Guys China is building a road network called BRI in the name of global infrastructure development. In which the Chinese government will invest in nearly 150 countries and international organizations.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forms a central component of Xi’s “Major Country Diplomacy” strategy, which calls for China to assume a greater leadership role for global affairs in accordance with its rising power and status As of August 2022, 149 countries were listed as having signed up to the BRI.
China has already invested billions of dollars in several countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to improve their basic infrastructure, with implications for China’s trade regime as well as its military influence. This project can also become a new economic corridor for many different regions.
The World Bank has estimated that BRI can boost trade flows in 149 participating countries by 4.1 percent and can cut the cost of global trade by 1.1 percent to 2.2 percent, and grow the GDP of East Asian and Pacific developing countries by an average of 2.6 to 3.9 percent.
Reasons For Opposition of BRI
There are concerns of human rights violations and environmental impact, as well as concerns of debt-trap diplomacy resulting in neocolonialism and economic imperialism.
Many countries believe that this project is a trap so that developing or underdeveloped countries can be trapped in a debt and then can be ruled by diplomacy. This is not a new policy as many developed countries follow this policy to take control over the developing or underdeveloped countries.
Why does it concern India ?
It concerns India because the “China–Pakistan Economic Corridor” (CPEC) project ignores India’s essential concerns on its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The corridor between China and Pakistan is going through the illegally occupied Kashmir (PoK) and hence threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India towards Kashmir.
Kashmir is our internal matter so no one in the world can disturb at that point but Pakistan is illegally using it and constructing a corridor which is named as an trade route bit no one know the future they might use it for terrorism or military purposes.
Other countries Opposition
The United States interpreted it as a plan for a sinocentric international trade network. In response the United States, Japan and Australia had formed a counter initiative, the Blue Dot Network in 2019, followed by the G7’s Build Back Better World initiative in 2021.
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad had initially found the terms of BRI to be too harsh for most countries and recommended countries avoid joining the BRI.
Reference from :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative
