI Plus”)
As BRI became more successful, the Chinese government realized there were more opportunities for engagement.
Many countries wanted help in their domestic infrastructure as well. Thus, they sought out China for projects such as metro systems in their cities, high-speed rail, airports, solar farms, hydropower dams, telecom infrastructure and so on. This was a win-win opportunity, since Chinese companies got new sources of revenues, and the Chinese government could bolster their diplomatic outreach. When the countries don’t have enough money, they can borrow from Chinese banks such as the China Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Export-Import Bank.
Some exemplary projects of “BRI plus” are:
high-speed rail in Indonesia;
metro system in the city of Lahore, Pakistan;
Nairobi-Mombasa railway line;
more than two dozen hydropower dams in Africa;
massive solar power plants in the UAE and Qatar;
and the world’s third largest mosque in Algeria.
Below is a partial list of hydropower dams that China has built in Africa.
China, African Countries
© Photo : S.L. Kanthan
Why Infrastructure Matters?
“If you want to get rich, build a road” – Old Chinese proverb.
People who live in developed nations often take basic infrastructure for granted, although America is now suffering due to its structurally deficient roads, railways, bridges, airports, electrical grids, internet connectivity etc. In Europe, the anti-Russia sanctions are crippling the economy, and many German industrial sectors are buckling under without cheap oil and natural gas.
In under-developed nations, the situation is bleak. Can you believe that nearly 3 billion people in the world have never used the internet? In Africa, a continent full of rich natural resources, nearly 600 million people lack electricity. As for Latin America and developing Asia, they need a combined investment of $4 trillion in infrastructure over the next decade to meet their UN goals for sustainable development.
In India, freight trains travel at an average speed of only 25 km/hour; one-third of the roads are dirt roads; 350 million Indians do not have access to piped water; one-third of children are malnourished; and electricity production is one-fifth that of China. Compare India’s investments in infrastructure to China’s over the last three decades, and the differences in GDP and manufacturing capabilities become obvious.
While hard infrastructure forms the backbone of the economy, soft infrastructure such as schools, universities, hospitals, and legal institutions are also vital for sustainable economic growth. Here also, poorer countries need a lot of assistance to get a jumpstart.
This is why China has built schools and vocational colleges in numerous countries. Even The Economist grudgingly acknowledges that these Chinese vocational colleges – known as Luban Workshops, named after a fabled Chinese engineer from 500 B.C. – have trained thousands of engineers in fields including artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, railway operations and robotics.
Similarly, China trains African farmers on agriculture and provides hybrid rice seeds to eventually make Africa self-reliant on food. China has also opened manufacturing factories in Africa, thus empowering people with skills.
Why Help Poor Countries?
One might ask why rich countries should care about poor countries. Well, there are selfish reasons. Consider the African country of Guinea, which has one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits. However, extracting the metal and transporting it need advanced expertise, technology, and vast amounts of capital – for starters, they need to drill many miles of tunnels through mountains. Thus, Guinea would need help from China or the West, where corporations across entire supply chains as well as consumers would benefit from cheaper iron ore.
Consider that an iPhone has about 30 minerals. Since mining is not done a whole lot in rich countries, an iPhone depends on good infrastructure in dozens of developing nations. For example, a bridge collapse in Congo can affect the cobalt supply chain, and thus the price or even the availability of the batteries that go into your smartphone and laptop.
How Western Imperialism Does Infrastructure?
The West understands the fundamental premises described above, but ignores an essential piece of the puzzle. That is, the West ruthlessly exploited the vast natural resources in developing nations while obstructing their growth. Whatever hard infrastructure the colonialists built was the bare minimum needed for extraction and profiteering. As for the soft infrastructure, there was no chance. The West wanted plentiful cheap labor, undergirded by extreme poverty.
When the European empires collapsed after WW2, the US empire continued the same form of exploitation in a more sophisticated form with the help of the IMF and the World Bank. As John Perkins describes in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit man,” the loans from the West are designed to push developing nations into a vicious cycle of debt and “bailouts.”
Western bailouts are essentially a combination of more debt and “reforms” – another euphemistic term for privatization and selling the assets of developing nations to Western corporations at a huge discount. A classic example is Pakistan, which has gone to the IMF for help staggering 23 times. Ordinary people don’t understand the debt trap and might even feel grateful for the Western institutions for the rescue.
Why China Model is Different?
Of course, one might ask why China is different from the imperialist West. There are three reasons:
1.
China promotes peace and prosperity. Why? China’s economic model is based on exports. China has been the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter for nearly 15 years. Thus, China benefits from global middle-class customers who have sufficient disposable income to buy Chinese goods. Similarly, China does not benefit from wars, unlike the US. Peace is essential for China’s freight trains, ships, and seaports. How China brokered the historic peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a testament to the China model.2.
China does not have the desire or the capabilities to subvert other countries through color revolutions, coups, assassinations, and wars, which are all the American forte. China stays out of the internal affairs of other countries and works with whoever the leader is.3.
