Here are the key leaders joining the Belt and Road forum and their wish lists to Beijing

SIMINA MISTREANU
Tue, October 17, 2023

BEIJING (AP) — China is hosting its third international forum centered around President Xi Jinping’s signature policy, the Belt and Road Initiative, which over the past 10 years has built infrastructure across continents, burdening some smaller countries with debt.

The forum brings a flurry of diplomacy to Beijing, including at least 20 heads of state and government, mostly hailing from developing markets in Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Here are some key leaders visiting Beijing and an overview of their countries’ involvement in the Belt and Road projects.

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Beijing on Tuesday, on his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over his alleged involvement in the mass abduction of children from Ukraine.

Putin’s visit underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Moscow amid the isolation brought by its war in Ukraine. In an interview with Chinese state media ahead of his visit, Putin described BRI projects – which the U.S. has called a “debt trap” for smaller countries – as China’s “desire for cooperation” in the global arena.

Russia has been aiming to redirect trade toward Asia after being shut out by the European Union over its Ukraine war. China-Russia trade soared 30% in the first half of the year and is expected to exceed $200 billion this year, according to the Russian government. One of Russia’s priorities in terms of joint infrastructure projects with China is building the Power of Siberia-2 pipeline, which is set to traverse Mongolia and enable Moscow to sell more natural gas to China.

SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT RANIL WICKREMESINGHE

Sri Lanka, along with Zambia, is one of the countries that have defaulted on their debt to China and other international lenders. The country’s former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, stepped down in July 2022 amid protests over soaring inflation and a severe economic crisis. Sri Lanka had accessed Chinese financing to build highways, a port, an airport and a coal power plant, raking in $7 billion in debt. As part of its efforts to repay Beijing, Colombo handed it over control of a strategic port, in a move often referenced by BRI critics as an example of China's “debt trap” diplomacy.

Last week, Sri Lanka reached an agreement with the Import-Export Bank of China to cover about $4.2 billion of that debt as part of a broader restructuring plan involving deals with other international creditors including India and Japan.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office last year, is attending the forum as part of his first official trip to China. He is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Xi.

KENYAN PRESIDENT WILLIAM RUTO

One of the key BRI projects in Africa is the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, extending for 592 kilometers (368 miles) and connecting Kenya’s largest port to its capital. Opened in 2017, China touts the project as a success story, saying it has supported Kenya’s economic growth. But work on a second section of the railway, which was meant to reach neighboring Uganda and serve other landlocked countries halted after Kampala pulled out and opted instead for a partnership with a Turkish firm. Kenya owes about $6 billion to China, according to national data. President William Ruto is expected to explore funding options for the remaining section of the railway during the Belt and Road summit.

INDONESIAN PRESIDENT JOKO WIDODO

In Southeast Asia, one of the most prominent BRI projects has been the construction of a high-speed 142-kilometer (88-mile) railway linking Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, to the economic hub of Bandung. Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated the $7.3 billion China-funded project earlier this month.

He is expected to meet Xi and discuss a plan to extend the railway by about 700 kilometers (435 miles) to the city of Surabaya, as well as new potential investments in renewable energy projects and trade.

HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the only E.U. head of state or government to attend the Belt and Road forum. Hungarian media reports last month suggested a Chinese-backed railway project connecting Budapest with Belgrade has hit snags and China would halt funding. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this month told his Hungarian counterpart the project would continue as planned.

Orban’s participation as the sole E.U. leader at the event comes in contrast with the 2019 edition of the forum when then-Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni attended right as Italy had formally joined the initiative. Italy this year signaled its intention to drop out of the scheme as major China-backed infrastructure projects haven’t materialized, while Italy’s trade deficit with China has more than doubled, to 48 billion euros (around $50 billion), since 2019.

ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT ALBERTO FERNANDEZ

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez also arrived in Beijing on Tuesday. Argentina is one of the countries that joined the BRI relatively recently, in 2022, seeking Chinese investment in areas such as railways, nuclear energy, solar and hydropower, agriculture and digital infrastructure. Argentina has asked China to fully finance a new $8.3 billion nuclear power plant.

China’s focus in Latin America lies in green technology and the extraction of minerals, according to experts. Chinese companies are involved in dozens of lithium extraction projects in Argentina and Chile, according to research by Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Buenos Aires.


