Biden moots plan by democratic states to rival China's BRI

NEW CASTLE (Delaware) • US President Joe Biden said he suggested to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call that democratic countries should have an infrastructure plan to rival China's Belt and Road initiative (BRI).

"I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative, pulling from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help," Mr Biden told reporters on Friday.

The BRI is a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched in 2013 by China's President Xi Jinping involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from East Asia to Europe.

The project would significantly expand China's economic and political influence, raising concerns in the United States and elsewhere.

Mr Biden's remarks came after he said on Thursday that he would prevent China from passing the US 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.

Mr Biden plans to unveil this week a multitrillion-dollar plan to upgrade US infrastructure. He said on Thursday this would ensure increased US 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, the US has yet to be able to convince other countries that it can offer an alternative to the state-backed economic vision put forward by Beijing under BRI.

More than 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 the middle of last year, over 2,600 projects at a cost of US$3.7 trillion (S$4.98 trillion) were linked to the initiative.

But China said last year that about 20 per cent of BRI projects had been "seriously affected" by the coronavirus pandemic.

There has also been pushback against the BRI from countries that have criticised its projects as costly and unnecessary.

Beijing scaled back some plans after several countries sought to review, cancel or scale down their commitments, citing concerns over costs, erosion of sovereignty, and corruption.

Meanwhile, veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger has said the United States will have to reach an understanding with China on a new global order to ensure stability or the world will face a dangerous period like the one which preceded World War I.

Dr Kissinger, now 97, influenced some of the most important policy turns of the 1970s while serving as secretary of state under Republican presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Speaking at a Chatham House event in London via Zoom, Dr Kissinger said the US would likely find it difficult to negotiate with a rival like China that would soon be larger and more advanced in some areas. The other question, he said, was whether or not China would accept that new order.

Dr Kissinger praised China's skill at organising itself for technological advance under state control. However, he said, the West had to up its game.

"The West has to believe in itself," Dr Kissinger said.

"That is our domestic problem - it is not a Chinese problem."

REUTERS