Belt and Road Initiative: News and Analyses

[TaiShang]

BRUEGEL REPORT: COUNTRIES’ PERCEPTIONS OF CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE: A BIG DATA ANALYSIS (February 2019)

Excerpts:

http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WP-2019-01final.pdf

@IamSiGu , @Dungeness , @long_ , @rott , @Han Patriot , @ZeEa5KPul , @Kai Liu , @cirr , @JSCh , @sinait , @Three_Kingdoms , @shi12jun

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

What do these retards not get? Nobody's forcing them to take Chinese money. You don't want the investments, don't take them. Simple.

 

[sinait]

BRUEGEL REPORT: COUNTRIES’ PERCEPTIONS OF CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE: A BIG DATA ANALYSIS (February 2019)

Excerpts:

View attachment 554020

View attachment 554021

View attachment 554022
View attachment 554023
View attachment 554024
View attachment 554025
View attachment 554026

View attachment 554027

http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WP-2019-01final.pdf

@IamSiGu , @Dungeness , @long_ , @rott , @Han Patriot , @ZeEa5KPul , @Kai Liu , @cirr , @JSCh , @sinait , @Three_Kingdoms , @shi12jun

Singapore not individually mentioned but should be under very positive.
Those under negatives are either sour grapes(India) or the easily Western MSM anti-China propaganda brainwashed.
The farsightedness that China had to embark on this monumental BRI endeavour is remarkable.
Hopefully I am able to witness the day China trounce the US.
.

 

[TaiShang]

Singapore not individually mentioned but should be under very positive.
Those under negatives are either sour grapes(India) or the easily Western MSM anti-China propaganda brainwashed.
The farsightedness that China had to embark on this monumental BRI endeavour is remarkable.
Hopefully I am able to witness the day China trounce the US.
.

Actually, even India is not that much in the negative territory. The greatest hatred comes from the weakest: Bosnia. Interesting to know why they hate the BRI.

But, overall, the perception is on the positive side. This means, the Western discourse assault has not worked to their favor. From now on, BRI positive discourse will only get stronger.

And indeed, East Asia has been very positive toward the BRI, including Singapore.

In fact, Singapore is an important linkage in the scheme, especially with respect to maritime trade.

Behind the scene, too, Singapore provides a lot of know-how in terms of governance and effective management. BRI being a colossal project, China needs all the wisdom from its historical-cultural peers.

 

[sinait]

Actually, even India is not that much in the negative territory. The greatest hatred comes from the weakest: Bosnia. Interesting to know why they hate the BRI.

But, overall, the perception is on the positive side. This means, the Western discourse assault has not worked to their favor. From now on, BRI positive discourse will only get stronger.

India requirement for massive investments and job creation should be under very positive but for sour grapes at the success of China.
Bosnia being creation and a beneficiary of Western powers meddling is a good example of those easily brainwashed by Western Media anti China propaganda.
Although China has non interfering policy, I think China is perceived by Bosnia as being on the side of Serbia.
.

 

[Dungeness]

It is surprising that Pakistan is barely positive, even less than Afghanistan. Are Chinese taking the perception of "iron brothers" for granted? To be honest, reading posts from Pakistan friends on PDF for years, I have much less confidence on the term than before.

 

[Realtalk108]

I think China is perceived by Bosnia as being on the side of Serbia.

Correct answer. It was during the Yugoslav wars in the 90s.

It is surprising that Pakistan is barely positive, even less than Afghanistan. Are Chinese taking the perception of "iron brothers" for granted? To be honest, reading posts from Pakistan friends on PDF for years, I have much less confidence on the term than before.

Pakistanis think China should bail them out of their debt. Only this one time, of course. They will never get into another debt trap, pinky swear. Instead China came up with massive projects with massive price tags.

 

[Dungeness]

Pakistanis think China should bail them out of their debt. Only this one time, of course. They will never get into another debt trap, pinky swear. Instead China came up with massive projects with massive price tags.

Like writing a blank check? It would be hard to do for a country with 200 millions. How Chinese government is supposed to explain to Chinese tax payers?

 

[Realtalk108]

Like writing a blank check? It would be hard to do for a country with 200 millions. How Chinese government is supposed to explain to Chinese tax payers?

Well not the ruling class. They have a better grasp of this things. They don't think this way. But among the general public I noticed this expectation is somewhat there.

In any case, don't place too much currency on this report. Perception is relative. Pakistanis may have had a greater expectation from China which didn't match with reality. So they are upset. Whereas another country like Tanzania may have expected less, so they were very happy with whatever they got.

 

[TaiShang]

18-Apr-2019

Data Tells: The changing face of trade along the China-Europe rail network

CGTN

As freight train X8044 arrived at its terminus in central China last August it quietly hit an impressive landmark, becoming the 10,000th train to make the journey between China and Europe since the launch of the container service in 2011.

Carrying goods all the way from Hamburg in northern Germany, the X8044 service to Wujiashan container terminal in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province is just one of the many services now linking 48 Chinese cities with 42 European destinations.

