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21 November 2017
 |
| US And China (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
US
lawmakers on Tuesday expressed concern over the ambitious 'One Belt, One Road'
(OBOR) initiative of China and sought recommendations for improving development
finance efforts.
While infrastructure investment is
desperately needed across the region, there's more to the 'Belt and Road'
initiative than meets the eye, said Congressman Ted Yoho, Chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
Though China has promoted the program as
generous win-win assistance to its fellow developing nations, the OBOR seems motivated
primarily by self-interest, he said during a Congressional hearing on
development finance in Asia.
The Belt and Road projects are financed by
Chinese institution at high rates not typically found in the development
context conducted by Chinese corporations that are often state-owned enterprise
and utilise Chinese labour and material and seem to add little to local
economies and can bring unsustainable debt burdens, he said.
The program also seems to be closely aligned
with China's strategic and military interests to be more than a mere
coincidence, he added.
Yoho cited an illustrative example to
buttress his claim.
"China built an economically unviable
port in the hometown of Sri Lanka's corporate former or corrupt former leader;
converted its interests to equity when Sri Lanka could not service the
resulting debt and now owns a port along its maritime energy supply route
through the Indian Ocean," he said.
Daniel Runde, the Schreyer Chair and Director
of the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies said China has displayed willingness to
"periodically overlook human rights, environmental or social
standards" in the way that approaches development.
"The OBOR is a prime example of a
Chinese effort that leverages all aspects of this model described above. It's
also frankly a good idea recreating the old Silk Road land roads, cutting
transit times for goods, and services would be an economic boon," he said.
Runde, however, cautioned against any move to
stop the Belt and Road initiative.
"We cannot stop OBOR nor should we. The
United States and its allies should instead seek to influence its (OBOR's) soft
infrastructure and I've submitted some documents for the record about
that," he added.
Roy Kamphausen, Senior Vice President for Research
at The National Bureau of Asian Research, said the Belt and Road initiative
sets the general long-term direction for China and seeks to mobiliser and
coordinate the use of all available national resources to pursue both internal
-- in terms of economic development -- and external, both strategic and
national security objectives, in an integrated way.
"From the security angle, in the
near-term, the OBOE initiative has significant potential to increase China's
military footprint in the Central Asia region and beyond in an effort to secure
its periphery, a central goal of the Chinese leadership," Kamphausen said.
According to him, at a strategic level, the
multi-billion Belt and Road initiative reflects Beijing's regional and global
ambitions.
"It is an instrument to consolidate
China's position at the heart of Eurasia in a space where US influence is
rather limited. The initiative is intended to counter what Beijing perceives as
the US unacceptable containment of China on its eastern seaboard," he
said.
Jonathan N. Stivers, a Commissioner of the
US-China Economic Security Review Commission and former Assistant Administrator
to USAID, noted that China was expanding its presence on the world stage
through "both coercion and a charm offensive", thereby creating
pockets of influence, leverage and control.
"It is time for a new US economic and
development strategy for the Asia-Pacific region in order to effectively
compete with China's growing influence and investment," he said.The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
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