Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative a Threat to the US? (2024)

FAQs

Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative a Threat to the US? ›

In early April 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence published the 2021 Annual Threat Assessment. It put China's push for global power as the preeminent threat, and said that China's growing influence is one of the biggest threats the US faces.

The report found that the overall risks associated with BRI outweigh its benefits, including the threat to global macroeconomic stability, displacing non-Chinese businesses from participating in fair trade, locking countries into Chinese technology and technology standards, and increasing carbon emissions.

Accordingly, it is clear that China's BRI project has triggered social unrest in Pakistan and has also led to economic instability, SSRI reported. Laos is indebted to China, which can thus use its power to influence the policy-making process in Laos.

China's Belt and Road: Implications for the United States proposes that the United States respond to BRI by putting forward an affirmative agenda of its own, drawing on its strengths and coordinating with allies and partners to promote sustainable, secure, and green development.

To answer the opening question – is China's BRI a benefit or threat to the U.S.? – we can state that the BRI is not a threat, although more transparency would help the United States and other countries to understand the benefits and increase trust in BRI projects.

Common signs include a squealing noise from the front of the vehicle, power steering and AC not working, engine overheating, and cracks on the belt.

Economic Performance Of Non Belt & Road Countries

We can broadly categorize them into the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the European Union, Japan and India. These are the economic statistics (courtesy of Country Economics, Trading Economics and the World Bank).

China's Belt and Road Initiative (also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR)) is one of President Xi's most ambitious foreign and economic policies. It aims to strengthen Beijing's economic leadership through a vast program of infrastructure building throughout China's neighbouring regions.

What does China gain from Belt and Road Initiative? ›

Different Narratives on the Belt and Road Initiative

China's stated national goals for the BRI are to (1) supplement regional development through economic integration, (2) improve Chinese industry while exporting these same improved industrial standards, and (3) resolve issues from excess industrial capacity.

Today, the United States imports more from China than from any other country, and China is one of the largest export markets for U.S. goods and services. This trade has helped the United States in the form of lower prices for consumers and higher profits for corporations, but it has also come with costs.

The Belt and Road Initiative debt trap

There has been Western criticism that China's financing to poorer countries can put China in a position of political power over sovereign governments because of the large amount of debt owed to Beijing.

China's colossal infrastructure investments may usher in a new era of trade and growth for economies in Asia and beyond.

There are over 50 million overseas Chinese. Most of them are living in Southeast Asia where they make up a majority of the population of Singapore (75%) and significant minority populations in Malaysia (22.8%), Thailand (14%) and Brunei (10%).

B3W is seen as a major strategic measure aimed at countering BRI cooperation (Adams 2021). The initiative mainly focuses on four issues: climate change, health security, digital technology, gender fairness and equality.

The New Eurasian Land Bridge, which runs from Western China to Western Russia through Kazakhstan, and includes the Silk Road Railway through China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

Administratively, China¹⁶ is divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions (Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang), 4 municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing) and 2 Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong, Macao).

While it may promote economic growth and infrastructure development in developing countries, the BRI ultimately pushes forward a trifecta of environmental devastation in the forms of coal, the Polar Silk Road, and biodiversity loss.

The Belt and Road Initiative in Asia

China views the BRI as vitally important in securing its borders on the Asian mainland. It has land borders with 15 nations, including unstable states such as Afghanistan and nations seeking new partnerships in opposition to the US, such as Russia.

Is India against BRI? ›

India, unlike 150 countries and 32 international organisations, stayed out of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt-Road Initiative (BRI), especially since signing on would have meant accepting China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in Occupied Kashmir — a clear violation of its territorial integrity.

Today, most serpentine belts are expected to last anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 miles. Some belts can last significantly longer than this, while others give out before 60,000 miles. Make sure to check your owner's manual to find out the recommended belt replacement time frame.

Of the parts that will eventually need to be replaced in your vehicle, the serpentine belt is one of the most important. How long does a serpentine belt last? Being made of durable rubber, a serpentine belt can last anywhere from around 50,000-100,000 miles.

China continues to be one of the major financiers of infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa, with a total investment of $155 billion over the past two decades.

The name was coined in 2013 by China's President Xi Jinping, who drew inspiration from the concept of the Silk Road established during the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago – an ancient network of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean via Eurasia for centuries.

Currently, the Refinitiv BRI database has captured 2,631 projects with a combined value of $3.7 trillion, with the number of enterprises involved in the signature project standing at nearly 2,600.

