Opinion | Belt and Road is sustainable but EU's global gateway has delivered little
By Augustus K. Yeung
INTRODUCTION
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) originated as a romantic notion and goodwill gesture with the focus of connecting countries, creating economic prosperity and building trade ties.
It was Zheng He, a Ming Dynasty admiral, who navigated the South Pacific. His famed 7-time voyages to the Western Pacific, covering dozens of countries, including the Cape of Africa, was something that filled the hearts and minds of the Chinese people who learned this historical fact while at school.
(Incidentally, the coast off Pate Island, Kenya, is believed to have been the location where one of Chinese explorer Zhen He's ships sank in the early 15th century, according to Post Magazine.)
Unlike Christopher Columbus, Zhen He did not engage in battles, take prisoners, own slaves or colonize foreign lands.
Back then, Zheng greeted natives cordially, offered and exchanged gifts, made friends, built ties and invited them to visit the Middle Kingdom.
Zheng He's adventures were missions of peace, conveying Ming Dynasty's goodwill, creating a classic model of foreign relations built on peace initiative.
Today, China's Belt and Road has been distorted and twisted beyond recognition.
The following article about the European Union's Global Gateway – aims at countering the BRI – illustrates the point that China's peace initiative has been "smeared".
EU's Global Gateway is Hastily Prepared to Compete with BRI, but "Has Delivered Little"
In December 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stood on a Brussel podium and confidently announced that the European Union's new infrastructure drive would be a "true alternative" to China's Belt and Road Initiative.
"We're able to do that. Countries made their experience with the Chinese investments. They need better and different offers," she said of Global Gateway.
With some blowback forming towards China's trillion-dollar plan to connect it with the rest of the world after high-profile allegations of "debt-trap diplomacy", both Europe and the United States were positioning to offer a different model.
But one year on, observers are growing skeptical about von der Leyen's claims. Global Gateway has delivered plenty of hype, but little in terms of concrete projects.
At a hearing in the European Parliament last month, lawmakers pressed officials for details, only to learn that none of the 300 billion Euro dollars would be "new".
"Global Gateway does not bring new financial means – there is no additional money when it comes to the EU level," said Vincent Grimaud, an acting director in the commission's department for international partnership.
The statement sparked incredulity from members of the parliament. "There's no new money. And I've always held the view that if there's no new money, there's no new policy," said Barry Andrews, an Irish lawmaker with the centrist Renew group.
"This is a communications exercise. It's a strategy to put together what was already going to happen and present it as something new..."
Hildegard Bentele, a German member of the center-right European People's Party, said she had been trying to find German companies who were "part of this adventure", but had failed to locate any.
"If I talk to journalists, journalists are asking me what are these Global Gateway projects? If I go on the website of the European Commission, I do not find it – this is really difficult," she said.
African Leaders are Frustrated that Funds for Food Have Been Wasted on "THIS" Global Gateway
"There is a massive drought in East Africa, UNHCR doesn't have enough funds for food for refugees in camps, etc. etc. and THIS is what you choose to spend money on?" wrote one Twitter user.
Of the 300 billion Euro dollars promised, it is unclear how much has been disbursed.
"We do not have a list of predefined Global Gateway projects and investments worth 300 billion Euro dollars [as promised], we are taking forward projects and flagship programmes with our partner countries under Global Gateway agreed on a rolling basis," said Ana Pisonera, an EU spokeswoman.
In an interview with Politico last week, senior bloc officials promised that projects would come next year.
"Once we will have rolled out much more substantially the concept of Global Gateway, it will prove to be an 'attractive' option, exactly as Belt and Road has been…" Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European External Action Service, told the publication.
But analysts remain wary of the comparisons.
"I think it was a mistake to begin with, trying to compete with Belt and Road, because BRI was launched under completely different circumstances, by a completely different country who, at the time, sort of filled a vacuum, proposed a new model, and had capital," said Francesa Ghiretti, a Brussels-based analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. (Source: SCMP)
CONCLUSION
No wonder Beijing has slammed Washington and EU's renewed efforts to jointly counter China's BRI, calling the G7-backed global infrastructure project a geopolitical scheme to smear and contain China.
President Biden and other leaders unveiled the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment in Germany at their annual gathering, with a pledge to raise US$600 billion over five years to fund projects in developing countries.
The partnership is largely a revival of his Build Back Better World initiative launched at the G7 summit a year ago – a scheme that faltered over financial difficulties and competing efforts by the United States and its allies such as the EU's Global Gateway.
Emmanuel Matambo, research director at the University of Johannesburg's Centre for Africa-China Studies, said the EU had failed…
"Europe is committed to its investment plans in Africa, but these are accompanied by cliched attacks on China… thereby undermining the importance of European involvement and its intent in Africa," he said.
On the continent, disappointment has already set in after the EU failed to deliver on promises made at a summit in February.
Earlier I was puzzled by the smearing misinformation that the US and its European allies are spreading. Having studied the BRI issue, I am now satisfied that China is charting a righteous path.
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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