War in Europe? by Thibault Muzergues;

Author:Thibault Muzergues;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000536614
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2022-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

Indeed, Chinese companies are never alone when they set up shop anywhere in the world – they bring with them a whole state infrastructure, capital and workers, along with promises of low-cost development, thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative. The offer is often attractive, especially for countries far from traditional financing channels, already indebted and undermined by corruption: the promise of large infrastructure projects at low cost, few conditionalities, with interest rates below market prices, can indeed sound very tempting for politicians whose popularity is often linked to economic growth (something that has not exactly been a definer of Europe’s economies over the past few years).

The Chinese government offers a wide range of services, from the construction of a new airport, the development of a new motorway or railway, the prompt delivery of a vaccine, etc. The low conditionalities are often enough to encourage leaders to subscribe to the Belt and Road Initiative and let China invest in their countries. But the experience on the ground is very often far from the promises given by Chinese statesmen and businessmen: in terms of local development, the investments often go from Chinese hands to other Chinese hands, as Chinese infrastructure companies exports their own Chinese workers to do the job, thereby avoiding the complications of having local hires or intermediaries. That is, when money circulates at all, as many projects are late or never happen due to corruption. But state debt, on the other hand, is very real – and added to the previously contracted debt, it turns into a vicious circle that can progressively turn states into protectorates. Some countries in the

Indo-Pacific zone have fallen into the debt trap, leading them to make major territorial or military concessions – the most famous case is that of Sri Lanka, a strategic stopover in the Indian Ocean located halfway between the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Malacca: riddled with debt, the country had to cede part of its territory, the strategic port of Hambantota, to China for a period of 99 years to lighten its debt burden.42 Other countries in the area such as the Maldives or Malaysia are also vulnerable: when the Chinese government controls the country’s debt, it can also constrain the government’s actions, and it can also control its image toward the local population. It can also organize reprisals against countries or politicians who continue to receive the Dalai Lama, express criticism against the treatment of Tibetans or Uyghurs, or support in any way the Hong Kong demonstrators or the independence of Taiwan.43 China’s rise has political consequences throughout the world, and these often run counter to transparency and freedom of expression,44 two values that seem to be constitutive not only of the West, in general, but also of one of its political expressions, the European Union.

China’s rise, initially seen as a positive factor of development for the world, is now being reassessed by many actors, and its ambitions for leadership is increasingly contested: it now seems clear

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.