RI China Global Influence -- {USAGM}
Metadata
- RI China Global Influence -- {USAGM}
- March 8, 2023
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script RI China Global Influence HEADLINE: China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Past, Present and Future TEASER: China’s footprint spans the globe through its development projects and Belt and Road Initiative, so what’s next? PUBLISHED: 2/27/2023 at 5PM BYLINE: Elizabeth Lee CONTRIBUTOR: Ahadian Utama, Indra Yoga, Nestor Aguilera DATELINE: Washington VIDEOGRAPHER: VOA TRANSLATOR: Veronica Villafañe VIDEO EDITOR: Elizabeth Lee SCRIPT EDITORS: Reifenrath, Sharon Shahid, ok.dj(bal) VIDEO SOURCE (S): Reuters, AP, AFP PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _x_ TRT: 9:05 VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen TYPE: VISUAL EXPLAINER EDITOR NOTES: This is an overview story for a special Belt and Road project. The 3- minute length cap does not apply here. This is part of a BRI project to launch on a special landing page on 3/1/23. )) [[INTRO: For about two decades, China has been funding development projects across the globe. An uptick in spending happened in 2013, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping proposing the creation of what China called the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a land and sea initiative. This concept has evolved over the last 10 years into what is now known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Observers say China's strategy to globalize may be entering a new phase.]] ((NARRATOR)) Through its Belt and Road Initiative... ((Reuters)) China has made its mark worldwide... ((End Reuters)) funding projects as far-flung as power plants in Ecuador and high-speed rail in Laos. But exactly what is the Belt and Road Initiative? ((Ammar Malik, Chinese Development Finance Expert)) “The idea of the Belt and Road Initiative was to develop connectivities between China and the Global South.” ((Reuters)) “The bulk of Belt and Road financing has gone into hard infrastructure sectors such as transportation...” ((End Reuters)) “Energy...” ((Reuters)) “...mining and projects of that sort.” ((End Reuters)) “But China has now also folded a lot of their cultural initiatives — their educational initiatives scholarships, Confucius Institutes and others — into this big juggernaut of the Belt and Road Initiative.” ((NARRATOR)) Ammar Malik is senior research scientist at AidData, a university research lab at William & Mary that has been collecting information on China’s development finance around the world. The data show that in the past... ((Reuters)) ...20 years, the country has emerged as the lender of first resort for many developing countries. The origins of the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, trace back to a time of global economic instability... ((End Reuters)) ...says Min Ye, an expert in Chinese political economy at Boston University. ((Min Ye, Expert in Chinese Political Economy)) “The background story was that...” ((Reuters)) “... (there was the) 2008 global financial crisis, and the world market was shrinking. So, China invested heavily, heavily in building these companies, roads, bridges, factories to produce cement, steel, equipment, power devices — everything. And then the need was (to) reach the top. So, they begin to have, a lot of factories (that) were overproducing.” ((End Reuters)) “ (in) 2011, (20)12, China's overcapacity ranging by sectors was about 30 percent to 80 percent.” ((Reuters)) “And so when Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 [as CCP leader], “ ((End Reuters)) “...China actually was in deep, deep overcapacity crisis.” ((Reuters)) ((NARRATOR)) Then in November 2013, President Xi launched what is now known as the Belt and Road Initiative. ((End Reuters)) ((Min Ye, Expert in Chinese Political Economy)) “When the Belt Road was announced, it was just fascinating to see these industrial regulators, businesses, local governments hurrying to seize the opportunity to invest abroad, export abroad, as well.” ((Ammar Malik, Chinese Development Finance Expert)) “Belt and Road is not a single entity. It is not a budget line in the Chinese government's budget. It is a concept.“ ((Reuters)) “It is an umbrella under which many entities...” ((End Reuters)) “... are delivering projects in many countries across many sectors around the world. // China has built some of the world's biggest and largest pieces of infrastructure — including bridges tunnels, high speed rail — and they have created a huge ecosystem of state-owned enterprises and financial institutions which have a huge amount of ability to do construction work around the world.” ((Reuters)) ((Min Ye, Expert in Chinese Political Economy)) “It's more China's globalization strategy and how to promote, facilitate, Chinese businesses and other organizations (to) go global.” ((End Reuters)) “Countries, particularly in the Global South, have a real need for infrastructure for goods and for connection with China, so now it's more like a global initiative rather than just a China initiative.” ((NARRATOR)) Many host countries benefited from Belt and Road projects. ((AFP)) In 2016, then-President Rafael Correa of Ecuador celebrated the completion of a Chinese-built power plant. ((Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador)) ((In Spanish)) ((Male)) ((AFP)) ((FILE: November 18, 2016)) “We inaugurated the largest infrastructure ever built in this country, the hydroelectric plant Coca Codo Sinclair. That plant, with a power of 1500 MW, could provide electricity, alone, to all the homes of Ecuador.” ((End AFP)) ((NARRATOR)) Indonesia is the home of another Chinese project... ((Reuters)) a high-speed train. ((End Reuters)) ((Achmad Rasyad, Indonesia Resident)) ((Male)) ((Indonesian)) “It normally takes up to 4 hours, but with high-speed train, I hope it can reduce to 1 to 2 hours.” ((NARRATOR)) But some Belt and Road projects have had a downside. ((mandatory cg: “Gustavo Merino”)) In Ecuador, thousands of cracks appeared in part of the hydroelectric plant, worrying engineers, even though China... ((End Courtesy)) ...says the plant, having been tested by a third-party agency, is safe. And as for Indonesia’s high-speed rail ... ((Meiki Paendong, Indonesian Environmental Advocate)) ((In Indonesian)) ((Male)) “The construction process uses blasting techniques that damage people’s houses.” ((Heru Sutanto, Lives Near Rail Construction)) ((In Indonesian)) ((Male)) “This is what I’m really worried about. If it shifts, the roof will also fall.” ((Reuters)) ((NARRATOR)) As with many infrastructure projects... ((End Reuters)) ...there will be winners and losers, Malik says. ((Ammar Malik, Chinese Development Finance Expert)) ((English?)) “If you are living right next to a highway and you don't own a car. Or you are a low- income worker and cannot afford to take that expensive high-speed rail, you may have a very different view of the project that was implemented in your neighborhood.” ((Reuters)) ((NARRATOR)) China observers say that after a decade of implementing Belt and Road projects and fighting the pandemic, Beijing may be recalibrating. ((End Reuters)) ((Ammar Malik, Chinese Development Finance Expert)) “Many experts are calling it BRI 2.0, and it is obvious to us that the era of cheap money with low interest rates and large-scale megaprojects is likely over.” ((Reuters)) ((Hong Zhang, China Public Policy Expert)) “The pandemic in the past three years really halted a lot of things. ((End Reuters)) “I think the most important reason still was China realized that there's a lot of challenges or kind of Beijing probably overestimating their ability to implement an agenda which was not very clearly defined in the first place or not very well articulated.” ((Ammar Malik, Chinese Development Finance Expert)) China is now the world's largest debt collector, because a lot of these loans that they had given out during the first five years of the Belt and Road area are now only coming due for repayments. And they are realizing a lot of the projects are not as commercially viable as they thought that they might be.” ((Reuters)) ((Min Ye, Chinese Political Economy Expert)) “China will still do infrastructure, maybe not the kinds of large-scale special economic zones such as the Gwadar Port in Pakistan. “ ((End Reuters)) “ They will still do a lot of power plants investments...” ((Reuters)) ..."because Global South needs power. But it will not be coal-powered.” ((End Reuters)) ((Hong Zhang, China Public Policy Expert)) “The motivation for China to initiate the Belt and Road Initiative was to kind of have to hedge against the potential conflict with the U.S. probably. And so, by doing this or these things, by showing the kind of...” ((Reuters)) “... activism on these fronts through the BRI, that convinced the U.S. and the other powers that China is ambitious. China has these intentions to kind of rewrite...” ((End Reuters)) “... or reshape the global order. So, that might end up intensifying the conflicts.” ((Reuters)) ((NARRATOR)) ((Video of various BRI project)) The Belt and Road Initiative has expanded China’s footprint around the world, and the scope of Beijing’s global influence has changed how the U.S. and its allies see China. Some officials warn China is a threat and is no longer the world’s factory of cheap exports. ((End Reuters)) ((Voice of Karen Donfried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs)) “Europe suddenly realized that China was coming to Europe and buying up strategic critical infrastructure. It changed their perspective on China.” ((Reuters)) ((Min Ye, Chinese Political Economy Expert)) “I don't think it's going to help China become a global hegemon...” ((End Reuters)) “... like the U.S. or U.K. in the past. That's because China's...” ((Reuters)) “... economy is still hugely internally oriented.” ((End Reuters)) “How much China would commit to BRI is decided by how much it helps or works for China.” ((Reuters)) ((Ammar Malik, Chinese Development Finance Expert)) “Like other large-scale powers, China is keen to increase its global influence, and they would like to develop long-term sustainable engagements with elites in developing countries.” ((End Reuters)) “They are opening up their universities to foreign students like never before, and they are much more likely to engage in cultural exchanges and to win over public opinion toward China.” ((Reuters)) ((NARRATOR)) ... As Beijing paves the path toward an era in which China is one of the largest powers in the world. ((End Reuters
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Location (dateline) Washington D.C.
- Embargo Date March 8, 2023 00:17 EST
- Byline Elizabeth Lee, VOA News
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English