Analyst advises US to learn from China on use of economic power

BEIJING - A US analyst recently published an article laying out Chinese footprints abroad to show its economic expansion, and advising the United States not to view it as a threat.

"Beijing's desire to 'go global' should not necessarily be viewed as a threat to American interests but more of a challenge to be managed," PHD William T. Wilson wrote in the article "China's Huge 'One Belt, One Road' Initiative Is Sweeping Central Asia", which was published on US magazine The National Interest on July 27.

Though highlighing Central Asia in the title, Wilson, a senior research fellow in the Washington DC-based Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, focused on a number of undergoing projects that China's Belt and Road Initiative brings to Asia, Europe, Africa and South America in the article.

With billions of money invested and more capital ready to pour in, Chinese projects numbered in the thousands "now span the globe," the article said.

Besides infrastructure investment that spurred the building of roads, bridges and tunnels, Chinese companies also established cooperation in the energy sectors with regional counterparts, the article said.

"China is also going global with its expertise in high speed rail (HSR) construction," Wilson wrote, adding that Beijing has outnumbered the rest of the world combined in the length of HSR it built.

"Equally important, are the other financial institutions, either Chinese-based or initiated by China." The analyst mentioned the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has 57 member countries, and the Export-Import Bank of China, which lent more than the Asia Development Bank in 2015.

In addition to the developing countries' applause to "Chinese capital investment," the Belt and Road initiative also attracted foreign investors such as "Singapore's state-owned development board", "international pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and private equity funds," according to Wilson.

Following the article, dozens of readers expressed their opinions on the Internet, including praises for China and complaints about the America.

"It (China) has made the lives of many people better, people who otherwise would only expect closed doors on their faces," a netizen identified as "disqus_AaWnVO5x5a" wrote.

Netizen "fr hy" said, "America went through a tech boom and still did not upgrade infrastructure."

"China is for peace, stability and prosperity for the world and the US(A) is for chaos, control freak, and instability for other countries so it can take advantage of that," a netizen named "dpeters" said.