What is Belt & Road Initiative by China and why it's not just about the economy?

The "Belt & Road" initiative is not just an economic or infrastructure development project. Deep within it's plan lies an ambition to shift the global center of power and influence from US to China.

The "Belt & Road" initiative is a major infrastructure based geopolitical and economic development project that plans to link upwards of a hundred countries together by building roads, rails and water connections that goes as far as central Europe to Africa and links to major economic hubs in China. This initiative mostly centers around creating a physical trading infrastructure that did not exist earlier that could have made it conducive to trade at scale.

World trade has been a blessing in disguise as far as China is concerned, it has exported it's way to prosperity after joining world trade organisation (WTO) in 2001. In many ways the "Belt & Road" is an extension of that. It's a way to increase trade through enhancing the physical infrastructure in countries which have China have fairly good ties with. Even if it leads to a marginal rise in trade, the "Belt & Road" would have served it's trade related purpose, as far as china is concerned. We need to understand a change in stance here. China usually has been a net exporter of good and services to other rich and developed nations, but this time it is different. China is looking to be a net importer for this "Belt & Road" initiative.

For starters most of the countries in the "Belt & Road" initiative are poor countries with very little infrastructure but they are rich in natural resources. Which explains that they would not be the ones importing stuff from China and consuming it. But, they are a good source of fossil fuels which China is a major consumer of. China  has been the top importer of major commodities including oil for quite some time now. It has been importing these commodities from countries like Australia, Middle east etc. The new plan entails deleveraging the supply china and shifting at least a part of it towards these poor countries which have enormous natural resources. The only problem that is faced with is they don't have infrastructure like Australia or other major commodity trading partners.

The "Belt & Road" initiative's first strategy is to overcome this challenge. That explains the heavy infrastructure deployment that is being undertaken by China on this route. Once this infrastructure issue is resolved these poor resource rich countries would be able to trade with China replacing the existing ones. This arrangement certainly benefits China who is taking great pains to spearhead this whole project and investing close to $8 Trillion on it.

Let's try to understand another perspective. Would this project be financially beneficial to these poor countries that are a part of this project? Well most probably 'Yes'. Since these countries are poor and backwards when it comes to infrastructure, they will get their foot in the door as far as infrastructure is concerned, remember "infrastructure is the real differentiating factory between a major economy and a poor economy". Not only this "Belt & Road" initiative is going to improve their infrastructure but will facilitate China to be a net buyer from these countries (according to the MOU signed). Consider the infrastructure as a port being built and then on top of that container ships from China line up to buy natural resources from that nation. Sounds like a win-win situation. So we can safely say, 'Yes' China will benefit from this project and is undertaking it for it's personal interests but this initiative will not only help China but would also most probably, help the poor nations economically.

Last but not the least, we stumble upon the influence part of the equation. We all know that USA has been the de-facto world influencing power in the last century with USD as it's de-facto currency. There are many benefits of being this great influencing power, which USA has reaped from a long time. It is now believed, if this "Belt & Road" initiative is achieved, it will shift the power and influence towards China and that is the main motive behind this massive infrastructure project being undertaken. Now, this is no mystery that all countries have the ambition to rise up the value ladder and so has China, we should hold nothing against them. So this plan of shifting the influence of the world economic and geopolitical center to China should not come as a surprise to anybody, and is perfectly legitimate, if not achieved through the dirty tricks of trapping those poor countries in the debt trap and taking over their resources.

Conclusion:
The "Belt & Road" initiative can bring good fortunes to the poor economies while bringing their infrastructure up to a certain level for enhancing trade opportunities with China. This project would also lead such countries receiving already committed business from the Chinese, mostly for the natural resources. No doubt, that the initiative has been taken by China for it's own self interest but it will most probably help the other economies that are a part of this project, to prosper economically. While the economic and geopolitical influence shifting towards China is the main agenda which China eyes, while persisting with this project, it is understandable. Also, ambition cannot be held against any country, if results are achieved through transparent and well meaning initiatives and not by pushing these countries into a debt trap and taking over their resources through coercion.