Neo-colonialism and the Belt and Road

“I am asked, ‘Where is imperialism?’ just look into your plates; you see imported corn, rice or millet. This is imperialism, let us not look any further.”

“Those who come with wheat, millet, corn or milk, they are not helping us. Those who really want to help us can give us ploughs, tractors, fertilizer, insecticide, watering cans, drills, dams. That is how we would define food aid.”

I have picked these two quotes from the Burkinabé hero Thomas Sankara because I feel that they carry the spirit of what real international solidarity should look like.

The Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese global development strategy which began in 2013, has been decried by many western leftists (particularly Trotskyists/centrists) and neoliberals alike as being an example of Chinese imperialism.

I will do my best to briefly explain why this is the furthest thing from the truth, and in fact, that the BRI is an example of socialist solidarity which flies in the face of the neo-liberal and interventionist foreign policy which has decimated the economic and social development of much of the global south for the last 40+ years.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a strategy launched by the People’s Republic of China in 2013, with a projected completion date of 2049, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of the PRC.

The goal of the BRI is to address the infrastructural inequality that exists in the Asia Pacific area, Africa, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. This will involve the development of roads, rails, ports, airports, farming technology, and generally open up developing economies to more prosperous trade and cooperation.  

Member countries of the initiative will get access to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a development bank set up by the PRC (and now funded by a number of other countries also) dedicated to giving free loans to fund the gargantuan infrastructure projects that will be undertaken as part of this project. Beginning operations in 2016, this bank already has about half the capital of the previously hegemonic World Bank. This is a promising development, as traditionally the IMF and the World Bank have strict conditions tied to any loans that they give out, typically requiring wholesale privatisation of natural resources and services.

Further plans of creating a North-East/South-East/Central and West Asia “super grid” pooling vast amounts of Asian renewable resources to create a highly efficient and environmentally friendly energy production system is nothing short of inspiring.

On the 17th of June, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the People’s Republic of China launched a new satellite “Gaofen-9 03”, this satellite is loaded with advanced camera and remote sensing technology, which will allow for highly accurate land surveys, city planning, road network design, crop yield estimation and climate disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as a variety of other tasks all designed to enhance the success and efficiency of the overall belt and road. The provision of these kinds of resources to BRI member states is another example of the ambition, scale and broad implications that this initiative will have.

All of these projects are significant in scale and will have lasting impacts in the regions they affect. 

Many leaders in the west view this programme with deep suspicion and anxiety, as they envision the countries that they have exploited for centuries finally getting access to parity on the international market, modern infrastructure and unconditional loans for infrastructure development which would have traditionally been used to subjugate and control. Neoliberal leaders have cast out accusations of neo-colonialism and “debt trapping” these knee-jerk accusations are blatant projections of the policy they have subjected these same countries to for decades, the French, British and United States leaders see brown, black and Asian people to be exploited and nothing else. The condemnations towards the initiative, whether from the left or right are full of the typical infantilising and supremacism that we have all come to expect from liberals etc.. 

The PRC is lifting the boot of imperialism and is reaching out the hand of friendship and cooperation, they are acting as responsible and just global partners. 

This era defining programme will do much to level the playing field amongst nations, this programme has already had a positive impact on the lives of over 60% of the world’s population, affecting 40% of the world’s economy, and it still has another 29 years to go before completion. 

We are at the dawn of a rising global fight back against the hegemony of neoliberalism. The fact that over 130 countries have now endorsed this global initiative, with hardly any of them in the “Western Hemisphere” is another indication of the growing power of workers in the global south. As socialists, we should be praising the colossal work being done by the workers in the People’s Republic of China, and to think that this is just one example of the things humanity could accomplish if we operated on the basis of worker solidarity and struggle.

I eagerly look forward to what the future holds, and to the ongoing successes that the Belt and Road Initiative will surely accomplish.