On Friday, March 26, US time, US President Joe Biden proposed to mount a joint initiative of democratic nations to counter a Chinese $ trillion highway infrastructure initiative.
According to AFP, Mr. Biden, in a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson late Friday night (March 26, US time), raised a proposal on China’s Belt and Road counterbalance initiative in The Western and communist Beijing regime is escalating controversy over sanctions against Uighur human rights abuses in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.
“I suggested we basically have a similar initiative of democratic nations, helping communities around the world really need help,” Biden told reporters. Mr. Biden wanted to talk about the Western initiative to compete with China’s Belt and Road initiative.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been launching the Belt and Road initiative since 2013, formally establishing the world’s largest infrastructure investment program with multi-trillion dollar plans for international development and investment, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations.
The program was originally intended to engage China with its neighbors, but has since expanded, establishing deals and investments in 139 countries, which account for 40% of GDP. Global.
According to Fox News, the majority of countries participating in the Belt and Road plan are underdeveloped countries, now partially dependent on China for the development of 5G mobile networks, railways and factories. electricity. Officials in the US and the West fear the China-led multinational deal will be used by Beijing to extend influence around the world.
In fact, China’s influence has been increasing in a number of countries in recent years through debt financing and Belt and Road projects. This aroused even more concerns among regional nations, as well as Western powers.
China has been helping a number of countries to build or develop roads, railways, hydroelectric dams and harbors.
President Xi Jinping has promised to “pursue open, green and clean cooperation” through the Belt and Road initiative, but Chinese banks are continuing to fund coal power projects as Beijing uses this initiative to convert coal-fired electricity abroad.
Between 2000 and 2018, 23.1% of the $ 251 billion invested by China’s two largest policy banks for foreign energy projects was spent on coal power projects, AFP led. according to Boston University data on China’s global energy investment.
One day before his phone call with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Biden also talked about his intention to introduce a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill next week. This bill aims to improve roads and bridges, while also addressing climate change initiatives.
The next big initiative – I’m going to announce it in detail in Pittsburgh on Friday – is to rebuild the country’s infrastructure, both physical and technological, so that we can compete. and create real high-paying jobs, Mr. Biden said during his first personal press conference at the White House on March 25.
However, while the Biden government has revealed it will expand its domestic infrastructure investment initiatives, it is not clear whether the UK or other allied US states will be interested in setting up the system. Multinational infrastructure to counter China or not.
The British government, in the content information of the conversation between Mr. Johnson and Mr. Biden on March 26, did not mention the US president’s proposed initiative on a plan to deal with the Belt and Road.
The British side only emphasized that the two US-UK leaders discussed significant action to impose sanctions on human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Canada and the US jointly imposed sanctions this week on many members of the group of economic and political leaders in Xinjiang. This move by the West has entailed retaliation from Beijing. The Chinese communist regime has also declared sanctions on many individuals in the EU and Great Britain.
China has always asserted that the situation in Xinjiang is “internal work”. On March 26, it announced sanctions imposed on 9 British individuals and 4 organizations. Beijing claims that sanctioned individuals and organizations “spread harmful lies and false information” about the treatment of Uighurs.
According to data from the United Nations and international human rights groups, at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have been detained in re-education camps in Xinjiang. Human rights groups allege that the Chinese authorities have brutally mistreated detainees, including torture, forced labor, female sexual assault and forced sterilization … The Trump administration has enumerated China on the Uighurs genocide, and the successor of the Biden administration has recognized and continued to maintain this policy.
