The Chinese president, on a state visit for three days in France, talks Sunday night with Emmanuel Macron. On the menu of discussions: the gigantic and controversial project of the "new silk roads".
ON DECRYPT
Three days to weave links and evoke angry topics. Chinese President Xi Jinping begins Sunday evening in Nice a three-day state visit to France, where he will be received by Emmanuel Macron. The two heads of state will discuss the "new silk roads", the Pharaonic and controversial investment program led by China between Asia, Europe and Africa. And which greatly worries the French president, fearing a "hegemony" Chinese through this project estimated at more than 1,000 billion dollars.
What is it about ?
The project, launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, is called in Mandarin "The belt and the road": land belt linking China to Europe via Central Asia, and sea route via the Indian Ocean. Followed by a proliferation, in Asia and Africa, of projects mainly funded by China: ports, highways, rail links, industrial centers ... This project is already underway, since rail now connects China to thirty European cities in less than three weeks. China has also bought Turkey's third largest port, near Istanbul, as an important junction point.
Hammered by Beijing, the formula of the "Silk Roads" is also applied to all kinds of investments, diplomatic agreements and extremely diverse projects, as far as Latin America and ... in the Arctic.
Cartography. With the new silk roads, China weaves a global web https://t.co/xpB9ICpornpic.twitter.com/JkKDxkGFcR
- Courrier inter (@courrierinter) September 14, 2018What are the sums involved?
It is estimated that some 60 states have benefited from Chinese capital related to this project. The sums are colossal: according to estimates, China has already spent some 200 billion dollars. More generally, Chinese investments in the countries concerned, from 2014 to mid-2018, were more than double, or 410 billion, says the firm Euler-Hermes. According to Morgan Stanley, Chinese investments in "Silk Road" countries will exceed $ 1.2 trillion by 2027.
French companies could take advantage of this windfall to establish themselves more in China. "With this project, companies already working with Chinese companies have an opportunity to position themselves in new markets where they would not have gone, as markets closer to China," said Sybille Dubois-Fontaine, the director. of the MEDEF-France China Committee, Sunday on Europe 1. "The challenge today is to make companies understand where these projects are and how they can participate, and there is a need for more readability. "she nuanced.
Why controversies?
Western powers, led by the United States, denounce the geopolitical aims of Beijing, suspected of wanting to cement its influence, control raw materials and dispose of its industrial overcapacity. These roads "can not be those of a new hegemony" that would place "vassal" the countries crossed, was alarmed in January 2018 French President Emmanuel Macron. More than 96% of projects financed by Beijing are entrusted to Chinese companies, pointed in September a note from the French Treasury. The latter then monopolize the revenues generated by certain infrastructures.
In addition, by granting huge loans, China is accused of derailing the finances of developing countries, thus aggravating their dependence, amid suspicions of corruption. Mongolia, Maldives or Pakistan are at risk of dropping out, while Sri Lanka, unable to honor its debts, has had to hand over to Beijing the 99-year control of a deep-water port. Finally, Europeans deplore the opacity of tenders, pinpointing the inadequacy of environmental and social standards.
Why are the United States and France worried?
Several EU countries (Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Poland ...) have already signed memoranda of understanding to join the "Silk Roads". Italy, the third largest economy in Europe, became Saturday the first member of the G7 to join, attracting sharp criticism of the United States. "There is no need for Italy to reinforce the legitimacy of projects (serving) Chinese arrogance," fired Garrett Marquis, a leader of the House-Banche, on Twitter. The questions concern the possible risk for the Italian defense and infrastructure, with experts pointing to China's interest in the strategic ports of Trieste and Genoa. Those from Piraeus (Greece), Bilbao and Valencia (Spain) are, for example, already under the Chinese flag.
France, for its part, calls for a "coordinated approach" against Beijing in order to "avoid a form of unwelcome European division". However, Paris does not oppose any cooperation with Beijing, provided it meets "certain criteria of ecological and financial sustainability" and reciprocity, including the opening of public markets, provides a French government source. According to the JDD , France would have convinced the EU to participate, "in pledge of good will", to the second summit of the Silk Road, next September. An additional opportunity to try to influence this gigantic project.