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China’s Belt and Road: Ports, trains and infrastructure
BEIJING, April 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – China is trying to woo more nations to
join a massive network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks that
links dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
President Xi Jinping touted the benefits of his signature foreign policy,
the Belt and Road Initiative, as he welcomed 37 world leaders at a summit
dedicate to it on Friday.
Since Xi launched Belt and Road in 2013, China has invested $90 billion in
projects while banks have provided upwards of $300 billion in loans.
While participants welcome the chance to improve their countries’
infrastructure, experts warn that Belt and Road can saddle nations with new
debt and cause environmental harm.
– Which countries have signed on? –
China’s foreign minister said last week that 126 countries and 29
international organisations have signed cooperation agreements with Beijing
on the Belt and Road.
However, many of those agreements do not amount to full-throated support
of the project but rather propose limited cooperation in third-party
countries or investment and business cooperation.
Italy became last month the first G7 country to sign up, despite US
criticism and suspicion about it among other European Union powers.
– Trains –
The China Railway Express to Europe links 62 Chinese cities with 51
European cities in 15 different countries — freight trains have made 14,691
trips since the route opened in 2011.
The total value of cargo sent back and forth hit $33 billion in 2018, with
94 percent of trains starting in China fully loaded but only 71 percent of
those making the return journey full of cargo.
Construction of a 414-kilometre (257-mile) rail line between China and
Laos is well underway with investment already hitting 13.13 billion yuan
($1.95 billion) and 12 tunnels already blasted through.
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Another rail project in Thailand will link with the Laos line connecting
the Chinese border to Thailand’s ports. It will transform southwestern Yunnan
province into a trading hub that exports China’s goods to Southeast Asian
markets.
In Africa, a Belt and Road railway has connected Nairobi and Mombasa on
the Indian Ocean coast, linking the Kenyan capital with its largest port.
– Roads and ports –
In Pakistan, a controversial trade route was inaugurated to link its
southwestern Gwadar port, on the Arabian Sea, with Kashgar, a city in China’s
northwestern Xinjiang province.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor includes a 392-kilometre highway from
Peshawar to Karachi scheduled to be completed this year, a new highway,
airport and hospital at Gwadar port, among many other projects in the
country.
The port will provide China with safer and more direct access to the oil-
rich Middle East than the waterway trade route it currently uses through the
narrow Malacca Straits.
“Our critical infrastructure gaps are being plugged. Gwadar, once a small
fishing village, is transforming rapidly into a commercial hub,” Pakistani
Prime Minister Imran Khan told the summit.
The economic corridor has alarmed India because it cuts through Gilgit and
Baltistan in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — disputed territory that New
Delhi claims is illegally occupied.
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