Par Abdou Rahim Lema / 4 juillet 2023 / Belt & Road in Global Perspective | Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
« In September 2023, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will be 10 years old. Launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping during an official visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013, the BRI was quickly billed as the most ambitious development project in human history and the world’s largest-ever transnational infrastructure program. The Chinese leader himself had once hailed the project as “the project of the century” and “a road for peace, prosperity, opening-up, and innovation, connecting different civilizations” that will “build a broad community of shared interests.” He also framed it as “a new option for other countries and nations who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence” (Xi 2017).
For many commentators, Xi’s ambitious claims seem not to have aged well. Instead of “the project of the century,” commentators argue that the BRI may have already reached a dead end in less than a decade. This piece briefly discusses that position with a particular focus on the BRI in Africa and the broader China-Africa relations; but, its central argument is built around the view that Xi’s BRI is changing face, not dead. Indeed, for all of its problems and challenges, I argue that the initiative is here to stay regardless of its actual form and content, given how deeply intertwined it is with Xi himself and how it has come to define China’s global development engagement, especially with Africa and other developing regions. »
Lire la suite.
Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 22 septembre 2023 à 8h38.
Commentaires