A closer look at the number of containers moving an array of goods across continents underlines just how much this rail connection between China and Europe has transformed trade.

Since 2011, the number of containers being transported along the China-Europe freight rail service network has increased dramatically, from 1,404 per year to 214,374 in 2017. Between 2016 and 2017 alone the volume more than doubled during a period that saw major new routes established, such as the link between London and Yiwu, in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The vast majority of container traffic is heading out of China, with 212,000 outbound containers compared with 2,437 inbound. This reflects China's growing goods exports to partners in Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

The rapid uptick in container volume is impressive, but what is being transported? According to official data, among the most frequently transported goods are tobacco and alcohol products, electronics, machinery, cars and car parts and clothing and textiles.

Outbound containers mostly transport electronics, machinery and clothing from China to Europe, while inbound routes are bringing European tobacco and wine products, cars and car parts and construction materials to China.

Most Chinese exports along the China-Europe freight rail network go to Germany, the Netherlands, France, Russia and Spain, and mainly include boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances.

The top countries using the rail link to export goods to China are Germany, Russia, France, Iran and the Netherlands, with major exports including fossil fuels, machinery and aircraft.

The development of the freight rail network has seen several routes customized and tailor-made for specific companies or products. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, a train with a load of 100,000 crayfish made its way from Jingzhou in central China's Hubei Province to Moscow, for football fans to enjoy Chinese seafood during their time at the tournament.

In 2017, a refrigerated train capable of adjusting temperature and humidity took a shipment of red wine on a 28-day journey from Duisburg, Germany to Yiwu, ensuring its expensive cargo reached Chinese consumers in as good condition as possible.

Given the success of the China-Europe freight rail network, other countries are now looking to work with China to transport their goods along the route. Last September, Japanese logistics company Nippon Express announced it would launch freight train services along the network twice a month in 2019.

Nikkei Asian Review reported that the company was in talks with several Chinese logistics company, and was considering setting up a Chinese terminal for its services in either Xi'an, Chongqing or Wuhan.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514d326b444d34457a6333566d54/index.html

 

[TaiShang]

Data Tells: China-Europe freight train continues to expand in scope

Zhang Xinyuan

China Railway Express (CR Express), also known as the China-Europe freight train, part of the fundamental infrastructure of the country's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has witnessed exponential growth since the first Chinese freight trains left from southwest China's Chongqing to Duisburg, Germany's biggest inland port back in 2011.

By March 2019, the continent-crossing rail has connected 60 Chinese cities with 50 cities of 15 European countries, with the freight train making over 14,000 trips back and forth.

The CR Express boosted the development of the former less developed middle and western regions in China, such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province as well as Sichuan Province, by making them a transportation hub and inland port between China, Central Asia, West Asia and Europe, presenting China's backwater on the center of the newly revived trade route.

Among the top 10 provinces and regions that have the most frequent CR Express routes schedules, China's western provinces and regions rank top four, with Xinjiang taking the first place.

Along with China's central provinces such as Hunan, Hubei and Shanxi, over half of CR Express' schedules run through the middle and western provinces and regions.

The CR Express are well received by countries along the rejuvenated Silk Road, from only connected to Duisburg, Germany back in 2011 to 50 cities in 15 countries by late March 2019, all the way extended to London, the UK, one of the most important cities in Europe, and Madrid, Spain, the most distant stop of CR Express in Europe.

Among the countries connected to the CR Express, Germany, Russia and Kazakhstan are the top three countries with the most CR Express routes, with Germany accounting for 21.65 percent of the proportion, and Russia and Kazakhstan 17.71 percent and 9.45 percent, respectively.

Russia ranks first in the number of cities to connect with the CR Express, followed by Germany, the first country to connect with the CR Express and now launching the CR Express in five cities, including Hamburg, Munich, Duisburg, Nuremberg and Schwarzheide.

By 2017, 20 percent of the business in Duisburg port came from the CR Express. The freight trains delivered 100,000 containers in 2017, and the turnover reached a record-breaking 250 million Euros (283 million U.S. dollars), up by nine percent. Also, the revenue before tax hit 22 million Euros, increased by 16 percent year-on-year.

Not only benefits the port, but the CR Express also boosts the economic growth of the city in Germany as about 6,000 new jobs have been created in logistics industry alone in Duisburg, based on the Duisburg government statistics.

Also, North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Duisburg harbor is located, is a popular place to attract investment from Chinese companies with many well-known Chinese firms setting their German head offices here, like Huawei, according to Yicai.com.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d774d3263444d34457a6333566d54/index.html

 

[TaiShang]

Garrett Marquis, a Trump special assistant tweeted:

Italy is a major global economy and great investment destination. No need for Italian government to lend legitimacy to China’s infrastructure vanity project.

— Garrett Marquis (@GMarquis45) March 9, 2019



CHINA LAUGHS AS U.S. TRIES TO STOP ITALY FROM JOINING ONE BELT, ONE ROAD PLAN

BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 3/8/19

...

