BEIJING, 18 Oct (AP) \u2014 Chinese President Xi Jinping promised foreign companies greater access to China\u2019s huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies as he opened a forum Wednesday on his signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.<\/p>\n
Xi\u2019s initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China\u2019s ties with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. But the massive loans backing the projects have burdened poorer countries with heavy debts, in some cases leading to China taking control of those assets.<\/p>\n
At the forum\u2019s opening ceremony at the ornate and cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks \u2013 the China Development Bank and the Export\u2013Import Bank of China \u2013 will each set up 350 billion yuan ($47.9 billion) financing windows. An additional 80 billion yuan ($11 billion) will be invested in Beijing\u2019s Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will comprehensively remove restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector,\u201d Xi said. He said China would further open up \u201ccross-border trade and investment in services and expand market access for digital products\u201d and carry out reforms of state-owned enterprises and in sectors such as the digital economy, intellectual property rights and government procurement.<\/p>\n
The pledges of hefty support from Beijing come at a time when China\u2019s economy has slowed and foreign investment has plunged.<\/p>\n
Xi alluded to efforts by the United States and its allies to reduce their reliance on Chinese manufacturing and supply chains amid heightened competition and diplomatic frictions and reiterated promises that Beijing would create a fairer environment for foreign firms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not engage in ideological confrontation, geopolitical games nor clique political confrontation,\u201d Xi said. \u201cWe oppose unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and the decoupling and severance of chains,\u201d a reference to moves elsewhere to diversify industrial supply chains.<\/p>\n
Reiterating Chinese complaints that such moves are meant to limit China\u2019s growth, Xi said that \u201cviewing others\u2019 development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one\u2019s own life better or speed up one\u2019s development.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChina can only do well when the world is doing well,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen China does well, the world will get even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives from more than 130 mostly developing countries are attending the forum, including at least 20 heads of state and government. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending, reflecting China\u2019s economic and diplomatic support for Moscow amid the isolation brought by its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Addressing the forum right after Xi, Putin praised BRI as being \u201ctruly important, global, future-oriented, aimed at creating more equitable, multipolar world relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is truly a global plan,\u201d he said, adding that it aligns with Russia\u2019s plan \u201cto form a large Eurasian space, as a space of cooperation and interaction of like-minded people, where a variety of integration processes will be linked.\u201d He referred to other regional organizations, such as the security-oriented Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Eurasian Economic Union of former Soviet states.<\/p>\n
Several European officials including the French and Italian ambassadors to China and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin walked out while Putin spoke and returned afterwards.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Putin met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who is the sole European Union government leader attending the forum. Their meeting was a rare instance of the Russian president meeting a European leader since the start of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n
Putin met with Xi after the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n
Also in attendance are the presidents of Indonesia, Argentina, Kazakstan, Sri Lanka, Kenya among other countries, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres. Most Western European countries and U.S. allies sent lower level or former officials to the forum.<\/p>\n
Guterres highlighted the BRI\u2019s potential to bring development to neglected areas while stressing the need for projects to be environmentally sustainable. He said the initiative could help drive the transition away from reliance on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeveloping countries will need massive support for a fair, equitable and just energy transition toward renewables while providing affordable electricity to all,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n
He also called for an \u201cimmediate, humanitarian\u201d ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war after a strike killed hundreds at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
With the BRI, China has become a major financer of development projects on a par with the World Bank. The Chinese government says the initiative has launched more than 3,000 projects and \u201cgalvanized\u201d nearly $1 trillion in investment.<\/p>\n
It has also attracted criticism from the U.S., India and others that China is engaging in \u201cdebt trap\u201d diplomacy: Making loans Beijing knew governments would likely default on, enabling Chinese interests to take control of the assets. An oft-cited example is a port that the Sri Lankan government ended up leasing to a Chinese company for 99 years. Many economists say China did not make the bad loans intentionally.<\/p>\n
A key concern is whether the BRI can become more sustainable in terms of debt burdens, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.<\/p>\n
The initiative now aims to become smaller and greener after a decade of big projects that boosted trade but left big debts and raised environmental concerns.<\/p>\n
China will also \u201cmonitor the debt sustainability of BRI countries more closely,\u201d Christoph Nedopil, director of the Asia Institute at Griffith University in Australia, wrote in a report.<\/p>\n
\u201cChinese financial institutions will likely limit their exposure to projects that do not have stable cash flows from within the project,\u201d he added. \u201cThat being said, \u2018beautiful\u2019 strategic projects, such as strategic railways or ports, will still find Chinese financial creditors.\u201d<\/p>\n
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