BRICS & New World Order Thread

[Strangelove]

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Historic summits chart course for China-Arab, GCC ties

Through mutual respect, BRI to further empower pragmatic cooperation

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, Xing Xiaojing in Riyadh and Zhang Han in Beijing Published: Dec 09, 2022 11:08 PM Updated: Dec 09, 2022 11:03 PM

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia at Riyadh’s al-Yamamah Palace in Saudi Arabia on December 8, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders from Arab states and GCC countries on Friday gathered in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, to continue developing bilateral friendliness, chart the course for building a China-Arab community with a shared future and further advance pragmatic cooperation.

Xi's ongoing trip, which includes attendance of the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit, marks great progress in China-Arab relations in terms of mechanism-building as well as a concrete cooperation agenda, observers said.

They held the belief that closer ties between China and the Arab world not only result in contact between two types of civilizations, but will also bring strong impetus to the high-quality development of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and enhance mutual trust and support, which are conducive to regional security and prosperity in a turbulent world facing challenges of geopolitical tensions and economic downturn.

Xi on Friday hailed the first China-Arab States Summit as a milestone in their relations when delivering a speech at the summit.

Xi said at the China-GCC summit that China and states of the GCC are natural partners for cooperation and called on the two sides to be partners in promoting unity, development, security and civilizations.

Xi also proposed five major areas for cooperation in the next three to five years, including energy, finance and investment, innovation and new technologies, as well as aerospace, and language and cultures.

Xi said China will continue to import more crude oil and liquefied natural gas from GCC countries and strengthen co- operation in oil and gas development as well as in clean and low-carbon energy technologies. He also called on the two sides to carry out oil and gas trade settlement in RMB.

Photo:VCG

Unprecedented dialogue

Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, hailed the summits, both of which convened for the first time, as an unprecedented step in leveling up the mechanism of bilateral communication.

The meeting of heads of state will chart the major course of bilateral relations, under which topics ranging from development and prosperity, consolidating consensus of regional and international hot-button issues to the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future can be fully discussed and the consensus can be implemented well, Liu continued.

Xi's latest trip was described by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the largest and highest-level diplomatic event between China and the Arab world since the founding of the People's Republic of China and an "epoch-making milestone" in the history of China-Arab relations.

Arab states' high expectations for the events were seen from the high-level diplomatic protocols and whirlwind of bilateral meetings their leaders held with Xi on the sidelines of the multilateral summits. Western media have also been closely watching these events with some unsubtly calling it a result of the US being distracted from the region.

Ebrahim Hashem, a UAE strategist and former adviser to the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, which is responsible for Abu Dhabi's long-term strategies, told the Global Times that "the Arab-China summit is the most important dialogue in the history of Arab-China relations to date," which will help shape the direction of Arab-China relations for at least the next five to 10 years.

One of the major impressions the Global Times reporters in Riyadh received from remarks by media workers and scholars in Riyadh was their recognition of mutual respect and non-interference.

Hashem noted that mutual trust and respect between the two sides are rapidly growing, driven by similarity in their world views and future visions.

According to Yahya Mahmoud bin Junaid, chairman of the Riyadh-based Center for Research and Intercommunication Knowledge, China does not interfere in the affairs of others and does not impose its values and traditions; therefore, it is welcomed in Arab countries.

Nadia Helmy, an expert in Chinese political affairs and professor of political science at Beni Suef University in Egypt, told the Global Times that China has not taken a biased position in the fierce regional competition in the Middle East. On the other hand, its BRI encourages regional countries to establish partnerships with China, and achieve win-win results.

Chinese analysts noted that the strategic similarities and mutual trust between China and the Arab world laid the foundation for the two sides to not only carry out cooperation in trade and investment, but also increasingly join hands on regional and global governance.

Compared to the US' forceful spread of Western democracy as a viable solution to the region's conflicts, without any tangible success, China's global development and security initiatives were viewed by Arabs as "positive contributions to stabilizing and improving the world system." Regional observers increasingly believe that China can add positive impetus and balance to regional stability and security.

Saudi Arabia, the host of the summits, and some other regional countries, are highly interested in joining China-led multilateral frameworks, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and "BRICS plus," proposed in 2017.

At present, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have become new dialogue partners of the SCO, and Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait are slated to become dialogue partners.

