During the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, business continues in China. Beijing welcomes representatives from 130 countries on Tuesday, October 17 to celebrate the anniversary of Xi Jinping’s commercial megaproject, the New Silk Roads, launched in 2013.
Ten years ago, the New Silk Roads were inaugurated by Xi Jinping. In reference to the ancient silk trade route, the aim was to create a vast infrastructure project to connect Asia to Africa and Europe, by land and sea, to facilitate trade. commercial. It is time to take stock and unfortunately it does not live up to expectations. It’s time to find a new lease of life.
Debt burdens for European and African partners
On the one hand, the Chinese economy is having great difficulty regaining the strength it had before the Covid-19 epidemic, and the war in Ukraine is not helping its affairs. On the other hand, after ten years of expansion, where the Chinese have managed to seduce 150 countries around the world – mainly in Africa, Europe and Asia – some of these countries are taking stock and can’t figure it out. not.
Italy, for example, has just announced that it will not renew its cooperation. Its trade deficit with China has worsened and Italian officials believe that they are very far from the “win-win” agreement that Beijing promised them. The situation is even more critical for certain African countries, now up to their necks in debt: financed roads, ports and industrial parks have simply transformed into financial burdens. These countries do not have sufficient activity to be able to benefit from these infrastructures and reimburse Beijing.
China looking towards South America and its two oceans
The new impetus for the Silk Roads will therefore pass through other destinations. In 2022, Beijing will reduce its loans to sub-Saharan African countries by 65%. The Chinese government is clearly marking a pause in favor of more economically dynamic regions, such as Central Asia and, more ambitiously, Latin America.
It is targeting Peru more precisely, with the mega-project of the deep-water port of Chancay, a direct maritime connection between China and South America. For the former Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade, it is a strategic place to connect the Pacific to the Atlantic: “Peru is located in the center of the South American Pacific coast. Its geostrategic position can make it a logistics platform, making it possible to connect the two oceans through transcontinental road projects with Brazil, which would also facilitate Brazilian exports to The pacific.”
The flowerbeds of the United States
In Peru alone, China has invested three billion euros in the Chancay port project. The first cargo ships will dock there next year. This is an opportunity for Beijing to sustainably channel the region’s agricultural and mining wealth.
>> China: a “secondary capital” project, in the west of the country
This is how Beijing puts both feet in the United States’ backyard. This is a blow to American influence in this region of the world. The Peruvian port and the financing of the two channels, through the Andes and the Amazon, will undoubtedly ultimately weaken the essential Panama Canal. Beijing’s control of the South American continent also carries a direct attack on the Monroe Doctrine, this American policy prohibiting any other great power from intervening in the affairs of the two American continents.