Biden suggests rival plan to China’s ‘Belt and Road’

Washington: US President Joe Biden has suggested founding an initiative from "democratic" countries to rival China´s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative as tensions spike between the Asian power and Western nations.

Biden said late Friday that he floated the proposal in a call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

"I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help," Biden told reporters, referring to Belt and Road.

Beijing´s influence has grown in some nations in recent years through loans and projects under the initiative, raising concerns among regional powers and Western nations.

China has helped scores of countries build or develop roads, railways, dams and ports. President Xi Jingping has promised to "pursue open, green and clean co-operation" under Belt and Road, yet Chinese banks have continued to finance coal projects as Beijing uses the initiative to make an overseas coal play. Between 2000 and 2018, 23.1 percent of the $251 billion invested by China´s two biggest policy banks on overseas energy projects was spent on coal projects, according to Boston University´s database on China´s global energy financing.

Biden’s remarks came after he said on Thursday he would prevent China from passing the United States to become the most powerful country in the world, vowing to invest heavily to ensure America prevails in the ever-growing rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.

Biden plans to unveil a multi-trillion-dollar plan to upgrade U.S. infrastructure next week. He said on Thursday this would ensure increased U.S. investment in promising new technologies, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. While airing its concerns and seeking to encourage private sector-investment for overseas projects to rival those of the BRI, Washington has yet to be able to convince countries that it can offer an alternative to the state-backed economic vision put forward by Beijing under BRI.

London, in its readout of the call between Biden and Johnson, did not mention the US president´s proposal for a Western response to Belt and Road, but did note that the two leaders discussed "significant action" to impose sanctions on "human rights violators".

Over 100 countries have signed agreements with China to cooperate in BRI projects like railways, ports, highways and other infrastructure. According to a Refinitiv database, as of mid-last year, over 2,600 projects at a cost of $3.7 trillion were linked to the initiative.

However, China said last year that about 20 percent of BRI projects had been “seriously affected” by the coronavirus pandemic.

There are also been pushback against BRI from countries that have criticized projects as costly and unnecessary. Beijing scaled back some plans after several countries sought to review, cancel or scale down commitments, citing concerns over costs, erosion of sovereignty, and corruption.