In May,

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chaired the Video Dialogue of Foreign Ministers between BRICS and Emerging Markets and Developing Countries. Many Arab countries participated in the meeting and some have expressed their positive willingness to join the BRICS, Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chen Weiqing told the Global Times in Riyadh.

Cooperation highlights

In his signed article on Saudi media, Xi noted China-Arab relations have entered a new era and registered a series of landmark and groundbreaking achievements in various areas in the past decade.

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[vincent]

A few thoughts about the Chinese-GCC summit

• The Saudis arranged the summit to avoid taking the heat from the Hegemon all by itself.
• China opens another front in the struggle against the Hegemon and its vassals, making them to spent resources to maintain their control in West Asia.
• China is laying the groundwork for a multipolar world by encouraging regional groupings (ASEAN, GCC, Eurasian Economic Union, Union of South American Nations, etc) to grow more consequential and powerful. Dealing with regional groupings will be easier than dealing with them individually since they can resist pressures from the Hegemon better as a group.
• China knows the Hegemon will stir up trouble everywhere as it retreats so to deny its adversaries benefits from the grounds it retreated from (think of the Japs 三光政策 during the Japs invasion of China - scorch earth policy). With regional groups in control of their respective regions, the difficulty of the Hegemon stirring up trouble increases.
• Since China still has much less overt and covert control over other countries, having regional organizations taking care of their own affairs is the next best thing, much like the Hegemon encouraged the independent movements in European colonies after WWII. The European powers lost much of their powers and influences over the world after losing their colonies.
• A stable multipolar world with regional organizations taking care of their own regions is hugely beneficial to China because China doesn’t have to fill the power vacuum left by the Hegemon. China doesn’t have to bear the cost of maintaining hegemony like the current Hegemon does. Without the need to build and maintain military bases all over the world and use overt and covert means to control other countries, China can focus on maintaining its industrial and technological lead over the rest of the world.

 

[vincent]

I believe two actions from the West gave a little push for the GCC's alignment:

• Seizure of Russian assets stored in the West (freeze my ass, Russia will never see the money again)
• Crude oil price cap

The West completely destroyed the trust other countries placed on them for keeping the money safe. The rest of the world tolerated the West seizing assets from small countries because they figured the West would not do it to them. However, the seizure of Russia's state and oligarchs' assets had shown the West are willing to steal just about anyone's money with flimsiest excuse. GCC countries and the rich people must be deeply worry about the same being done to them in the future.

The crude oil price cap is deeply threatening to GCC countries because if the West can do it to Russia, it can do the same to other oil and other commodities producing countries. GCC countries depends on the oil revenue for their survival. Price cap is basically robbery of their assets. On top of that, if the West impose price caps on other commodities producing countries and others countries refused, the West can steal those countries' assets stored in the West, so the end result is the GCC countries and the rich people will get robbed regardless.

Given the above two poorly considered actions by the West, other countries will want to diversify the location of their money to China and other non-Western countries. Given the fact that only China has the real power to resist the West, China is the safest choice.

 

[Strangelove]

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China-Arab ties open a new chapter; influence profound

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, Xing Xiaojing in Riyadh and

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in Beijing Published: Dec 12, 2022 12:26 AM Updated: Dec 11, 2022 10:26 PM

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia at Riyadh’s al-Yamamah Palace in Saudi Arabia on December 8, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday concluded his Saudi Arabia trip, his first to the Middle East region after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was also an unprecedented diplomatic event with the Arab world. The trip has not only yielded fruitful results in economic and trade sense, but also demonstrated that in addition to continuing to play the role of a contributor to regional development, China will also increasingly contribute to peace in the strategically important Middle East, experts noted.

Xi departed Riyadh Saturday after attending the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit and paying a state visit to Saudi Arabia from December 7 to 10.

During his stay in Saudi Arabia, Xi also held bilateral meetings with nearly 20 Arab leaders, said Wang Yi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister, deeming Xi's Mideast trip as China's largest and highest-level diplomatic action with the Arab world since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Calling

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and his meetings with leaders of Saudi Arabia another great pioneering undertaking in China's diplomacy, Wang said it has demonstrated the strategic choice of China and Arab countries to strengthen solidarity and coordination in the face of global challenges.

