The Wall Street Journal article, “Hidden Debt Plagues China’s Belt and Road Infrastructure Plan, Studies Find” describes a Chinese endeavor to fund transportation infrastructure across many developing nations. Even though this project seems mutually beneficial, in that poor countries have more infrastructure while China gains more natural resources in return, there are many shortcomings resulting from the project. Because of the ramifications that will be incurred in the long run, I think that this project is in need of numerous changes.
Despite the purported economic growth from this project, China persists in maintaining high-interest loans with the developing countries in which they operate. This has lead to debt traps, with many developing countries owing more than their GDP. This exacerbates rather than mitigates poverty within these countries, making the project counterproductive. If China was willing to suspend debt payments in 19 African countries, I can’t help but wonder why they are unwilling to do so in many other countries, as that would facilitate the socioeconomic growth and development within them. Additionally, with a more robust economy and higher GDP, those countries would have a much easier time paying China back in the future.
In addition, although the projects claim to benefit the developing countries, they have been shown to come with a swath of problems such as environmental damage, corruption and unfair labor. Because these problems diminish human welfare and based on Amartya Sen’s definition of human development, it can be said that China’s project hinders development. I think that in order to ensure that the developing countries truly benefit from China’s project, the international community is morally obligated to push for China to address these problems and more strictly enforce fair policies.
The article discusses the US and other countries’ involvement in the project, Build Back Better World (B3W), which will compete with China in building infrastructure in developing countries. I think however that in order for this to be successful, the developing nations cannot be put under exorbitant debt like they are with China in order to allow their economy to more freely grow. I also think it would be nice if the international community were to provide some form of relief to countries trapped in Chinese debt in order to help them move away from poverty. Additionally, I also hope that many more developed nations get involved in this project in order to mitigate the numerous other ramifications of the Chinese infrastructure project.