Inside Out | Turning China’s Belt and Road Initiative into a new cold war weapon by the US is deeply frustrating
- Investment in infrastructure funnelled through the Belt and Road Initiative has been welcomed in many neglected corners of the developing world
Don’t bother to try calling any of Hong Kong’s big business bosses at home this week – they are all away in Beijing, paying homage to the miracle that is Belt and Road, along with over 40 foreign leaders and 5,000 business leaders from 150 countries worldwide.
Conspicuously absent will be anyone senior from the US, as “new cold war” evangelists like Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, Mike Pence and even the footloose Steve Bannon continue to fulminate against what they see as a not-very-subtle Chinese plot to overturn the global economic order.
From a vantage point in Hong Kong, it is deeply frustrating to see the cold war weaponisation of an initiative that is so urgently needed, and so welcomed in many neglected corners of the developing world.
We all need more and better infrastructure. We have in the 21-economy Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) group been wringing our hands about underinvestment in infrastructure for more than a decade. Whether it is electricity, water, roads, rails and ports, schools and hospitals, or even waste management systems, everywhere we are in urgent need of investment. The Asian Development Bank says we need US$26 trillion between 2016 and 2030 – about US$1.7 trillion a year – but are at present finding just half of this.
China’s Belt and Road is forged in a recognition of this infrastructure-building imperative. It is forged in China’s own experience over the past 50 years, where the building of strong and efficient local infrastructure has been crucial to development of a robust and efficient economy, creating jobs and lifting its huge population out of poverty.