China's Belt and Road is FAILLING!

This is the photo from the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. The top photo is the first forum in 2017. The second photo is the second forum in 2019. And the third is this week. You see there, the number of leaders from different countries attending has dwindled, and the project has failed its partners since 2013. Let's talk about the Belt and Road Initiative and why it's failing. Welcome to China Insider, I'm David Zhang. While Beijing touted over 150 countries will be attending the BRI Forum in Beijing this week, the actual number of leaders that showed up for the photo op was much less unexpected. Some of China's so-called tight friends like South Africa, part of the BRICS, sent only a representative. This is not without reasons. Many countries that signed on to this mega-infrastructure project from China a decade ago are worse off today than they were 10 years ago. And it is because the project, despite promising infrastructure and development for partner nations, has essentially become a trap to hurt those countries even further. And those leaders like Putin, Viktor Orban for Hungary, and Fernandez of Argentina, they're simply here to beg for more money, and they have other reasoning for being here. And Xi Jinping is of course very happy to be praised by people like Putin, which he has recently done. Because he likes to give out stacks of money in exchange for praises, we're talking billions of dollars. So I call it the beggars and rapacious forum, BRI. And now, outside of money, the Belt and Road Initiative is basically Xi Jinping's geopolitical weapon against the United States. Now, it's essentially his global anti-US alliance. And that aspect, in my view, is also crumbling. This video has been making rounds online. When the doors opened, Xi walked alongside Putin. He is sending a clear message. China and Russia are leading a number of followers to establish the alternative to the world order that's led by the West. In my view, most of these leaders don't actually align with Xi Jinping's ambition. They're just here for the money. And China loves giving out money. Since the inception of the BRI, its targets have always been third world countries, countries that the West has neglected to help. China sees the opportunity to be the leader of these countries, now we refer to as the Global South. At the onset back in 2013, it looked like the BRI would challenge America and the rest of the world, countries that needed infrastructure help signed on, and some Western nations like Italy, the only G7 country, also became a part of this. However, over the years, we have only witnessed the negative aspects of the Belt and Road outweigh the positives, and these positives have been very temporary. Simply because the intended purpose of improving basic infrastructure was never the main goal of the Belt and Road Initiative and the main goal of Beijing. Sure, you may have a new port or a road or bridge, but at what cost? Now, this was a great question from today's poll, which I decided to ask for which topic I should cover. I do this often, so make sure you check it out in the community tab of this channel. This is from samreagan6292, quote, It cannot be denied that even the appearance of showing the people of Africa and Asia that the Chinese are building infrastructure is better for winning the hearts and minds of those people compared to sending weapons to both sides of a conflict in order to generate a profit. If the US wants a global influence, then the US should double or triple any effort by the Chinese to build infrastructure because it's what convinces people that you are the nation's side with because who doesn't want more infrastructure? That's a really interesting question. Thank you, Sam. I'll try to explain it with the rest of the video as to why the BRI hides its real intention behind these so-called infrastructure. Now, the basics of the Belt and Road project is that China grants loans for building infrastructure like roads, bridges, and ports in a partner nation. Often these loans are offered as a way for China to use its own companies and the loan is also offered by the Chinese banks. Essentially, they are building the infrastructure overseas using their own bank loans and their own people. Now, if the partner country fails to pay back said loan, then what infrastructure essentially becomes is part of a debt trap, and that infrastructure is owned by China. For example, Nepal, a neighbor of China, signed on back in 2012. Now, in February of 2012, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal invited bids for constructing Pokhara International Airport, but only Export-Import Bank of China approved bidders that could bid for the project. So as it happened, out of the total 9 bidders, 6 were disapproved by the bank, and the other 3 were all Chinese firms. Essentially, China funds and builds the projects for Nepal, using China's own companies and their own loans. You see, that's problem number one. These infrastructure improvements do not stimulate the local economy, it doesn't generate jobs. It's basically like the Nepal government just gave the green light to China to build an airport that eventually belonged to China on Nepalese soil. Now, if this isn't an attempt by the CCP to debt trap Nepal, I don't know what it is. Now, you could make the excuse that they didn't do this intentionally, but knowing the CCP, the ambition to control the world, it definitely had an intention. Now, look at this headline from the Associated Press. China's Xi promises open markets and billions in new investments for Belt and Road projects. Why is the AP sounding like they're a Chinese state media? Anyways, here's the report, it reads, At the forum's opening ceremony at the Ornette and Cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, will