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Moving Forward, Pushing Back
A recent conference at Senate House explored how China’s ambitious OBOR initiative is impacting on Europe and beyond.
In his welcome address, TDF President Lord Bruce spoke of global fears of Chinese hegemony surrounding the BRI, and of China’s reassurances that the project is not a geo-strategic concept or military alliance but an economic co-operation initiative. Is it simply a trade and security network, he wondered, albeit a hugely costly one, or a ‘multi-headed hydra unashamedly aligned with national self-interest’? In light of the huge hike in Chinese investment in the EU in 2016, Lord Bruce considered the European Commission’s reaction to the BRI’s westward momentum and suggested that ‘surely such a visible extension of economic hegemony can no longer go unquestioned’. The essential challenge for the EU is to maintain a collective front, he said, concluding that we should perhaps be asking what China really wants from Europe, as it sees in Europe’s openness and wealth advantages for itself.
Source: The Democracy Forum
