Joe Biden suggests plan to rival China’s Belt and Road during call to Boris Johnson
- The US president raised the idea of an infrastructure programme for democratic states while speaking to the British prime minister
- The leaders also discussed climate change, the Iran nuclear deal and China’s retaliation against Western sanctions over Xinjiang
US President Joe Biden said he suggested to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call on Friday that democratic countries should have an infrastructure plan to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative, pulling from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help,” Biden told reporters.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from East Asia to Europe.
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Belt and Road Initiative explained
The project would significantly expand China’s economic and political influence, raising concerns in the United States and elsewhere.
Biden’s remarks came after he said on Thursday he would prevent China from passing the US to become the most powerful country in the world, vowing to invest heavily to ensure America prevails in the ever-growing rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
Biden plans to unveil a multi-trillion-dollar plan to upgrade US infrastructure next week. He said on Thursday this would ensure increased US investment in promising new technologies, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
While airing its concerns and seeking to encourage private sector-investment for overseas projects to rival those of the belt and road plan, Washington has yet to be able to convince countries that it can offer an alternative to the state-backed economic vision put forward by Beijing.