The Australian government recently announced the withdrawal of the “Belt and Road” plan signed by the state of Victoria, sparking outrage from Beijing authorities. On Thursday (April 22), the U.S. State Department stated its support for Australia’s decision, saying that the Australian approach was a move to confront China’s coercive behavior.
State Department spokesman Ned Price noted that Australia made its own decision, but also because Beijing “suffered a great loss,” “we will continue to stand with the Australian people as they bear the brunt of China’s (Communist Party of China) coercive behavior. “
Price said the U.S. relationship with Australia is based on “shared values,” and China is not.
The statement came as Communist Party President Xi Jinping attended the Biden administration’s climate summit, where during a speech Thursday, Xi touted the green promise of the Belt and Road Initiative in front of leaders from more than 40 countries, and praised the Belt and Road for agreements and memorandums of understanding on infrastructure and investment projects. Finally, he also shared a Chinese proverb, “When all forces work together, no heavy object can be lifted”, meaning that when all people work together, no heavy object can be lifted.
On Wednesday (21), the Australian government announced the cancellation of Victoria’s “One Belt, One Road” program, citing the approach as a huge loss to Australia and “contrary to Australian foreign policy”. In response, Beijing claimed the move “seriously damaged relations between the two countries” and threatened to retaliate.
Relations between the two countries declined rapidly in 2020 after Beijing launched a disguised “trade war” by boycotting Australian minerals, various agricultural products and alcoholic beverages after the Morrison government angered the Chinese government by calling for an investigation into the origins of an epidemic that the Communist Party was trying to conceal.
After Beijing’s threat, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Thursday that calling a halt to the Belt and Road Initiative was an internal matter for the Australian government, saying Beijing would have reacted the same way if one of its provinces had crossed over to the government and signed an agreement that authorities would not agree to.
Payne said the stopping of the Belt and Road in Victoria was aimed at protecting Australia’s national sovereignty and national interests, not so-called provocation or intentional damage to diplomatic relations, he said, the Chinese government should not make any backlash to this decision, must maintain international “equal national sovereignty The Chinese government should not make any backlash against this decision and must maintain “equal national sovereignty” between international countries.
The Chinese Communist Party’s “Belt and Road” has been criticized internationally for causing debt crises in several countries. A 2018 report by the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C., showed that of the 68 countries participating in the Belt and Road project at the time, 23 were heavily indebted from the massive project, and eight others were on their way to becoming heavily indebted from the construction project.
In April 2020, Tanzanian President John Magufuli declared that he would withdraw from the Belt and Road. He mentioned that former President Jakaya Kikwete signed the Belt and Road agreement for Beijing to build the port, and that Tanzania had no right to make any comments on the port during the lease, “only a drunk would accept such a clause”.
Taiwanese economist Wu Jialong recently told Voice of Hope that “‘One Belt, One Road’ is a thoroughfare to the netherworld” and that “the plan for the world to unite around the Chinese Communist Party can be achieved by this ‘One Belt, One Road’.”
He said the United States once wholeheartedly helped China develop its economy, decoupled trade from human rights, gave China most-favored-nation status, and then helped the CCP join the World Trade Organization in the name of developing countries, but in recent years the CCP’s actions have made the United States realize that “as long as the CCP does not fall, the fruits of China’s economic development will be used by the CCP to achieve its one-party dictatorship and its totalitarian system.”
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