Facing a trade war and bumps along the belt and road, China may have to revisit the cost of its grand plan

Anu Anwar says China’s ambitious international infrastructure investment plan goes beyond funding roads and railways by transforming the global geopolitical landscape, but as it faces resistance, its true costs are becoming evident

Reading Time:4 minutes

Published: 3:00am, 10 Sep 2018Updated: 2:55pm, 10 Sep 2018

This autumn marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative. Five years on, the jury is still out on the plan’s nature and actual outcomes, but Beijing’s promises of investments in infrastructure projects across Eurasia and beyond have undoubtedly managed to capture the world’s attention.

The plan’s true objectives and multilayered ambitions have been analysed from a wide range of perspectives, but there is an emerging awareness that its impact is already being felt far beyond the realm of infrastructure construction.

What is clear is the initiative’s importance to the top Chinese leadership. After the Belt and Road Initiative was enshrined in the Communist Party charter in 2017, and its offshoot, “a community with a shared destiny for humanity” was included in China’s constitution in April, it is harder for sceptics to continue to claim that the initiative is an empty slogan that will soon fade.

In fact, the Belt and Road Initiative will remain the master concept of Chinese foreign policy for the foreseeable future, all the way to 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

In the past five years, the plan has materialised into concrete action, with its impact being felt beyond the Pacific Ocean. Experts expect the project to play a pivotal role in transforming the geopolitical landscape of the Asia-Pacific as well as globally.

The initiative is being promoted based on three principles: mutual consultation, joint construction and shared benefits. China has fully executed 101 agreements with 86 countries, with total investment in the 24 countries in the belt and road region amounting to US$50 billion, resulting in 75 industrial and trade zones and 200,000 jobs. Trade with belt and road countries contributed to the 14.2 per cent year-on-year growth in China’s foreign trade in 2017.

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