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NEWS DESK: Depending on who you ask in Europe, China’s colossal East-Westinfrastructure programme is either an opportunity or a threat — and whenFrench President Emmanuel Macron visits next week, Beijing will be watchingto see how keen he is to jump on board, reported AFP.
Since China launched the New Silk Road plan in 2013, the hugely ambitiousinitiative to connect Asia and Europe by road, rail and sea has elicitedboth enormous interest and considerable anxiety.
“It’s the most important issue in international relations for the years tocome, and will be the most important point during Emmanuel Macron’s visit,”said Barthelemy Courmont, a China expert at French think-tank Iris.
The $1 trillion project is billed as a modern revival of the ancient SilkRoad that once carried fabric, spices, and a wealth of other goods in bothdirections.
Known in China as “One Belt One Road”, the plans would see gleaming newroad and rail networks built through Central Asia and beyond, and newmaritime routes stretching through the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.
Beijing would develop roads, ports and rail lines through 65 countriesrepresenting an estimate 60 percent of the world’s population and a thirdof its economic output.
Macron, who heads to China for a three-day state visit on Sunday, willnotably be accompanied by some 50 company chiefs keen to do business withthe Asian powerhouse.
So far France has been cautious on the Silk Road plan, but Courmont saidChinese leaders were “waiting for a clear position” from Macron at a timewhen they view the young leader as an “engine” for growth in Europe.
“If Macron takes a decision on how to tackle the Chinese initiative, all ofEurope will follow,” Courmont predicted.
But, as Courmont acknowledges, Europe is divided on what to make of China’sambitions.
The continent could potentially benefit handsomely from increased tradeover the coming decades, but in some corners there is suspicion that itmasks an attempted Beijing influence grab.
“They are notably asking themselves about the geopolitical consequences ofthis project in the long-term,” Alice Ekman, who covers China at the FrenchInstitute of International Relations, said of France and Germany.
– Win-win? –
In Central and Eastern Europe the programme has been met with altogethermore enthusiasm, given the huge infrastructure investment that China couldbring to the poorer end of the continent.
“Some consider the awakening of China and Asia as a threat,” Hungary’sPrime Minister Viktor Orban told a summit in Budapest in November whichgathered China with 16 Central and Eastern European countries.
“For us, it’s a huge opportunity,” he said, with Beijing using the summitto announce three billion euros of investment in projects including aBelgrade-Budapest railway line.
Bogdan Goralczyk, director of the Centre for Europe at the University ofWarsaw, noted there were divisions even within eastern Europe, with Polandhesitant due to its right-wing government’s “strong anti-communist stance”.
Others to the west have made little effort to hide their concern.
Former Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen fretted in a column forGermany’s Zeit newspaper that “Europe will wake up only when it’s too late,and when swathes of central and eastern Europe’s infrastructure aredependent on China.”
The former NATO chief noted that Greece — a major recipient of Chineselargesse — had in June blocked an EU declaration condemning Chinese rightsabuses.
It came just months after Athens’ Piraeus port, one of the biggest in theworld, passed under Chinese control.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is favourable to Chinese investment, buthas reservations.
“If we do not develop a strategy in the face of China, it will succeed individing Europe,” Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned in August.
France is meanwhile seeking to “rebalance” relations with China duringMacron’s trip, according to his office — eyeing a trade deficit of 30billion euros, its biggest with any partner.
“Our Chinese partners would prefer a win-win situation. Why not? On thecondition that it’s not the same party that wins twice,” French ForeignMinister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.
“It is not France’s intention to block China,” he said.
“But we should establish a partnership based on reciprocity when it comesto the opening of markets.”
Tags: China