The ancient Silk Road was an extensive network of ancient trade routes opened by China in 130 BC. These routes connected China, India, Greece and Rome, and not only were goods exchanged, but the route ended up being a cultural bridge between Asia and Europe. In 2013, China announced a new Silk Road project, inspired by the physical, economic and cultural connectivity of the ancient route. The project consisted of granting loans to countries that would link up to build power plants, roads, ports and airports. And just in October 2023, a summit was organized in China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the New Silk Road initiative. Undoubtedly, Xi Jinping's most ambitious foreign policy program. At the beginning of the program it was considered a success. China doled out nearly $1 trillion in loans for projects in more than 100 countries, making U.S. spending in developing countries look insignificant. However, ten years later, a different picture of the ambitious initiative has emerged, as many projects proved unviable and others have led developing countries to accumulate unsustainable debts, even to the point that, due to the impossibility of paying their debts, China has ended up taking over strategic infrastructures in these countries. So the questions are: was the project worth the enormous cost, what was China's real objective with this initiative, and why did China with this project repeat the mistakes of its growth strategy of recent years?
Some sources of interest:
- Council on Foreign Relations (2023). The Rise and Fall of the BRI
www.cfr.org/bl...
- Financial Times (2023). Ten years of China's Belt and Road: what has $1tn achieved?
www.ft.com/con...
- Foreign Affairs (2023). China's Road to Ruin
www.foreignaff...
- Foreign Policy (2023). China's Belt and Road to Nowhere
foreignpolicy....
Music:
Whatdafunk by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Artist: audionautix.com/
#economíaydesarrollo #china