April 27, 2019

Andrew Campbell

The second Belt and Road Conference was held in Beijing from April 25 to 27, 2019. Building construction of ports, roads and railways, connecting China and Asia, Africa and Europe, China claims that 150 countries have signed since its launch in 2013, and by the first half of 2019, overseas total loans are more than $90 billion. 

Debt trap diplomacy is what Western countries are constantly reminding African countries of, since they may bear too much Chinese debt. The most concerned case was that Sri Lanka had handed over to China the Hambantota strategic port, which was leased for 99 years to repay billions of dollars in debt owed to Beijing.

Through the media, Beijing has increased its influence in Africa. They have provided funds to learn Mandarin and even sent African journalists to Beijing for training. They also invested in local media to purchase a 20% stake in South African independent media companies. 

In addition, the leader of China, Xi Jinping proposed the news network BRNN platform in 2017, which consists of 182 media from 86 countries, helping BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) countries to cooperate in news interviews.

At present, the Star Times Group has begun to implement solar satellite TV sets for 10,000 villages in Africa, and also exports restrictive network tools to African countries. Xi tried to use the media to influence the relationship between Beijing and Africa and to create favorable public opinion.

The conference was attended by more than 5,000 participants, including 37 national leaders, including Austrian Chancellor, Portuguese President, Italian Prime Minister from Europe and Singapore Prime Minister. Although the leaders of Pakistan and Malaysia are concerned about debt burden of Chinese investment, they have opted to attend the forum again.

Notable absent countries are also China's main diplomatic partners. The leaders of Sri Lanka, Turkey and the largest trading partner, the United States, did not come. Others include close allies of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. As for leaders from the UK, France and Germany, they also choose to stay away.

Photo:Webshot.