Three Republican legislators in the United States feel enough isn’t being done to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative and want the State Department to come up with yet another plan to blunt Beijing’s “debt-trap diplomacy disguised as infrastructure development” in developing countries.
The lawmakers on Tuesday introduced the BRIDGE Act (Build Responsible Infrastructure Development for the Global Economy) that calls for a new “inter-agency effort to counter the BRI.”
“China poses the greatest threat not only to our own nation but to the sovereignty of countless nations across the globe. The Belt and Road Initiative is modern economic warfare; we need to use every tool at our disposal to counter it. The BRIDGE Act will ensure we can help other countries reject China’s Trojan horse aid and maintain a competitive edge on the global economy,” said Oklahoma representative Kevin Hern, one of the bill’s three co-sponsors.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Both the bill and the alarmist tone of its authors are representative of the mood on Capitol Hill today when it comes to China and the BRI. The inaccurate reference to “debt-trap diplomacy” is also typical of many legislators on Capitol Hill who remain poorly informed about Chinese lending practices in the Global South.