China's Xi rejects 'bloc confrontation' as begins BRI forum

AFP
Tue, October 17, 2023



Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country rejected "economic coercion" and "bloc confrontation" Wednesday, at the opening ceremony of a forum of international delegates to the Belt and Road forum in Beijing.

Beijing this week hosts representatives of 130 countries for a forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi's vast trade and infrastructure project.

At the top of the guest list is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on his first trip to a major global power since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine threw his regime into international isolation.

Xi opened the forum with a speech promising Beijing would not engage in "ideological confrontation, geopolitical games or bloc confrontation".

"We oppose unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and delinking," Xi told delegates.

"Viewing the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk will not make one's own life any better or one's own development any faster."

Instead, Xi said, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would seek to "inject new impetus into the global economy".

"The BRI aims to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity," he said.

"We deeply believe that only when there is win-win cooperation can things get done, and get done well," he added.

"China is willing to deepen cooperation with Belt and Road partners... and work unremittingly to realise the modernisation of every country in the world."

"Jointly building the Belt and Road originated in China, but its achievements and opportunities belong to the world," he said.

Xi welcomed Putin to Beijing on Tuesday at an event kicking off the forum, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries.

They also took part in a group photo with other leaders attending the summit.

At an official banquet, Xi delivered a toast in which he alluded to recent geopolitical conflicts, but added that "the historical (trend) of peace" was "unstoppable".

Putin is due to hold in-depth talks with Xi on the sidelines of the forum on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, with the war raging between Israel and Palestinian militant organisation Hamas looming large over the summit.

The United States has asked China to use its influence to help de-escalate the war, which has seen more than a million people in the blockaded Gaza Strip flee the relentless bombardment that Israel launched in retaliation for the attack.

China brokered an entente between key Hamas backer Iran and its regional foe Saudi Arabia earlier this year, and will send its Middle East envoy Zhai Jun to the volatile region this week.

No details have been given about where or when exactly Zhai would travel, though China's state broadcaster CCTV has said he will push for a ceasefire and peace talks.

Russia, which has traditionally maintained good relations with both Israeli and Palestinian authorities, has called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the conflict.

bur-oho/je/ssy


How China's Belt and Road Initiative is changing after a decade of big projects and big debts

KEN MORITSUGU
Updated Tue, October 17, 2023 

BEIJING (AP) — China's Belt and Road Initiative looks to become smaller and greener after a decade of big projects that boosted trade but left big debts and raised environmental concerns.

The shift comes as leaders from across the developing world descend on Beijing this week for a government-organized forum on what is known as BRI for short.

The initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China’s relations with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. It is a major part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's push for China to play a larger role in global affairs.

WHAT IS THE BRI?

Called “One Belt, One Road” in Chinese, the Belt and Road Initiative started as a program for Chinese companies to build transportation, energy and other infrastructure overseas funded by Chinese development bank loans.

The stated goal was to grow trade and the economy by improving China's connections with the rest of the world in a 21st-century version of the Silk Road trading routes from China to the Middle East and onto Europe.

Xi unveiled the concept in broad terms on visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013 and it took shape in the ensuing years, driving the construction of major projects from railroads in Kenya and Laos to power plants in Pakistan and Indonesia.

HOW BIG IS IT?

A total of 152 countries have signed a BRI agreement with China, though Italy, the only western European country to do so, is expected to drop out when it comes time to renew in March of next year.

“Italy suffered a net loss," said Alessia Amighini, an analyst at the Italian think tank ISPI, as the trade deficit with China more than doubled since Italy joined in 2019.

China became a major financer of development projects under BRI, on par with the World Bank. The Chinese government says the initiative has launched more than 3,000 projects and “galvanized” nearly $1 trillion in investment.

China filled a gap left as other lenders shifted to areas such as health and education and away from infrastructure after coming under criticism for the impact major building projects can have on the environment and local communities, said Kevin Gallagher, the director of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

Chinese-financed projects have faced similar criticism, from displacing populations to adding tons of climate-changing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

WHAT ABOUT THE DEBT TRAP?

Chinese development banks provided money for the BRI projects as loans, and some governments have been unable to pay them back.

That has led to allegations by the U.S., India and others that China was engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy: Making loans they knew governments would default on, allowing Chinese interests to take control of the assets. An oft-cited example is a Sri Lankan port that the government ended up leasing to a Chinese company for 99 years.

