Countries should join BRI, not fight it: experts
An economic partnership sought by the US in the Indo-Pacific region will not be sustainable in the long run if it is exclusively for a small group and targeting China, since the region needs cooperation rather than battling infrastructure investment and construction, experts said.
Their comments followed a report on Tuesday by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), claiming the US government's international finance development agency - the Overseas Private Investment Corp - is in talks with India to include the country in a partnership that Washington has formed with its allies in the region including Japan and Australia.
The partnership, part of what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently proposed as the "Indo-Pacific Economic Vision," is aimed at countering the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative (BRI), according to the report.
However, experts pointed out that the partnership would not work if it just aims to target China and partners like India and Japan would not take part in it simply for countering the BRI.
Qian Feng, a research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University based in Beijing, told the Global Times Wednesday that China-India bilateral relations have improved a lot since the start of this year.
"It is impossible for the South Asian country to join the US-led alliance on the premise of challenging China in the region, although India does not yet participate in the BRI," Qian noted. "The Indian government has its own national interests to consider first."
For example, India is seeking Chinese participation in a new project that would involve connecting India's northeastern states with Bangladesh's Chittagong port, the Times of India reported in August.
Likewise, for Japan, which is actively engaged in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, it is either impossible for the country to join the partnership at the cost of targeting China, said Qian.
A senior Japanese government official has visited China, apparently making final preparations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to travel to the country as early as next month, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday.
"The visit is set to witness real progress for economic cooperation between China and Japan in infrastructure construction in a third country, another approach in line with the BRI," Qian said.
According to the SCMP report, partnerships within the framework of the US government's plan allow member countries to streamline the process of joint investments in energy, transport, tourism and technology infrastructure.
"In that sense, the strategic partnership will supplement with the BRI, jointly contributing to infrastructure investment and construction in the Indo-Pacific region," Song Guoyou, director of Fudan University's Center for Economic Diplomacy, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
In terms of scale and influence, the partnership will be unable to compete with or challenge the BRI, according to Song.
Meanwhile, experts stressed the importance of cooperation in the infrastructure sector between China and the US, although relations between the world's two largest economies are undergoing challenges at the moment.
Song said the escalating trade friction between China and the US should not and will not have an impact on cooperation opportunities in the sector for the two countries.
As Chinese enterprises have built up considerable competitive advantages in the sector over the past years, it is unwise for any project to purposefully exclude them, according to Song, who added that "if so, there will be a higher cost."