Fruitful results
Following the first China-Arab States Summit on Friday, the leaders of China and the member states of the Arab League issued the Riyadh Declaration, agreeing to strengthen cooperation and enhance the China-Arab strategic partnership. China and Arab states are committed to deepening China-Arab cooperation in various fields through the mechanisms under the framework of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. The declaration stressed that the Arab states firmly adhere to the one-China principle, support China in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and reaffirm that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territory.

China and states of the GCC also agreed on Friday to strengthen their strategic partnership, issuing a joint statement to stress the importance of taking their strategic partnership into a new era in such fields as politics, economy and culture.

China and Saudi Arabia released a joint statement on the same day affirming to continue making the China-Saudi relationship a priority in their respective foreign relations, and build a model of solidarity and cooperation for mutual benefits among developing countries. The two countries also agreed to enhance the comprehensive strategic partnership to include a biannual meeting between the two heads of state, and upgrade regular high-level talks led by premier level.

"We will continue to work very closely with each other to not just serve the interests of our country, but to serve the interests of world peace and global cooperation,"

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, said responding to a question raised by Global Times reporter during a press conference in Riyadh on Friday evening.

China as Saudi Arabia's main key partner is one of the Kingdom's priorities in the country's foreign policy and Saudi Arabia is very satisfied that it has a strong working relationship with China, the minister said.

China does not engage in advocating for geopolitical small clique and does not make calculation for geopolitical interests, and it treats Arab countries with sincerity, which is widely welcomed by countries in the region, Wang noted. Many leaders of the regional countries said that there is no upper limit for the friendly cooperation with China, he said.

"In my opinion, this visit is a milestone in the history of China-Arab relations, marking the continuous development of China-Arab friendship and ushering in a new era of cooperation and coordination," Firas Fadel Hassan, editor of the Emirates News Agency, told the Global Times.

It has provided an opportunity for leap-forward development of China-Arab relations. The summits emphasized the importance and necessity of strengthening and deepening strategic exchanges and coordination among friendly countries, and are committed to promoting world peace and global development, and safeguard the interests of the Gulf and Arab countries, Hassan said.

China's propositions during the summits will help promote the development of both sides, improve the economic situation, improve the living standards of both Chinese and Arab people, the editor continued. They will promote international trade, enhance China's international image, enhance China's international competitiveness, while promote the development of Arab countries.

Besides the energy sector in which China and the Gulf countries have been deepening cooperation, the two sides agreed to explore cooperation in many new areas especially in cutting-edge technologies such as 5G and 6G, digital economy and space, echoing the trend of the cooperation between China and Arab countries in the future.

"Those milestone summits largely elevate the cooperation mechanisms between China and Arab countries, making the future high-level interactions between the two sides more frequent and more significant," Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The meetings were also unprecedented, attracting nearly all the Arab countries and covering as many areas as possible ranging from trade and economy to culture as well as people-to-people exchange, Liu noted. "They also included strategic coordination including China-proposed Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative, helping China and Arab countries to jointly cope with increasing uncertainties in global governance," he said.

The national flags of China and Saudi Arabia are seen on the street of Riyadh ahead of the China-Arab States Summit on December 7, 2022. Photo: thepaper.cn

Role of China
The West has been closely watching this unprecedented interaction between China and the Middle East region in the past few days as there is inevitable comparison between Xi's visit and the visit of US President Joe Biden in July when he told Arab leaders that the US won't walk away from the Middle East.

Following Xi's visit, Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua would be visiting the United Arab Emirates and Iran in a four-day trip starting on Saturday, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Some Chinese experts believe that besides continuing pushing forward Middle East's development, China will also continue serving as a guardian of peace in the region, especially after the Chinese top leader elaborated on regional security issues ranging from Palestine to Yemen to Libya in the latest joint statements with Arab countries and GCC.

For instance, in the joint statement between China and Saudi Arabia, the two sides agreed on the need to strengthen joint cooperation to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. The two sides also called on Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, maintain the non- proliferation regime, and emphasize respect for the principles of good- neighborliness and non-interference in internal affairs of states.

In the joint statement between China and GCC, when it comes to the issue of the three islands -- the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa - the leaders emphasized their support for all peace efforts, including the initiative and efforts of the UAE for negotiations in line with the norms of the international law.

"In line with China-proposed Global Security Initiative, China is looking to play a constructive role on the security issues in the Middle East, emphasizing on the importance of the solidarity and pushing forward a joint and sustainable security perspective," Liu said.

