I think that there certainly are many issues with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The fact that China is able to exploit developing countries through a scheme is a major concern. I think it’s also important to note that China’s overseas infrastructure projects tend to have many labor violations and environmental hazards. An interesting phenomenon is that the sustainability and environmental consciousness of projects tend to decrease as the associated costs decrease. The lasting impact is the same for all industries: environmental repercussions. The issues of governmental and economic transparency are particularly close to me because my home country of Kazakhstan also has a corrupt government. People who live in China may very well understand and realize their government’s malicious intent behind the Belt and Road initiative but are unable to act on it. Such articles can stir negativity against the Chinese; however, it’s important to understand that the government is the institution in power. Civilians in countries with corrupt governments have very little freedoms and rights.
The issues of the underdeveloped world are global issues that must be addressed collectively. Having a more developed society, as a whole, should be a common goal. There are many environmental and epidemic situations that the world is facing, which would be able to be combatted better had more countries been developed. China’s corrupt and unjust infiltration into the funding of developing countries is something that other nations need to get involved in in order to achieve more transparency and better results.
Though the article does a good job of describing the key problems with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, I still have a few clarifying questions. One of them is how exactly does the hidden debt work, in the sense of how are the expenditures able to not be included in the nations’ official debts to China. Secondly, the article mentions that China is a rare source of funding for many developing countries. I would like to know why that is so and where all the money in foreign aid is going towards if many developing countries do not ever receive it.