Great Power Games and Influencing Views of BRI
To anyone who reads Chinese (state-affiliated) media, it is clear that they like to emphasize the successes of the BRI. It would be a mistake, however, to think that only the Chinese government has a stake in how the BRI is perceived abroad. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is proposing a bill that includes a $300 million “Countering Chinese Influence Fund”. One of the tools to ‘counter Chinese influence’ is to “support civil society and independent media to raise awareness of and increase transparency regarding the negative impact of activities related to the Belt and Road Initiative”.
Interestingly, the bill does not include new funds for development projects in Africa. It does include $80 billion for the Inter-American Development Bank with conditionality that ensures the countries using it will not be borrowing from China. The bill is thus also aiming at competing with China’s BRI and excluding Chinese projects, in Latin America at least.
A bill that funds independent media to write what the Senate foreign committee wants – negative impacts of BRI – worries journalists, for example Bloomberg China Economy Reporter Tom Hancock. He points out that the bill states that journalists need government protection from ‘disinformation’. However, he explains that the US State Departments’ Global Engagement Center said in August that reports that included that China would distribute vaccines globally and the US would hoard them were Chinese disinformation, even though that is what actually happened. The takeaway of this development is therefore that the US government is not only stepping up competition with the BRI through funding projects, but also wishes to influence people’s views of the BRI.
Vera Kranenburg
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