China is Under Pressure Regarding the Belt and Road Initiative
Since March 15th, China and other Belt and Road Initiative countries have been under criticism regarding the environmental implications of the Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America. The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, is a China-owned infrastructure investment and development project with the purpose of improving trade. China has invested over $1 trillion USD to this project since its formation in 2013. According to the Green Finance & Development Center of Fudan University, the Belt and Road initiative showed an increase by 50% of solar, wind, and hydro sources, as well as 65% of sources being fossil fuels, causing controversy.
Several countries, not in a part of the Belt and Road initiative, have voiced their opinions regarding the matter. “In multiple countries that are LDECs (less economically developed countries), including Pakistan and India, they (China) create infrastructure that is super expensive where they put loans with high interest creating a debt pitfall for any countries that enter it making them basically trapped in China's will,” says a delegate of India.
The UK also spoke about their opinion regarding this initiative, saying “China is hypocritical, because of its signature of the Paris Agreement, but through BRI it has not respected a single one of its clauses.”
The UK then continued to mention the statistics of how much fossil fuel China is currently using to fund BRI development projects.
China has said much to defend itself, and mentioned that it has the full support of many countries, including South Africa, Indonesia, and Brazil, among others. “We have some benefited countries that have given us full support,” and when asked why specifically, China has invested so much financially into this initiative, China said “There has been a surplus of manufacturing, and we have tried to make sure that our products can be sold to other countries.”
China is allegedly guilty of debt-trap diplomacy, which is when someone, or in this case a country, is when you take out a loan to repay current financial obligations to someone, but then you just continue to get further and further into debt as you take out more loans to repay your current debt.
One notable country that has spoken in defense of China is South Africa, showing full support of all their decisions. South Africa claims that their political views align with Chinas, which is a reason for their support. “We believe they could do more, which is what we are working on right now, but the gravity of the situation and the amount of funding we need, it's not feasible for one country,” said a delegate of South Africa.
Tensions are continuing to rise, and the question is, what solutions will the Group of 20 come up with, and how will China be satisfied by the outcome?