Siemens, one of Europe’s largest companies, announced that it has signed agreements with several major Chinese companies to jointly explore business opportunities in Asia, Africa and Latin America that are related to the Belt and Road Initiative. Relevant fields include power generation, energy management, building technology and intelligent manufacturing. The German company’s CEO, Joe Kaeser, clearly is enthusiastic about BRI: ‘We support the call of the Belt and Road Initiative … BRI has proven to be a wise and powerful force for accelerating infrastructure development already in many participating countries’. In early June Siemens organised a Belt and Road International Summit in China. Moreover, the company established a Belt and Road Office in Beijing, a ’global hub responsible for executing the company’s BRI business strategy’ [Siemens embraces ‘wise and powerful’ Belt and Road].
A report by Deloitte names several other large Western firms that are active in BRI projects: ABB, Caterpillar, GE, Honeywell, Citibank, and Zurich. According to Deloitte, many more will follow in the near future because the Chinese government wants to boost BRI’s inclusiveness and because Western multinationals often enjoy competitive advantages over their Chinese counterparts [Embracing the BRI ecosystem in 2018: Navigating pitfalls and seizing opportunities].
It remains to be seen to what extent China will indeed allow larger numbers of Western firms to become active participants in Chinese-led BRI projects. Still, Siemens’ approach to BRI is significant. Its public support for BRI contrasts with the increasingly reserved stance of the German government. Last January, then minister of Foreign Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, even warned that BRI is a Chinese attempt to change the world in a way that conflicts with Western values such as freedom, democracy and human rights. In the longer run, such a divergence of views between Western companies and Western governments on BRI could have important repercussions for the geopolitics of Sino-Western relations.
Frans-Paul van der Putten
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