QWhat they have in common is the Tchaikovsky Music Conservatory in Moscow, the National Bank of Serbia, the road network around Dakar, the port of Chancay in Peru, a high-tech research center on food preservation in South Africa, the Mongolian forest and a future world women’s chess tournament? All will soon receive support from China as part of its “new silk roads” investment program. These are just seven examples – out of 369 in total – of the practical cooperation agreements that China signed with around 150 countries and 30 international organizations, on the occasion of the third “Belt and Road” forum – the official name of the program “ Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) – chaired by Chinese number one, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on October 17 and 18.
If we mainly remember from this high mass the red carpet rolled out in honor of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and numerous off-ground speeches, without any reference to Ukraine or the Middle East, the essential information from these two days is that China is continuing its global investment program, while reorganizing it.
Of course, Xi Jinping has not expressed the slightest reservation over the past ten years, but a careful examination of the signed agreements shows that China has nevertheless heard certain criticisms. If major projects have not completely gone out of fashion, priority will still be given to investments “small but beautiful”, as the Chinese president called them. Likewise, from solar power plants in Poland and Romania to the creation of a research center on the fight against drought and desertification in Saudi Arabia, “green projects” are more numerous. Furthermore, the fight against corruption is becoming more systematic. Promote “an integrated BRI with assessment of the integrity of the companies involved” is one of the eight priorities announced by Xi Jinping.
Budget realism
Everything is happening as if, after a fanfare start, the “new silk roads” are adopting a cruising speed, less spectacular but perhaps more lasting. In 2013, China sinned both through optimism and pride. It was necessary to establish the stature of the new emperor at the center of the world. It’s done. The time has come for realism, particularly budgetary ones. For the years to come, Xi Jinping has announced credit lines of around 100 billion euros. A substantial amount but ten times lower than the commitments of the past ten years (around 1,000 billion euros).
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