Many economists say that China did not make the bad loans intentionally. Now, having learned the hard way through defaults, China development banks are pulling back. Chinese development loans have already plummeted in recent years as the banks have become more cautious about lending and many recipient countries are less able to borrow, given their already high levels of debt.

Chinese loans have been a major contributor to the huge debt burdens that are weighing on economies in countries such as Zambia and Pakistan. Sri Lanka said last week that it had reached an agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China on key terms and principles for restructuring its debt as it tries to emerge from an economic crisis that toppled the government last year.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR BRI?

Future BRI projects are likely not only to be smaller and greener but also rely more on investment by Chinese companies than on development loans to governments.

Christoph Nedopil, director of the Asia Institute at Griffith University in Australia, believes that China will still undertake some large projects, including high-visibility ones such as railways and others, including oil and gas pipelines, that have a revenue stream to pay back the investment.

A recent example is the launch of a Chinese high-speed railway in Indonesia with much fanfare in both countries.

On the climate front, China has pledged to stop building coal power plants overseas, though it remains involved in some, and is encouraging projects related to the green transition, Nedopil said. These range from wind and solar farms to factories for electric vehicle batteries, such as a huge lithium-ion battery plant that has stirred environmental concerns in BRI-partner Hungary.

___

Associated Press Business Writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.



China's Xi promises open markets and billions in new investments for 'Belt and Road' projects

SIMINA MISTREANU
Updated Wed, October 18, 2023

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping promised foreign companies greater access to China’s huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies as he opened a forum Wednesday on his signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

Xi's initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China’s ties with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. But the massive loans backing the projects have burdened poorer countries with heavy debts, in some cases leading to China taking control of those assets.

At the forum’s opening ceremony at the ornate and cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks – the China Development Bank and the Export–Import Bank of China – will each set up 350 billion yuan ($47.9 billion) financing windows. An additional 80 billion yuan ($11 billion) will be invested in Beijing's Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.

“We will comprehensively remove restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector,” Xi said. He said China would further open up “cross-border trade and investment in services and expand market access for digital products” and carry out reforms of state-owned enterprises and in sectors such as the digital economy, intellectual property rights and government procurement.

The pledges of hefty support from Beijing come at a time when China's economy has slowed and foreign investment has plunged.

Xi alluded to efforts by the United States and its allies to reduce their reliance on Chinese manufacturing and supply chains amid heightened competition and diplomatic frictions and reiterated promises that Beijing would create a fairer environment for foreign firms.

“We do not engage in ideological confrontation, geopolitical games nor clique political confrontation,” Xi said. “We oppose unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and the decoupling and severance of chains,” a reference to moves elsewhere to diversify industrial supply chains.

Reiterating Chinese complaints that such moves are meant to limit China's growth, Xi said that “viewing others’ development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one’s own life better or speed up one’s development.”

“China can only do well when the world is doing well,” he said. “When China does well, the world will get even better.”

Representatives from more than 130 mostly developing countries are attending the forum, including at least 20 heads of state and government. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending, reflecting China’s economic and diplomatic support for Moscow amid the isolation brought by its war in Ukraine.

Addressing the forum right after Xi, Putin praised BRI as being “truly important, global, future-oriented, aimed at creating more equitable, multipolar world relations."

“This is truly a global plan,” he said, adding that it aligns with Russia's plan “to form a large Eurasian space, as a space of cooperation and interaction of like-minded people, where a variety of integration processes will be linked.” He referred to other regional organizations, such as the security-oriented Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Eurasian Economic Union of former Soviet states.

Several European officials including the French and Italian ambassadors to China and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin walked out while Putin spoke and returned afterwards.

On Tuesday, Putin met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is the sole European Union government leader attending the forum. Their meeting was a rare instance of the Russian president meeting a European leader since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin met with Xi after the opening ceremony.

Also in attendance are the presidents of Indonesia, Argentina, Kazakstan, Sri Lanka, Kenya among other countries, as well as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. Most Western European countries and U.S. allies sent lower level or former officials to the forum.

Guterres highlighted the BRI’s potential to bring development to neglected areas while stressing the need for projects to be environmentally sustainable. He said the initiative could help drive the transition away from reliance on fossil fuels.

