China's 10-Year Anniversary Summit for Belt and Road Initiative

China is doing what smart nations do, planning for the future, unlike the U.S. who only seeing things in the terms of short term profits.

China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) involves 147 countries (2013) representing 2/3rds of the worlds population and 40% of global GDP which China has invested $1T to date with an estimated $8T total cost projected, originally meant to compete with U.S. Pivot to Asia (2011). 

Build Back Better World (B3W) global infrastructure linking India with Europe by rail and sea cables countering Chinese Belt and Road Initiative was discussed at the G7 (2021) and G20 (2022).

India and Japan were very receptive at the G20 as they have viewed BRI as a Chinese plan for world domination. 2/3rds of the EU is already involved in BRI but some are leery of Chinese domination and backing out like France and the European Space Agency which has pulled out of the Chinese Space Program so China has targeted non-EU countries in the Balkans to access European markets.

Russia has its own Eurasian Economic Union which has fallen by the wayside with the Ukrainian invasion so has embraced China’s BRI where Putin recently attended in Beijing. L

“In 2021, President Joe Biden, in collaboration with the Group of Seven (G7), launched the Build Back Better World Initiative (“B3W”) an infrastructure investment program conceived to compete with BRI.”

“China holds an economic advantage (China won more than eight times as many World Bank-funded infrastructure contracts as the United States in 2020), critics say Washington should boost its aid-based lending through existing multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF.”

“the United States might find a silver lining in the BRI. Jonathan E. Hillman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the United States could use BRI projects as a way to have China pay for infrastructure initiatives in Central Asia that are also in the U.S. interest.”

“India. India has tried to convince countries that the BRI is a plan to dominate Asia…has spent $3 billionon infrastructure projects [Afghanistan].

“Japan. Tokyo has a similar strategy to New Delhi’s, balancing its interest in regional infrastructure development with long-standing suspicions about China’s intentions…. has committed over $300 billion in public and private financing to infrastructure projects throughout Asia. “

“Europe. Over two-thirds of European Union (EU) member countries have formally signed on to BRI with large Chinese infrastructure investment responsible for projects such as the renovated port of Piraeus in Greece and the Budapest-Belgrade railway in Hungary. Beijing has also funded a number of projects on the continent in non-EU countries. These investments have “made it harder for the EU to craft a united approach to China,” and Greece and Hungary have obstructed bloc-wide efforts to criticize China, CFR’s Jennifer Hillman and Alex Tippett write.”

“December 2021, the EU announced Global Gateway, a $300 billion infrastructure investment program explicitly meant to rival BRI, which critics say is a “drop in the ocean” compared to BRI. Others worry that China is using BRI funds to gain influence in Balkan countries hoping to become EU members such as Serbia, thereby providing China access to the heart of the EU’s common market.”

“Russia. Moscow has become one of the BRI’s most enthusiastic partners, though it responded to Xi’s announcement at first with reticence, worried that Beijing’s plans would outshine Moscow’s vision for a “Eurasian Economic Union” and impinge on its traditional sphere of influence.”

https://www.causes.com/comments/103821

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/09/biden-takes-putin-xi-g20-00114870

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-american-pivot-to-asia/

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative

Yes, I am worried about China's Global Presence.

CAUSES TELLS ME, THEN ASKS: " China celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative last week, with 130 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in attendance. Are you worried about China's global presence?"

ME: Maybe, but mostly it's a matter of, "So. What did you expect?"  China is huge and ancient, with a long political/religious history of patience that has alternated between isolation and expansion.  It has also been, for Westerners, quite alien in many ways and therefor "Other" and ignored and/or hated.  That China now wishes to unvail itself and claim a power place in the world shoud not be at all surprising, and it is fascinating to watch it play out it's desires in Belt and Road (and in other ways in the developing world), the Russia/Ukraine conflict, and now the Israel/Palestine war.  China is in it for the long haul, and, IMHO, the West doesn't quite know what to do about that, if it should do anything at all in such a now tiny, tiny global environment in which small hostile moves could have big consequences.

We ignore the world at our peril! 

Most of the fear of China is manufactured. And it's not like we can really get on our high horse about anything. 

This administration needs to stop pushing Russia and China into each other arms! 

They are using the money they make from selling us and the rest of their manufactured items. We have allowed businesses to move manufacturing out of the US for many years now and the Chinese have been building with our money. Our politicians allow this to happen while lining their pockets and leaving the rest of us to pay the bill.

China's attitude is more concerning than its road initiative.

Especially their control of precious metals and minerals.  Our DoS and Administration have been asleep at the wheel for years as we ignore China's world expansion in critical locations, growing political influence and espionage of all types of critical information. And of course their military spending and expansion is a threat within itself.

They own much of the US, including the White House.