The False Promise of Beijing’s One Belt, One Road Initiative

Built on land reclaimed from the Indian Ocean and funded with $1.4 billion in Chinese investment, the Colombo Port City project is seen jutting out into the ocean in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Nov. 8, 2018. In order to pay for this development, Sri Lanka was forced to sell strategic assets to Beijing, such as the Hambantota Port. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

It’s safe to assume that Milton Friedman, the 1976 Nobel laureate in economics, wasn’t kidding when he authored “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.” The book’s title sums up Friedman’s main point regarding a wide range of public policies, relevant still to this day.

If an offer, therefore, appears to be too good to be true, particularly when it comes from the Chinese communist regime with its abysmal track record of credibility, one should be suspicious.

Chinese Communist Party’s Motivation

In September 2013, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed the Silk Road Economic Belt strategy during a state visit to Kazakhstan. In October 2013, in a speech at the People’s Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia, Xi brought forward the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road venture.