“Developing countries will need massive support for a fair, equitable and just energy transition toward renewables while providing affordable electricity to all,” Guterres said.

He also called for an “immediate, humanitarian” ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war after a strike killed hundreds at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday.

With the BRI, China has become a major financer of development projects on a par with the World Bank. The Chinese government says the initiative has launched more than 3,000 projects and “galvanized” nearly $1 trillion in investment.

It has also attracted criticism from the U.S., India and others that China is engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy: Making loans Beijing knew governments would likely default on, enabling Chinese interests to take control of the assets. An oft-cited example is a port that the Sri Lankan government ended up leasing to a Chinese company for 99 years. Many economists say China did not make the bad loans intentionally.

A key concern is whether the BRI can become more sustainable in terms of debt burdens, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.

The initiative now aims to become smaller and greener after a decade of big projects that boosted trade but left big debts and raised environmental concerns.

China will also “monitor the debt sustainability of BRI countries more closely,” Christoph Nedopil, director of the Asia Institute at Griffith University in Australia, wrote in a report.

“Chinese financial institutions will likely limit their exposure to projects that do not have stable cash flows from within the project,” he added. “That being said, ‘beautiful’ strategic projects, such as strategic railways or ports, will still find Chinese financial creditors.”

___

Associated Press researcher Wanqing Chen and writers Ken Moritsugu and Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

China's Xi warns against decoupling, lauds Belt and Road at forum

Laurie Chen and Yew Lun Tian
Updated Wed, October 18, 2023






China's Xi warns against decoupling, lauds Belt and Road at forum
Opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in Beijing

By Laurie Chen and Yew Lun Tian

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against decoupling from China as he opened the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing on Wednesday, criticizing Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy.

Xi also lauded his grand plan launched 10 years ago of building global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes, saying that "blueprints turned into real projects".

Representatives of more than 130 countries, largely from the Global South, attended the forum including several heads of state, of whom the most prominent was Xi's "dear friend" Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We stand against unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and supply chain disruption," Xi told more than 1,000 delegates gathered in an ornate conference room in the Great Hall of the People west of Tiananmen Square.

Putin and other foreign leaders sat with key Chinese officials from the 25-member Politburo on the front row, as Xi delivered his opening remarks.

Xi pushed against Western efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese economy, saying that, "our lives will not be better and our development will not be faster if we view the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk."

Western leaders insist that their goal is to "de-risk", not "decouple", from China, saying that they want to diversify supply chains that have become overly dependent on the world's second-largest economy.

China's threats to Taiwan and the trade disruptions of the pandemic years have added urgency to the desire to limit their dependence on China.

Although BRI at first set out to connect China to Western Europe, senior EU figures were missing. The sole head of state present from the bloc was Hungary's populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Other notable attendees included the Afghan Taliban administration's commerce minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi.

"China has more interest right now in developing Afghanistan at this moment, so we are more engaged with China. The Chinese have more interest in economic affairs, that's why we're here," Azizi told a gaggle of reporters at the ceremony.

WESTERN SCEPTICISM

Western scepticism of Xi's grand plans stems from suspicions over the way it would extend China's global influence, analysts say. China has at times bristled at criticism of the BRI, saying it carries anti-Chinese prejudice and a wish to contain its rise, while overlooking what it says are genuine good intentions.

Analysts have also said some of China's infrastructure lending through the project has saddled poor countries with loans they can't repay.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, whose country owes China more than $20 billion, emphasized in a speech that BRI projects "must not complicate (countries') fiscal conditions".

In an address that followed Xi's, Putin praised the BRI and invited global investment in the Northern Sea route which he said could deepen trade between east and west. Several European officials left the hall as Putin took to the stage.

During a three-hour meeting on the sidelines of the conference, Xi told Putin that both sides should explore cooperation in strategic emerging industries and deepen regional cooperation.

"China hopes that the China-Mongolia-Russia natural gas pipeline project will make substantive progress as soon as possible," Xi said according to a state media readout.

Both leaders also had "in-depth" discussions on the Middle East conflict, state broadcaster CCTV reported without giving further details.

After the meeting, Putin was filmed accompanied by officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase which can be used to order a nuclear strike.

Xi is making the Belt and Road smaller and greener, moving away from big-ticket projects like dams to high-tech ones such as digital finance and e-commerce platforms.

