Few people in the world have not heard of the Belt and Road Initiative. This is the massive trading partnership initiated by China in 2013, which has now grown, beyond any initial expectations, to become a major economic challenger to the G7 group of nations.
This project (which is still growing), when combined with two other initiatives, the BRICS (a trading block composed of emerging market countries) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), is in a position to revolutionize the global economic structure. Together they will impact every nation and every economy in the world. All three of these organizations have one thing in common, CHINA.
For a long time, China has been seen as a mystery, and even today, despite extensive efforts from Chinese agencies to foster improved understanding of their nation, much of the Western world finds China hard to fathom, creating the potential for misunderstanding. It is interesting that for most of over 2000 years, from 200 BC to AD 1800, China was the wealthiest nation or empire in the world, even during the period of the Roman Empire.
At the time, its governmental bureaucracy was the best organized and most efficient on the planet. Its inventions, such as the printing press, the magnetic compass, paper, and gunpowder were revolutionary. Its silks and other products were sought after across Asia and Europe. Yet the nation remained a mystery, as periodically, concerns about corrupting foreign influences would cause the leadership to shut off contact with the outside world.
Such actions further deepened the curiosity of foreigners. Today China is reaching out to engage much of the world in a massive project called One Belt OneRoad. In this program we will examine the Belt and Road Initiative and consider just how this economic force may impact all of us for better or for worse, depending on how we may respond. This initiative offers our Western nations an opportunity to examine themselves and do a reality check on how we are doing in comparison.
It should also carry a message causing us to ask why so many nations around the world are looking away from the nations of the West to find partners and opportunities. There is a serious warning for the West, much less a warning about China and its partners than a warning about what the West is becoming. It is a warning of impending collapse of Western wealth and power brought on by ourselves. Stay tuned. What is the background to China's present political and economic situation and ambitions?
This is seldom referenced in modern news media. China fell on hard times in the early 1800s. Even in the late 1700s, China, already weakened by internal strife, civil unrest and competing warlords in various provinces, was not prepared for contact with Western powers. It was afflicted by the two Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60) which saw the Chinese monarchy's central authority severely weakened followed by humiliating concessions being demanded by European governments.
About the same time, the nation was devastated by the terrible Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), the bloodiest civil war in human history, which left tens of millions dead, and China's government struggling to hold the country together. This revolt was blamed by many in China on Western religious influences, further reinforcing their suspicion of Western values. The once vibrant economy of the Chinese Empire was all but destroyed.
Eventually the monarchy was overthrown by a popular revolt in 1911, but the new government led by Sun Yat Sen was hard-pressed by civil conflict, political disagreement, cultural arguments and the hardship and poverty that produces. To make matters worse, in the early 1930s China was brutally attacked by the Empire of Japan, whose forces inflicted unimaginable terror and vicious oppression on China for over a decade.
Following the defeat of the Japanese in World War II, China again fell back into civil war, this time between the Communist forces led by Mao Zedong, and the Nationalist army under Chiang Kai-shek. This civil conflict ended in 1949 with the defeat of the Nationalists, whose forces then fled to the nearby island of Formosa, which was renamed Taiwan. The Chinese mainland was then reunified under a strong central government under the Communist forces and the leadership of Mao.
China's suffering was not over. Communist or rigid Marxist ideology was increasingly enforced under Mao's policies such as the collectivization of farmland (The Great Leap Forward 1958-1961) and the later Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). As a result of these policies the nation was reduced to impoverishment, starvation, and serious repression.
Following Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping became the national leader and began the challenging task of restoring China to economic and social viability. In 1982, Deng repudiated rigid Marxism, and opened the door to gradual economic development. Leaders that followed, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, oversaw the social and economic restoration of China which is now carried on by the administration of Xi Jinping. Marxist-Leninism and Maoist ideology are actually hard to find in today's China.
Western politicians often refer to China as a Communist state, yet it has a Congress with elected representatives from eight political parties, of which one, the Communist Party of China is dominant. Its economy looks very capitalistic, with nearly 80% of urban employment in the private sector. This is currently equal to or higher than in western Europe, Canada, or the US.
