Arterial-like highways and colossal ports emerging from the African and Southeast Asian earth convert the Chinese BRI proposal into a beautiful image of the glowing future. However, the latter is still far from being completed, which already allows referring to this process as a global one and speaking about its trillion-dollar scale. Every country in the world today enjoys the opportunities offered by supplementary infrastructural complexes while there is another one that is immersed in the obligations of accumulated debt. The now-called BRI has a clear vision in front of it, which is the new Silk Road, and it is regarded as a “double-sided blanket” that shows potential benefits with threats almost on the same level.
The BRI was adopted in 2013 by China’s President, Xi Jinping, when he proposed a vast undertaking to forge a reconstruction of ancient trade routes that connected China through Asia, Africa, Europe, and other parts of the world. By 2020, China had invested around $770 billion in more than 60 countries for highways, railways, and ports. This plan was useful in that it enabled many nations to improve their infrastructure, but it has been associated with issues related to debt, impacts on the environment, and sovereignty.
The BRI can become a breakthrough in development, but it has large risks. The main problems of many developing countries while striving to develop their infrastructure include excessive debt and subordination of their policies to other countries. The positive impacts generated by the BRI are obvious; however, the negative ones must be perceived as well.
The BRI has some major objectives for China. Economically, this goal’s intention is to market more Chinese goods globally as well as balance the global supply and demand system. Thus, by erecting infrastructure in other countries, China can export its surplus products, which will address the country’s issue. On a political level, it enhances political cooperation between China and the countries in the BRI list and could make those countries more reliant on China. It also helps safeguard key lanes and favours China’s sustainability and security in the longer term. Namely, the BRI affords China a new economic niche, consolidates political influence, and provides a total strategic advantage, all unified for the purpose of the country’s economic and political gain. Overall, the BRI provides China with economic opportunities, political power, and strategic advantages, benefiting both its economy and global standing.
For developing nations, the BRI holds the following opportunities. Perhaps the most measurable is the construction of infrastructure because the projects the BRI funded have enhanced transport systems and market accessibility. For instance, the construction and development of modern railways and highways in countries like Pakistan and Kenya have promoted general trade efficiency and consequently brought about a lowering of overall logistics costs.
Economically, it is believed that the BRI acts as a driver of economic growth because it connects developing countries to the global market, thus expanding their market access and investment. Also, through its projects, the BRI brings employment opportunities, thus complementing the growth of employment deficits and the general economy. Another benefit is the transfer of technology since developed nations transfer new technologies in construction and engineering, which creates skills development and future returns for the developing nations’ economies.
The novelty of this strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), can be seen as both a positive and a challenge to developing countries. This has to do with the level of dependency on debt to fund activities as opposed to equity securities. Some of these countries experienced debt traps because of costly credit from China; thus, they become indebted and confined to their creditors’ bondage.
There are questions about sovereignty since, with the financing of infrastructure by the BRI, there may be assets and infrastructure handed over to Chinese companies. This can be disadvantageous to national sovereignty in the sense that core infrastructure, such as ports and railways, can therefore be owned by foreign entities, which in turn hampers the sovereign nation’s capacity to efficiently manage this infrastructure.
Environmental and social impacts are other serious issues. Most of the infrastructure development projects, such as dams and roads that are linked to the BRI, come with environmental impacts such as deforestation, displacement of animals’ natural habitats, and other negative effects on the environment. In the same manner, these projects can have adverse socio-economic impacts, such as social dislocation and disruption of people’s livelihoods, which have potentially undesirable cumulative impacts on the environment and people in the long run.
Last but not least, critics opine that the BRI may well further escalate geopolitical rivalry. Liberal and globalist critics have argued that developing countries, in search of loans and investment from China, could be put in a situation where they are at the mercy of China and other large world powers. This could lead to the fomenting of instabilities and a changing of the guard on the international sphere with China as the new invulnerable superpower.
Through the BRI, many changes have occurred in Pakistan. The establishment of the CPEC is among the most notable achievements brought about by the BRI. Highways and rail transport provide improved trade facilities, which have led to an increase in economic returns by cutting transportation costs. The recent construction of Gwadar Port has also provided access to a larger market, besides offering employment to the people of Pakistan.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka remains a case with more negative than positive findings. The Hambantota Port incurred an immensely large debt due to the loan taken from China, thus turning into a burden. Failing to repay the loan, Sri Lanka handed over the port to a Chinese company on a 99-year lease, which raised issues of sovereignty and overdependence on another country’s loans. This case demonstrates the problems of incurring debt and the inability to manage key assets.
Emerging nations have to consider the opportunities of the BRI together with its threats, which are interconnected by the necessity to choose between the ways of development and the ways of exposure. Hence, for countries to reap significant benefits, they should diversify their sources of funds, cut their dependence on Chinese funding, and improve governance to allow fair negotiations. Concerns about debt and assessing longer-term consequences on dependence and the environment can help avoid threats while leveraging infrastructure upgrades and boosting economic development possibilities.
Summing up, it can be stated that the BRI, being beneficial for developing countries through infrastructure cooperation and economic diversification, opens the spectre of risks for these states. The opportunities of greater connections and development are equally dangerous with factors such as burgeoning debt, sovereignty subjection, and ecological degradation. This is why it is imperative for policymakers, international organizations, and civil society to manage these risks and ensure that the BRI becomes an instrument that creates fair conditions for further development of all the countries engaged in its implementation.
As the Belt and Road Initiative reshapes infrastructure and economies worldwide, its dual-edged nature underscores a pivotal question: What challenges and opportunities does the development of dependent and indebted relationships pose to the developing world? The difference is that the fact itself is the challenge not only to manage the short-term benefits but also to protect sovereignty and the future. While this global venture persists, its profound effect on the standards of sustainable development or geopolitical stability can hardly be determined at the moment.
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