Yesterday China reported that “its foreign trade increased 2.4% in 2019 to $4.14 trillion. Export reached $2.23 trillion and import $1.51 trillion. The European Union remained China’s largest trading partner followed by ASEAN (total $1 trillion) while with the USA down to 11%. Meanwhile, trade with “Silk Road” countries rose 10% to $1.1 trillion accounting for 29% of total trade”.
The news that trade with Belt and Road countries compensated the loss of trade with America is very good achievement for China. When Xi Jinping became President of China in 2012, Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia had written a letter to Xi to start ‘Old Silk Road”. Mahathir had pointed to Xi that Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia is unable to cope the heavy trade with shipping line. Frequent shipping accidents are common through this sea route.
In 2013, Xi sent a “Belt and Road Initiative” road-map to Mahathir Mohammed which changed the trade and development for China for next 30 years. Since 2013, China has invested several billions of dollar in 80 countries for Silk Road Economic Belt.
China has invested more than $26 billion in railways, new ports, and roads’ network in Morocco, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania besides UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan (CPEC), Central Asia, Turkey and Egypt.
On 27th August 2019, China and Iran updated the accords signed in 2016 and signed 25 years of strategic partnership which marked a Seismic shift in the global oil and gas market.
China will invest $280 billion for developing Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors in next five years. China will buy any and all oil, gas and petroleum products at a minimum guaranteed discount of 12% to the six-month rolling mean price.
There will be another $120 billion investment in upgrading Iran’s transport and manufacturing infrastructure. Large Chinese companies will build factories in Iran to manufacture their products.
China has also signed a contract with Iran to electrify 900 km railway from Tehran to Mashhad. China will build “High-Speed Train” connecting Tehran-Qom-Isfahan-Tabriz. From Tabriz, 2,300km New Silk Road will connect to Urumqi (Xinjiang Province), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and then via Turkey into Europe.
All these activities of China caused “Death of Brand America” which led to Hong Kong agitation and crocodile tears for Uighurs in Xinjiang, China.
Xinjiang, an autonomous state in China has actively joined the Belt and Road Initiative for development of the province. Xinjiang is the core area of Silk Road Economic Belt. This year, China-Europe freight trains going via Xinjiang have made 764 trips adding the total number to 3000.
Xinjiang’s regional GDP has seen an annual increase of 8.5 percent with urban and rural residents’ per capita disposable income annually rising by 8.4 percent and 8.2 respectively since 2012.
13/12/2019 at 8:34 PM
Yes