This free-enterprise model, governed by a strong central authority has worked in China since it is compatible with the cultural history of the land. The speed and extent of China's internal economic development is nothing less than astounding. While some wish to minimize what China has achieved, the fact of the matter is that China, between 1982 and 2022, has grown faster economically than any other nation in history.
Note a comment from the Congressional Research Service of the United States The rise of China at the end of the 20th century is one of the great success stories of all time. From a century of humiliation and despair, the nation has, through extremely hard work, become a world power. But is this power a partner or a challenger to the West? In many ways that depends on how the nations of the West react.
Let us now examine in this program the economic development called by most people, The One Belt One Road Initiative. This Initiative is the most visionary and far-reaching international development since the 1940's. It draws its name from the ancient trade routes between China, the Middle East and Europe that were known as the Silk Road. There were several overland routes travelled by caravans, as well as a maritime or sea route that carried silks, spices and other valuables from Asia to Europe.
The new Silk Road is a remarkable trade network, unprecedented in scale and potential, which now promises to stimulate not only trade and commerce across Eurasia, Africa and beyond, but also has, as a stated target, to contribute to economic development in emerging economies. The Belt and Road project refers to two trade routes. The Silk Road Economic Belt is the overland trading network of roads, rail lines and pipelines that can connect China to the nations of Asia and Europe.
The Maritime Silk Road is a network of sea connections linking ports in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. Together they serve to link Asia, Africa, South America and Europe into the largest trading zone on earth. The BRI was officially announced in the autumn of 2013 during President Xi Jinping's visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Even more remarkable than the visionary proclamation is the fact that within a ten-year period, much of the vision has already become a reality, with planning, engineering and construction completed at a pace that could only be dreamed of in the Western nations In 2018, 65 countries were linked in this Initiative by land and/or sea links, which represented 30% of the world's GDP, 62% of the world's population and 75% of the world's energy reserves.
By December 2023 this had grown to 154 countries formally affiliated with the Belt and Road, with seven more considering joining. It is already the largest trading community in the world, with partners on four continents and numerous island nations. This represents a massive and potentially self-sustaining trading block that offers much development potential to both developed and emerging economies. So why is it that there is so much negative reporting about this project in Western media?
More importantly we need to ask, why have so many nations in Asia, Africa and South America chosen to embrace either the One Belt One Road Initiative, or are seeking membership in the BRICS trading partnership instead of looking to the West and the G7 nations? This is an important question and the answers are not comfortable to the average Westerner.
Yet if we do not look in the mirror and do an honest assessment of the situation, we may soon find ourselves marginalized in an economic world that is eclipsing what we have known for so long. The world order, as established largely by the United States and Britain at the end of World War II is unravelling rapidly. New structures are being put in place to challenge the old order.
We are entering a time of significant turmoil, largely caused by new movements and philosophies in the Western nations that are in fact destroying the foundations of our own stability. Our free offer this week is a DVD entitled The Collapse of World Order. This DVD will show you why our Western world is in social, economic and moral instability. It also points the way to a solution. Here is how you can receive your complimentary copy.
For today's free offer call: 866-784-7895, or go to TWTV.org/collapse. This clear and straightforward resource will help you understand this vital truth, straight from the pages of the Bible. If you are calling for the first time, you will also receive a free subscription to Tomorrow's World Magazine. This inspiring magazine discusses news, science and modern culture, and will help you make sense of your world from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world who are turning to Tomorrow's World for Truth, Prophecy and Hope in these confusing times. Call now, or go to TWTV.org/collapse. As of December 2021, the total investment in Belt and Road projects exceeded US $4 trillion. This represents a massive expenditure in infrastructure to enable everything from resource extraction, manufacturing and transportation of products to various markets within the BRI partner network.
Yet in Western-based media one frequently reads of decline in investment in the BRI, and developing nations who are involved being caught in debt traps and other problems that would cause one to conclude that the project is a failure and will soon fall apart. Is this true? Is it wishful thinking? Or perhaps just sour grapes? It is true investment in infrastructure is declining, but this is largely because the major infrastructure development phase is coming to completion.
