U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-N.Y., introduced legislation Tuesday (May 4) to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s Belt and Road Initiative. He noted that the Communist Party’s Belt and Road Initiative poses immediate and long-term risks to the U.S. economy and national security.
The bill is named the Build Responsible Infrastructure Development for the Global Economy (BRIDGE) Act. BRIDGE, for short. The Act directs the U.S. Department of State to develop a comprehensive, government-wide strategy to counter the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
“The BRI was launched by the Chinese Communist Party authorities in 2013 to build Beijing’s geopolitical influence along trade routes linking China, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.
The bill requires Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and relevant departments to submit reports on the extent to which China and the Chinese Communist Party are using the Belt and Road to undermine the U.S.-led international world order.
The BRIDGE Act also requires the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Commerce Department to develop a detailed strategy on how they intend to counter the initiative.
In a statement, Fitzgerald said the legislation is designed to “counter China’s growing influence” and would hold the Biden administration accountable for combating the Communist Party’s Belt and Road.
“The BRIDGE Act will ensure that the United States does not sit idly by while China uses the Belt and Road as a tool to increase its global influence,” the Republican lawmaker said. “The Biden administration has made it clear that they want to push back against China’s predatory behavior, and this legislation is a step in the right direction that will hold the administration accountable to that commitment.”
Fitzgerald said that since its launch, BRI has shown the world that it can have serious consequences for U.S. foreign policy and economic security, and that it would give Beijing the power to “make unfair bilateral agreements for its own strategic benefit.”
He added, “The BRI covers countries with more than half the world’s population and more than a third of global economic output, and (the CCP) packages cheap and corrupt infrastructure deals to these developing countries that are vulnerable to instability.”
In recent years, through the BRI initiative, the CCP has invested billions of dollars in many countries under the pretext of assisting in building massive infrastructure, only to end up trapping many developing countries in a debt trap.
In 2017, Sri Lanka handed over control of its key port of Hambantota to Beijing through a 99-year lease agreement after it was unable to repay more than $1 billion in debt from the BRI port project.
The Communist regime has come under fire for using debt as a tool to gain political and economic leverage over other countries and silence them about Communist human rights abuses.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said this week that the initiative is being used as a “coercive debt trap by the Chinese Communist Party to advance its interests.
Last month, Australia canceled two BRI programs signed by the Victorian government with Beijing, saying they were not in its national interest.
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