Finally, one must understand Chinese civilization and its 2500-year-old philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism. The essence of China’s views on the human body, family, society, geopolitics etc. is of an organism. Everything is interconnected. No one part is more important. For example, you can’t say that the heart is more important than lungs. There’s no competition between various parts of the organism. They work together in harmony, in a holistic manner.On the other hand, American and Western views are based on atomism – i.e., atomized individuals and countries fighting for dominance and power. Might is right, and the strong rule over the weak. It's me versus you in a win-lose world. Exploitation of others is how you become secure, prosperous, and happy. Lying, deception and manipulation are considered as essential skills for survival.
Fascinatingly, the origin of Belt and Road lies in the Western attitude towards infrastructure. The World Bank’s Chief economist Justin Lin – a Chinese national – was shocked to find that the World Bank and IMF were not interested in funding large-scale projects like highways, railways and dams. And the poorer the country, the more reluctant was the West to provide funding. Eventually, he told Chinese leaders that they should start their own banks. This led to the creation of AIIB and the New Development Bank (NDB) – the latter also known as the BRICS Bank.
Examples of Free Projects from China
The official language of the Chinese government describes the BRI as a global community bound together by a shared future; and the goals of the BRI to be peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit. There is a lot of emphasis on words such as understanding, respect and trust.
Are these empty words? Well, look at China’s actions in addressing the needs of low-income countries by building free hospitals, free schools etc. However, such good deeds are unknown to most people, because China does not promote itself well. Below is a small sample of the free infrastructure that China funded and built in countries around the world:
China's BRI Projects
© Photo : S.L. Kanthan
Can you name similar projects by the US? No, the US/EU would gladly send billions of dollars to Ukraine to wage a proxy war, but wouldn’t sincerely lift up any country.
Rebuttal for US Disinformation on 'Chinese Debt Trap'
For years, the US ignored China’s Belt and Road Initiative, because American intellectuals were convinced that the BRI was a silly program destined to fail. But lo and behold, the BRI transformed into the project of the century.
Even Europe – America’s vassal continent – got enticed by the BRI. Two dozen European countries joined the BRI. Italy was the first member of G7 to join the BRI a couple of years ago. However, under duress from the US, Italy left the BRI this year. In Greece, China saved the Piraeus Port from bankruptcy and transformed it into one of the biggest shipping hubs in the world. Other countries like Serbia and Hungary are still actively participating in the BRI.
More impressively, China built the longest railway line in the world, linking Yiwu to Madrid – spanning a mind-boggling distance of 13,000 km. Now, nearly 1500 freight trains travel every month, linking Chinese manufacturing hubs to 200 cities in 25 European cities.
This is why the US started attacking the BRI a couple of years ago. More importantly, this is also why the US foments Uyghur separatists in Xinjiang, which is China’s gateway to Central Asia and Europe. After all, just a few terrorists blowing up the railway lines in Xinjiang will devastate the historic Eurasian land bridge.
The favorite talking points of Americans are, of course, contradictory and illogical. On one hand, they claim that the BRI is failing, or has failed. If the BRI is truly failing, why do Americans bother talking about it?
On the other hand, US politicians and media cry gallons of crocodile tears about how the BRI is not transparent and how it’s entrapping developing countries in debt. This fake empathy from the colonialists and imperialists is laughable, however here are three simple questions for the US:
Why don’t you join the BRI and make it more transparent and fairer?
Why don’t you offer better rates and deals?
What happened to your love for sovereignty and letting countries decide what’s best for them? You know, like how you claim that any country can join NATO?
Of course, they would not do that. They would rather sit back and demonize China all day long.
Why India Must Embrace BRI?
It is understandable that the US and Western Europe are full of fear and loathing about the Belt and Road Initiative. However, India should not pursue the same path. The official narrative is that India did not join the BRI because China built a highway through parts of Kashmir – the Gilgit-Baltistan region. Not only has India refused to join the BRI, but the entire Indian establishment – politicians, think tanks and mainstream media – are staunchly opposed to the BRI.
However, this is not a good strategy, since the fundamental premise is upside down. That is, rather than saying, “We won’t support the BRI until the border disputes are resolved,” the approach should be, “If we cooperate on numerous areas, it will be much easier to resolve the border disputes.”
India’s needs for infrastructure and modernization are immense. From city roads to highways, freight trains to high-speed rail, electric vehicles to renewable energy and education to healthcare, India is far behind its goals. Yes, India gets assistance for hard infrastructure from countries like Japan, but the results are underwhelming.
For example, in 2019 alone, China built an amazing 6000km of high-speed rail; while India – with Japan’s assistance – has not completed a single mile of high-speed rail after a decade. Similarly, India has severe pollution problems – 60 out of the 100 most polluted cities in the world are in India. This environmental crisis can be effectively mitigated with solar panels and electric vehicles – both sectors where China is the world’s undisputed champion. The myriad of areas where India can work with China include poverty alleviation, education, manufacturing, R&D and much more. The two countries must negotiate and compromise to find win-win opportunities for mutual economic growth.
Conclusion
The United States of Warmongers and NATO members have sent a large fleet of warships to the Mediterranean this week, threatening to set the whole region on fire. The merchants of death and destruction cannot comprehend helping Israel and Palestinians make peace. The world desperately needs to disavow the imperialist model of perpetual wars.
And the Global South is leading the way with the Belt and Road Initiative, BRICS and other geopolitical visions that embrace a new paradigm of civilizational coexistence and symbiotic relations that focus on trade, development and sustainable growth, while promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