A report by the Chartered Institute of Building, the world's largest and most influential professional body for construction management, in a report entitled "From Silk Road to Silicon Road: How the Belt and Road Initiative Will Transform the Global Economy," published in 2019, states: To give an idea of the impact of the Belt and Road on the economy of a region, one need look no further than to two examples in Africa, a continent in which most nations are Belt and Road partners.
In November 2023, construction began on a massive new project. This will result in the opening of a new gateway to Africa. An agreement was signed to start the development of a new super port at Bagamoyo in Tanzania. The planned size is breathtaking. Tanzania, in a very short time, will be home to a port with greater capacity than any in Europe. It will be a BRI gateway to twelve resource-rich, landlocked nations in Africa with a combined population of 300 million.
It will be an export exit for billions of dollars of resources and an entrance for Chinese goods. Combined with this is the policy of the present Chinese government to focus on what it calls "developmental aid." An even larger port has been developed in the Ivory Coast at Abidjan. While resources are exported through the port, a massive flow of goods from China and other Belt and Road nations are entering.
At the same time Chinese experts are sharing skills and technical expertise in new technologies with local citizens. I attended a presentation in 2015 given by then Chinese premier Li Keqiang, who explained BRI philosophy behind
"developmental aid." This is somewhat defined in a paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peacewhich points out that the Chinese policy paper on Developmental Aid notably targets poverty reduction, food security, healthcare, high-quality education, infrastructure, sustainability, economic growth, and environmental protection.
The focus in the Chinese delivery is to create within the assisted country the incentive and skills to develop their own resource and market them through the facilitation of the Belt and Road Initiative. The idea is to provide aid that creates truly sustainable economic growth. Now the same paper points out the criticism that the debt incurred by some of the developing countries is such that it becomes an unpayable burden.
Yet, as the Chartered Institute of Building pointed out, in the long run the legacy to these nations is the continued means to create wealth. In cases where debt has been unpayable, the Chinese have bought back the facility on terms of a 99-year lease, where Chinese companies operate the facility, and still permit economic benefit to occur to the local population. The debt load to Sri Lanka as a result of the huge Hambantota International Port has been resolved in this way.
One other aspect of the Belt and Road is seldom mentioned in the west but is important to note, and that is the academic development of partner populations. Already many joint-investment scientific laboratories have been developed in which academic research and information sharing among partner nations is occurring at an accelerating pace, often catching up to or passing Western research activities which often lack sufficient funding.
The Asia Times reported in October 2023: The BRI is now consisting of a massive number of facilities including super ports, tens of thousands of miles of rail and roads, as well as pipelines between all continents except North America. From the Chinese perspective the project is now moving, to return on investment and from the development of partnerships and infrastructure to one of a sustained "Global Development Project," which is becoming its new moniker.
The fact that to date, 150 nations from at least four continents have bought into this massive undertaking means they have hopes that it can assist in generating increased prosperity, and is one that does not demand social or political change. The other reality is that these nations are no longer looking to the United States, the United Kingdom or western Europe for leadership or support. This should be a canary in the mine for the nations of the West.
In the last part of the program today, we will examine just why these nations have turned away from the West, and are rejecting what we have to offer. The reason is something we should carefully consider, what our peoples have to correct before we become isolated and rejected by most of the world.
I hope you take time to order our special offer this week, The Collapse of World Order, which contains three programs that will explain why Western society and values have been repudiated by most nations in the world today. This clear and straightforward resource will help you understand this vital truth, straight from the pages of the Bible. Call now or go to TWTV.org/collapse.
For many decades the nations of the West have been providing various forms of aid and assistance to nations of the developing world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, western European powers were able to acquire empires that occupied a large part of the world. The European empires imposed their culture and often their religion on societies that were deemed less developed or weaker. Now much can be said about the negative effects of colonialism.
Honest historians will acknowledge that some peoples fared better than others depending on which empire they were a part of. There is also the fact that in most cases some positive development in terms of modern education, health care, standard of living and such did occur.