each set up 350 billion yuan, or about $47.9 billion US dollars, financing windows. An additional 80 billion yuan, or $11 billion US dollars, will be invested in Beijing's Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects. So we just talked about Export-Import Bank of China, and they essentially finance this thing in Nepal, they have so many other debt traps. But the China Development Bank is also the same thing. So what Beijing just promised here is that they're going to do more of these types of dangerous debt traps, and people are going to be thinking that they're welcoming some sort of infrastructure improvement. In reality, they're just inviting China to belt things in their home countries. And now of course, China talks about open markets and investments and so on. But the CCP doesn't really want that. These are just facades, right? Now, other nations are also not doing so great. For example, it takes Sri Lanka. In 2017, they signed on to the BRI. And since then, it has transferred 70% of ownership to China for one of its ports, as well as allowing China to lease the port and its surrounding land for 99 years. That basically sounds like reverse colonialism for China, or neocolonialism. And so the country's debt crisis was so bad that starting in 2019, we've seen the debt increase, right? And then we saw a protest two years ago. Part of it is, of course, because of the green policies destroying the agricultural environment. But also another part is because it has relied on China and has gotten so much debt from this BRI involvement. And so that's problem number two. The so-called infrastructure is given back to China, and it essentially becomes China's properties for something like 99 years because they can't pay back the debt. Countries like Argentina, a more recent member, currently has an inflation rate of 133% as of a week ago. And Italy, the only Western European country to sign on, according to Alicia Amighini, an analyst at the Italian think tank ISPI. She says quote, Italy suffered a net loss when it comes to trade deficit with China, which has more than doubled since Italy joined in 2019. But that's problem number three. Not only has the BRI not improved any of its country's economic conditions, it has actually worsened it and strung more trouble since people have signed on. Now, this hasn't all been a win-win situation for China either, because China is the one giving out money as loans, right, from the banks to build these BRI projects. Most, if not all countries, can't pay back that loan. So it's considered a non-performing loan. In other words, China literally loses money trying to win these countries with the BRI. And so the plan is obviously a complete disaster, right? It's no wonder why less and less countries or leaders are showing up for it. But there's a hidden reason why that they're doing this. Before we move on to that, let me do my sponsor segment today. Keep in mind, these segments keep us going with the channel, so if you want to support this channel, consider checking it out. So I've been using the German cosmic brand Dermaroller's Hyaluronic Acid Mask for a few months now, and I've found that this brand is loved by celebrities and it's really popular in China and Europe. And they've been great for my skin. Here's why. 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After the 15% off, the average comes down to $53 per box. So that's $5 per mask. Now, it's really high quality product. So I definitely recommend you check it out because the results are really good and it's so easy to use. So link in the description, check it out and as well as in the comments. Now, why would the CCP continue to do something that they are losing money, but at the same time, they're losing number of supports? Well, that's the second part, the geopolitical significance of the BRI. Well, it is all cool and all that, you know, for the infrastructure side of things, new bridges, ports, whatever, the main goal is actually getting as many countries on board as possible to form a cohesive anti-US alliance. Again, I don't want to see this plan work out because I simply don't think that it's going to work out. But I'll discuss the reason behind this. In recent years, the United States, Japan, and other Western countries have been discussing decoupling from China. Xi Jinping said at the BRI forum, quote, we do not engage in ideological confrontation, geopolitical games, or block political confrontation, and we oppose unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, and decoupling and delinking. While he sounds like he's a peace seeker here, the reality is that China has done more decoupling and block confrontation as well as geopolitical games than any other countries. This key part of the BRI has been taking away recognition of Taiwan's government. That's geopolitical games. For example, the BRI project partner Kiribati, a Pacific island nation, switched recognition of China from Taiwan to the CCP. So has the Solomon Islands, as well as Honduras in Latin America. Domestically, they've also actively punished foreign companies under the so-called spy law, as well as they've allied with countries like Russia, with Putin to play geopolitical games and to try to stir up trouble. They've also used economic coercion against Taiwan, Australia, Lithuania, and many other countries. So what Xi Jinping is telling us here is a blatant lie. What he's also not telling us is how the CCP has secretly pushed global instability. Now, if we use that in the context of potentially a World War III, or at least the scenarios that could trigger World War III as the background, it's much easier to explain why China is doing this. They want chaos around the world, right? Some of the countries currently going through trouble or conflicts, they're