The Belt and Road Initiative was meant in part to demonstrate China’s essential benevolence. In that respect, it has not worked
linking Asia and Europe. It has since expanded to cover the whole world and some 150 countries from Somalia to Poland. Last month Jim Yong Kim, a former president of the World Bank, called it the “most ambitious development project in human history”. Before theChinese investments in other Asian countries were sniped at for all manner of alleged sins, including fostering corruption, environmental vandalism and distorting national politics.
The annual Boao Forum for Asia, a kind of Davos for China’s backyard held in the country’s south at the end of March, was this year partly devoted to celebrating ten years of theand, in a favourite phrase of China’s leaders, its “win-win” character. But China’s growing economic influence is still far from universally welcomed—in part because of, rather than in spite of, the boom in Chinese-led investment projects.
The 142km Jakarta-Bandung line—which should cut the journey from three hours to 40 minutes, and ease Jakarta’s appalling congestion—illustrates some of the criticisms. One is that although China offers what look like easier financial terms and has a reputation for efficient execution, its projects are as prone as any to delays and problems. In this case, the first feasibility study was done by Japanese companies. But Japan demanded a government guarantee for 50% of the financing.
, but the government soon found itself in dire financial straits and asked China to take over, which in 2017 a Chinese firm duly did, on a 99-year lease.and was a blow to national self-esteem, but the debt-trap accusations seem unfair. The episode, however, illustrates another feature of Chinese projects that causes local resentment: that they seem to favour incumbent rulers. In was widely seen in Sri Lanka as one of many vanity projects promoted by Mahinda Rajapaksa, then the president.
The perception that China abuses its economic muscle is widespread across South-East Asia. An annual survey of more than 1,300 officials, academics, businesspeople and other opinion-formers across the region, published in February by the-Yusof Ishak Institute, a think-tank in Singapore, found that nearly 70% of those who see China as the region’s most influential strategic power view its growing influence with concern.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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