Why China should watch out for the impact of US infrastructure plans

Name: Nato says China presents ‘systemic challenges’
Uploaded: 2022-04-22T22:00:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 29 s
Description: Nato says China presents ‘systemic challenges’

Build Back Better World plan focuses on intangible ‘values driven’ aspects to counter Beijing on rules-setting and Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese scholar notes

Washington’s US$1 trillion building push at home another area to keep an eye on, Chen Weixin says

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President Joe Biden says a new US$1 trillion domestic infrastructure plan will help the US regain its competitive edge over China. Photo: Reuters

Laura Zhou

Published: 6:00am, 23 Apr 2022Updated: 2:08pm, 23 Apr 2022

China needs to keep an eye on massive US-led infrastructure plans as Washington and its allies step up efforts to steer standard-setting and counter Beijing’s economic influence in the developing world, a Chinese scholar has warned.

Chen Wenxin, a Beijing-based US studies expert, also said China needed to closely watch the long-term economic edge the US might gain from its new US$1 trillion infrastructure improvement plan, even though domestic political divisions remained “the biggest stumbling block” in the short run for US President Joe Biden and his team.

The assessment from Chen, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), came as he studied the US infrastructure agenda signed into law by Biden last November.

The plan will disburse billions of dollars to state and local governments over five years for much-needed upgrades to ageing roads, bridges, rails and airports, as well as improve public facilities such as water systems, high-speed broadband and power plants. Biden has said the drive would help the US regain its competitive edge over China.

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Nato says China presents ‘systemic challenges’

Overseas, Biden has teamed up with G7 leaders to create the “Build Back Better World” (B3W) plan, aiming to offer hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to developing countries as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative – a multi-trillion-dollar global infrastructure and investment programme launched in 2013 that has drawn criticism for its alleged debt trap risks and lack of transparency.