members of the BRI, like Ukraine, Russia. In the Middle East, China has Iran, the Taliban, Lebanon, Palestine, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and more. It just happens that these conflict zones are happening within the boundaries of these countries and surrounding areas. Now, I'm referring to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, as well as the ongoing Israel-Hamas situation. Belt and Road has been a way for the CCP to maintain influence in these particular parts of the world, like the Middle East, in Eastern Europe, as well as in parts of Asia. In fact, the latest nature of the Belt and Road Forum has a different characteristic than all the previous ones. This one has more gunpowder smell to it. As I said earlier, we saw Putin and Xi walk side by side. We saw the BRI Forum transform from an infrastructure, economic-based alliance, into a show-off that has more friends, more alliance based on power. The BRI today is not the same project it was 10 years ago. China has used the last 10 years to the BRI to buy these influence, and now it's time to transform it into a geopolitical one, rather than an economic growth alliance. And so the day seemingly of unlimited overseas borrowing, of course, has ended. China's overall economy is doing really bad, right? Its finances are below $5 billion in 2021, in terms of overseas development. And its lending peaked in 2016, which was about $90 billion. In this time, which is relatively difficult, the people that are sticking around, much less of them, or they've been filtered out maybe, are people that want money. But the people that do stick around are those that align geopolitically or ideologically with China, or with the Chinese Communist Party. So they're here for geopolitical benefits. Now, I'm not saying that of course everyone that attended this forum is here for that, but I actually in fact think many of them just want money. But the point is, countries like Russia, Iran, and now the Taliban, they aren't, which of course isn't even a country to begin with, but being members of the BRI, it gives a different flavor to the entire system. Now, of course, it is still being branded as an economic co-op, but it's really not. I mean, if you can call having dictators and global terrorist organizations as part of this economic high-quality group, well, I got bad news for you. It's not. Xi Jinping met with Vladimir Putin in a high-profile meeting during the summit, and it's a confirmation once again that the Chinese Communist Party and the Russian regime, they're tied together, which is an attempt to promote chaos in Europe. And we know that there's ongoing support for Iran, which is supporting different terrorist groups in the Middle East. And of course, the next step is watching out what's going to happen across the Taiwan Strait. We now have a situation with Hamas, with the extension of Iran, with Lebanon, Syria. The goal is very clear. It's to destabilize the world order that was built from the end of the World War II. So with Xi Jinping's global ambition and the final goal or objective for all of these projects, they're basically to, rather than follow the Western-led world order, which is called the rules-based international order, it's to follow Xi Jinping's focus. His version is called the common destiny of mankind. Now think about what common destiny of mankind really means. It just means it's a global communist system. Everyone has to follow the CCP's version of governance. No individual thinking, no freedom to choose. It's one party leading all. So it's evil and it's deeply disturbing in terms of the vision for the world. It's an antithesis to the peaceful democratic order that we've been able to try to protect and enjoy. So through the Belt and Road, Xi is essentially trying to rally together his force against the West. It's not simply a matter of building ports and infrastructure anymore. It's about winning influence, enslaving these countries so that they can further beg for more money, build more reliance on China. And then when the time comes for them to choose who they side with, it's probably going to be China that they do because they rely on it so heavily. And once they have a solid base, it's like co-opting the UN, WHO, and many other organizations with the BRI. What they've done is something called a fait accompli, which means that the situation is already there. By sheer numbers, they are the majority. And each of these countries that sign up for the BRI, they're following Xi's vision of common destiny for all mankind. So essentially, Belt and Road plays an important part of realizing the CCP's global ambition. It's buying influence. It's establishing control in areas like the Middle East and in Europe and in many parts of Asia too. It allows the CCP to have friends who align more with China ideologically, more over the West. So I think despite saying all of this, the reality is that less and less countries are continuing on with this because they simply think that it has been exploitative in terms of the infrastructure part. And that's what many people just want. They don't really want to be with this evil ideology that the CCP is preaching, yet they have no choice because the Western side hasn't been providing them enough support. So I think there's criticisms for that as well. But it's not going to end well for Beijing, because I think the picture shows us more than words, right? It's a dwindling number of leaders that shows up. And those that do stick around like Putin, well, we know where that's going. That's a whole different topic, right? Which I've done before. Anyway, so that's it today for the episode on why China's Belt and Road is failing and where to go from here. I'm David Zhang, this is China Insider. 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