What is the one-child policy? The one-child policy was a program in China that limited most Chinese families to one child each. It was implemented nationwide by the Chinese government in 1980, and it ended in 2016.

Economics. One Belt One Road promotes trade between each country and generates mutual economic benefits. For example, Kazakhstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, and as its winters are very cold, there is barely any vegetable production.

The One Belt One Road initiative is found to promote China's overseas lending in the belt road countries, especially for countries along the continental route. Such effect strengthens and persists for at least three years.

Through METI and MOFA, Japan also extended and formalized its BRI cooperation in Southeast Asia further by signing the China-Japan Memorandum on Business Cooperation in Third Countries (METI, 2018).

Why is China the biggest threat to US? ›

The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States. Confronting this threat is the FBI's top counterintelligence priority.

At the end of last year the bank revisited its calculations. It now thinks China's economy will not overtake America's until 2035 and at its high point will be only 14% bigger (see chart).

Answer and Explanation: It is unlikely that China's economy will collapse if the US stops buying Chinese goods. While the two countries have a great deal of influence over their respective economies, they have more trade partners than each other.

On top of these external pressures, industrial overcapacity and environmental pollution were severe in China, and the local economy was on the verge of collapsing. The BRI's main accomplishment was to provide a cohesive and permissive environment for state agencies and businesses to search for a way out.

The countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are spread across all continents: 38 countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa. 34 BRI countries are in Europe & Central Asia (including 18 countries of the European Union (EU) that are part of the BRI) 25 BRI countries are in East Asia & pacific.

The Belt and Road Initiative includes includes 1/3 of world trade and GDP and over 60% of the world's population.

New York City is home to the largest Chinese-American population of any city proper, with over half a million.

An estimate published in 2018 counted 600,000 people of other nations living in China, with 12% of those from the US; that means approximately 72,000 Americans living in China.

94% of China's population lives east of the Heihe–Tengchong Line. West of the line: 57% of the area; only 6% of the population. East of the line: 43% of the area; 94% of the population. The line roughly demarcates historic Han China from territories occupied by force.

Although the BRI poses as a green initiative, China's policies through the BRI have overwhelmingly adverse effects on the environment not only through pernicious coal dumping in developing countries, but also with arctic oil extraction through the Polar Silk Road along with excessive cement production.

How does the BRI affect the global economy? ›

As a result of the BRI, global real income increases by 0.7 percent (in 2030 relative to the baseline), which in comparative terms is relatively sizeable as upper estimates of the real income impact of global free trade are around 1 percent.

India has expressed its strong opposition to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its flagship project, the so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at the just concluded second UN Global Sustainable Transport Conference in Beijing.

The BRI will serve as a mechanism for weaponizing the global supply chain and gaining technology dominance. It will position China in the center of Eurasian trade markets, leading to unequal market leverages in the region and driving other regional countries to submit to China's interests.

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) is a strategy initiated by the People's Republic of China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.

Some analysts see the project as a disturbing expansion of Chinese power, and the United States has struggled to offer a competing vision. The initiative has stoked opposition in some Belt and Road countries that have experienced debt crises.

China's finance and investments in the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) Chinese engagement through financial investments and contractual cooperation for 2022 in the 147 countries of the Belt and Road Initiative was about USD67. 8 billion based on over 200 deals.

Over the past decade, the BRI has galvanised nearly US$1 trillion of investment, established more than 3,000 cooperation projects, created 420,000 local jobs, and helped lift almost 40 million people out of poverty.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), known within China as the One Belt One Road (Chinese: 一带一路; pinyin: Yīdài Yīlù) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations.

Is the Belt And Road Initiative successful? At present the BRI appears to be successful. It has faced a lot of Western criticism however appears to have been able to finance and build infrastructure in poorer nations that would otherwise not had the opportunity.

While Vietnam's endorsem*nt of the BRI shows its desire to avoid confrontation with China, Hanoi is cognisant of the risk of economic dependence on Beijing and the opacity of BRI projects.

Is Korea part of BRI? ›

At the official level the ROK has not joined the Belt and Road initiative, but Moon Jae-in's government adheres to the position of the need to develop cooperation with the PRC. The ROK is interested in economic benefits it can have through its participation in the BRI.

One of the most significant criticisms of the BRI is that it is a debt trap, which involves China lending money to developing countries for infrastructure projects that they cannot afford to repay.

Economically, the US did not compete with the Belt and Road Initiative over scale and capital, but instead focused on three areas: digital economy, cybersecurity, and energy and infrastructure development.