However, upon the dissolution of these empires there was, in many cases, a lingering resentment, which initially was somewhat softened by the granting of independence to new countries that were residual from the days of European imperialism. In the thirty to forty years after the Second World War, the quest for local development was at times assisted by various aid programs from Western nations.
However, as some of these nations began a new social revolution (for that is what it must be called) over the past 25 years, many of the peoples of the developing world have been increasingly repulsed by what they perceive as pressure or even coercion from some Western nations or agencies to accept social changes that are deemed improper by the local cultures.
Western ideas related to birth control and abortion, gender roles, gender fluidity, the role of women in society and other such constructs, are often severely at odds with the social, cultural, and religious traditions of other nations. The Government of Canada, as an example, put forward Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy. This set a framework for social change on the part of any government that would expect to receive
certain types of aid from Canada. Governments of the United States and some nations of western Europe did the same. This has largely been deemed interference in the social lives of independent nations on the part of many developing countries. They view us as pushing that which is immoral and improper upon them, citing a new manifestation of colonialism. In some cases, they must acquiesce to such in order to acquire aid or even economic partnerships.
This sort of coercion is not experienced in dealings with Belt and Road partners. Sadly, many of them see the Belt and Road as preferable to that which is offered by nations of the West. They see the latter as requiring change to the social, moral and societal norms of centuries, including a demand that Western styles of governance be implemented, which also can be unsuited to the cultural traditions of the nation in question.
Clearly, the majority of nations are choosing a non-Western alternative, and may even soon adopt a non-Western currency of exchange. It might be wise for Western leaders to consider that if they had been more respectful, things may be different today, as they watch resource-rich areas and developing markets chose a non-Western alternative. Maybe we of the West could have been a better example-maybe we still could.
Two millennia ago one of the greatest scholars of his day wrote down some advice, which if it had been followed would have resulted in a different view of the West, and would have been very good for business: As we atTomorrow's World have shown through both Biblical and historical evidence over the years, the nations of the Anglo-Saxon world and some of the peoples of western Europe are clearly identified in Biblical prophecy.
With that identification comes a warning of the kind of decadence we would embrace at the end of the age, and the details and characteristics of our predicted impending fall are assured if we as nations do not alter our attitudes and behaviour. Many nations in the world view our peoples as corrupt, immoral, and violent; they no longer believe we are seeking the best interest of others.
Long ago Israel was warned that there would be severe consequences for repudiating the guidance provided to them by the God who had made Himself accessible to them through His teachings and laws. There were severe penalties for violating a way of life that defines what morality and decency should be. Israel was prophesied to become, for a time near the end of the age, a great and powerful entity that would be unchallenged.
However, if they departed from the morality defined by God through the text He had preserved for them, they would afterwards be hated by the nations of the world, who would turn on them because of their ways. As we conclude, think of this. There are 195 recognized nations in the world today. At present 150 are members of One Belt One Road, with others considering joining.
It is not popular to say this, but the English-speaking world and their western European allies are having their modern culture rejected by the vast majority. There is a cause for every effect. We have stepped so far away from the directions of Biblical law, especially in the last few decades, that we are losing the respect of the world due to our behaviour and even the behaviour of those who lead our peoples.
We like to put the blame for our problems on other nations, when we should really be looking in the mirror, doing some self-reflection and correcting behaviours that are self-destructive. It is not too late to change this, and this change must come from all walks of life, but especially from the leaders of the nations. I hope you will take the opportunity to order our special DVD, The Collapse of World Order.
This DVD outlines some of the key causes of the impending collapse of our Western civilization. The rejection of the family and the concept of patriarchy, a repudiation of proper morality and excessive greed are destroying us. Please join us again next week when Gerald Weston, Michael Heykoop and I will bring you not only the truth of today's world, but the hope of a great and wonderful future that does lie ahead in Tomorrow's World.
For today's free offer call: 866-784-7895, or go to TWTV.org/collapse. Call today and join millions around the world who are turning to Tomorrow's World for Truth, Prophecy and Hope in these confusing times. The preceding program is produced by the Living Church of God.