The USA and China may be interlocked economically and financially, but it doesn’t make them friends. A power struggle against the rising superpower is a major part of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, and one of its latest verbal battles could be heard this week over Pakistan.
A senior US diplomat launched a verbal barrage at Beijing’s economic presence in Pakistan, claiming the massive Silk Road investment brought nothing but corruption and a legacy of debt. China hit back saying IMF loans were a worse burden.
A senior American diplomat in South and Central Asia mounted harsh criticism of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, an ambitious plan to turn Pakistan into a major land trade route connecting China directly with the Arabian Sea.
But there is a bright and hopeful alternative to the the doom-and-gloom future brought by America’s arch rival in the form of cooperating with the USA. The US government offers development grants rather than loans, and encourages private companies to do business in Pakistan.
It’s hardly a surprise that the barrage didn’t sit well with China, especially since it came just as Beijing was hosting the 5th CPEC Media Forum, an annual event meant to promote the very project the US Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells went after.
“Pak-China relations were based on ‘win-win cooperation’ and were mutually beneficial for both countries,”said Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing on Friday.
He added that his government would be willing to restructure Pakistani debt if needed, “whereas the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is mainly governed by the West, was strict in its greedy and hostile repayment system.”
The IMF is notorious for linking its loans to political and economic reforms by the borrowing countries that incidentally benefit international capital while leaving populations in those countries destitute and ready to offer their labor at a cheaper price.
Occasionally, IMF-advised austerity leads to public uprising, as was the case in Ecuador recently. Washington doesn’t pin such outcomes on predatory loaning practices as it does with China.
Ambassador Yao noted that some 90% of Pakistan’s creditors were from the West rather than China, and that the USA itself had no qualms about owing Beijing over a trillion dollars.
He added that Wells’ reliance on speculative media reports to accuse Chinese projects of corruption and inflated prices was inappropriate for a senior government official.
The US/IMF/World Bank loans and austerity control system have been so effective at cultivating and enforcing corruption that they can’t afford to give up the dollar inflows that the system provides.
Colonial masters are afraid of independent alternatives. Low intensity conflicts, coups, and wars are the result. The BRICS initiatives such as the Belt Road is showing much promise in raising standards for all.
The USA is losing its credibility by the day and not facing the reality that they have lost the top slot. Nothing that the US regime says or does now has much relevance and hard working countries like China continue to climb towards an economic stratosphere.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
Hypocrisy is their Diplomacy?
As always?