China’s BRI a Threat to America Essay Example

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a sustainable development model intends to increase collaboration and coordination between China and the Asian, European, and African continents, as well as the oceans that surround them. It is an infrastructure project which has a favorable influence on all the nations involved. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the flagship projects of BRI and it has achieved a new era by keeping trade ties and interconnectivity at the front of the bilateral discourse. The CPEC project’s main focus is on the construction of new infrastructural facilities, including power stations and motorways. The second version of CPEC will focus on a broader range of projects aimed to boost economic developments and create employment opportunities.

During the CPEC transformation, US President Donald Trump's administration had disclosed a more critical perception of China's infrastructural development in Pakistan, one that lines up with Washington's harder stance in the global struggle with China. Although, there are plenty of criticisms on CPEC, the Chinese leadership is focused on business and investment concerns to deflect American policymakers' attention away from more urgent challenges by concealing how China's political involvement in Pakistan leads to authoritarian government and affects individual liberties. In response to growing concerns, China signed on to the Group of Twenty (G20) Operational Guidelines for Sustainable Financing. • Teamed up with the IMF to open a training center in Beijing to assist nations in improving their abilities to analyze monetary stability. • Signed a Memorandum of Understanding with eight MDBs on the creation of multilateral cooperation centers for development funds. • Procured the G20 Rules for Quality Investment Projects; and • Issued a structure for bearing the burden of loans for BRI matters. 

The US troop’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has created the gap that China filled with the infrastructural projects of BRI. Despite the fact that America always been interested in improving facilities, commerce, and transportation throughout Asia, and repeatedly drawn the vision of the Silk Road, but failed to fulfil the region's fundamental needs.  Its finance and participation in some BRI countries has been nominal and is slowly declining. Its reduction in R&D (research and development) and investments in innovative technologies helped China to make significant progress in the developing of fifth-generation (5G) technology, high-speed rail construction, solar and wind energy production, the establishment of electronic payment platforms, the creation of ultra-high-voltage transmission lines, and further initiatives.

The global economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 epidemic exposed flaws in China's BRI model, compelling to calculate and raising concerns about the viability of many BRI projects and the loan burden. If BRI-related debt is not addressed, countries already affected by the COVID-19 pandemic may be forced to choose between debt repayment and providing medical care and other welfare services to their citizens.

America has a clear interest in pursuing a plan that puts impact on China to change its BRI strategies whilst creating an efficient option to BRI - one which fosters infrastructural development, sustains significant ecological and anti-corruption norms, guarantees US businesses could even compete with the rest field, and assists nations in maintaining their political autonomy. In spite of the many advantages for the United States, BRI poses significant risks to the country's economic objectives. With its range and reach, BRI has the possibility to enhance world GDP by approximately to $7.1 trillion by 2040 while lowering world trade costs by up to 2.2%. China offers to provide much-needed financing to developing countries, aiding in the building of infrastructure needed to reduce blackouts, relieve transit congestion, and increase the international competitiveness of many economies. American businesses would gain if they were allowed to sell equipment and supplies used in the development, repair, or management of infrastructural development in BRI countries to an extent that modern infrastructure decreases communication and transportation expenses in BRI countries, US producers that would trade and operate with those countries will gain benefits. Global political stability is often connected to sustainable economic growth, and improved security with in underdeveloped.

America will struggle to stay up with China in many BRI nations as Chinese enterprises swiftly acquire share of the market and Chinese technological norms would become new normal. When these imminent debt problems in BRI nations get evident, they will damage the world economies growth and progress, for example, the era of COVID-19 epidemic has already resulted in the deepest world financial recession since the Great Depression. Debt problems can similarly enhance the possibility of an economic meltdown. Nations that are experiencing monetary emergencies probably get to experience in the long run monetary decline, lowering demand for US goods. 

The significant ways to protect American security interests are by • alleviating potential Chinese interruption of major infrastructure plans within BRI nations; • investment in underground cables and underwater cable protection; and • educating cybersecurity experts who can collaborate with foreign partners to reduce cyber risks. The Task Force advises strengthening the multilateral response to BRI by • partnering with allies and friends to recharge the World Bank to provide a stronger alternative to BRI; • negotiating sectoral trade agreements with key regional partners, Starting with online economic relations, and trying to improve and afterwards enlist the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership; and • demanding that China stay true to commitments for a green belt and road by requiring pre-implementation of the environmental impacts, rejecting funding or security schemes that have considerable negative effects on the environment, and adoption of compulsory rules.

The significant ways to boost US competitiveness is by • increasing government R&D funding upto $100 billion, including greater funds  in institutions of higher learning and study institutions to finance innovative work and foster greater assistance to private capital to invest in modern tech; • higher spending in basic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schooling at every stage; •  redrafting emigration and passport visa regulations to easily  recruit and keep the globe's best minds, scientists, researchers, as well as technicians; • enhancing cooperation and offering further assistance for involvement in international normative bodies; • reorganizing the Development Finance Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of America to enable them to start competing with BRI choices and collaborate with different multilateral development banks all over the world; and • encouraging the America's electronic workplace options for the progressing countries.

Techniques towards reducing the economic risks of BRI by • a worldwide measures to tackle growing BRI-caused liability issues also, encourage adherence towards higher level loaning procedures; • strengthening US business diplomacy to promote US high-quality products and services high-quality alternatives to BRI, as well as raising public awareness of the environmental and economic consequences of certain BRIs are borne by host nations projects; • providing technical assistance to BRI nations to check the financial and ecological durability programs; • plus launching the ferocious anti-corruption drive.

The US could not and should not reply to BRI equally, attempting to compete with China on a dollar-for-dollar or project-for-project basis. As an alternative, America must concentrate upon fields wherever it may provide a compelling alternative to BRI, either alone or in collaboration with other like-minded countries. Such an alternative would capitalize on the United States' core strengths, such as vanguard technology, international firms, large reservoirs of cash, a record of worldwide management, a long history of establishing global norms, and help the legal system and fair business models.