E-Paper
Military Lit Fest: China on the road to changing world order
Discussions around Chinese expansion and President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy at the fourth edition of the Military Literature Festival on Friday were moderated by Maj Gen Amritpal Singh (retd)
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of the Chinese government, a massive global infrastructure development project involving almost 70 nations and organisations indicates a “strategic shift in pivot of geography.” Is India’s neighbour then set for world dominance?
Discussions around Chinese expansion and President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy at the fourth edition of the Military Literature Festival on Friday were moderated by Maj Gen Amritpal Singh (retd). The speakers included Defence expert and former diplomat Gurjit Singh, Lt Gen PM Bali and Brig Praveen Badrinath.
Lt Gen Bali said the last three decades had seen China’s strategic rise, which spelt a significant shift of the geographical pivot in terms of the world’s economy. International experts feared that China was set on its “conquest” through BRI by gaining control of the host country’s economy.
The countries agreeing to BRI have done so after factoring in long term capital gains, especially in maritime projects, but the impact had to be assessed at a later stage, Lt Gen Bali added.
During British times China was buffered by Tibet, but now thanks to connectivity and technology the world has flattened, Gurjit Singh said. The Chinese are now building connectivity through railways and ports and making “roads everywhere purely due to its deep pockets,” he added.
However, despite its much hyped BRI project, China had failed to maintain its own domestic markets and given severe economic shocks to countries like South Africa, where BRI projects had been initiated, during the coronavirus pandemic. China simply refused to pick up raw material there, the former diplomat added.
Chinese economic plans were fraught with danger as these were ‘strategic projects’ that do not abide by timelines, Gurjit Singh warned.
Brig Badrinath talked about Chinese perspective of heartland theory. He said smaller countries were falling “prey” to Chinese road because of the BRI corridor.
