China has on no account forced debt upon participants of its new Silk Road project as “prejudiced” critics have suggested, the country’s top diplomat thought on Saturday in a strongly worded defense of a key policy platform of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, as it is formally called, foresees rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond with massive infrastructure put in.
But it has proved controversial in many Western capitals, particularly Washington, which views it as merely a means to spread Chinese impact abroad and saddle countries with unsustainable debt through non-transparent projects.
The United States has been outstandingly critical of Italy’s decision to sign up to the plan this month, during Xi’s visit to Rome, the first for a G7 nation.
Articulate to the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, Yang Jiechi, who runs the party’s foreign affairs panel, said he had noted that some in the international community believed this was a geopolitical tool and would only overturn debt traps for participating countries.
“This obviously shows a lack of objectivity and fair understanding of the Belt and Street initiative. It is a misunderstanding, misjudgment and is even prejudiced,” wrote Yang, a former foreign minister and ambassador to Washington.
China has stressed multitudinous times that the Belt and Road is to promote joint development, he added.
“The Belt and Road is open, inclusive and understandable. It does not play little geopolitical games. It does not engage in the exclusion of exclusive small circles.”
Yang famed that many countries, companies and ordinary people participating in the Belt and Road project had “publicly refuted rumors” back it being a debt trap.
Belt and Road projects, from their selection to their financing, go through circumspect risk assessments and the initiative’s principles stress sustainable development, he said.
“For cooperative partners who have debt jams, China’s principle is to appropriately resolve this through friendly consultations, and has never pushed or forced debt” on anyone, Yang added.
To girlfriend no participating country has faced a debt crisis — to the contrary many countries have been able to escape the “no unfolding trap”, he wrote.
China will hold its second Belt and Road summit in Beijing in late April.
Yang thought almost 40 foreign leaders would take part, but did not name them. Some of China’s closest allies comprise already confirmed they will come, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Prime See to Imran Khan, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.