In Bavarian Alps, G7 Coolly Erects a Great Wall Against China
The G7 program responds to China’s so-called Belt and Road Initiative
Yes, there is a war raging in Europe with no easy end in sight, but that did not stop the Group of Seven leading democratic economies from formally launching at its annual summit a global infrastructure and investment partnership aimed at pushing back against China’s influence in the developing world.
German newspaper Bild reported that “for all the G7 determination against Russia’s despot Vladimir Putin, in the long term, according to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, it is not Russia that poses the greatest challenge to the international order, but China.”
The G7 program responds to China’s so-called Belt and Road Initiative or “New Silk Road,” in which China has been buying global power and influence along new trade routes to Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Western officials have long argued that the initiative traps receiving countries in debt and with investments that benefit China more than their hosts. At the G7 summit in Elmau, President Biden announced on behalf of all members a Western infrastructure alternative worth billions of dollars —an “anti-Silk Road,” as Bild phrased it.
The White House says the Partnership for Global Infrastructure initiative seeks to leverage $200 billion in U.S. investment over the next five years, the AP reported, along with a similar amount from G7 allies, to boost infrastructure development in lower- and middle-income nations.
It adds that most of the funding will come from the private sector, sovereign wealth, and global development funds, rather than direct taxpayer dollars.
The U.S. says the G7-backed effort promotes responsible investments that aim to benefit the communities they are made in.
Among the first initiatives are a $2 billion solar farm investment in Angola in southwest Africa, $320 million for hospital construction in Ivory Coast, in West Africa, and $40 million to promote regional energy trade in Southeast Asia.
Japan is leaning in on the new initiative, too. According to the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, Tokyo will provide $65 billion in state and private money. The funds will likely promote the construction of airports, ports, and railway connections in the Indo-Pacific region where China has in recent years been trying to wield greater influence.
In a jab at China, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the G7 is offering “sustainable, quality infrastructure” and will be “listening closely to the recipient countries.”
Some in Germany also took a jab of sorts at fellow EU member Greece, where China’s New Silk Road has already made considerable inroads: for example, Beijing now has a controlling interest in the port of Piraeus, one of the biggest container ports on the Continent. What does Communist China demand in return for the millions they have invested? According to Bild, Greece “systematically prevents EU statements critical of China or ensures that they are significantly weakened,” and “experts say that China is obviously relying on a kind of self-censorship on the part of its partner countries.”
Italy and China have in recent years reportedly signed at last 29 trade and political agreements worth in excess of $2.6 billion.
In contrast with Berlin’s palpable enthusiasm for the Global Infrastructure initiative, coverage of it was conspicuously absent from the major Greek and Italian newspapers on Monday.