With the US engaging in a strategic contraction in the Middle East and intensifying competition with China and Russia, the overall ability and willingness of the US to invest in the Middle East also decline but it hopes Middle Eastern countries will cooperate on its strategy in controlling energy prices and imposing sanctions against Russia, some experts said.

"More Middle Eastern countries are avoiding choosing sides, and are adopting a balanced stance among major powers. The latest summits and Saudi Arabia's high-level reception all show that the importance and rising influence of China in the region are indisputable," Liu said.

 

[tphuang]

I believe two actions from the West gave a little push for the GCC's alignment:

• Seizure of Russian assets stored in the West (freeze my ass, Russia will never see the money again)
• Crude oil price cap

The West completely destroyed the trust other countries placed on them for keeping the money safe. The rest of the world tolerated the West seizing assets from small countries because they figured the West would not do it to them. However, the seizure of Russia's state and oligarchs' assets had shown the West are willing to steal just about anyone's money with flimsiest excuse. GCC countries and the rich people must be deeply worry about the same being done to them in the future.

The crude oil price cap is deeply threatening to GCC countries because if the West can do it to Russia, it can do the same to other oil and other commodities producing countries. GCC countries depends on the oil revenue for their survival. Price cap is basically robbery of their assets. On top of that, if the West impose price caps on other commodities producing countries and others countries refused, the West can steal those countries' assets stored in the West, so the end result is the GCC countries and the rich people will get robbed regardless.

Given the above two poorly considered actions by the West, other countries will want to diversify the location of their money to China and other non-Western countries. Given the fact that only China has the real power to resist the West, China is the safest choice.

Yes, you are entirely correct on both points. The west has gotten away with doing whatever it wants for too long. That's why it never bothers to think about the consequences of its actions. That's why this setup extends beyond just oil with Saudis but to gas also with all gcc states. This price cap is deeply threatening to them. What's to prevent the west from enforcing it to other countries if they do something wrong? China is giving them a different option here.

 

[Strangelove]

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Xi of Arabia and the petroyuan drive

Xi Jinping has made an offer difficult for the Arabian Peninsula to ignore: China will be guaranteed buyers of your oil and gas, but we will pay in yuan.

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December 16 2022

Photo Credit: The Cradle


It would be so tempting to qualify Chinese President Xi Jinping landing in Riyadh a week ago, welcomed with royal pomp and circumstance, as Xi of Arabia proclaiming the dawn of the petroyuan era.

But it’s more complicated than that. As much as the seismic shift implied by the petroyuan move applies, Chinese diplomacy is way too sophisticated to engage in direct confrontation, especially with a wounded, ferocious Empire. So there’s way more going here than meets the (Eurasian) eye.

Xi of Arabia’s announcement was a prodigy of finesse: it was packaged as the internationalization of the yuan. From now on, Xi said, China will use the yuan for oil trade, through the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange, and invited the Persian Gulf monarchies to get on board. Nearly 80 percent of trade in the global oil market continues to be priced in US dollars.
Ostensibly, Xi of Arabia, and his large Chinese delegation of officials and business leaders, met with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to promote increased trade. Beijing promised to “import crude oil in a consistent manner and in large quantities from the GCC.” And the same goes for natural gas.

China has been the largest importer of crude on the planet for five years now – half of it from the Arabian peninsula, and more than a quarter from Saudi Arabia. So it’s no wonder that the prelude for Xi of Arabia’s lavish welcome in Riyadh was a

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expanding the trading scope, and praising increased strategic/commercial partnerships across the GCC, complete with “5G communications, new energy, space and digital economy.”

Foreign Minister Wang Yi

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on the “strategic choice” of China and wider Arabia. Over $30 billion in trade deals were duly signed – quite a few significantly connected to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects.

And that brings us to the two key connections established by Xi of Arabia: the BRI and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The Silk Roads of Arabia

BRI will get a serious boost by Beijing in 2023, with the return of the Belt and Road Forum. The first two bi-annual forums took place in 2017 and 2019. Nothing happened in 2021 because of China’s strict zero-Covid policy, now abandoned for all practical purposes.
The year 2023 is pregnant with meaning as BRI was first launched 10 years ago by Xi, first in Central Asia (Astana) and then Southeast Asia (Jakarta).

