China’s Belt and Road Initiative

We ended week 8 of the quarter with a discussion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative - China’s foreign policy that sims to solidify China’s soft power in 151 countries. BRI, in addition to connecting countries in Southeast Asia, has been a catalyst for initial investment in African countries with high debt. China also backs a number of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We discussed the effect of this intervention, which has resulted in massive infrastructural development in countries in Africa and Latin America that could not have built to the same scale without assistance. At the same time, the lower standards of working conditions required in Chinese-backed business in the LMICs were worth noting. A conversation of how this parallels the US’s involvement in many countries over the last few decades followed.

The problem of “exporting pollution” to LMICs was identified to be a pertinent problem. It was pointed out that these big shifts are in large a response to consumer demands and individual actions, which charges each of us with the responsibility of ensuring that we are aware of the ramifications of day-to-day consumption.