EU backs away from trade statement in blow to China's 'modern Silk Road' plan

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

EU backs away from trade statement in blow to China's 'modern Silk Road' plan

Member states wary of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative without
guarantees on transparency, sustainability and tendering process

Tom Phillips in Beijing
Monday 15 May 2017 15.58 BST

The EU has dealt a blow to Chinese president Xi Jinping’s bid to lead a global infrastructure revolution, after its members refused to endorse part of the multibillion-dollar plan because it did not include commitments to social and environmental sustainability and transparency.

Xi made his latest bid for global leadership on Monday, telling leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the world should reject protectionism, embrace globalisation and pull together like a skein of geese.

Xi’s comments came on the second and final day of a high-profile summit in Beijing about his Belt and Road initiative, a multibillion-dollar infrastructure spree that China claims will kickstart a new era of trade and development. The scheme’s ultimate aim – encompassing pipelines and a port in Pakistan, bridges in Bangladesh and railways to Russia – is to create what China calls a “modern Silk Road”.

However, in a snub to Xi’s rallying cry for cooperation, the Guardian understands that the EU’s 28 member states decided not to support a statement about trade prepared by Beijing to mark the end of the summit.

“We made clear that, for Europe, the Belt and Road initiative can only be a success if it’s based on transparency and co-ownership,” said one high-level EU diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Apparently to Chinese surprise, the EU was united on this.”

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/15/eu-china-summit-bejing-xi-jinping-belt-and-road

[DetlefK]

1. Two things:

1.
"Co-ownership" does not exist in China. A foreign company is not allowed to hold a controlling stake in a chinese company or investments. Any investments by foreigners into a chinese project/company have the in-built condition that the chinese company, and in consequence the chinese government, still has the final say on everything.

2.
Speaking to the state-controlled China Daily, one Chinese academic rejected the suggestion that Beijing was guilty of “practising neo-colonialism ... exploiting energy resources ... [and] supporting authoritarian regimes”. He Jingtong, a business professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, said: “I think none of this holds water. If you look at history, tell me when has China been a colonial power? If it hasn’t been in the past, why should it be now?”

Colonialism is detriment to the chinese imperial culture. They do not want colonies, because that would threaten the uniformity and harmony of their society. They want to absorb.

Example: Tibet.
China is not content to simply rule Tibet. China is actively destroying tibetan culture to eventually assimilate them into the wider chinese culture.