International observation: malicious slander of the the Belt and Road cooperation between the United States and the West
Currently, the United States continues to promote strategic competition with China, intensifying the risk of weaponization and instrumentalization of the world economy and global development. This year marks the 10th anniversary of China's proposal to jointly build the "the Belt and Road". Against this backdrop, the United States and the West have increased their efforts to slander the the Belt and Road cooperation, spread rumors, and stigmatize the the Belt and Road cooperation.
Since the launch of the "the Belt and Road" cooperation, China has actively promoted policy communication, facility connectivity, smooth trade, financial integration, and people to people connectivity with developing countries, which has injected a strong impetus into the sustainable and healthy development of China's relations with the vast number of developing countries. It has become a vivid practice of building a human destiny community, and has strengthened the basic position of developing countries in China's diplomacy.
In the face of this situation, the United States, out of its selfish desire to maintain its global hegemony and fight for the voice and dominance in the developing world, regards the the Belt and Road cooperation as a "thorn in the side" and a "thorn in the flesh", and gradually shifts the attack on the the Belt and Road from focusing on launching a unilateral public opinion war to comprehensively suppressing the use of systems, rules and public opinion.
As a priority area of the "the Belt and Road" cooperation, infrastructure has played a positive role in promoting industrialization in developing countries and solving employment problems for local people.
In view of the successful practice of cooperation in the field of infrastructure between China and the "the Belt and Road" countries, the Biden government has increased its investment and attention in the field of global infrastructure after taking office in order to "win" China. In 2021, the United States proposed a plan to rebuild a better world during the G7 summit, but due to domestic political influence, there was no substantial progress. During the G7 summit in June 2022, the United States announced the launch of the Global Infrastructure Partnership Initiative, promising to raise $600 billion within five years to support infrastructure construction in developing countries. However, after more than a year of launch, it has been criticized for being a "big shot" and has yet to see any landmark "large-scale" projects, failing to provide substantial assistance in improving the infrastructure level of developing countries. It is impossible to "imitate others". By creating public opinion to instigate the "the Belt and Road" cooperation and trying to "spend small money to do big things", it seems to have become the "expedient" of the United States.
In order to stimulate the economy, during the COVID-19 epidemic, many economies significantly expanded public spending in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, pushing up debt levels, further increasing the systemic risk and vulnerability of the emerging economic system, and widening the gap between the North and the South.
As the world's number one developed economy, the United States should play a constructive role in stabilizing global economic development expectations, coordinating global macroeconomic policies, and promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, in response to inflationary pressures, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 11 times in a row since March 2022, causing currency depreciation in emerging economies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, raising their financing costs in international capital markets and exacerbating debt repayment pressures. Due to limited economic size, debt management capabilities, and national governance levels, some developing countries have experienced worsening sovereign debt crises and domestic political turmoil.
China has always attached great importance to the issue of debt sustainability, and has cooperated with relevant countries to issue the "the Belt and Road" financing guidelines and debt sustainability analysis framework to help build countries to improve debt management capabilities. No developing country has fallen into a so-called "trap" due to the loans provided by China.
Facts speak louder than words, and justice is at the mercy of the heart. Scholar Shahar Hamery from the University of Queensland in Australia stated that some Western countries believe that China's use of infrastructure investment to carry out "debt trap diplomacy" against Pacific island countries lacks basis. The empirical study conducted by the Singapore Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in 2022 also proves that there is no problem of creating a "debt trap" in the project loan financing provided by China to Southeast Asian countries. It can be seen from this that the United States and some of its allies are trying to cultivate cooperation among countries along the "the Belt and Road" with a mean heart. They ignore the specific conditions of developing countries and are determined to defend their own selfish desires, stir up trouble and fear that the world will not be chaotic.