"This position taken by the U.S. side is laughable," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a press briefing Friday, as translated by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. "As a major country, Italy knows exactly what policies serve its own interests and it can make its decisions independently."

https://www.newsweek.com/china-laugh-us-criticism-italy-one-belt-road-plan-1356676

 

[TaiShang]

Data Tells: China's BRI promotes global trade

Zhang Xinyuan

As a development strategy proposed by China that focuses on connectivity and cooperation on a trans‐continental scale, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has significantly boosted global trade and investment in recent years.

With a wave of trade protectionism sweeping across the world in recent years, causing global economic turmoil, China still adheres to economic openness, actively pushing toward economic globalization, and striving to build a more convenient and liberal environment for international trade and investment.

BRI is one of the most important tools for China to achieve that goal. About 125 countries and 29 international organizations have signed cooperation agreements with China on jointly building the Belt and Road, according to data published in March on China's official Belt and Road website.

The total trade volume of goods between China and countries along the Belt and Road exceeded six trillion U.S. dollars from 2013 to 2018, according to a Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) statement on Thursday.

The average annual growth rate of trade between China and countries along the Belt and Road hit four percent during the 2013-2018 period, higher than the growth rate of China's foreign trade during the same period, accounting for 27.4 percent of China's total trade in goods, according to MOFCOM.

According to the Belt and Road Big Data Annual Report of 2018 from the State Information Center, BRI in 2017 connected 71 countries around the world, spanning across Asia, Europe, and Eastern Africa, and in total the BRI countries' foreign trade reached 9.3 trillion U.S. dollars in 2017, 27.8 percent of the total world trade volume.

Among the BRI countries, South Korea ranks first in terms of foreign trade volume, reaching over one trillion U.S. dollars in 2017, Singapore and India follows with 697 billion U.S. dollars and 617 billion U.S. dollars, respectively, the report showed.

In terms of trade commodities, the top import and export commodities among BRI economies fall in the same categories, including electronic machinery, sound recorder and reproducers, and televisions, followed by nuclear reactors, boilers, and other heavy machinery, based on the report.

Private enterprises in China have played a major role in trade with BRI economies. In 2017, China's private enterprises trade with BRI countries reached 619 billion U.S. dollars, representing 43 percent of the total trade volume between China and BRI countries. Foreign companies grabbed 36.6 percent of the trade pie, while state-owned enterprises got 19.4 percent of the market share.

BRI has greatly prompted the development of private economies in China and further opened its market to foreign companies.



Data Tells: Ports light up the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

Data Tells: Trips on China Railway Express surge since 2011

Data Tells: China's friendship network expanded thanks to BRI

 

[TaiShang]

How have over 200 tasks been completed under the BRI since 2017?

By Duan Fengyuan - CGTN

The Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) will take place in Beijing from April 25 to April 27 this year with the theme of "Belt and Road Cooperation, Shaping a Brighter Shared Future", aiming to bring about high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road framework.

The first BRF was held in Beijing in May 2017, and a list of major deliverables was issued during the highest-level forum on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – 76 items that comprise more than 270 concrete results in five key areas, namely policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity.

It is time to check the completion of tasks ahead of the second BRF.

Guided by the principle of consultation and cooperation for shared benefits and by enhancing connectivity in the five priority areas of policy, the BRI has given a strong boost to international cooperation on connectivity, said Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.

During the first forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China had already signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements with 68 countries and international organizations, and the data has been updated to a new lever: A total of 126 countries and 29 international organizations have signed BRI cooperation documents with China so far.

2019 is the start of the second five years of Belt and Road construction and the need to move BRI cooperation toward quality development was stressed by President Xi at a seminar marking the BRI's fifth anniversary last August.

More agreements are expected to be signed, and more detailed guidance and documentation are expected to be introduced towards quality BRI cooperation in the coming days, so wait and see the new challenges on the task list of the second BRF.

 

[shahbaz baig]

Like writing a blank check? It would be hard to do for a country with 200 millions. How Chinese government is supposed to explain to Chinese tax payers?

Well not the ruling class. They have a better grasp of this things. They don't think this way. But among the general public I noticed this expectation is somewhat there.

In any case, don't place too much currency on this report. Perception is relative. Pakistanis may have had a greater expectation from China which didn't match with reality. So they are upset. Whereas another country like Tanzania may have expected less, so they were very happy with whatever they got.

One of Chinese living in US & second one from india both are talking with their brainwashed mindset.

@Clutch @Indus Valley @ghazi52 @waz
@doorstar
Just look at indians, at first place Indian Govt always cry for the CPEC projects, threaten Pakistan, further more funding to proxies in order to sabotage CPEC projects, on the other end they are busy spreading negativity about us. I haven't seen the ugly, rubbish,pathetic creature like them on the face of earth.

I have an objection with my Chinese friends on PDF, why don't you guys participate in CPEC related threads in the Section of CPEC on PDF. We need people to people contact, it's easy for indians & Chinese because of your population but it's not easy for Pakistanis to interact with people everywhere.