Belt and Road Initiative not a 'Chinese plot': Xi tries to allay concerns

President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy plan to build a new "Silk Road" of infrastructure and trade links between China and Eurasia is not a "Chinese plot", Xi said on Wednesday, according to state media.

Xi's Belt and Road Initiative, unveiled in 2013, aims to bolster a sprawling network of land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

At a summit last May, Xi pledged $126 billion for the plan, but has failed to overcome suspicion in Western capitals, where officials suspect the professed desire to spread prosperity in the region is foremost an attempt to assert Chinese influence.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is not a Chinese plot, as some people internationally have said," Xi told a gathering at the annual meeting of the Chinese Boao Forum for Asia in the southern province of Hainan.

"It is neither the post-World War Two Marshall Plan, nor is it a Chinese conspiracy. If you had to (call it something), it's an 'overt plot'," he added, the official news agency, Xinhua, said.

China holds special session to promote Belt and Road initiative at IRF

China today held a special session to promote its ambitious 'Belt and Road Initiative', which India is strongly opposing, at the World Road Meeting (WRM) organised by an international body and supported by NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, among others.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, however, sought to disassociate itself from the session with an official later saying that "neither the ministry approved any such session nor the organisers apprised it about any such matter".

The International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva-based body which is organising the four-day event from November 14 on the outskirts of the national capital, said in a statement that the China Highway and Transportation Society (CHTS) held a special session at WRM to promote its Belt and Road Initiative as well as introduce China's development of transport and newer technologies.

This comes against the backdrop of India consistently objecting to the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of BRI and passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. India has boycotted China's Belt and Road forum on sovereignty concerns and has been mounting diplomatic pressure in this regard.

"Any representation of this initiative (BRI) does not change or alter the position of India," official sources said when asked about today's session at WRM.
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India's stance on Belt and Road Initiative wavering, says China

China today said India's stand on its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is wavering, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a part of the project, does not involve any territorial dispute as claimed by New Delhi.

China has been reiterating that the USD 50 billion CPEC which traverses through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a connectivity project and will not affect its stand that the Kashmir issue should be resolved between India and Pakistan through talks.

India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through the disputed territory and boycotted a high-profile Belt and Road Forum organised by China in May.

Reacting to a question on Russian Ambassador to India, Nikolay Kudashev's comments yesterday that India and China should resolve differences over the project, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said since this question is being asked repeatedly by the Indian media, "it shows India is quite wavering" over the BRI.

Hua also said the CPEC does not involve any territorial dispute.

"The BRI will bring benefits to more countries along the BRI. We also said many times that the CPEC is an economic cooperation not targeted at any third party and does not involve territorial disputes," Hua said.
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In Mao's league? Xi Jinping's BRI a political masterstroke, says expert

The One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative must be seen as a political and economic masterstroke by Chinese President Xi Jinping, in terms of its domestic as well foreign impact, an expert has said.

"The singular contribution of the man now vying for a place next to Mao in the pantheon of Chinese leaders, Xi Jinping, is the One Belt, One Road project. It was a public relations triumph: Mao destroyed the old order, Deng Xiaoping laid the foundations of a modern economy, Xi is making China great again," said Philip Bowring, who has been writing on regional financial and political issues successively as correspondent for the Financial Times, editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and columnist for the International Herald Tribune, in an article published in nybook.com.

"This plan, now more often known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to use China's money and know-how to develop relations with a host of developing countries across Eurasia and to the coasts of Africa has proved a political masterstroke at home and abroad," he added.

He mentioned that for foreigners, China appears to be extending a hand of friendship, economic development, and trade across half the world.

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Bowring said for the Chinese people, it is an expression of new-found pride in the nation's power and wealth.
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China's Silk Road dealmakers eye Europe's banks, insurers, asset managers

After ports and industrial parks, the dealmakers leading China's trillion-dollar push to build a modern Silk Road are turning to the financial sector, targeting Europe's banks, insurers and asset managers to tap funds and expertise.

Last week, sources familiar with the matter said two of China's most acquisitive conglomerates, HNA Group and Anbang Insurance Group, had separately considered bidding for the German insurer Allianz SE.

Neither of the two made an offer, but the talks marked a new level of ambition for China: Allianz is a German stalwart, a pillar for local pensions and a global powerhouse with 1.9 trillion euros ($2.3 trillion) of assets under management.

HNA already owns a stake of just under 10 per cent in Deutsche Bank.

Bankers, lawyers, and company executives say more financial deals will come, led by state behemoths such as China Life and China Everbright, as well as private firms, including Legend Holdings and China Minsheng Financial.
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