Good news for Djibouti. China promises new direction for One Belt One Road in response to criticisms

[Crow]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas...for-belt-and-road-after-criticism-11556249652

China’s Xi Vows New Direction for ‘Belt and Road’ After Criticism
Xi pledges to ensure financial sustainability of infrastructure projects following complaints they saddle countries with burdensome debt

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony for the Belt and Road forum in Beijing on Friday.

BEIJING—Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled a recalibration of his global infrastructure program, pledging to curb corruption and control lending that has drawn criticism from developing economies.

Opening a two-day meeting in Beijing with leaders from some three dozen countries, Mr. Xi said Friday that China would enhance transparency and ensure financial sustainability in his signature Belt and Road Initiative.

The comments mark a softening of the triumphalist tone Mr. Xi’s government has used to promote the program, which has stirred disquiet at home and abroad. Foreign critics have blamed Belt and Road—Mr. Xi’s vision for updating ancient Silk Road trading routes—for heaping onerous debt onto participating countries, while some Chinese say Beijing’s assertive diplomacy has generated international pushback.

“Everything should be done in a transparent way, and we should have a zero tolerance for corruption,” Mr. Xi said. He promised a “debt-sustainability framework” for Belt and Road projects and to encourage compliance with international standards in infrastructure contracting.

Mr. Xi invited foreign and private-sector partners to contribute more funding, a contrast to his pledges of Chinese financing in a similar speech two years ago.

Beijing is fine-tuning Belt and Road, according to Zhang Zhexin, an analyst at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. Its initial presentation was too broad and too loud, he said, and participating countries—often in distress—saw the program as a source of easy money from China.

“China just doesn’t have the resources to fulfill everyone’s demand,” Mr. Zhang said.

First pitched in 2013 as a platform to spur global development, the Belt and Road initiative has pushed China’s massive construction, telecommunications and shipping companies to go global as a cooling domestic economy reduces business at home.

Beijing envisions the rebooted Silk Road as a global network of ports, roads, railways, pipelines and industrial parks, largely built by Chinese companies and using at least $400 billion in funding from government-run banks. But as the program ballooned beyond infrastructure construction, Western officials—including from the U.S., which snubbed Friday’s event—blamed it for advancing opaque financial deals that give Beijing political leverage by burdening countries with debt to China.

Some governments in Asia and Africa have suspended, scrapped or renegotiated projects. This month, Beijing cut its price for a multibillion-dollar railway in Malaysia by roughly a third, reviving a project that had been stalled by concerns over debt and corruption.

China’s souring loans to countries such as Venezuela—whose fiscal crisis has heightened Chinese concerns over high-risk lending—have created blowback at home as well. “They could be trying to temper expectations for multiple reasons,” said Bradley Parks, executive director of The College of William & Mary’s AidData project, which tracks China’s footprint of global lending. “It’s not just rhetoric, they’re genuinely concerned.”

A bridge along the China-Laos Railway under construction on the Mekong River in the Laotian province of Luang Prabang last year. The Belt and Road initiative includes plans to connect Southeast Asian countries to China by high-speed rail.

As criticism has built over the past year or so, Beijing has de-emphasized big-ticket infrastructure projects in its Belt and Road publicity and stepped up pledges to ensure sustainable lending and fight graft. As part of the oversight effort, Chinese officials have been negotiating with foreign governments to draw up lists of official Belt and Road projects, people familiar with the matter said.

Ahead of Mr. Xi’s speech at the Belt and Road Forum, which runs until Saturday, Chinese officials appeared at side seminars to stress their attention to financial risks in the program and their desire to attract private-sector money.

“A country’s total debt capacity should be taken into account,” Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, told a Thursday seminar. He said that “private lending should be the mainstay” in financing projects to achieve sustainable development.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde welcomed the shift in tone, telling the forum after Mr. Xi’s speech that the initiative could “benefit from increased transparency, open procurement with competitive bidding and better risk assessment in project selection.”

The foreign leaders at the forum—some 37, up from 29 at the inaugural session two years ago—include the presidents of Russia and Switzerland, as well as the prime ministers of Pakistan and Italy, which recently became the first Western power to formally sign on to the Belt and Road.

Ten of this year’s participating leaders come from countries that the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a vehicle for American overseas financing, lists as restricted places to do business.

Many Western powers, including Germany, France and Britain, sent only government ministers to Beijing. The Trump administration didn’t send any senior officials—a downgrading from 2017, when a White House adviser on Asian affairs attended. California dispatched its lieutenant governor to talk about climate change.

In his speech, Mr. Xi appeared to answer U.S.-led criticism of his economic policies. He reiterated pledges to boost imports, give foreign companies more opportunities to do business and keep China’s currency stable—echoing Beijing’s offers in its trade talks with Washington.

Despite the more circumspect public messaging, Chinese officials appeared highhanded to some foreign diplomats during preparatory meetings for the forum, people familiar with the process said.

In meetings to draft a communiqué for Mr. Xi’s Saturday summit with foreign leaders, a Chinese diplomat chastised some negotiators, especially European officials, after they pressed for references to best practices in business and investment, as well as human rights, the people familiar with the process said.

Guo Xuejun, a deputy director-general at China’s Foreign Ministry who chaired the meetings, accused the negotiators of showing disdain for Mr. Xi and China. He dismissed European requests for references to reciprocity as “American language,” referring to similar U.S. demands in trade talks with China, the people said.

“Remind me to disinvite your president,” Mr. Guo said at one point, according to the people, who said Chinese officials lodged diplomatic complaints against countries that sought amendments it disliked. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Also, Italy joined last month and UK has pledged support just this week. Hopefully more cadaan involvement will temper these greedy mongols.

 

[Crow]

Also this week, China canceled some debt for Ethiopia.
https://www.africanews.com/2019/04/...-interest-free-loans-pm-in-beijing-for-forum/

China has cancelled all interest-free loans it had advanced to Ethiopia as at the end of year 2018, the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office confirmed on Wednesday.

Analysts estimate that since 2000 Ethiopia has borrowed over $12bn from China – including funding for the Addis Ababa – Djibouti electric railway line linking the country with Djibouti, its main import / export route.

They also forgave a bit of debt for Cameroon earlier this year.

China in January 2019 forgave Cameroon about $78 million in debt. The move according to Beijing was part of support to help ease economic hardship in the central African country.

The announcement was made after a meeting between President Paul Biya and Yang Jiechi, a special representative of the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Yaounde.

The said amount was due to be repaid in 2018 as part of the country’s estimated $5.7bn total debt burden. The figure is from the public body managing Cameroon’s external debt.

Analysts have, however, expressed reservations about Beijing’s motives with an economist averring that it may be linked to annexing greater access to natural resources.

They seem to be moving in a positive direction but I still don't trust them.

 

[Timo Jareer and proud]

China should do a favour and screw off from my land. We don't need this qashiin in Djibouti. Puppet leaders wallahi the Afars should have won the civil war.

 

[CanoGeel]

China should do a favour and screw off from my land. We don't need this qashiin in Djibouti. Puppet leaders wallahi the Afars should have won the civil war.

China is a bulwark against Desert dweller hegemony for Djibouti. If djibouti threads carefully it can outfox everyone and emerge as one of the biggest players in the world because of its geographic location.

If IOG stops hoarding and looting the money and introduces good governance, he will be the one of the greatest leaders in the world on par with Lee Kuan Yew of singapore but I dont expect that from soixante huit QI Issa from that. God help us.

 

[Shaolin23]

f*ck China