A renowned Harvard scholar of international politics, Joseph Nye conceptualizes the current dynamics of Sino-American relations as ‘competitive rivalry’ and not ‘Cold War’, in the China US Focus article [The Future of US-China Relations After Buenos Aires]. Nye points to the promises and perils of current dynamics between the two countries after the G20 summit in Argentina. He argues that ‘the rise of China does not pose an existential threat to us’ and that ‘the US has more time and assets to manage the rise of China than Britain had with Germany’. Another factor that should make us less worried, according to Nye, is that Asia has its own balance of power with the presence of India and Japan, that are natural balancers of China’s rise. And finally he argues that there are transnational challenges (such as climate change) in the world that cannot be addressed without cooperation between China and the US: ‘That is why we should think of the US-China relationship as a “cooperative rivalry” rather than a revival of the Cold War.’
The World Bank (WB) report about BRI procurement [Public Procurement in the Belt and Road Initiative] addresses the lack of relatively systematic data pertaining to two factors: 1) the practices that are followed by various entities that fund BRI-related contracts, and 2) the selection process for firms that execute BRI projects. Given the little data that the World Bank has, the tentative conclusion so far is that ‘the limited available data however indicate that Chinese companies account for the majority of BRI procurement, even in light of their high share of total infrastructure projects in developing countries'. The report further analyzes the lack of available data and the institutional dimensions of public procurement in BRI countries, including China.
M. Forough
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