BRI not only embodies a complex, multi-track trans-Eurasian trade/connectivity drive but it is the overarching Chinese foreign policy concept at least until the mid-21st century. So the 2023 forum is expected to bring to the forefront a series of new and redesigned projects adapted to a post-Covid and debt-distressed world, and most of all to the loaded Atlanticism vs. Eurasianism geopolitical and geoeconomic sphere.

Also significantly, Xi of Arabia in December followed Xi of Samarkand in September – his first post-Covid overseas trip, for the SCO summit in which Iran officially joined as a full member. China and Iran in 2021 clinched a 25-year strategic partnership deal worth a potential $400 billion in investments. That’s the other node of China’s two-pronged West Asia strategy.

The nine permanent SCO members now represent 40 percent of the world’s population. One of their key decisions in Samarkand was to increase bilateral trade, and overall trade, in their own currencies.

And that further connects us to what has happening in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in full synchronicity with Riyadh: the meeting of the Supreme Eurasia Economic Council, the policy implementation arm of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Kyrgyzstan, could not have been

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: “The work has accelerated in the transition to national currencies in mutual settlements… The process of creating a common payment infrastructure and integrating national systems for the transmission of financial information has begun.”

The next Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will take place in Russia in May 2023, ahead of the Belt and Road Forum. Take them together and we have the lineaments of the geoeconomic road map ahead: the drive towards the petroyuan proceeding in parallel to the drive towards a “common paying infrastructure” and most of all, a new alternative currency bypassing the US dollar.

That’s exactly what the head of the EAEU’s macroeconomic policy,

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, has been designing, side by side with Chinese specialists.

Total Financial War

The move towards the petroyuan will be fraught with immense peril.

In every serious geoeconomic gaming scenario, it’s a given that an enfeebled petrodollar translates as the end of the imperial free lunch in effect for over five decades.

Concisely, in 1971, then-US President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon pulled the US from the gold standard; three years later, after the 1973 oil shock, Washington approached the Saudi oil minister, notorious Sheikh Yamani, with the proverbial offer-you-can’t-refuse: we buy your oil in US dollars and in return you buy our Treasury bonds, lots of weapons, and recycle whatever’s left in our banks.
Cue to Washington now suddenly able to dispense helicopter money – backed by nothing – ad infinitum, and the US dollar as the ultimate hegemonic weapon, complete with an array of sanctions over 30 nations who dare to disobey the unilaterally imposed “rules-based international order.”

Impulsively rocking this imperial boat is anathema. So Beijing and the GCC will adopt the petroyuan slowly but surely, and certainly with zero fanfare. The heart of the matter, once again, is their mutual exposure to the Western financial casino.

In the Chinese case, what to do, for instance, with those whopping $1 trillion in US Treasury bonds. In the Saudi case, it’s hard to think about “strategic autonomy” – such as what’s enjoyed by Iran – when the petrodollar is a staple of the Western financial system. The menu of possible imperial reactions includes everything from a soft coup/ regime change to Shock and Awe over Riyadh – followed by regime change.

Yet what the Chinese – and the Russians – are aiming at goes way beyond a Saudi (and Emirati) predicament. Beijing and Moscow have clearly identified how everything – the oil market, global commodities markets – is tied to the role of the US dollar as reserve currency.
And that’s exactly what the EAEU discussions; the SCO discussions; from now on the BRICS+ discussions; and Beijing’s two-pronged strategy across West Asia are focused to undermine.

Beijing and Moscow, within the BRICS framework, and further on within the SCO and the EAEU, have been closely coordinating their strategy since the first sanctions on Russia post-Maidan 2014, and the de facto trade war against China unleashed in 2018.

Now, after the February 2022 Special Military Operation launched by Moscow in Ukraine and NATO has devolved into, for all practical purposes, war against Russia, we have stepped beyond Hybrid War territory and are deep into Total Financial War.

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[Strangelove]

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Special report: BRI takes hold with inspiring breakthroughs in 2022 despite global downturn

New chapter of BRI to unfold next year, serving as ‘an anchor of stability’ to the world: observers

By GT staff reporters Published: Dec 22, 2022 08:46 PM Updated: Dec 22, 2022 08:43 PM

A view of the China-Laos Railway in Yuxi, Southwest China's Yunnan Province Photo: VCG

Jakarta-Bandung HSR


Chen Yi, a senior executive of the China Railway No.4 Engineering Group, can still easily recall his excitement when a test train on the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR) slowly rolled out the train station and entered trial operations in November.
It marked a landmark step in the development of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) this year, amid the fallout of epidemic, supply chain disruptions and numerous hurdles posed by unfavorable geographic conditions.
The HSR connects Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and its fourth-largest city Bandung, capital of West Java province, one of the world’s most heavily populated regions. Covering a potential population of 40 million people, it will cut travel time between the two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.


