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Experts Warn of 'Debt-Trap' For Vietnam in Belt and Road Initiative as China Bids For Projects
2019-05-22
Observers in Vietnam are growing increasingly wary of Chinese President Xi Jinping's sweeping Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as Hanoi weighs collaboration on projects under the scheme amid concerns of falling into a "debt-trap" that leaves their government beholden to Beijing.
Xi is selling the BRI as a means of strengthening infrastructure, trade, and investment links between China and 154 countries and international organizations, at an estimated cost of around U.S. $1 trillion.
But critics of the BRI say China is using investment to push its own political agenda, and that nations involved in the initiative see their sovereignty undermined if they fall into a "debt-trap" that leaves them beholden to Beijing because they are unable to meet regular payments on loans and default.
Among the issues at play in Vietnam are infrastructure projects pursued by China, such as Vietnam's proposed North-South Expressway, existing Chinese projects and their impact, government policies that are perceived as too beneficial to Chinese investors, and how mounting debt could force Hanoi to support Beijing's interests in Asia, such as its disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Dinh Kim Phuc, a researcher of the resource-rich South China Sea-where China's claims overlap with those of Taiwan, Vietnam and fellow ASEAN countries Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines-recently told RFA's Vietnamese Service that Vietnam's ruling Communist Party is "so far, on board" with the BRI, but said signing the agreement is not what is important.
"What is important is to what extent the initiative is implemented-and the ball is at the feet of...