[ZOOM OPTION ADDED] Is the BRI a vast, unprecedented infrastructure effort that will improve connectivity and enhance global commerce? Or is it an undisciplined financial overreach intended to project the economic and military heft of China at the expense of the loss of sovereignty of vulnerable partner countries? Why haven't Japan and India signed on? Is the United States ignoring the BRI at its own risk? Announced in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the BRI will be the signature project, good or bad, of his tenure. The scope and dimensions of the BRI have expanded significantly to Latin America and to new maritime trade routes passing through Artic regions. Space applications are now being considered. Financed by debt diplomacy or debt traps wherein smaller, financially challenged developing countries agree to take on unsustainable debt in exchange for enormous infrastructure projects that some naysayers claim are not needed. The price tag? Some estimates reach $8 trillion.
Purpose: Learn about China's BRI, possible roadblocks and what this could potentially mean for the US
Facilitator: Mike Quinlan |
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