According to Chen, about 93 percent of the project has been completed so far, compared with 90 percent in mid-November.
“Construction is entering the rainy season but we’re carrying out the project as planned,” Chen said, noting that the HSR is expected to be fully operational by the middle of next year.

The year of 2023 is not only the momentum year for the implementation of the signature BRI project, but it also marks the 10th anniversary of BRI, serving as an important junction point that heralds a new chapter of development of the mega infrastructure program.

At the just-concluded annual Central Economic Work Conference last week, China has fleshed out a number of policy objectives for next year, including promoting the high-quality development of the BRI, which observers said signals an unwavering commitment of the world’s second-largest economy to continuing facilitating global connectivity and injecting a new vigor of growth to the world, based on the concrete results achieved in the past nine years.

Chinese and foreign scholars expect the BRI to function as “an anchor of stability” next year, as the world will confront escalating geopolitical risks, spiraling upward financial fluctuation and intensifying power plays between great powers. The initiative is envisioned to provide a reliable cooperation platform and a window of opportunities for sustainable development, in particular to developing countries that could be beset by hyper inflation, debt woes and energy shortage.

A pivotal year

“It is expected that the world’s financial system will continue facing major issues, such as a heightened inflation. That means the central banks of major developed economies will vacillate between efforts to contain inflation through quantitative tightening, which risks bankruptcies and capital flight out of the emerging markets, and quantitative easing, which again increases inflation. Any country that looks to dilute the combined effect should scale up BRI cooperation,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Germany-based think tank Schiller Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to Zepp-LaRouche, the next stage of BRI development will still implement major infrastructure corridor and projects, but pivot to people-centric ones such as those contributing to local poverty alleviation and eradication.

“Further new projects will be carried out through a Public-Private Partnership approach and be linked with trade promotion, industrial development, and employment creation,” Maya Majueran, director of Belt&Road Initiative Sri Lanka (BRISL), a Sri Lanka-based organization that specializes in BRI cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Anchoring the overarching goal of promoting high-quality BRI cooperation, Chinese enterprises have also planned to gear up presence in new emerging sectors such as green economy, new energy and tech innovation as well as services.
China Oilfield Services, a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, told the Global Times on Thursday it will actively promote green energy cooperation as a new growth point in the next decade. For example, there have been soaring demands for exploring oil and natural gas resource in “greener way” in Latin American countries such as Mexico, so the company has drawn up plans to bring clean energy equipment and intelligent information system to the local markets.
There are also plenty of spaces to expand energy cooperation with Latin America economies along the BRI route, the company said, aiming to integrate more into oilfield service markets in Argentina, Brazil, and Guyana in 2023 based on its firm foothold established in Mexico.

“We will improve the quality and efficiency of our service [in Latin America], and provide a one-stop service across the industrial chain,” the company said.

Analysts also stressed that alongside the development of BRI, the yuan’s internalization will embark on a new journey over the next 10 years, embracing an unprecedented opportunity that will drastically increase its role in global payments.

Stable development

The business community and enterprises agreed that “stability” is the keyword featuring the development of BRI this year, as flagship projects under the initiative did not show signs of retreating despite global economic downturn, rather a number of BRI infrastructure corridors – including the Jakarta-Bandung HSR – brace and consolidate impressive breakthroughs.

On December 3, the China-Laos Railway celebrated its first full-year anniversary of opening. Being hailed as the “road of happiness, development and friendship,” the railway has transported 8.5 million passengers and 11.2 million tons of cargo during the past year, building itself into the “golden passage” in Southeast Asia.

