Thomas Fingar: Understanding China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative

Comments · 156

• ME

  @Metsada007 · 8 years ago

  Even if only half of all the belt and road projects succeed, it will still be a huge success for humanity as a whole.

  118

• PH

  @physika · 8 years ago (edited)

  I wish to add on to Mr Fingar&apos;s speech because he had left out some key points (probably because he didn&apos;t read Chinese news directly):<br><br>1. Premier Li had already mentioned back in 2014/15 that one of China&apos;s economic objective is to reduce over-production, hence the Belt-Road Initiative (BRI) aims to use the excess supply of, say iron and steel, into infrastructure projects for developing countries. BRI is not a surprise in this case, just a matter of whether you had listened carefully and from the correct news.<br><br>2. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was set up to support BRI because under existing framework, the World Bank, which is dominated by Western countries, is unable to provide the loans to developing countries because they can never meet the minimum requirements (ie environmental protection and regulation). In short, China is complementing the West by helping poorer countries.<br><br>3. The use of Sri Lanka as an example to put down BRI as a bad deal is inappropriate because China don&apos;t decide how Sri Lanka finance the various projects but China does offer loans at lower rates compared to the West.<br><br>4. If not for China, who else ? The West ?

  70

• PA

  @pardeeptandon3023 · 8 years ago

  Till 2008 China was very comfortable with parking its Trade surplus in American treasuries. But after the busting of housing boon in USA. America started paying back its Debit by printing Dollars ( Quantum Easing) this got Chinese worried about the value of its treasuries so it came up with a project called OBOR which is essentially lending money to 65 countries to build infrastructure. This infrastructure is build by Chinese companies and opens up new markets for it products. This investment in 65 countries hedges its risk and it gets better interest rate than it is getting for its USA BONDS. The Trillion dollar investment is less than 2 years of its trade surplus, so it can afford it. The political influence it will get is a bonus.

  20

• KI

  @kimlimlim7318 · 7 years ago

  Every words that came out of his mouth, there is smell of vinegar in the air. I wonder why???

  23

• GE

  @georgewu5 · 7 years ago (edited)

  &quot; It took China from 1978 to 2001 and beyond to enter the world trade when the U.S. was doing all the blocking until it was not possible any more. Mr. Fingar.&quot;

  21

• SE

  @sebastiandeangelis4835 · 7 years ago

  They are not trying to force it on anyone...

  4

• CO

  @corrinetsang1478 · 8 years ago

  China is investing heavily in the one belt,one road for two way trade.China is building bases and the PLAN to protect this trade.

  12

• TS

  @tsaodon1786 · 7 years ago

  If more countries with rich financial resources other than China join the BRI club, it could be a big headache &nbsp;for the US, &nbsp;as it will find it difficult to borrow cheap money from other countries to support &nbsp;their economy, maybe that&apos;s the top reason why US is against the BRI plan.

  4

• NI

  @nigelwiseman8644 · 8 years ago

  Really intelligent, wise interviewee. He makes real sense of China. (I have been watching mainland china from Taiwan for nearly 40 years). He also makes sense of what is happening in Turkey. &nbsp;Really nice to hear someone you can actually pronounced Beijing properly.

  12

• CN

  @CN_SFY_General · 8 years ago

  Good analysis

• YA

  @yanghailun · 8 years ago

  good

• LE

  @lenzkol · 8 years ago

  Really nice interview. As always, the &quot;one child policy&quot; comes up as the big impediment to Chinese future growth.<br>Any recommendations on literature depicting the negotiations of that rule?

  4