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The View | China can help Biden ‘build back better’ and boost US infrastructure
- Seeing infrastructure as a dimension of competition with China is misguided
- The US could instead tap Chinese firms, which have strong technical capabilities and financial backing, to handle infrastructure projects
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Just as US President Joe Biden has made infrastructure a top priority, the power outages in Texas poignantly brought home the urgency. In the latest 2021 Report Card on America’s Infrastructure released last week, the United States finally broke out of the D grade it had been stuck in for decades to attain a “C-”. Among the categories, the country scored the lowest grade of “D-” in public transit.
In contrast, China continues to expand its transport infrastructure at all levels: urban (subway), regional (intercity rail, highways and bridges), national (high-speed train and airports) and international (international high-speed rail, overseas ports).
It is difficult for a large country to develop and maintain good infrastructure. Those with the best infrastructure tend to be city-states (Singapore), small (Switzerland, the Netherlands) or densely populated (Japan and South Korea).
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Ranked 13th globally by the World Economic Forum for infrastructure, the US may find consolation in its lead among large countries. However, given that the US was ranked among the “most prepared” to respond to a pandemic before Covid-19, it should guard against false confidence. Texas awarded itself a “B+” in energy while people froze to death due to its failed stand-alone power grid.
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US winter storm kills at least 21 and leaves millions without power
US winter storm kills at least 21 and leaves millions without power
Much of the US’ ageing infrastructure was built in the period from the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt to Eisenhower’s. The share of federal funding for US public infrastructure investment, declining since Ronald Reagan’s days, stands at only 25 per cent today.
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