The China-Europe freight train, a key BRI logistic network connecting China with the European continent, has also become a pillar of bilateral trade, helping a flotilla of trading companies to maintain smooth supply chains at a time when pandemic was causing crippling bottlenecks on ocean freight routes.
In August, the number of trains has hit the 10,000th milestone. According to data from China Railway, a total of 15,162 China-Europe freight trains ran between January and November, transporting 1.48 million standard containers of commodities, up 10 percent and 11 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Observers said that those BRI projects are vivid display of how the initiative has earned attractiveness and gradually built up global reputation after being first proposed in 2013.
“Through job creation, economic elevation, industrial grade and technological transfer, the BRI has proven itself being a better, cost-effective choice to the world. It is also a manifest of China’s commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind,” Liang Haiming, dean of the Belt and Road Institute at Hainan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

 

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[Strangelove]

Mispost... should be in SE Asia economics thread.

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BRI projects will help Cambodia become an upper-middle income country: Cambodian expert

Aerial photo shows the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway project in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia, June 24, 2022. /Xinhua

A Cambodian researcher said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects will be a contributor to the economic growth in Cambodia and in the region in the post-pandemic COVID-19 era and will help Cambodia achieve its ambitious goal of becoming an upper-middle income country by 2030 and a high-income country in 2050.

Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center, said "BRI projects such as airports, electric power plants, manufacturing bases, and expressways are crucial for the integration of the Cambodian economy with other economies of the world."

His remarks come after a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a China-funded river bridge on Monday, which Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said injected vital impetus into Cambodia's socioeconomic development.

"Cambodia is among the first supporters of the BRI," he said. "Cambodia and other countries in the region have benefited a lot from the BRI."

Aerial photo shows the entrance of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) in Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia, July 19, 2022. /Xinhua

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian said 2023 marks the BRI's 10th anniversary, adding that in the last 10 years, China and Cambodia had achieved remarkable results in their pragmatic cooperation under the BRI's framework.

He said through the initiative, China has supported a number of mega-projects in the development of roads, bridges and power transmission lines, among others.

He pointed out that the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, the flagship project of China-Cambodia cooperation under the BRI, has been making progress steadily.

"A large number of enterprises have settled in the zone, which has created more than 30,000 jobs for locals and contributed to the socioeconomic development in Cambodia," Wang said.

Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said the BRI is a driving force to continue expanding cooperation among countries in the region and the world at large for the cause of peace, security, prosperity and sustainable development.

"It is becoming the new engine of global economic growth in the post-pandemic era," he said.

Vehicles line up at a toll station on the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, October 8, 2022. /Xinhua

Besides Cambodia, other Southeast Asian nations such as Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia have also greatly benefited from the BRI, Matthews said, illustrating the China-Laos Railway, which connects Kunming in China's Yunnan Province with Lao capital Vientiane, as a boon not only for both countries but also for other Southeast Asian nations.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, said the BRI has not only brought enormous advantages to all participating countries, but also become a long-term strategy to promote connectivity and cooperation in all fields such as infrastructure, economy, investment, and finance, and to strengthen people-to-people bonds.

"Every country stands to benefit from the BRI, of course at different levels, depending on their participation," he told Xinhua. "Through our observation, we see that the BRI has very positive impact on Cambodian economic growth."

The BRI, a reference to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was initiated by China in 2013 to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

 

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Special report: BRI takes hold with inspiring breakthroughs in 2022 despite global downturn

New chapter of BRI to unfold next year, serving as ‘an anchor of stability’ to the world: observers

By GT staff reporters Published: Dec 22, 2022 08:46 PM Updated: Dec 22, 2022 08:43 PM

A view of the China-Laos Railway in Yuxi, Southwest China's Yunnan Province Photo: VCG

Jakarta-Bandung HSR


Chen Yi, a senior executive of the China Railway No.4 Engineering Group, can still easily recall his excitement when a test train on the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR) slowly rolled out the train station and entered trial operations in November.
It marked a landmark step in the development of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) this year, amid the fallout of epidemic, supply chain disruptions and numerous hurdles posed by unfavorable geographic conditions.
The HSR connects Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and its fourth-largest city Bandung, capital of West Java province, one of the world’s most heavily populated regions. Covering a potential population of 40 million people, it will cut travel time between the two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.


According to Chen, about 93 percent of the project has been completed so far, compared with 90 percent in mid-November.
“Construction is entering the rainy season but we’re carrying out the project as planned,” Chen said, noting that the HSR is expected to be fully operational by the middle of next year.

The year of 2023 is not only the momentum year for the implementation of the signature BRI project, but it also marks the 10th anniversary of BRI, serving as an important junction point that heralds a new chapter of development of the mega infrastructure program.

