Hong Kong (DIARYTIMES): The world is watching the threat of intensifying strategic competition between China and the US. Yet China was the first to challenge, continually defy international rules and intimidate others with its authoritarian style of government.
Beijing’s own policies, such as the militarization of the South China Sea outside and the interference of other countries’ ships, caused the United States to shift from a policy of engagement to a management contest.
In the US intelligence community’s annual threat assessment released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in February, the conclusion was: “The Communist Party of China (CCP) will continue efforts to achieve President Xi Jinping’s vision. is the dominant power in Asia and a major power on the world stage. As Xi begins his third term as China’s leader, the CCP is seeking to push Taiwan for unification, reduce US influence, and create tensions between Washington and its allies. Will work to differentiate and promote certain norms that support its totalitarian regime.”
After analyzing China’s behavior, the DNI considered three trends. The first is that “Beijing views increasingly competitive US-China relations as part of an epochal geopolitical shift, and Washington’s diplomatic, economic, military, and technological measures against Beijing are designed to contain China’s rise and defeat the CCP.” as part of a broader US effort to undermine the regime.”
Second, “Beijing is increasingly combining growing military power with its economic, technological and diplomatic influence to strengthen the CCP regime, which it sees as its sovereign territory and territorial superiority, and advance global influence.” Is.”
And thirdly, on the other hand, “China is facing myriad domestic and international challenges – and in some cases growing – that will probably constrain the ambitions of CCP leaders. These include an aging population, high levels of corporate debt, , economic inequality and growing resistance to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) heavy-handed strategy in Taiwan and other countries.
The DNI is also certain that Beijing will “use the entire state apparatus to demonstrate power and force neighbors to acknowledge its priorities, including its land, sea and air claims in the region and sovereignty claims over Taiwan”. .
A recent visit to China by French President Emmanuel Macron shows the influence China now has in Beijing, with the European leader capitulating to Xi’s statement that outside powers should not interfere in the Taiwan issue. The DNI also predicted that China would seek to expand its influence overseas so that others would see it as a champion of global development – through efforts such as
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative. Xi preys on these to inspire others to depart from Western and US-led platforms and frameworks, but the ulterior motive is always to amplify China’s narrative and model of authoritarian politics.
A recent example was the wolf-warrior extraordinaire Lu Xi, China’s ambassador to France, who claimed that former Soviet countries “do not have an effective position in international law because there is no international agreement to embody their status as sovereign countries”. was not”. Lu was attempting to defend Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and deny the legal existence of Ukraine.
Of course, this ridiculous notion reflects China’s tacit support of Putin’s war in Ukraine. To defend the inexplicable, China’s unquestioning support for Russia leads to such absurd statements. Beijing pretends it can be a neutral arbiter in the Ukraine war, but nothing could be further from the truth. Furthermore, China feels it can strengthen its own case that Taiwan is not even a nation. The complex thinking of the Chinese ambassador, undoubtedly reflecting internal guidelines, sparked a storm of protest across Europe, including the former Soviet states.
Returning to the aforementioned BRI, China is grappling with a mounting bad debt burden. New York-based Rhodium International estimates that USD78.5 billion in Chinese loans have been restructured or written off since 2020. Rhodium’s research calculated that these bad loans, rapidly turning into an albatross around China’s neck, are more than four times that at US$17 billion. Bad loans chalked out from 2017-19.
No one knows exactly how much money China has lent under Xi’s blue-ribbon BRI, but it could be on the order of USD 1 trillion. Yet more and more countries are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, their economies battered by the effects of COVID-19. Cracks are showing, but China cannot reverse the course it has taken – the BRI is Xi’s brainchild, the “project of the century”, and it goes without saying that this Chinese god never makes mistakes.
As China prepares to celebrate a decade of BRI, its own domestic economy struggles, but it still needs an emergency loan
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