China's Belt and Road Initiative is bringing new risks to Europe
www.euronews.com
China’s grand vision of the world-changing BRI may have not been realised, but something else is emerging in its wake — a powerful lever to bend authoritarian-leaning countries toward Chinese interests, Elaine Dezenski writes. #EuropeNews

“Hungary’s willingness to enter security arrangements with Xi Jinping and do the bidding of Vladimir Putin while, simultaneously, maintain membership in NATO and the EU is deeply troubling and presents an existential crisis for those alliances,” writes Elaine Dezenski, senior director and head of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in the U.S.

The €3.8 billion Serbia-Hungary railway project, financed by Chinese loans under the BRI, is expected to be completed by 2025, but some estimates suggest that it will take a further 979 years — or nearly a millennium — for Hungary to break even on the project.

Hungary’s BRI issues are not unique. As described in a new report on the BRI, “Tightening the Belt or End of the Road”, many BRI projects around the world face serious challenges, from hydroelectric dams with thousands of cracks in Ecuador, to promised infrastructure that was never built in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to massive debt distress in Zambia.

“Despite the problems for host countries and the large portfolio of failing loans for China, Beijing has still been successful at building influence across authoritarian-leaning regimes, who are eager to follow the Chinese model of single-party state control and high-tech domestic repression,” Dezenski says…

While Western states have awoken to the risk of overreliance on Chinese supply lines, Hungarian officials are taking the opposite approach, going so far as to call de-risking suicidal.

This position, however, doesn’t impact Hungary alone. The entire EU market is open to Chinese manipulations through the Hungarian economy, such as dumping of cheap goods to prop up the failing Chinese economy or undermining domestic European industries with subsidised competitors.

As German chemical giant BASF seeks to disengage from China’s Xinjiang region, leaked documents indicate that China is planning to build a chemical hub in Hungary.

  • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    32·
    9 months ago

    I can imagine this kind of thought from the Europe and the US. But many of the countries in Asia, at least from South East Asia, don’t see it that way. Although some these countries have territorial disputes With China, diplomatically and economically they are very close. One of the big reasons is they have a policy of ‘enriching your neighbours’ where if the neighbouring countries are prosperous, then by ripple effect the country itself will prosper.

    I know I’ll get downvoted for stating this, as it has always been before. My intention is just to explain that the world is bigger than what evolve around us, and not everyone thinks the same. It better to understand the complexity and study why rather than making a generalized statement.

    • taanegl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      9 months ago

      Yeah, I think the milk tea alliance would disagree with you. Don’t conflate overwhelmed compliance with neutral coexistence. That’s just rhetorically dishonest.

      • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        12·
        9 months ago

        I stated before of ‘diplomatic and economic relarionships’ as that what usually dictate how the country move forward. In a simple words, the ASEAN governments don’t see China as a threat to their economic growth. This is different that the way EU see China - seeing as enemy that will directly jeopardise their economy. You just need to read the title of this post to simply acknowledge that.

        Yes, the milk tea alliance will definitely disagree with me. In some Asean countries, democracy has been suppressed, e.g. in Myanmar and in notable but lesser extend and longer period in Thailand. We can see that China has been backing these countries and logically will be seen as enemy by the citizens that has been suppressed. However, I don’t think things would change much. The ASEAN leaders still consider China as important towards the stability of the region, and ASEAN has a policy to turn a blind eye on what domestically happens in its member countries, unless its very serious like in Myanmar. So, as long as each members remains friendly to each other, nothing much would change - business as usual.

        • taanegl@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Dear sir, “backing” is doing a lot of legwork for compliance. It would be silly to acknowledge US imperialism and ignore China’s Belt and road imperialism. We know the playbook, it’s been done. Soft power above hard power, and so it goes. The only difference is those manufactured islands that are designed to expand China’s landmass, which is at the very least original.

          I wonder what you think about the Chinese concept of the “central kingdom”… not the “middle kingdom”, which is a dishonest translation, but the murmurs made by Chinese officials and party members everytime they dream or usurping US imperialism to become new the imperial force.

          As a European, both can get fucked. No lie, I don’t want any unsanctioned police station in my country. If I find out that’s actually a thing, there’s a couple of molotov cocktails with the Chinese embassy’s name on it, because not even the yanks go that far.

          • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            It would be silly to acknowledge US imperialism and ignore China’s Belt and road imperialism.

            I don’t ignore China’s act. In fact I acknowledge both. It’s normal that some powerful countries would want to exert control upon others. The question is their methodologies and how long can they sustain the approval.

            The only difference is those manufactured islands that are designed to expand China’s landmass

            Yeah, none of the SEA countries are happy with this. But they’re dependent on the relationship and they don’t have the capacity to resist. The best they can do is, “We’ll solve this diplomatically”. I think what’s currently happen with Philippines with will set the precedence for the future as they have gone beyond just claiming the territory.

            I wonder what you think about the Chinese concept of the “central kingdom”…

            I don’t know much about this. need to read more on this.

            BTW, in no such way that I say that I supported what China does. But I try to convey the sentiment towards them is not just one sided. You’re knowledgeable enough that you understand this, but some people are in denial that they think that the whole world is united to go against the oppressive China when in reality China has been slowly gaining support in non-traditional places such as in African continent for example (let’s not touch about it just to keep it short). If the best line of defence is by shouting ‘China is a fascist country’, like what sub-OP has done, that’s now not going to work for obvious reason.

            And I think I need to correct my words earlier - For me, unlike the US, the Europe are still friendly in the way the treat their relationship with China. However, we can see that at one point, one has to take side, or least becoming neutral. These coming years we’ll be seeing more and more issues being brought up to set the tone for the future.

      • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        21·
        9 months ago

        Man, no need to react aggressively. Why don’t you keep the discussion healthy by giving your arguments instead.

        If you read my history, I am not even a Chinese. However I like to keep abreast of what happened around the world and discuss and give my opinion on wide area of subjects, simply to understand what going on around us. Of course some of my opinion are not always popular to certain communities, especially on certain issues like this, but I appreciate better intellectual response.