The aim is to aid a broader push for a world order that is multi-polar and gives the Global South more agency, rather than one dominated by Washington and its allies, analysts say.

The BRI has also become more focused on issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence, as Xi seeks to use it to export Chinese ideas about governance and build consensus around Chinese norms and its development model, analysts say.

On Wednesday, Xi reinforced those trends, pledging to "deepen cooperation in green infrastructure, energy and transportation," and "put forward global initiative for artificial intelligence governance."

After Xi's speech, China's foreign ministry said the country would push to create a United Nations body to regulate AI, adding that Beijing opposes “malicious obstructing” of other countries’ AI development, a likely reference to the Biden administration's efforts to block export of advanced AI chips to China.

A European business representative, who did not want to be named for sensitivity reasons, said on the sidelines of the ceremony that BRI was, "creating impact for some of the countries involved" and that, "I think there is some truth to some of the speeches about improving livelihood and connectivity."

(Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Antoni Slodkowski, Simon Cameron-Moore, Don Durfee and Chizu Nomiyama)

Xi Jinping kicks off belt and road forum with diplomatic charm offensive

South China Morning Post
Tue, October 17, 2023 

Chinese President Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for world leaders, including his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, for China's biggest diplomatic charm offensive of the year at the start of the belt and road forum on Tuesday.

The two-day summit, which kicked off on Tuesday, marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure and investment scheme that Beijing has touted as an alternative development model for developing countries.

China is looking to expand its influence in the so-called Global South and the summit comes as international divisions are exposed by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the recent violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has increased fears of a humanitarian disaster.

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Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that President Joe Biden would visit Israel and Jordan to speak to Middle Eastern leaders.

Xi tried to portray China as a reliable and trusted partner to the developing world in his meetings on Tuesday.

In a meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Xi reaffirmed Beijing's "firm opposition to inference by external forces in the internal affairs of Central Asia", according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

He also promised to import more agricultural products from Kazakhstan and improve connectivity, while promising to strengthen "coordination with Kazakhstan and push forward a deep practical cooperation between China and Central Asia".

The two sides should also step up efforts to increase people-to-people exchanges to "cultivate the foundation of public opinions between the two societies", Xi added.

In a separate meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Xi pledged to support the African country "in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests".

Africa's second-most populous country, which has been granted debt relief from China, has been seeking to rebuild its economy after a peace deal signed in November last year ended two years of civil war in Tigray.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lays a wreath at the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua alt=Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lays a wreath at the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua>

Xi said on Tuesday that China would "support and participate in" post-war reconstruction efforts in Ethiopia.

"China is ready to work with Ethiopia to ... join hands in the journey to promote peace and development and to build a community of human destiny," he added.

The two sides also agreed to upgrade their bilateral ties to an "all-weather strategic partnership".

Xi said this would be an opportunity for the two countries to "be friends of common development and win-win cooperation and partners in promoting South-South solidarity and cooperation and upholding international justice".

This year's forum is the first to be held since 2019 and Chinese officials say it will be attended by representatives from at least 130 countries and 30 global organisations.

However, unlike the last summit in 2019, when officials from Europe, including the then-Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni also attended, this year's event is largely being shunned by Western countries.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the only leader from the European Union attending, and the current Italian government, led by Giorgia Meloni, is considering pulling out of the Belt and Road Initiative altogether.

On Tuesday, Xi met Orban, telling him that Beijing "is willing to continue to be a good friend and partner with Hungary in terms of mutual trust and win-win cooperation".

He also spoke of the "deepening political trust" between the two countries and urged Hungary to help complete a belt and road-funded project to build a high-speed rail link between Budapest and the Serbian capital Belgrade.

The project was initally supposed to start operating next year, but local media reports have suggested that construction work has been halted because the Chinese contractors have failed to meet EU safety standards.

Xi also expressed the hope that Hungary would act as a "spearhead" for relations between China and Central and Eastern Europe after Beijing's preferred mechanism for dealing with the region - the "17+1" platform - was hit by Lithuania's withdrawal and growing doubts from other members after Beijing failed to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.


Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin pose for a photo with others heads of delegations. Photo: AFP alt=Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin pose for a photo with others heads of delegations. Photo: AFP>

Xi is expected to meet Putin on Wednesday, when the two leaders will exchange views on international issues and regional conflicts, including the Ukraine war, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

In his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Xi called for a joint effort to "demonstrate the responsibility of developing powers to make concerted efforts to promote changes in the global governance system, and safeguard international fairness and justice".

