Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

** 26-Apr-2019 World View: China's Xi Jinping defends Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

Speaking at at a forum for China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),
China's president Xi Jinping made promises in an attempt to respond
to many criticisms of the BRI and of China's unfair trade practices.

The BRI was launched in 2013 as the $1 trillion One Belt One Road
(OBOR), a revival of the ancient Silk Road, with numerous
infrastructure projects in dozens of countries. The projects include
seaports, airports, roads, dams, some of which are becoming Chinese
military bases.

Xi Jinping is facing a great deal of criticism for several reasons:

• The BRI is being increasingly criticized as a tool for "debt trap
  diplomacy," bribing country leaders to accept loans that are too big
  to be repaid, and then taking ownership of the seaports or airports
  when the country defaults. I've written about this many times.
  
  
  
• At the same time, China is involved in the US-China trade talks,
  where China is being criticized for illegal trading practices and
  intellectual property (IP) theft.

Xi tried to answer that in his speech Friday morning, where he made
the following announcements:

• China will step up protecting the legitimate rights and interests
  of foreign owners of intelketual property rights, and prohibit the
  forced transfer of technology and will create a business environment
  in which the value of knowledge is respected.
  
  
  
• China will allow foreign investors to operate businesses in more
  sectors with controlling or full stake and China will roll out a new
  batch of pilot free trade zones
  
  
  
• China will support 5,000 people from innovation sector in Belt and
  Rood countries in conducting exchanges, training programs and joint
  researches in the nest five years.
  
  
  
• The open, green and clean approaches should be adhered to and the
  BRI is not about creating exclusive circles
  
  
  
• A total of 40000 representatives of political parties, think tank
  and non- governmental organizations from countries participating in
  the Belt and Road Initiative will be invited to China for exchanges in
  the next five years.
  
  
  
• China will increase imports of goods and soviets on a larger soak
  and further lower its tariff rates. China is willing to import more
  competitive farm produces and services.
  
  
  
• The Silk Road Chinese government scholarship program will be
  continued and °dairies like the International Youth Forum on
  Creativity and Heritage, and the Chinese Bridge Summer Camp will go
  on.

This all sounds nice, but he's just making a lot of empty promises.

In 2015, on the White House lawn, at a time when China was rapidly
militarizing the South China Sea, Xi Jinping told Barack Obama to his
face that China was not militarizing the South China Sea. That was a
lie at the level of Hitler's "peace in our time." If Xi can lie about
something as important than that, then he can't be trusted in any way.

So as I watched his speech, my assumption was that it was interesting,
but that he was completely full of crap. He talked about "better
financing" and "greater transparency." And there had been a big deal
about Ethiopia having some interest payments forgiven. But there were
no specifics. The contracts will all remain top secret. The whole
"debt trap" model will be continued. The Kenya contract that I wrote
about a few months ago when it was leaked was incredible. Kenya's
president Uhuru Kenyatta was apparently paid off to sign the contract,
the Chinese treat the Kenyans like shit, the contract says that in
case of default, China can take control of ANY Kenyan asset -- even
things like foreign embassies. It's incredible. And the contract
says that any disputes would be resolved by Chinese courts.

So we can safely assume that everything Xi says about BRI is nonsense.

But this speech was about more than BRI. These promises also were
clearly aimed at the US-China trade talks, and Xi very much wants
those negotiations to be settled on favorable terms for China. China
is used to making trade promises and then ignoring them.

According to Trump, the trade talks are going very well. According to
press statements by the negotiators, the trade talks are going very
well.

They're saying that the final agreement will contain tough
verification terms, and if China tries to cheat, then harsh tariffs
will be reimposed.

All I can say is that I'll believe it when I see it. The Chinese
consider Americans and everyone else in the West to be lowly
barbarians. The Chinese have proven that they will find a way to
cheat on every agreement. Whether an agreement will be reached, and
whether the US negotiators will make the agreement "cheat-proof" is
something that I'm highly skeptical about, but waiting to see.

---- Sources:

-- Xi vows open, inclusive and transparent BRI
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1147663.shtml
(Global Times, China)


-- China's Xi pledges to 'fight corruption' at Belt and Road summit
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/c...32664.html
(Al-Jazeera)

-- At China’s BRI meet, President Xi skips fresh funds pledge amid
talk of debt-trap
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-new...yIlQN.html
(Hindustan Times)


---- Related:

** 15-Jan-19 World View -- Kenya's leaked BRI contract reveals shocking China debt trap details
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/x...tm#e190115