At the just-concluded annual Central Economic Work Conference last week, China has fleshed out a number of policy objectives for next year, including promoting the high-quality development of the BRI, which observers said signals an unwavering commitment of the world’s second-largest economy to continuing facilitating global connectivity and injecting a new vigor of growth to the world, based on the concrete results achieved in the past nine years.

Chinese and foreign scholars expect the BRI to function as “an anchor of stability” next year, as the world will confront escalating geopolitical risks, spiraling upward financial fluctuation and intensifying power plays between great powers. The initiative is envisioned to provide a reliable cooperation platform and a window of opportunities for sustainable development, in particular to developing countries that could be beset by hyper inflation, debt woes and energy shortage.

A pivotal year

“It is expected that the world’s financial system will continue facing major issues, such as a heightened inflation. That means the central banks of major developed economies will vacillate between efforts to contain inflation through quantitative tightening, which risks bankruptcies and capital flight out of the emerging markets, and quantitative easing, which again increases inflation. Any country that looks to dilute the combined effect should scale up BRI cooperation,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Germany-based think tank Schiller Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to Zepp-LaRouche, the next stage of BRI development will still implement major infrastructure corridor and projects, but pivot to people-centric ones such as those contributing to local poverty alleviation and eradication.

“Further new projects will be carried out through a Public-Private Partnership approach and be linked with trade promotion, industrial development, and employment creation,” Maya Majueran, director of Belt&Road Initiative Sri Lanka (BRISL), a Sri Lanka-based organization that specializes in BRI cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Anchoring the overarching goal of promoting high-quality BRI cooperation, Chinese enterprises have also planned to gear up presence in new emerging sectors such as green economy, new energy and tech innovation as well as services.
China Oilfield Services, a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, told the Global Times on Thursday it will actively promote green energy cooperation as a new growth point in the next decade. For example, there have been soaring demands for exploring oil and natural gas resource in “greener way” in Latin American countries such as Mexico, so the company has drawn up plans to bring clean energy equipment and intelligent information system to the local markets.
There are also plenty of spaces to expand energy cooperation with Latin America economies along the BRI route, the company said, aiming to integrate more into oilfield service markets in Argentina, Brazil, and Guyana in 2023 based on its firm foothold established in Mexico.

“We will improve the quality and efficiency of our service [in Latin America], and provide a one-stop service across the industrial chain,” the company said.

Analysts also stressed that alongside the development of BRI, the yuan’s internalization will embark on a new journey over the next 10 years, embracing an unprecedented opportunity that will drastically increase its role in global payments.

Stable development

The business community and enterprises agreed that “stability” is the keyword featuring the development of BRI this year, as flagship projects under the initiative did not show signs of retreating despite global economic downturn, rather a number of BRI infrastructure corridors – including the Jakarta-Bandung HSR – brace and consolidate impressive breakthroughs.

On December 3, the China-Laos Railway celebrated its first full-year anniversary of opening. Being hailed as the “road of happiness, development and friendship,” the railway has transported 8.5 million passengers and 11.2 million tons of cargo during the past year, building itself into the “golden passage” in Southeast Asia.

The China-Europe freight train, a key BRI logistic network connecting China with the European continent, has also become a pillar of bilateral trade, helping a flotilla of trading companies to maintain smooth supply chains at a time when pandemic was causing crippling bottlenecks on ocean freight routes.
In August, the number of trains has hit the 10,000th milestone. According to data from China Railway, a total of 15,162 China-Europe freight trains ran between January and November, transporting 1.48 million standard containers of commodities, up 10 percent and 11 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Observers said that those BRI projects are vivid display of how the initiative has earned attractiveness and gradually built up global reputation after being first proposed in 2013.
“Through job creation, economic elevation, industrial grade and technological transfer, the BRI has proven itself being a better, cost-effective choice to the world. It is also a manifest of China’s commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind,” Liang Haiming, dean of the Belt and Road Institute at Hainan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

I heard the success of the China-Laos Railway has been a huge motivating factor for Thailand and Myanmar to get their respective projects completed. I think I remember seeing an estimate that the Laos railway could increase said country's GDP growth by 1.6% in 2023 (previously projected to grow 3%, an over 50% increase).

It's a perfect illustration of the BRI strategy- you can either hop on the development train or see all of your regional rivals leapfrog you by light years. Hopefully it'll convince the Philippines as well.