Indonesia is the largest member of the Association of Southeast Asian nations, and Xi said close coordination between the two sides is needed to "safeguard Asean centrality".

Plans to increase transport and trade links across Eurasia are one of the core elements of the Belt and Road Initiative, but Beijing is also trying to use it to expand its influence in Africa and South America.

During his meeting with the Chilean President Gabriel Boric, Xi said China would continue to "strengthen coordination" with Chile "to safeguard unity and cooperation among developing countries".

He also said that Chile the two sides should expand cooperation so that Chile could become a belt and road "bridgehead" in Latin America.

In a joint statement issued following the meeting, Chile invited Chinese firms to participate in the development of the country's lithium mining industry and green hydrogen projects.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is China's Belt and Road Initiative losing its appeal?

Karina Tsui
Tue, October 17, 2023



Dignitaries from over 140 countries across the Global South, the Middle East, and notably Russia, have gathered in Beijing for the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The forum, described by Chinese state media as the “most important diplomatic event” of the year, is seen as an opportunity for Xi Jinping to showcase his foreign policy and preview ambitious plans as Beijing positions itself as an alternative global power to the West.

In a white paper outlining new BRI strategies Tuesday, Chinese officials wrote of broadening global cooperation and noted that Beijing will support “any initiative that can genuinely help developing countries build infrastructure and achieve shared progress”.

But data shows that BRI activity is slowing down amid concerns that investments have amounted to “debt traps” in poor countries and large-scale future investments look uncertain given China’s own flailing economy.

Analysts told Nikkei that BRI may be losing its appeal, given the lower attendance at this year’s gathering compared to the last two summits. The number of BRI-participating countries that suffered from debt distress has doubled in the past eight years, a researcher said, citing the IMF. Projects in Zambia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have either defaulted or at risk of doing so, and a third of all BRI projects have been hampered by environmental damage, corruption, and labor violations, researchers found. The scale of construction projects in China has also shrunk over the years, according to one study, as the country grapples with its own economic slowdown, Nikkei reports.

Observers are closely watching how China continues to cooperate with African countries on infrastructure projects. In 2022, Beijing issued its lowest level of loans to African governments since it began lending to the continent in 2004. Securing huge loans from China will be a “longshot” China Africa Project’s Eric Olander argues, given the current state of its politics and economy. China, however, might consider renegotiating terms with countries that could fall into the debt trap. For instance, it has already suspended Ethiopia’s debt repayment. According to Boston University’s Global China Initiative, financial help might mean “more loans with smaller values under $50 million” and loans with more social and environmental benefits.

Putin speaks at Beijing summit, holds talks with Xi

Elsa Court, The Kyiv Independent news desk
Wed, October 18, 2023


Russian dictator Vladimir Putin spoke at China's Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Oct. 18, as the second speaker after Chinese President Xi Jinping gave his address.

Putin praised the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China's global infrastructure project that aims to connect trade and investment along what was once Silk Road routes.

The summit marks 10 years since the BRI was established. In his opening speech, Xi framed the initiative as an alternative economic model to those established by Western countries.

The BRI is in line with Russian ideas to create a Eurasian partnership, Putin said.

He claimed that Russia, like China and other countries in the world, wants "equal, mutually beneficial cooperation in order to achieve universal sustainable and long-term economic progress."

However, every country has the right to its "own developmental model," he said.

Read also: Russia admits most of its drones come from China

After addressing the summit, the two leaders then held a bilateral meeting. Putin told Xi that "close political coordination is necessary in current difficult times."

Putin is expected to give a press conference later on Oct. 18.

Putin's presence at the summit marks his second trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest over his role in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children in March 2023.

China has yet to address the ICC's arrest warrant for Putin.

His last visit to China was in February 2022, three weeks before he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

While China has officially positioned itself as a neutral party in the war and called for a diplomatic solution, Beijing has not denounced the Kremlin's aggression and has continued to develop close mutual ties.

Economic support from China is crucial for Moscow's funding of its war, as the Russian economy has been isolated by Western sanctions.

Read also: Russia, China and North Korea have new dynamics. And it’s bad for Ukraine

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